Superbowl-related stories
Posted Nov 25th 2009 8:29PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Programming, OpEd, Celebrities, Ratings, Reality-Free
One of the perks NBC has over the other networks when it comes to its football coverage is what's called the flex schedule. Unlike CBS and Fox and ESPN which get the games that are scheduled months in advance without regard for ideal match ups, NBC has the option of plucking a better game for the
Sunday Football Night in America broadcast. Hence the term, flex, as in flexible.
Thus far this season, NBC has had three chances to flip the switch and passed. However, on December 6,
NBC has chosen a Vikings/Cardinals game over a Pats/Dolphins match.
Continue reading NBC chooses Brett Favre over Tom Brady
Posted Nov 13th 2009 1:09PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Sports, Industry, Programming, OpEd, Survivor, Music and Variety, Celebrities, Ratings, NCIS, The Mentalist, The Big Bang Theory
"Did you hear who's going to play during the Super Bowl halftime show?"
"No, who?"
"That's what I just said. Who."
"No, seriously. Which is the band that's going to appear?"
"It's Who."
"I'm not talking proper English. Which band will be on CBS's halftime show on February 7 at Landshark Stadium in Miami?"
"The Who -- you know, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend. 'Tommy, can you hear me?'"
"Oh! Why didn't you just say that!"
Okay, I couldn't resist the nod to Abbott and Costello's
Who's On First. But the fact is that
Sports Illustrated has spread the word that
The Who will star in the Super Bowl big, overblown half-time pageant. This follows the safe pattern the NFL has been employing since the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake costume malfunction; that is, stick with classic rock stars who are guaranteed to do their hits and not disrobe. That's why we've had Prince, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and now The Who. All superstar acts, no controversy.
Continue reading CBS plans Super Bowl halftime and... what comes on after the game
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 12:04PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Casting, Reality-Free
NBC continues to play musical chairs on
Football Night in America, the network's Sunday night blanket coverage of the NFL including a prime time game. (I'm surprised NBC hasn't added
Jay Leno to the broadcast!) The latest change is an interesting one: Super Bowl winning coach
Tony Dungy is joining the panel and former running back Jerome Bettis is out. What's interesting is that they are two completely different types.
Bettis, whose nickname is "The Bus," is well-known as the smiling winner from the 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers' Super Bowl team. He's loud, boisterous and a larger-than-life personality. Dungy, on the other hand, was the architect and head man for the 2007 Indianapolis Colts' Super Bowl championship. He is cerebral and thoughtful and the author of a bestselling memoir,
Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life. You could say that the two men are the anti-thesis of each other, which is likely why NBC has made the switch.
Continue reading Dungy in, Bettis Out at NBC's Football Night in America
Posted May 18th 2009 3:37PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Celebrities, Reality-Free
There'll be a new face in the
Monday Night Football booth this season.
Pardon The Interruption's Tony Kornheiser is out after three years and former Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach – and Super Bowl winner -- Jon Gruden, is in. Gruden, who was dumped by the Bucs at the end of last season, has been sitting in on ESPN as a commentator, so this is a logical progression for him, although he does claim that he wants to be a head coach again some time in the future.
That's an interesting notion because usually when a guy gets into the booth, he doesn't get out. Dick Vermeil is one of the few to jump back and forth;
John Madden, who retired from NBC less than a month ago, was one who never returned to the sidelines.
Continue reading Monday Night Football shakeup: Kornheiser out, Gruden in
Posted May 5th 2009 8:03PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
A long, long time ago, a federal appeals court
threw out the $550,000 fine against CBS for the famous Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake BoobieBowl. And now, after further debate in the courts, it looks like someone in the United States judicial system
might have changed their mind.
You know, I just love it when the courts waste my taxpayer dollars by not being sure whether or not seeing a female breast for one-tenth of a second will traumatize the minds of children. To call this entire legal situation a farce is an insult to farces everywhere.
It's time to get over it. The children who saw the breast are now teenagers who, given the ubiquity of the Internet, have seen many more breasts. It's like a bit of the narrow-minded, suffocating zealotry of the last administration is still gasping for breath.
