TVSquad

Well, here's something about reality TV that didn't make me gag. Survivor mega-producer Mark Burnett has a new unscripted project, greenlighted by CBS, called Jingles. It's a competition show in which contestants have to create tunes for products, commercial jingles. No mud wrestling, no unlocking keys to puzzle pieces the size of boulders, no eating slugs wrapped in wild boar bacon. This time it's all about catchy melodies, clever hooks and lyrics that incorporate product info whether the products an erectile dysfunction pill or a new luxury car.

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:

• Elijah Wood is still talking about his scuffle with Jared Leto at the MTVU Woodie Awards.
  
• The Food Networks says that the "McDonald's I'm lovin' it" screen during Iron Chef was a technical error, not subliminal advertising.
  
• This is only the beginning: Twentieth Century Fox has subpoenaed YouTube, forcing them to identify the user who uploaded several unreleased episodes of 24 to the website.
  

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The only question surrounding Fremantle Media's decision to stream episodes of American Idol on their website is, "Duh... what took you so long?" Given the ridiculous ratings, and the fact that just about every performance was available on YouTube anyway, it's something they should have been doing a long time ago. But better late than never I suppose. Fans will be able to watch entire episodes on the website, after they air, sponsored by McDonalds and MasterCard. Individual performances will also be available on phones to Cingular customers.

Adage.com has an article that gets into some of the crazy numbers surrounding Idol. For example, the show is now valued at $2.5 billion as a franchise. It also brings in $500 million in TV ad dollars. Last season the show received 570 million votes and 65 million text messages. And the site attracted 40 million unique visitors.

This news is also good for Fox, who produces the American Idol website in a revenue sharing agreement. Freemantle had been approached by "a major portal" that wanted to host the site and they considered taking it away from Fox. The show premieres January 16th with a two hour episode.

[ via Lost Remote ]