The overnight popularity of singing sensation Susan Boyle following her appearance on Britain's Got Talent all but guaranteed it'd only be a matter of time before the U.S. version of the show tried to manufacture the same energy.
Here are the necessary ingredients:
One national talent show where Joe Six Pack and Suzy Temp can reach for the polished brass ring of stardom.
One cynical mob eager to tear down anyone who dares to stand up out of the crowd without meeting nebulous performance standards.
One defective rube (either chubby, ugly, stupid or -- worst of all -- rural) who seems oblivious to the mob's hostility.
Three judges who are in on the bit while acting incredulous.
Of course, the rube needs to have genuine talent -- as in the case of Boyle and singer Kevin Skinner from Kentucky from this week's auditions on America's Got Talent.
You've probably heard that at the time of his death, Michael Jackson was working on 50-date concert tour in London. From the various accounts of the production and rehearsal photos that were released this week, it looks like it was going to be a typical Michael Jackson production: expensive, outlandish, and explosive. A real spectacle that was going to include burning bed and a giant orb.
And the production was going to be worked on by a former cast member of Saved By The Bell.
I was a fan of The Soup back when it was called Talk Soup and was hosted by Hal Sparks (I'm too young for the Greg Kinnear and John Henson eras). I've become a fan of Joel McHale and appreciate his writing staff and his comedic timing. Never in my wildest imagination did I ever think that Talk Soup would ever become a franchise like Law & Order, CSI, or NCIS.
Soon four versions of the soup showed up on E!'s sibling channels: The Dish (on Style), Sports Soup (on Versus), Web Soup (on G4), and Celebrity Soup (the British version), but none can compare to the original. The Dish is funny for female oriented television as Sports Soup is for watching the most awkward sports shows. Web Soup feels like a hiccup in the thought process.
The variety show format seems like a no-brainer for success - get someone with star power and surround them with a bunch of ringers and some weird people spinning plates or bending themselves into curious shapes, and voila! Instant hit, right? But there have been some spectacular failures in recent TV history. Maybe it's the fact that there are so many talent/reality shows now that a show with no "winner" or competition doesn't seem as interesting.
Somehow, despite all of that, Ellen DeGeneres has managed some success with the format, and is now on her third - Ellen's Bigger, Longer & Wider Show, on TBS Saturday at 9PM.
Perhaps it's the fact that it's on TBS, which means the stakes are slightly lower than on the main networks. Or the fact that DeGeneres brings a loyal fanbase from her Ellen DeGeneres Show and her stand-up. Those would be the reasons you would look for if you were an industry executive or a media critic.
You can't think about the life and career of Michael Jackson without also thinking of Weird Al Yankovic. He did parodies of several Jackson songs, and while a lot of people like "Eat It," I've always liked "Fat," his take on Jackson's "Bad" (Al loves the food references, eh?). Yo, ding dong, man, ding dong!
For a few months now, MTV has been showing AMTV, morning music videos with a range of old and new. Let's ignore the repetitive nature for a second. The biggest flaw is that MTV HD shows the videos in the same quality as its non-HD entity, leaving those annoying black side bars. Why aren't any of the music videos on MTV or VH1 in HD?
In a weaker economy where even television programs get budget cuts, music videos are a great alternative to showing programming since the station doesn't pay for them. It's shameless advertising for the musician and a cheap way to put things in HD.
Perez Hilton says he got a black eye from The Black Eyed Peas.
According to shrill gossip blogger and almost celebrity Hilton, the manager of the Black Eyed Peas planted a "boom boom pow" in Perez's puss this weekend. That roar you almost heard was grateful, repressed applause coming out of Hollywood.
A faux journalist (nee: rumor mongering hack), Hilton jumped onto the TV viewers' radar last month when he served as a judge for the Miss USA Pageant and started a war of words with Miss California over her stance in gay marriage.
