TVSquad

We must really like our televisions to be filled with crap. After all, as a country we continue to support it with nice, big, juicy ratings. Take NBC's I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here debuted with 6.4 million viewers, enough for number one on the night, beating out The Bachelorette. I didn't watch it, but our own Jackie contributed to that number. I got enough of Sanjaya on American Idol thank you very much. Plus, I saw Stephen Baldwin being interviewed for this on Late Night and right there I'd had enough of the whole show.

But not America, apparently. Maybe it was all the hoopla about Heidi and Spencer (The Hills) quitting after like 20 minutes because no one would rub their feet or whatever. Did those horrible promos featuring Sanjaya getting set upon by bees really make you want to watch? Was it the last addition of Frangelina? Mrs. Rod Blagojevich? Or is it the car wreck lookie-loo phenomenon?

Maybe my home town should offer tax incentives to the networks. It's working for Connecticut. Not only did NBC announce that the half-hour syndicated version of Deal or No Deal is returning for a second season with host Howie Mandel, but it will be relocating and filming in Connecticut.

I guess with a game show it doesn't matter where you film since it's the same set all the time, but are there as many incredibly gorgeous chicks in Connecticut as there are in California? Isn't Cali where they all go to see their dreams of being an actress reduced to standing on a stage next to a briefcase?

As far as we can tell, here are the responsibilities for hosting Deal Or No Deal:

1. Repeat the painfully obvious rules of the game over and over and over.

2. Loudly announce the names of pretty ladies holding suitcases.

3. Pretend that a game requiring absolutely no skills whatsoever requires skills when choosing numbers in a logically devoid random order.

4. Convince fully-grown adults that you're not pretend-talking on the phone to a villainous, money-hungry banker.

5. Never ever touch the palm of another human being.

What the...? Deal or No Deal has 200 episodes under its belt? It seems like only two years, 10 months and 46 days since the show premiered on NBC. Never in the history of game shows has a simple concept like that of Deal been stretched and bent in order to keep the format fresh. There were two-hour episodes, audience participation episodes, episodes that focused around the contestant. and episodes featuring naked briefcase models. All right, the last one is a fantasy of mine. However, should the executives at Endemol be listening...

For the 200th episode, which preempts Chuck tonight at 8 p.m., Deal will be offering another variation of the game. Four lucky contestants will get the chance to take the Banker's challenge or find the million dollar briefcase in a series of speed rounds. Normally, contestants have a pretty big window to determine if they want to take the offer from the Banker -- the whole concept of the game. This episode they will only have a mere 20 seconds to make the decision.

A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.

The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.

This time we have America's Next Top Model, Don't Forget the Lyrics and a lot of new shows.

TV syndication upfront ad sales are brisk, with syndicators expected to sell higher levels of ad inventory, similar to the broadcast networks.

Sales are more than 50% complete, with one syndicator, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, more than 70% sold out of its 2008-09 ad inventory, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

What's it all mean? It means that syndication upfront totals are expected to be around $2.4 billion, up 4.5% from last year.

Maybe one reason is that syndicators are incorporating more product integration into their packages, especially with talk and entertainment shows. Strong categories include packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, movies, and fast food.

Hmmm ... I wonder what they're saying. That TV viewers sit around eating Big Macs, doing drugs, and woofing down Cheetos? Yeah, that can't be right.

Game shows have been an important part of television since the late 1930s. In 1938, the BBC aired Spelling Bee, a show that is believed to be the world's first game show. In July 1941, CBS Television Quiz made history by becoming the first television game show to broadcast regularly. Since then, U.S. viewers were treated with all sorts of game shows such as To Tell the Truth, Beat the Clock, Concentration, Name that Tune, The Price is Right, Jeopardy, etc.

Jeopardy!, which premiered in 1964, is one of the most successful and popular game show in U.S. TV history. Its challenging questions and format helped make it a household name. This is why we named our "Primetime game show requiring the most skill" category after it.

In this category, we include 2007-2008 season game shows that air/aired in primetime (Jeopardy! is out of the running since it doesn't air in that block) and that are not reality-type game shows such as Survivor and Big Brother. Shows that come to mind are Duel, 1 vs 100, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, and the primetime edition of The Price Is Right. Personally, I don't think Deal or No Deal or The Moment of Truth qualify since they don't require much skill.

Which shows do you think should be nominated for The Jeopardy Award? List your suggestions below!

