TVSquad

I've always enjoyed jingles, you know, those catchy commercial tunes that get in your head and never leave. "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." See, after all these years, it's still there. I wonder if Gene Simmons would have liked that McDonald's jingle?

We'll soon find out what the Kiss star likes in musical commercial craftsmanship because Gene Simmons has been tapped as one of the judges on the CBS reality show Jingles. It's a competition show, from producer Mark Burnett, he of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Survivor and The Apprentice fame. We'll just forget about the ones that didn't fly, like On the Lot (that was painful to watch), Pirate Master (unwatchable) and Rock Star: INXS (truly a train wreck).

Jingles should be pretty challenging for contestants; it's hard to fake it when it comes to writing words and lyrics. The winner gets a contract with an advertising agency and $100,000.

Between the sessions for So You Think You Can Dance and Fringe, FOX Entertainment president Kevin Reilly happily took answers from the gathered critics. Perhaps the most interesting piece of news he unleashed on us was that the network is officially going to have two development seasons: the traditional one that ends in May with the upfronts, and a new one that ends in December, which will position the network to air pilots in the January/February time frame, a time Reilly called the network's "high season." (Which it is, of course, given the presence of the BCS and American Idol).

In fact, Reilly has eight pilots currently in development for consideration in December, far more than he had for this past May, due to the writers' strike and other reasons. Other interesting bits after the jump.

Hole in the Wall, this summer's latest Japanese game show ripoff, has announced its hosts. Actress Brooke Burns and L.A. weather anchor Mark Thompson will be presiding over Fox's version of human Tetris. Both have game show experience, with Burns having served as the host of Dog Eat Dog and Thompson providing the voiceover for Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

Hole is being brought to America by American Idol producers FremantleMedia North America and came to be after clips of the Japanese version became hugely popular on YouTube. Ellen DeGeneres also got a kick out of the Japanese competition, not only featuring several clips on her talk show, but even going so far as having audience members participate in her own version.

It's no secret: I'm the only non-U.S. blogger here at TV Squad. I live in Quebec City, the capital of Canada's French province. Living here means that I have access to American, Canadian, and French-Canadian TV channels on basic cable. Canadian and American TV lineups are pretty much alike, especially since a lot of the U.S. shows also air on the Canadian airwaves. But French-Canadian TV is somewhat different than the two other ones because of the language, the culture, etc. However, the influence of American TV can be felt throughout the French-Canadian lineup. One of the main areas influenced by U.S. TV is reality programming.

Reality TV, like it or not, is definitely a major part of TV today all around the world. A lot of the U.S. reality shows originated in other countries, while some U.S. shows made their way around the world. In Canada, we have our own version of American Idol and America's Next Top Model, for example. In Quebec, there is a singing competition, Star Académie, not unlike Idol and a Big Brother-like show too and some U.S. reality shows are dubbed. That got me thinking, what are the reality shows that are watched elsewhere around the globe?

Drew Carey and company recently wrapped up shooting Season 36 of The Price is Right -- Drew had pizzas delivered to the studio from his favorite place in Cleveland -- but when the crew comes back to tape Season 37 in a few weeks, they're going to be faced with a number of changes.

The first change is that Roger Dobkowitz, who's been the producer of the show since it started its run, won't be there. According to Golden-Road.net, a TPiR message board, Fremantle Media let Dobkowitz go after Season 36 wrapped up; a replacement has yet to be named.

But there may be other changes afoot, namely with the look and format of the show, whose ratings declined 15% in the first season after Bob Barker's retirement. Rumors are swirling that the changes will include new pricing games and a video wall, all the way up to a rumor -- published on a TVGuide.com fan blog but later pulled -- that the show will be completely overhauled to make it look more like Fremantle's money-making machine, American Idol (or their new money-making machine, Million Dollar Password).

(S04E01) Kathy Griffin is back, or as I choose to call her now Emmy Girl. Yes, the Emmy is on full display. In your face, everyone, Kathy's got an Emmy! Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List won the Emmy last year and if this first episode is a sample of what season four has in store, that Emmy is going to get a companion. This show is riotous. And irreverent and a perfect blend of comedy and celebrity reality which is really unreality because how many of us interact with Anderson Cooper and Michael Moore?

Kathy Griffin has found the perfect genre for her particular brand of comedy. A sitcom wouldn't capture her true character, strict stand-up is not her best venue (although she's gotten very good at it), and a talk show would force her to chat with others and appear interested. The My Life on the D-List format works for her and she's found a way to incorporate stand up, situation comedy and guests into a reality hour that highlights her being funny. She has supporting players -- Team Griffin, Jessica, Tiffany, Tom and Kathy's adorable mom, Maggie -- as her comic foils and partners in crime.

Product placement is everywhere, inescapable. According to Dr. Jean Kilbourne, author of Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel, Americans are exposed to approximately 3000 advertisements every single day. Kilbourne has a compelling video called Killing Us Softly that reveals how insidious advertisements are. Ads tell us that women should be thinner, quieter, nicer, want to have cleaner houses. They tell us that men are boarish, lust after women while drinking cheap beers, and order endless rounds of pizza without ever developing a gut. Advertisements not only tell us what we should buy: They tell us how we should think and feel about things and who we should be.

