TVSquad

I guess NBC is getting the last laugh. Sort of. Well, not really. Nevertheless, when they first launched The Singing Bee in 2007, the FOX copycat machine was in full effect. In fact, NBC had to push up the premiere of Bee to try and get an edge on FOX's Don't Forget the Lyrics. But while Lyrics has been canceled, Bee is still going strong. Just not on NBC.

Actually, by broadcast network standards, it's still doing horrible, but its 1.5 million viewer debut back in June on CMT was enough to make it the highest-rated series debut ever on the network. CMT is so excited with The Singing Bee, they've asked for 20 more installments. The show went country when it switched to CMT, dumping Joey Fatone in favor of Melissa Peterman (Reba) as host, and focusing more on the sad, sad lyrics that make up country music.

If I were NBC, I'd go ahead and get excited about this. Sure, they canceled the show and it was performing horribly for them. But by doing so, they created a big hit for CMT. And they can still claim that their show outlasted FOX's copycat. Sort of. Well, not really.

I knew that television executives were insane, but I didn't know they would go this far. They're letting right-wing gun advocate rocker Ted Nugent host his own reality television show. In that show, he will train a group of volunteers on how to survive in the wild and then he, along with his 18-year-old son, will hunt them down like dogs.

Wow. Just...wow. Is this legal? I expect that there will be no actual firearms used in the hunting of people, but with Ted Nugent it's hard to be sure. Two of the people behind this show are the same who brought us the two recent Scott Baio reality programs. They are Eric Bischoff, who used to run World Championship Wrestling, and Jason Hervey, who played Fred Savage's older brother on The Wonder Years. They seem appropriate for a show about twisted sport as shared amongst family members.

The show will air in August. I would watch it just to see if Nugent kills someone.

What do you get when you mix Dustin Diamond, Danny Bonaduce, and Todd Bridges? Well, probably the worst references ever, but beyond that, you get the cast of the new CMT celebrity reality show Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling.

The three men will join other celebs such as Tiffany, Butterbean (?), Trishelle Canatella (from The Real World - God help us), Nikki Ziering, and Frank Stallone (Sylvester's brother), who will try to out-wrestle each other. Actually, it won't be all wrestling. They will also get points for trash talking and working the audience, just like in real wrestling!

This idea could be great (like MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch come to life) or it could be the stupidest thing ever. I'm guessing it's somewhere in between.

CMT has announced that Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling will debut this fall. The show will pit two celebrities against each other, and they are trained for the match by former wrestlers. Hogan himself will act as one of the judges. Hogan is becoming quite the media king. Besides this show he hosts NBC's American Gladiators and has the VH1 reality show Hogan Knows Best. By the way, this show was co-created by Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey, who played Wayne on The Wonder Years.

I can assume that when they say "celebrities" that it's a safe bet we won't see Julia Roberts or George Clooney in the ring. I would guess it would lean more towards Dustin Diamond, Tonya Harding, and whatever reality show has been from The Bachelor or Temptation Island needs a paycheck that week.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Mark Cuban said goodbye to Dancing with the Stars last night, with some words of wisdom that don't really make sense.
  
• If you thought you had the ending to The Sopranos all figured out, you were wrong.
  
• Three words: Trick My Trucker!

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

I did not realize that Carrie Underwood was such a big star. Country Music Television (CMT) will become 'Carrie Music Television' today when it plays her new music video for six hours straight. That's six hours of one video, over and over, from 6 o'clock this morning to noon. CMT estimates it will air 66 times in those six hours.

Carrie's new video is for her song, So Small, from her upcoming new album called Carnival Ride. If you miss the video, it'll also be for sale on iTunes today.

Miss America is no longer homeless. The long-running pageant has found a new home on TLC, of all places, for the next three years. It's the first big programming move for TLC's new president and general manager, Angela Shapiro-Mathes. The pageant was at CMT for the last few years after ABC dropped it, but its ratings have been dismal.

TLC is giving the pageant its own treatment. The cable network is the king of the unscripted show, so it's creating a reality series about all 52 contestants as they prepare for the pageant.

If Miss America is going to survive on television (and I'm not saying it should), this TLC plan may be the only way it can happen. Ratings over the past few years have shown that Americans just aren't interested in beauty pageants. But, humanizing these women (and understanding why they do this?!?) could be enough to generate interest to see who wins the pageant.

Can we all agree that if you're a TV, film, or music star and you are reduced to going on a show called Celebirty Bull Riding, your career has pretty much at its lowest point?

It's Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull Riding Challenge, to be precise, and it premieres tonight at 9 on CMT. The celebs (or "celebs") involved in the six episode show include Leif Garrett, Stephen Baldwin, Vanilla Ice, and Johnny Fairplay from Survivor (the one who lied about his grandmother dying). The object of the show is for the gentlemen to learn how to rides bulls so they can participate in a rodeo in Nashville.

