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Posts with tag Meredith Vieira

Changes to Millionaire: New lifelines, funky music ... and a clock?

New MillionaireAnyone who's read TV Squad for any period of time knows that we have a bunch of game show fans here. OK, maybe it's just me and Bob. But we've been watching game shows for years and know what works and what doesn't. A challenging premise that allows the viewer to play along? That works. Picking numbered cases at random? That doesn't (at least not after the first five episodes, anyway).

So, when I heard about the changes that were coming to the syndicated Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, I wanted to reserve judgment until I saw them. Now that Meredith Vieira's smiling face has graced my TV for the seventh season opener, I can say that I like most of the changes ... except for one. The new graphics and music are fine, the new lifelines make more sense (more on those in a second). But now there's a clock.

Yeah, you heard me; the show that once let contestants take as much time as they wanted to answer very tough questions now adds the pressure of a time limit. And that's not a good thing.

Continue reading Changes to Millionaire: New lifelines, funky music ... and a clock?

Where are the experts on Millionaire's "TV Week?"

Millionaire logoI don't usually watch Who Wants To Be A Millionaire after my local news in the afternoon. After the news is over I usually switch to another channel, but this week they're having a "TV Week," (though it could be a repeat week since it's summer, not sure) so I've been watching every day. And I have to tell you, these contestants don't know much about television.

I don't say this as a guy who writes about television for a living, I'm talking about as a television fan. The questions have been remarkably easy, especially in the early rounds, even up to $25,000, and the players are just failing miserably. Even with the lifelines the show offers! That's inexcusable. Of course, the audience hasn't always been a help either. They screwed over one contestant by saying that Eliza Dushku's show was called Tru Colors and not Tru Calling.

Continue reading Where are the experts on Millionaire's "TV Week?"

CBS, ABC and NBC to hold cancer telethon; Couric returns to Today

The Big three news anchorsIf you watched the network morning shows this morning, you've seen the shocking sight of the Big Three evening news anchors -- Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Charlie Gibson -- appearing on each show ... together! Gasp! How can that happen? Don't the networks have contract clauses and armies of lawyers to prevent these things from happening?

Well, I guess the lawyers tend to stay home when a good cause is involved. The anchors went on the news shows this morning to announce a cross-network telethon called Stand Up for Cancer Stand Up To Cancer, which will air on NBC, CBS, and ABC on September 5. The one-hour show will have musical performances and testimonials from all three anchors about the need for furthering cancer research (remember Couric's husband and sister both died from various forms of the disease). Money raised by the telethon will go to a number of organizations and research groups.

Continue reading CBS, ABC and NBC to hold cancer telethon; Couric returns to Today

Out of the Blogosphere

William ShatnerWhat's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

  • Who would win in a fight between Captain Kirk and The Fonz?
  • A quiz: Is it from Shakespeare or The Hills?
  • Everything's better on the set of Grey's Anatomy this season.
  • In the Huffington Post's video round-up, Meredith Vieira tries extreme sports, Gordon Ramsay gets into an argument with a restaurant patron in New Jersey, and Tila Tequila gives a grandmother a lapdance.
  • Which Wisteria Lane character is going to die tonight?
  • The writers from The Late Show with David Letterman are keeping a funny blog during the strike.
  • That interview that Bill O'Reilly did with ALF the other night was incredibly lame.

The View welcomes back Meredith Vieira

Meredith VieiraMark your calendars kids, or not, Meredith Vieira is heading back to The View, for one day anyway, on October 8th. She'll be there to promote her Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game show and a DVD game that is coming out based on the show. I always seem to forget that she even does that because, man, I just don't get the attraction to Millionaire. It's just so dang slow. How that show made it while Beat The Geeks disappeared just boggles me.

Anyway, I suspect it will be all warm and fuzzy with a lot of palms getting sore as the whole group pats each other on the back for all the wonderfulness they are all putting out in the world, or something like that. An entirely different vibe than what we would get if this headline was Rosie returning to the view. Or even Star Jones, for that matter.

Out of the Blogosphere

  • Alex TrebekThe secret that everyone already knew.
  • Hurricane Dean is coming, and that means the news networks are going crazy.
  • Get ready for a ton of "How are Katie Couric and Meredith Vieira doing one year later?" stories (Sept. 5 for Katie, the following week for Meredith).
  • Paris Hilton has a new line of children's clothing.
  • Here's video of Alex Trebek screwing up on the Jeopardy! set and swearing.
  • The art of the TV Mashup.
  • Jaime Weinman shows up some of TV's most depressing intros.

Out of the Blogosphere

Is NBC going to pay Paris $1 million for an interview?

Paris HiltonFirst they paid $2.5 million for a sit-down with Prince William and Prince Harry (not to them but to a charity), and now The New York Post is reporting that NBC is going to pay $1 million to Paris Hilton for her first interview when she gets out of jail (not to a charity, to her).