Unfortunately, the price of our entertainment is advertisements. Even when you go to the movies these days, before you have seen any previews, you have seen six commercials for new phones from Verizon and Sprint; and you have paid handsomely for the privilege. This TV Squad Award is amusing, but it is also a testament to how ubiquitous ads are: They have now found their way into the very scripts of some of our very best shows. The only advantage shows like Lost and Battlestar Galactica have is that they mostly take place anachronistically, so advertising would stand out too ridiculously. However, sadly, other outstanding shows have succumbed. And one of the finest is TV Squad's choice to win this award.

Now I know that none of our readers would do anything like this, but apparently there are people out there who just love to download and watch television via BitTorrent. In fact, 50% of BitTorrent activity is apparently the downloading of television shows, with literally millions of downloads for each episode of those top shows. The folks over at TorrentFreak compiled a list of the Top 10 BitTorrented television shows for the week of May 25 - June 1.

I'm not surprised at all to see shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Lost and Battlestar Galactica among the top of these rankings. Just think of the kind of audience these types of shows are likely to draw. It's unfortunate that this list couldn't have been compiled a few weeks ago when most of the broadcast networks were still streaming new episodes. So You Think You Can Dance ranked pretty well, but I wonder if American Idol would have been tops here as well. Further into the list were some even more interesting choices.

The 2008 Best New Female Vocalist of the Year, Taylor Swift, is set to perform on Nashville Star as part of the show's two-hour season premiere. Touted as the first country music star of the MySpace generation, Swift (18) is also the first female country artist to write or co-write every song on her debut platinum-selling album. One of country music's youngest songwriters, her single "Our Song" spent six weeks atop Billboard's country chart.

The show's premiere will also feature highlights from the auditions and reveal the Top 12 Finalists who will be crooning their way into your hearts this summer. I know Nashville Star sounds like the country music version of American Idol but judge John Rich begs to differ. Read what he said about the show, any comparisons to Idol, and Paula Abdul back the NBC / Universal summer press event held in May.

Nashville Star premieres on Monday June 9th, 9-11 p.m. ET, on NBC. Will you be watching?

Here are the weekly TV ratings, by number of viewers.

It will be interesting to see what the top shows are next week, since American Idol and Dancing with the Stars both had their season finales last week. And a lot of the scripted shows had their season finales too. I'm sure So You Think You Can Dance, at number 19 this week, will soar up in the ratings as spaces open up.

Hell's Kitchen finished a little higher than usual, and Ugly Betty a lot higher than usual.

1. American Idol - Weds (FOX)
2. American Idol - Tues (FOX)

• At 8, ABC has Vacation Swap, followed by a new episode of The Bachelorette.
• NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, then a new Dateline.
• ABC Family has a new Greek at 8, then a new Wildfire.
• Also at 8: TV Land has an Andy Griffith Show marathon.
• At 8:30, ESPN has the NBA Playoffs.
• At 9, Larry King Live has all the finalists from American Idol.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• A&E has the premiere of The Andromeda Strain at 9.
• At 10, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
• E! has the premiere of Denise Richards: It's Complicated, then the premiere of Living Lohan.
• Also at 10: MTV has two new episodes of The Paper.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• USA has an NCIS marathon all night.
• At 8, The CW has a new Smackdown!
• PBS has a new Washington Week at 8, followed by new episodes of NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
• TCM has two Jack Lemmon movies starting at 8: How To Murder Your Wife and The Out-of-Towners.
• At 9, NBC has a new, two hour Dateline.
• Larry King Live welcomes American Idol winner and runner-up David Cook and David Archuleta at 9.
• Discovery has a new Man vs. Wild at 9.
• At 10, ABC has a new 20/20.
• There's a new episode of The Soup on E! at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

We continue with our roundup of the season-ending ratings (here is the season winner and the May sweeps winner) with a list of the top 20 shows for the season. The first two shows aren't going to be a surprise to anyone (though the number of times one show shows up on the list might be surprising to some). How many shows on this list do you watch? I watch one show all the time and I watch another show a little bit. The other 18 1/2 shows I don't watch at all, which is odd because I watch a ton of television every week.

Only one sitcom made the top 20, and there was only one show from NBC. Do you know what those two shows are? Answer after the jump.

(Oh, I know The CW logo is in the pic above, but you won't find any of their shows on the list.)

With the help of solid hits such as American Idol, The Super Bowl, and House, FOX has won the ratings battle for the TV season, which just concluded.

This is the first time the network has won the season in it's 21 year career. CBS had the title last year but came in second in this 2007-08 season, with an average of 10.5 million viewers. ABC was third with 10 million viewers. NBC was fourth 8.9 million viewers. The CW only had an average of 2.9 million viewers, which I think is less than the number of page views my nephew gets on his MySpace page every month.

Every single network was down in viewers this year (ABC -7%, NBC -9%, CBS -16%, and The CW -19%) except FOX, which was actually up 7% from last season. They average 11.1 million viewers. CBS just won the May sweeps period in total viewers, but even there FOX beat them in the 18 to 49 demographic.

• At 8, FOX has the two hour season finale of American Idol.
• CBS has a new new Price is Right Million Dollar Spectacular at 8, followed by the season finales of Criminal Minds and CSI: NY.
• TCM has the original Ocean's 11 at 9.
• At 9, TNT has the NBA Playoffs.
• At 9:15, HBO Family has The Return of Maxwell Smart.
• At 10, ABC has the season finale of Boston Legal.
• NBC has the season finale of Law and Order at 10.
• Bravo has a new Top Chef at 10.
• Also at 10: MTV has a new Real World.

Check your local TV listings for more.