TVSquad

With our ever expanding channel lineups it is getting harder and harder for a new show, especially one tucked away on cable with no big name stars attached, to get noticed. Seeing a network release a show online before the premiere isn't new, but seeing one release a pilot on P2P networks with no DRM is a bit more original. And that is just what the folks over at Spike have done with their new show, Factory.

The network has made the show available on its website, at downloadable video stores like iTunes, and in working with the Jun group, on P2P networks. Although my first reaction at the mention of Limewire was surprise that people are still using Limewire, I do agree with their thinking behind the move. Todd Ames, marketing VP at Spike, said they went with the P2P as an acknowledgment of "what people are really doing, and the way consumers are really looking for content." He also notes that there are no plans to make any additional episodes available that way, but it's a step in the right direction that they are paying attention to the viewers.

Hey, check it out! A show got renewed for another season. The Hollywood Reporter says Spike TV gave the go-ahead for another ten episode batch of its fun MANswers late-night series. The show answers those questions that men think about but that may not be socially acceptable to actually ask around real live people. Then through re-enactments, one-on-one interviews and other methods they find the answers. It's slickly produced and actually does answer some interesting questions, but I'm a guy. Maybe women think all the questions are stupid. They probably are. They're GUY questions!

• Why I don't think Victoria Beckham will be replacing Paula Abdul as a judge on American Idol.
• Seattle is pretty well represented in the American Idol finals, considering how talentless the judges said the city was after initial auditions.
  
• First professional eating, and now making reality TV out of real-life murders. I'm not a man, so maybe that's why I can't figure out what they're thinking over at Spike "for men" TV.
  

• Placing odds on American Idol contestants is the latest big thing in gambling around the world.
  
• Michael Jackson will not be a guest on American Idol. (No... really. Seriously.)
  
• Spike TV is proud to be expanding their coverage of the "sport" of competitive eating.
  

This January, Spike TV will be airing Wild World of Spike, a kind of alternative sports comedy show that doesn't sound too far removed from the network's other wacky sports challenge series, MXC. Wild World of Spike will feature three hosts, Kit Cope, Sam Ellis and Sam Tripoli, who watch bizarre "sports" from around the world such as "mop jousting" and "dirt skiing," and then try to recreate the events themselves. The result, they hope, will be funny for the stoned college kids who will no doubt be the show's core audience. Personally, I'm wondering how long it took them to come up with the concept of watching something on television and then copying it. That's either ingenious or just incredibly lazy, I haven't quite figured out which. The series is being produced by the same folks behind The Princes of Malibu and Growing Up Gotti.