Apparently it's just me, but I actually like Paul F. Tompkins as the host of Best Week Ever. And probably because I like him on there, VH1 is yanking BWE for SIX MONTHS (?!) and when it comes back, Tompkins and his crew aren't expected to be there. Which makes sense. That's a hell of a long time for a supposedly topical show to disappear. It's also sad because Best Week Ever is one of the few shows on VH1 worth watching.
Before Tompkins took over last fall, the show was more of a typical VH1 clip show with the narrator running the clips interspersed with commentary from various comedians, including Tompkins. In reading online reactions about the format change, I realized that I actually missed some of the variety we had in commentators on the show. I'm certainly not seeing some of those comedians anywhere else (I am intentionally not seeing Frangelina on I'm a Celebrity...).
In the never-ending soap opera bubbling around Susan Boyle, there are now multiple reports that an incorrect phone number issued on fan-produced YouTube promotional videos might have helped do in the Scottish singer on Britain's Got Talent.
Producers denied the whole mess Thursday, but reports say YouTube clips made by Boyle's suddenly erupting fan base showed the voting phone numbers for her rivals. If Boyle fans called those numbers, she didn't receive the votes -- creating the possibility that she fell into second place behind the dance group Diversity by user error.
So, those fans are screaming McFoul and calling for everything from an investigation to a new vote. None of the above will happen, as producers already indicated the final result will stand.
I was fine with the initial story that it may have been a hoax, because it was news. After all the stunt Sacha "Bruno" Baron Cohen pulled putting his ass in the notoriously sensitive Eminem's face was the big buzz moment of the MTV Movie Awards. But it didn't stop there. Finally, after speculation and reports all week about it, Eminem admitted it was a stunt. Fine. Great. Does this mean it's over? I can't tell you how many "news" stories I read about this.
Everyone had their own take on it. You'd have thought it was the JFK assassination all over again. "There was one shooter with a camera zoomed in on Eminem's face. That's the only person who knew what was happening." "Impossible. Who worked the rig that lowered Cohen? Clearly there was a conspiracy." "But Eminem had to have been in on that conspiracy. Can you really lower a man on top of someone without them knowing it." "Perhaps, but did Em know Cohen's ass was bare." "Oh I think he most certainly did." Who cares, honestly?!
Oh my god, now I'm going to have to rearrange my entire schedule. I wanted to make sure and tell you all as soon as possible so you could do the same. Because of a football double-header on Sunday, September 20, CBS is bumping the Emmy's up a week to September 13. I know, madness! I wrote it on my calendar in permanent ink! But I guess in the NFL's world, you shouldn't think of anything as permanent. Look at what they do to the prime-time schedule already.
Hell, the fall edition of The Amazing Race traditionally runs 20 to 40 minutes late every week because of football. There's no DVR adjustments possible for this. They really should schedule a flexible news program in 60 Minutes slot that can be truncated as needed so the rest of the lineup can start on time. And now, out of fear that football will run long, they're bumping the entire Emmy ceremony with only three month's notice. Celebrity desingers are panicking as we speak, and those poor accountants are going to have to count a week faster. It's absolute chaos!
It looks like Eminem wasn't the real butt of Sacha Baron Cohen's prank at the MTV Movie Awards. (And yes, I do get paid by AOL to write jokes. God bless the writer's strike!)
Entertainment Weekly confirmed from an unidentified source close to the network that Cohen said the prank was staged and that Eminem wasn't really mad that he got a face full of ass.
EW also reported that Scott Aukerman, the show's head writer who comedy geeks will recognize as a Mr. Show actor/writer and one-half of the comedy duo The Fun Bunch, leaked the news on his blog. That entry seemed to have disappeared from his blog as fast as Eminem's ass-smelling face from the awards show.
She dreamed a dream, but Susan Boyle's rags to riches attempt to win the top prize on Britain's Got Talent came up just short this weekend.
Diversity, a dance troupe, edged out the Scot on the season's climactic episode. Her seemingly tragic and unjust end seems almost poetically concocted as Boyle sang "I Dream a Dream" for her final number on the show (the same song that stunned audiences the night she appeared on the scene).