In a funny twist, former View co-hosts Barbara Walters and Meredith Vieira were trying to get the interview. Walter's almost got it until Jeff Zucker called Paris' dad. Vieira will conduct the interview (Hilton doesn't like Matt Lauer, supposedly) the day after Hilton is released from jail.

Vieira will probably do the interview for The Today Show, but NBC will also put some of it on Dateline, some on MSNBC, some on the web. So you won't be able to escape it.

Celebrity blogs you should be reading

John HodgmanA while back, I showcased some blogs that celebrities were (at the time) keeping. David Duchovny had one for a while, but it was just to promote one of his movies and he stopped it. Zach Braff had one for Garden State, but doesn't update it as much as he used to at his new site (though it's still pretty entertaining). And of course we know that Rosie O'Donnell updates hers, a little too much probably.

But there are other TV celebs who blog too, so it's time for an update. After the jump, a list of some of the better blogs out there.

Continue reading Celebrity blogs you should be reading

Oprah weighs in on Imusgate

Don Imus' career on television is done, but television is not done with Don Imus.

Yesterday, the women of TV talk weighed in on the "Imusgate" fiasco.
On the heels of a recent interview with Matt Lauer on The Today Show, Al Sharpton decided yesterday to make an encore presentation of his opinions with Meredith Vieira. This visit was more targeted at addressing the racist/chauvinist double standards in the music industry. Hmm, no wonder Lauer didn't score this interview -- it was worthless. I'm scratching my head. Where is the logical nexus between Don Imus and rappers?

In a somewhat predictable move, Oprah Winfrey sat down with the Rutgers woman's basketball team and discussed the situation in grand Oprah style.

Continue reading Oprah weighs in on Imusgate

How do you think Meredith Vieira is doing so far?

Meredith VieiraI don't watch the Today show every day, but I tend to watch it at least once a week, and I want to say this up front: I think Meredith Vieira is doing just fine. Is she completely comfortable in her new position? Probably not. But morning TV is a tough thing to tackle, and to expect her to be as smooth in the job as Katie Couric was is asking a bit too much. If anything, Meredith needs to assert herself a little more; sometimes she blends into the scenery, the goofy personality she displayed on The View not coming through as much as it should. But I guess that's what happens when you're forced to laugh at Al Roker's jokes for two hours straight.

Continue reading How do you think Meredith Vieira is doing so far?

Laila Ali floats like a butterfly. Meredith Vieira does not.

Laila Ali does a mean mambo on Dancing With The StarsThe more America watches Dancing With The Stars the more confirmation there is that athletes encompass infinite amounts of grace. At first glance, Laila Ali has a body meant to beat boxing competitors into a bloody pulp. Last night she also proved that she could knock people out with a mean mambo on last night's episode of Dancing With The Stars.

She floated effortlessly on the dance floor and made a mambo booty shake that caused an earthquake on the dance floor and took home the high score on last night's Dancing With the Stars. If you missed it, you can watch her shake it in this clip of TV's Top 5! moment.

However, some women are not so graceful...

Continue reading Laila Ali floats like a butterfly. Meredith Vieira does not.

Tears on American Idol are worth their weight in gold

There is a Chinese proverb that says, "If you sit by an inkwell, you'll get dirty." It certainly seems that even if you are slightly involved with the juggernaut that is Idol, you will achieve great fame overnight.

Ashley is the latest person to receive this kind of peripheral American Idol fame. The last person I can think of that enjoyed a similar amount of success is William Hung.

Yesterday, little Ashley made her national pop culture icon debut on The Today Show with Meredith Vieira and elaborates why being such a "Fanjaya" brings her to tears.

The best part of the interview is when Meredith attributes Sanjaya's survival on the show to her devotion to the contestant. The girl turns out to be way smarter than her deluded mother, and says she doesn't think so but is instantly refuted by her Mom.

I smell a stage mom. Sheesh. Get your own passion for your own Idol.

Please don't encourage the hikers

Rescued hikersI like Meredith Vieira. I really, really do. I've heaped praise upon her in this space in the past, and I'm sure that I'm going to heap more praise on her in the future. But she completely dropped the ball on the Today show this morning when she interviewed the three climbers that were rescued from Mt. Hood a couple of days ago. She asked them a lot of questions about how they survived, and how their dog Velvet helped them stay warm. But she didn't ask the one question I'm sure every non-hiker in the country was curious about:

What the hell were they doing up there on the mountain to begin with?

Continue reading Please don't encourage the hikers

The Daily Show: February 15, 2007

Jon Stewart"Dance Dance Resolution": Man. All that talk about disappointing Davey Crockett really broke my heart. And all that talk about Wicked made my inner theatre geek laugh... and my inner normal civilian cry a little bit for the state of our Congress. Did a cell phone really go off at the end of that guy's speech? If so... Wow.

Continue reading The Daily Show: February 15, 2007

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