However, if you insist on giving a fine to someone, forget CBS. This was obviously not their idea. Give it to MTV simply for the poor quality of its programming. Thanks.
Posted Apr 16th 2009 12:29PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Reality-Free
Boom! Faster than you can say, "Tough actin' Tinactin," NFL Hall of Famer
John Madden, the legendary voice of
Monday Night Football and the creator of EA Sports video game Madden NFL Football, has decided to take himself out of the game.
Madden's retiring from broadcasting. He'll be leaving NBC's
Football Game of the Week as the color commentator; Al Michaels is continuing at the play by play voice.
The fact that Madden has retired at 73 is not really a surprise. This is the same guy that walked away from the Oakland Raiders head coaching position (when it still was a prestigious gig) after winning a Super Bowl and while he was still a young man.
Continue reading John Madden retires from NFL broadcasting
Posted Mar 5th 2009 5:01PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, American Idol, Reality-Free
If you had to guess, what's the most coveted, prime TV real estate currently available? In February, it was the post-Super Bowl slot, but now -- what could it be. How about the hour after the
American Idol finale on May 19 on FOX. With that in mind, FOX has decided to give one of its most promising, albeit unusual, new products the hour.
Ryan Murphy's musical comedy series
Glee is getting the post American Idol finale hour. And yes, it is a musical comedy TV series. After American Idol crowns its new winner on May 19, all those millions of viewers, the ones who stay on the network, will see a special preview of the show about a struggling high school glee club.
Continue reading Fox gives Glee a top-flight launching pad
Posted Feb 27th 2009 2:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
I think I saw the perfect commercial today. I mean it. It was quite simply the perfect marriage of product, production, message and entertainment. It was better than anything I saw during the Oscars or the Super Bowl, and that's saying something. So, have I whetted your appetite?
The commercial was for Nike and it celebrated Tiger Woods return to active competition (he's been off for over a year rehabbing from knee surgery, in case you're not a casual golf/sports fan).
Continue reading Tiger and the perfect commercial - VIDEO
Posted Feb 24th 2009 2:04PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Music and Variety, Watercooler Talk, Ratings, Awards, Reality-Free
Well, it looks like rejiggering the format of the
Oscar telecast paid off; ratings for the 81st annual back-patting orgy were
up 13% from last year's record-low ratings. Maybe it was the
"faster-paced" ceremony, or maybe it was just that there were some intriguing storylines (
Slumdog, Heath Ledger, what kind of nutty stuff would Mickey Rourke have said if he won... that kind of stuff). Or it could have been a matter of more people being at home to watch because, uh, they don't have the money to do anything else. But at least the ratings are back to being semi-respectable.
One interesting aspect to these ratings numbers, though,
was brought up by Newsday's Neil Best: the total number of female viewers for the Super Bowl (38.3 million) surpassed the
entire audience for the Oscars (36.3 million). So, despite the conventional wisdom, it looks like the "Super Bowl for women" is actually... the Super Bowl.
At the very least, the ratings will probably earn Hugh Jackman and producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark a return engagement. Now if they can just get this thing under three hours, they're all set.
Posted Feb 20th 2009 4:28PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Sports, Industry, Cable/Satellite, Reality-Free
Warning: this post about the FBI's investigation into the Super Bowl porn snafu uses the word "probe" several times. Viewer discretion is advised.
Comcast's probe into the Super Bowl porno snafu has officially become an FBI probe.
A Fox affiliate in Tucson reported that the cable provider has asked the FBI to conduct their own probe into the 30 seconds of pornography that aired during Super Bowl XLIII.
Special Agent Manuel Johnson of the Phoenix FBI field office would only confirm for TV Squad that the probe is still ongoing.
Continue reading FBI joins Comcast's Super Bowl porn probe
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 9:25PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Super Bowl, Episode Reviews, Chuck, Reality-Free
(S02E12) "The cell is mightier than the sword, or the very large knife." -- Chuck
There were some funny bits in this episode of
Chuck. There were also some good bits of plot development. Still, for what was being promoted as a spotlight show, including the novelty of 3-D, it's hard for me to sing the praises of tonight's episode. It just left a lot to be desired. What it did leave me with is a headache.