But, Boyle was gracious in defeat, offering a nod to the young performers who beat her out: "They're very entertaining. Lads, I wish you all the best."
Her defeat comes after a week of controversy as Boyle allegedly laid into multiple reported victims with expletive laced tirades. Her behavior offered the British tabloid press the perfect opportunity to claim she was cracking under the pressure and was out of her depth as a performer. No one will ever know for sure if that bad press cost her the crown.
Just a few years ago the phrase "Weezer Snuggie" would have made no sense at all. Heck, maybe it still doesn't make any sense if you say it a few times. It's like I'm hitting random keys on my keyboard.
The band Weezer has actually made a deal with the people who make the Snuggie and created their own version of the robe blanket. That's Rivers Cuomo in the pic. He looks like a pregnant Bono.
"Very Funny" has been a tagline at TBS for a little while now. It's there to clarify for us that The Bill Engvall Show and Tyler Perry's shows are funny. And I'm glad they did, because I've caught snippets of both House of Payne and Meet the Browns and I swear I would have had no idea they were funny if TBS hadn't told me. That's a public service well appreciated.
Now they're taking this one step further. TBS' The Very Funny Show will feature stand-up comedians being funny. And not just funny, but very funny. Tim Meadows who was the very funny on Saturday Night Live is pegged to host. And by very funny I mean that he was there for a long time. Actually, Tim can be funny in a stand-up environment, so he may do alright here. All of the footage for the November-bowing series will be filmed at a July event called "TBS Presents a Very Funny Festival: Just For Laughs." So at least the comedians on the very funny show will come from this very funny festival meaning it will be very, very funny. Right?
The overnight popularity of singing sensation Susan Boyle following her appearance on Britain's Got Talent all but guaranteed it'd only be a matter of time before the U.S. version of the show tried to manufacture the same energy.
You've probably heard that at the time of his death, Michael Jackson was working on 50-date concert tour in London. From the various accounts of the production and rehearsal photos that were released this week, it looks like it was going to be a typical Michael Jackson production: expensive, outlandish, and explosive. A real spectacle that was going to include burning bed and a giant orb.
I was a fan of 
The variety show format seems like a no-brainer for success - get someone with star power and surround them with a bunch of ringers and some weird people spinning plates or bending themselves into curious shapes, and voila! Instant hit, right? But there have been some spectacular failures in recent TV history. Maybe it's the fact that there are so many talent/reality shows now that a show with no "winner" or competition doesn't seem as interesting. 
For a few months now, 
Perez Hilton says he got a black eye from The Black Eyed Peas.
Apparently it's just me, but I actually like Paul F. Tompkins as the host of Best Week Ever. And probably because I like him on there, 
In the never-ending soap opera bubbling around Susan Boyle, there are now multiple reports that an incorrect phone number issued on fan-produced YouTube promotional videos might have helped do in the Scottish singer on 
I was fine with the initial story that 
Oh my god, now I'm going to have to rearrange my entire schedule. I wanted to make sure and tell you all as soon as possible so you could do the same. Because of a football double-header on Sunday, September 20, 
It looks like Eminem wasn't the real butt of Sacha Baron Cohen's prank at the MTV Movie Awards. (And yes, I do get paid by AOL to write jokes. God bless the writer's strike!) 
She dreamed a dream, but Susan Boyle's rags to riches attempt to win the top prize on Britain's Got Talent came up just short this weekend.
Just a few years ago the phrase "Weezer Snuggie" would have made no sense at all. Heck, maybe it still doesn't make any sense if you say it a few times. It's like I'm hitting random keys on my keyboard.
"Very Funny" has been a tagline at TBS for a little while now. It's there to clarify for us that The Bill Engvall Show and Tyler Perry's shows are funny. And I'm glad they did, because I've caught snippets of both House of Payne and Meet the Browns and I swear I would have had no idea they were funny if TBS hadn't told me. That's a public service well appreciated.
TV Squad previews NBC's new shows (part 1)
TV 101: How ESPN controls the world and what the other networks can learn from it
TV Squad previews CBS's new shows
