TVSquad

Seems like the networks are on a game show-buying frenzy. NBC has Perfect 10 coming up, and now comes word that FOX will bring the British game show The Cube to America. If you've never seen the show, the object is to bring an ice cube from one city to the next before it melts and if you do you win $1 million.

Well, no. Here's the actual game.

It's Hasselhoffs, as in plural, so I guess there are going to be other family members involved in David Hasselhoff's new British reality series. The clip below shows him going into a pub for...well, it's all kind of odd. He meets a bunch of women dressed in fancy garb and asks them questions. Maybe he's auditioning for the next version of Baywatch.

The clothes the guy has on will probably give you a seizure, so you've been warned. The show debuts Monday at 10 PM on Living.

Answer: probably.

This is video (can't embed it, unfortunately) of Danyl Johnson's first performance on The X Factor. Simon Cowell actually called it the best first audition he's ever heard in almost nine years of doing judging. Really? The guy is definitely good, but I think 58% of it is the audience reaction and the background vocals.

[via TV Tattle]

This isn't something I would particularly care about, but consumers in England can buy special Ugly Betty Diet Coke bottles. The bottles are pink and come with stickers so you can decorate the bottle any which way you want. Not sure if it will also be available in the U.S. at some point. Coke seems to be doing a lot of stuff with Ugly Betty over there.

I would like to see a Mad Men-inspired Diet Coke bottle. I'd buy around 10 six-packs of those.

[via TV Tattle]

Variety has an excellent article up about Hugh Laurie's comedic roots in Britain, a genre Laurie excelled at long before he took the lead dramatic role of the dour doctor in House.

Being a fan of Britcoms (particularly those of the 80's), this is the Hugh Laurie I remember. He was even mocked in the Brit satire series Spitting Image in the early 90's for being typecast as a rich, stupid person (In his defense, only his two most famous comedy roles, Prince George of Blackadder The Third and Bertie Wooster of Jeeves and Wooster, were bumbling members of the upper class).

While medical dramas are not my cup of tea, House suffers from an even bigger handicap on my part because whenever I see him on the screen, I flash to Blackadder or A Bit of Fry and Laurie (or even his cameo in The New Statesman). With that in mind, I promise right now that if his old comedy partner Stephen Fry appears on House (as suggested in the article), it would be enough to make me watch the show.

Oh thank God. Paris Hilton is going to England to try and find a new best friend for her reality television show Paris Hilton's My New BFF. Now, rather than subject us to her vapid, debutante antics, she'll be doing the same thing across the Atlantic where they're more used to that sort of behavior.

You know, this is quite an honor for some lucky Brit. There is nobody more loyal, caring and understanding as a friend than Paris Hilton. Just ask Nicole Richie.

I'm not sure who to root for in this particular dispute. The British authorities have banned Martha Stewart from entering the country due to her previous conviction of obstructing justice.

The television personality was hoping to visit England for some business engagements. Stewart's assistants confirmed her visa denial, but didn't give details (I don't understand this particular fact. American citizens don't need a visa to go to England, only need a passport.).

"Martha loves England; the country and English culture are near and dear to her heart," said Charles Koppelman, chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. "She has engagements with English companies and business leaders and hopes this can be resolved so that she will be able to visit soon."

I'm not the biggest fan of Martha, but this seems like a bit of a snow job. She did the crime and did her time. Why do the British authorities feel that she is still some sort of threat?

She did, however, get to visit her ancestral country of Poland. Score one for the Poles! Maybe they'll keep her.

UK residents can already watch any show that's aired on the BBC over the last 7 days using the broadcast service's iPlayer software. Now the BBC plans to go one step further by offering a live stream of BBC One content on the internet.

The new service will be available sometime in the next few months and will be available only to viewers in the UK. You'll also need a broadband connection and you'll have to pay the same £139.50 annual license fee that you pay to watch television in the UK.

Critics have complained that it will be difficult for the BBC to make sure that viewers are actually paying their license fee, which means that television owners could wind up subsidizing free content for people who watch programs on their computers but do not own a TV. Right now there's not a huge number of people trading in their televisions for computers, but then there are aren't very many TV stations providing all of their content for free over the internet.

The BBC may be preparing to distribute some of its more popular programs via Apple's iTunes store. The Register is reporting that details on the partnership could be announced as soon as Tuesday.