Friday's TCA, which continued cable TV presentations, felt like three days rolled into one.

Just how jam-packed and eclectic are the programs and announcements that were made?

Here's a sample: Dynasty diva Joan Collins is checking into BBC America's Hotel Babylon, Richard Dreyfus (Jaws) is not afraid to get back into the water as host of The Discovery Channel's Ocean of Fear: The Worst Shark Attack Ever and Jonny Fairplay (Survivor) of CMT's Ty Murray's Celebrity Bull-Riding Challenge sadly announced that his beloved grandmother passed away two weeks ago.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Jordin Sparks has told the press she's had no professional voice training, but a woman who claims to be her former voice coach says otherwise.
  
• Rosie fans are circulating a petition to have Elisabeth booted from The View.
• CMT is bringing us a new rodeo reality show, where we can see our least favorite celebrities bucked off bulls.
  

The video's embedded below (we'll have the downloadable files soon). You can also subscribe to this podcast via our feed.

Trekkies aren't the only group who gather together to celebrate their favorite show: this year in Nashville fans of The Dukes of Hazzard, often described as "The Star Trek of the American South*," will come together along with the entire surviving cast of the popular CBS series which ran from 1979 to 1985.

Ben "Cooter" Jones, who started the event back in 2001 will be in attendance at CMT Dukesfest 2007 along with cast members John Schneider (Bo Duke), Tom Wopat (Luke Duke), Catherine Bach (Daisy Duke), James Best (Rosco P. Coltrane), Sonny Shroyer (Deputy Enos) and Rick Hurst (Deputy Cletus).

Dancing with the Stars runner-up Mario Lopez has just signed a one year deal to host the Miss America Pageant. The pageant will be held at the Aladdin Resort & Casino in Las Vegas and will be televised by CMT on January 29. Desperate Housewives star James Denton hosted it last year (I still don't understand what that whole thing was about).

The Miss America Pageant should not be confused with the Miss USA Pageant. Miss USA is Tara Conner, just given a second chance by Donald Trump. Miss America is the original beauty pageant that nobody cares about anymore.

And if you're wondering, Miss Universe is the beauty pageant held on the moon, where beautiful women from various planets compete to see who is the most beautiful woman in the universe.

Melissa Peterman of Reba will be hosting the first four episodes of CMT's new stand up comedy showcase, CMT Comedy Stage. The series, which will tape in front of an audience at Nashville's Belcourt Theater, will debut in February of 2007. The series will feature comedians such as Etta May, Jon Reep, Vic Henley and Killer Beaz. Out of that list the only one I've heard of is Etta May, but that's why God created YouTube, so y'all can get up to speed on these comics.

When Jeff Foxworthy first brought Southern humor to the masses, it wasn't the kind of humor I was into. However, that scene has since exploded and I no longer think it's possible to crowbar every Southern / rural /red state comedian into the same category. It's like saying all New York comedians are the same, it just isn't true. Hey, it doesn't matter to me if you watch this new show or not, but thar ain't nuttin' wrong with expanding your comedy horizons a li'l.

Toby Keith, country star and supporter of the rectally-inserted footwear approach to terrorism, recently starred in the movie Broken Bridges, about a country star who returns home to his high school sweetheart and a sixteen year old daughter he's never met. The movie also stars Willie Nelson, Kelly Preston, Tess Harper and Burt Reynolds. CMT Films produced the movie along with Paramount, so if you missed it in the theaters you can catch it on CMT Friday December 15 at 8 pm before the DVD comes out on January 9. CMT will also be airing several specials centered around Toby Keith, just in case you have a deficiency in your Toby system and need to get re-energized. Remember, the surgeon general recommends four servings of Toby a day. At least that guy at the bus stop claimed he was the surgeon general. I was somewhat suspicious since he was telling this to a half-eaten can of peas with his pants around his ankles. Still, one must respect his elders.

The music video for the late Johnny Cash's song "God's Gonna Cut You Down" will debut tomorrow evening on CMT, MTV and VH1. It will first appear during the CMT Top 20 Countdown from 4 pm to 7 pm. Later that evening, it will air on both MTV and VH1 at 11 pm. The video will also debut tomorrow on the Web sites for all the aforementioned channel, as well as on MTVU.com and Urge, MTV's music service.

Several musicians and actors will appear in the video, including Iggy Pop, Chris Rock, Dennis Hopper, Patti Smith, Johnny Depp and the Dixie Chicks. Justin Timberlake helped with the concept of the video, which to me is like having a two year old paint a tribute to Leonardo DaVinci, but whatever. As much as they're hyping this video, I think simply popping in a copy of American V: A Hundred Highways and listening to the track is a better option than watching the video.

However, you should tune into CMT at 8pm tomorrow night to catch a re-airing of Johnny Cash in San Quentin, the 1969 film that covered his famous and controversial performance.