TVSquad

It looks like The Sundance Channel is turning to BBC America to anchor its Sunday night comedy block. The show is The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle and stars Jennifer Saunders of Absolutely Fabulous fame.

The show revolves around a fictional TV personality named Vivienne Vyle (who hosts a Jerry Springer-like program) and her on-screen and off-screen life. The series is a black comedy (much like AbFab) and a study in pop psychology. It was co-created by Saunders with psychologist Tanya Byron.

At TCA yesterday, two very big stars were on hand to discuss their new shows. Spike Lee attended the ESPN Films panel to promote his documentary Game Day with Kobe Bryant. And Elvis Costello was on hand at the Sundance Channel panel to talk about Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..., his new talk show.

ESPN announced several film projects, both documentary and theatrical. The network will be presenting four documentaries this fall, one of which is by acclaimed director Spike Lee. On the surface the film seems pretty bland; it's just cameras following Kobe Bryant around on game day. But I'm sure you want to hear what Lee said about his film.

Leave it to the Sundance Channel to broadcast a reality television program that may actually benefit world society. The show is called On The Road In America and is about four Arabs in their 20's on a road trip across America, seeing different aspects of American culture.

The show is backed by Layalina Productions, a Washington nonprofit group that wants to use television to foster better understanding between the two worlds. When the series was shown in the Middle East, it attracted 4.5 million viewers per episode from countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait and Algeria.

Virgin America, the newest start-up airline in these United States, has inked a deal with Sundance Channel to create a customer in-flight channel for it's passengers.

The new channel, Sundance Channel for Virgin America (catchy, ain't it?) will feature a collection of the cable network's feature films and documentaries as well as original programming such as Iconoclasts and Kath and Kim. In addition, Sunny Virgin (which I think is a much better name for the in-flight network) will air original episodes of the new documentary series Nimrod Nation three weeks before they air on the cable network. Nation, which will focus on the town of Watersmeet, Michigan and their obsession with their high school basketball team (the Nimrods) will air on the in-flight channel on November 1st, while it will air on the Sundance Channel on November 26th.