Before getting into the particulars, let's get the 3-D thing out of the way. It was terrible.
Joel wrote about this a few days ago, and he was right. The 3-D glasses were cumbersome and lame. They also seemed too dark because instead of the effects popping, they just seemed murky and dim. I give NBC credit for trying to think outside the box, but 3-D is not the answer for how to make TV viewing more exciting. Compared to high-def, 3-D is not awesome, just annoying.
Continue reading Chuck: Chuck Versus The Third Dimension
Posted Feb 1st 2009 11:50PM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, The Office, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E13) Let me ask you a philosophical question: is it possible for a sitcom to be funny and still not be a very good episode? Technically, all a sitcom is trying to do is make you laugh; if it accomplishes that, it's hard to argue that it's a bad episode. Yet, despite above average guffawing throughout tonight's
Office, nothing about it worked that well.
The cold open perfectly encapsulates what I'm talking about. Dwight's actions officially crossed the line from odd-but-likable-doofus to dead-eyed sociopath. I get that Dwight's a little out there, but when it becomes plausible that a sitcom character might have a basement pit filled up with hitchhikers he's planning to use to make a girl-suit, you have to take pause and consider how he's being handled. That fire was stupid, unbelievable, and ridiculous.
But it was damn funny. You see my dilemma ...
Continue reading The Office: Stress Relief
Posted Feb 1st 2009 3:28PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Site Announcements, Reality-Free
The folks at our sister site
Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:
- It's super commercial night! There may be some sort of game on in between, but this is the day of sweet new ads. A few have popped up online already: check out the trailers for the Transformers sequel and Star Trek.
- ...And here are the trailers for Land of the Lost, starring Will Ferrell and Pushing Daisies' Anna Friel, Year One, Up, and more.
- "So you're just gonna make SPITE NOISE until the movie ends, huh? Just because I had the ignorance to ask you to stop talking during a movie. And you, the parents, condoning it. Brilliant." --Cinematical's Scott Weinberg did not have a good experience watching The Uninvited.
- I love Jennifer Garner and think she should be in movies all the time (that is, if she doesn't want to make me really happy by returning to television), so it makes me sad that she's doing movies like Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It... doesn't look good.
- So I'm trying to find someone who would be interested in watching my baby for about 12 hours or so, so I can go to an AMC theater and watch all five Best Picture Oscar nominees. Any takers?
Posted Feb 1st 2009 1:15PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, News, Programming, Animation, Adult Swim, Children, Game Show, Super Bowl
If you're like me (you have my deepest sympathy), you don't have a dog in this Sunday's hunt.
Thanks to the Arizona Cardinals' first appearance this weekend, my hometown team, the New Orleans Saints, will now be one of only five left in the NFL that have never made a Super Bowl appearance. Three if you don't count the expansion clubs.
So if you're a Cardinals fan and don't have the stomach to endure their slow, agonizing and inevitable defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers, here are some alternative shows you can watch instead of the Super Bowl.
Continue reading Sick of the Super Bowl? Here's a sampler platter of what else you can watch
Posted Feb 1st 2009 9:55AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Sports, Cancellations, Super Bowl, Reality-Free
God has offered us another conflicting sign that depending on who you ask, he either loves and respects us or is punishing us for doing something really, really bad. Check which chromosome they are carrying before you ask.
Lingerie Bowl VI, that pay-per-view hotbed of halftime entertainment for lonely fantasy football players with too much time and money on their hands,
lost their first venue in Florida awhile back. Then, the doomed franchise rose from the ashes like a mighty phoenix when the league's owners found a new venue at
a nudist colony in Tampa.
But just as that majestic phoenix spread its flaming wings and took to the skies once again, someone blasted it with a fire extinguisher. The game has been canceled for the second straight year because of
a dispute with their new venue. Continue reading Lingerie Bowl canceled, then renewed, then canceled again
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