TVSquad

MyNetworkTV is changing its game plan by dropping some of its original content and airing syndicated programming including movies. They call it a "hybrid model".

In effect, MyNetworkTV is doing what other cable networks and/or independent stations have been doing for years. That is, paying the fees for syndication rights and having little to no original programming. Even their ratings superstar, WWE Friday Night Smackdown!, isn't owned by the network.

Obviously, this is due to the economic downturn as it is much cheaper to buy someone else's programming than create your own. Still, if this persists nobody will take MyNetworkTV seriously as a network. You need original programming to become a name brand in that business. Ask AMC.

With this model, MyNetworkTV better not lose its deal with World Wrestling Entertainment. If it did, the network would have nothing really unique to offer and would possibly become all Law & Order: Criminal Intent, all the time.

It looks as if The CW might have backed the wrong horse. My Network TV is going strong in the ratings and has been beating The CW for the past three weeks.

The biggest mistake made by The CW was probably abandoning wrestling programming (which was picked up by My Network TV) in an effort to go for the Gossip Girl demographic. This tactic seemed unusual to me at the time because 1) wrestling, like it or not, brings in strong ratings, and 2) usually after establishing oneself, a network tries to expand its programming to get to the widest base possible rather than limit itself to a particular group.

While I'm liking Smallville again this season, I can only hope that The CW uses this as motivation to create some programming that a variety of people like. If it doesn't, then the channel reserved for The CW on my cable box could become My Network TV sometime in the near future.

Former talk show host Arsenio Hall hasn't been around much the past few years. He was a regular the last couple of seasons on CBS' Martial Law and has made guest appearances here and there, but for the most part he has stayed out of the limelight. Now Hall is coming back to television to host a new weekly reality show.

The show is called Funniest Moments and I'm sure you can guess what the show is without me even explaining it to you. Think about it for a moment while I go grab a cold drink out of the fridge.

If you're a relatively new TV network known for scripted dramas, reality shows and theatrical performances, who would you want to star in your first sitcom? If you said "Flavor Flav", then you and MyNetworkTV have a lot in common.

The show will be called Under One Roof and is about a former convict (played by Flav) who moves in with his wealthy, conservative brother and his brother's family. He then starts teaching his nephew to be a gangster rapper. I only wish I was kidding.

I know most of you have been kept awake at night by disturbing thoughts that there just might not be enough reality television. Thankfully, the folks over at the FOX-owned MyNetworkTV have heard your cries in the night and are developing some new (and not so new) reality shows.

First, the short-lived NBC series Meet my Folks is coming back with the same format of parents deciding who their children should date.

There's also Jail, a new series from John Langley, the creator of Cops. As the name suggests, this series will look at life in prisons all over the United States.

As we all get ready to welcome in the new CW network, it stands to reason that the merger must have left a few stations out there holding the bag. What is to become of them? The answer for some is that they will now be a part of News Corporation's myNetworkTV. The network begins airing its two original programs Tuesday, September 5th.

Those programs are Desire and Fashion House. Modeled after the popular telenovelas, each show will run five days a week, Monday through Friday, with a recap on Saturday. Rather than the endless run that normal American soap operas have, the myNetworkTV shows are each planned to run 65 episodes. As they come crashing to what promises to be a hectic conclusion after 13 weeks, two new shows will debut to run for the next 13.

Desire kicks off the night at 8PM. It is the story of brothers Louis and Alex Thomas. On the run from the mob, they make their way to Los Angeles. There, they both fall for the same woman and complications ensue as they deal with that and the mob gets ever closer. Desire is adapted from 2004's Mesa Para Tres (Table For Three).

Kelsey Grammer is returning to comedic television, but only behind-the-scenes. He has agreed to direct the CBS comedy pilot, My Ex-Life, about about two divorced couples and the way they deal with life after divorce. Former Love Monkey and Ed actor Tom Cavanah snagged a lead role in this show.

Despite a list of cancelled shows, The CW doesn't think that Wayne Brady is bad luck. The new network has picked up a comedy pilot called Flirt, starring Brady as the only man working at a women's magazine.

Bo Derek has joined the cast of Secret Obsessions, a telenovela-style, primetime soap opera on My Network TV, the network that FOX is creating out of its UPN stations that lost their affiliation earlier this year. Secret Obsessions is about the glamorous, yet ruthless world of fashion. Derek will play Maria Zianni, a mega-bitch who runs a fashion corporation.

[Via The Hollywood Reporter]