TVSquad

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.

This seems like an awfully appropriate match-up. Redneck comedian Jeff Foxworthy just signed a deal to bring Blue Collar TV to Country Music Television (CMT). Foxworthy signed on for 12- half hour episodes of Foxworthy's Big Night Out. It's a sketch and stand-up comedy program that also features live musical performances. Production on the program begins in June, at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, where all programs will be filmed before a live audience.

Foxworthy's new home on CMT is a big win for the cable channel, which saw its biggest ratings ever in the last two years when Foxworthy hosted the CMT Music Awards.

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon technically didn't make a music video together, but they're nominated for an award all the same. The stars of Walk the Line released an album of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash songs along with the movie last fall. One of the songs, Jackson, was also made into a music video and got a nomination for best collaborative video from the Country Music Television Awards. The music video is just clips from Walk the Line.

The CMT Awards air live on April 10.

So. I was flipping through my channel guide on Saturday night when I came upon a show called Trick My Truck on CMT. I thought it would be about cowboys getting their big, diesel Ford F-350s (or whatever those big ones are called) pimped out by some other cowboys. It turned out to be real truck drivers, as in tractor-trailers or semis, who were getting their rigs pimped.

I couldn't stop watching.

I watched four episodes back-to-back, which exposed the equation the producers use to put together each show, but I didn't mind since I kept wanting to see the final result. The Trick My Truck team would surprise a deserving truck driver who was driving a run-down rig, give him a replacement truck, and go to work. The most compelling part of each episode was the paint job. The painter, named Ryno, is a freakin' genius. He practically free-handed a ranch scene and a 3-D American flag on the side of two trucks. The inside of the cabs is pretty rockin', too. One cab was decked out with wood floors and a fireplace! The truck drivers who receive the special treatment are also very deserving. Most of them are facing financial and family burdens and, while those are not solved for them, they do get a pretty rad rig.

The Miss America pageant is back. By... popular demand? Well, that remains to be seen. The pageant, which couldn't find a home after dreadful ratings in 2004, begins today in Las Vegas (although, the final doesn't air until next weekend). This is the first year in the pageant's 85-year history that it isn't being held in Atlantic City. There are some other changes in store, too. Instead of the traditional parade of beauty queens in convertibles, the contestants will arrive at the Aladdin hotel Hollywood-style, complete with the red carpet and luxury coaches. And, instead of a talk show-type host, Desperate Housewives actor James Denton is doing the honors. The competition itself sounds like it's exactly the same, boring stuff that American viewers have been turning away from for years: talent, bathing suits, question-and-answer, bad choreography. Well, maybe it's not the bathing suits that they've been turning away from.

The question is... are CMT viewers the ones who will revive the beauty pageant?