President George W. Bush will make a surprise appearance on the NBC game show Deal Or No Deal to thank an Iraqi war veteran contestant for his service to his country. The episode will be airing this coming Monday (Bob breifly mentioned this in his Blogosphere post).

The President's segment was pre-taped at the White House. The contestant, Captain Joseph Kobes, was on the program to try and win enough money to pay off his parents' home. He is a Purple Heart and Bronze Start recipient who completed three tours of duty in Iraq.

Shark will swim again -- at least for the rest of this season. The future, however, remains unclear. CBS today announced that Shark will return on April 29 in a new timeslot. The network is switching the L.A. legal drama from Sundays at nine to Tuesdays at nine, where it may benefit from the strong lead-in of NCIS. Chances are that if Shark holds NCIS's ratings -- or improves on them -- that could mean more Shark for fall. If the show stumbles, CBS will likely pull the plug.

Fans of Shark may need to get more militant if they want to keep the show on the air. In a recent story we did about CBS renewals, there was fervent outcries for bringing back Moonlight and The Unit, even Cane. Out of 40 comments, only two came to Shark's defense. It may be a small sample, but still...

It was NBC's turn today to announce what its winter schedule would look like. The press release states that "NBC's first-quarter primetime schedule is slated to deliver significantly more hours of original programming than was ever the case in the first quarter of 2007." Besides the expected crop of reality and game shows, NBC's winter schedule will be filled with new episodes of series like ER, Friday Night Lights, Las Vegas, Medium, Scrubs and all three versions of Law & Order. Also added to the lineup will be Lipstick Jungle, a new dramedy starring Lindsay Price, Kim Raver and Brooke Shields.

NBC is creating a syndicated version of Deal or No Deal, but it's going to be a little different than the prime time version of the game show. Howie Mandel will still be the host, but everything else is going to be slimmed down. For instance, the syndicated version will last 30 minutes instead of an hour. And the maximum amount a contestant can win will be $250,000 rather than $1 million. Also? Fewer suitcase models.

The game show is being picked up on at least six NBC-owned affiliates as a companion to a new, Merv Griffin-produced game show called Crosswords. Both are scheduled to begin airing in the fall.

Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, Co-chairs of NBC Enterainment and Universal Media Studios, start off their first TCA executive sessoin by reading some programming changes.

Deal or No Deal is moving to Friday night at 8, providing a nice lead in for critically acclaimed Friday Night Lights and Las Vegas, which has Tom Selleck joining its cast.

Isaiah Washington is going to join The Bionic Woman. He'll be in five of the first eight shows.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Let talk about global warming! Live Earth is everywhere this weekend.
  
• A Sex and the City movie is finally in the works.
  
• Deal or No Deal is hiring a new briefcase model: what does it take to get this job?
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

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

1. America's Got Talent (NBC)
2. Two and a Half Men (CBS)
3. So You Think You Can Dance - Weds (FOX)
4. So You Think You Can Dance - Thurs (FOX)
5. Deal Or No Deal - Tues (NBC)
6. CSI (CBS)
7. CSI: Miami (CBS)
8. 60 Minutes (CBS)
9. NCIS (CBS)
10. Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader (FOX)
11. CSI: NY (CBS)
12. NBA Finals - Game 1 (CBS)
13. Shark (CBS)
14. How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
15. NBA Finals - Game 2 (CBS)
16. The Next Best Thing (ABC)
17. Hell's Kitchen (FOX)
18. House (FOX)
19. American Inventor (ABC)
20. Criminal Minds (CBS)

Okay, so, a few months ago Rich gave y'all the skinny on a proposed half-hour syndicated version of Deal or No Deal. Well, Variety, citing "sources" but nothing more solid than that, says NBC Universal and Endemol USA will be moving ahead with plans for a syndicated Deal or No Deal, and that Howie Mandel will likely be hosting this version, as well. The syndicated version would appear sometime in 2008. Again, it's worth noting that neither NBC nor Endemol have confirmed any of this.

Since it's part of the same article, I should probably also mention that Access Hollywood and Yahoo have teamed up to create "omg!," a celeb-centric site featuring clips from Access Hollywood. The site, which is supposed to launch today, will serve as a direct competitor to AOL's TMZ.com (AOL also owns TV Squad). I just hope whoever supplies the alcohol and drugs to today's Hollywood stars keeps the supply coming so folks like me can sit back and watch these two portals fight for the best footage.