UK residents can already watch a number of BBC shows online using the iPlayer service, which lets users watch any show that's been broadcast within the last 7 days for free. But the iPlayer is only available to British residents who pay for the BBC's programming with their taxes. Outside of the UK, you have to pay if you want your Doctor Who.

It's not clear right now whether any shows the BBC distributes via iTunes will be available outside of Britan or not. Apple charges UK customers £1.89 to download a television episode, which is almost $2 more than the $1.99 US customers pay. So while it's possible the BBC won't want to sell its content at the lower prices, some money is better than no money, right?

Update: It looks like BBC content is now available at the UK iTunes store, but not the US store.

Former TiVo CEO (and current board member) Mike Ramsey tells the Sunday Herald that TiVo could be returning tot he UK, but not with its own set-top-boxes.

Ramsey says manufacturing and distribution problems have kept the company from launching a new box in Britain, but the same technology that will allow TiVo software to run on cable boxes distributed by Comcast and Cox Cable in the US could be used to add TiVo software to Freeview boxes in the UK.

TiVo would work with a Freeview device maker to distribute the boxes, while TiVo would be responsible for providing service. The company has been talking with companies, but Ramsey says TiVo's not ready to announce any partnerships yet.

[via HDTiVo Blog]

If you've been enjoying the antics of Benny Hill on BBC America, I have sad news for you: the series is being removed from the channel.

The decision to remove The Benny Hill Show from the channel's lineup is just part of a new makeover that's discarding many older shows for newer ones. The channel hopes to give American audiences more modern shows instead of older fare such as Hill and Are You Being Served? and replace them with newer shows like Torchwood and Hollyoaks.

I must say, I never really understood the appeal of Benny Hill, though that certainly doesn't mean it was a bad show. Obviously, a lot of people liked the series, and how many of us can watch a scene shot in high speed and not start humming that goofy Benny Hill chase music?

I have to ask: will any of you miss Benny once he's gone? Or is he an artifact of an earlier age and no longer relevant?

[via CC Insider]

This poll in the UK edition of Esquire isn't too much of a surprise I guess. I can understand why chef and TV host Gordon Ramsay is the most admired guy, especially in a popular, "of the moment" sort of way. But what I find funny is that he beat scientist and author Stephen Hawking, a man that has literally changed the way we look at space, time, and the universe.

Other people on the list after Ramsay (17%) and Hawking (14%) are Ray Mears (a TV survival expert - probably unknown to many of us here in the U.S.), who got 11% of the vote, new James Bond Daniel Craig, who also got 11%, and comedian/writer Ricky Gervais, who somehow only got 9% of the vote.

The new season of Hell's Kitchen, the U.S. show that Ramsay hosts, starts on FOX, June 4 at 9pm.

[via TV Tattle]

Last year, after multiple recommendations from my English friends, I got around to watching a few episodes of The IT Crowd. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to all the wild hype generated by my buddies, but something did stick in my mind... The crazy-haired, nasal Moss character, played by Richard Ayoade. There was something wonderfully weird about him and, since I was so intrigued by his strange voice, I decided to look him up. Well, as it turns out, his usual voice is really that weird and nasal, which just made him a million times more better in my mind. In fact, Ayoade's the only cast member who has been carried over from the original version of The IT Crowd to the American adaptation, reprising his role as Moss.

Christopher Guest has agreed to direct the pilot for The Thick of It, a comedy being created for ABC by Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz. The show is being adapted for an American audience from the popular British comedy by the same name. In Britain, it was about a member of Parliament who had to deal with inept politicians, a prime minister and other silly minions. I can only guess that the American version will take place in Congress?

According to his IMDB bio, Guest hasn't done much directing for television lately. He seems to stick to the "mockumentary" (he hates that word) movie genre that's heavy on improv, such as Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman.

Jack Bauer is a good name. It's a strong name that doesn't denote much ethnicity. It's the name of a fictional American hero.

And now it's also the name of a computer programmer in Britain. Tim Annan, 35, loves 24 so much that he has changed his name to 'Jack Bauer'. And he makes people at work call him that. He says, "It beats being plain Tim from Watford." Yes. Now he's "crazy Tim from Watford." No word on whether he does a lot of heavy breathing into a cell phone like his alter-ego.

According to British newspaper The Sun, the British Jack Bauer is single. Surprise, surprise.