TVSquad

The third annual New York Television Festival is now taking place in the Big Apple. As we did last year, we will review each of the pilots in competition there. This is the fourth set of those reviews.

When I spoke to Eben Russell, the NYTVF's main spokesperson, about how there seemed to be a lot of comedies this year, he mentioned that they wanted to judge the pilots being sent into the festival on their own merits, instead of shoehorning them into categories, like they did the first two years. "We adopted an approach taking the most outstanding pilots, regarding of genre. We have a large amount of comedies as compared to other genres," is what he told me in an e-mail prior to the festival.

The implication is that the other categories didn't have enough quality entries to justify their own categories. Judging by the uneven quality of the following pilots, it makes me wonder what the pilots that were rejected look like (you can view the pilots at MSN).

USA is developing some new series. Here's what's on the menu:

The Negotiator, a show about a hostage negotiator who becomes a relationship counselor, is being developed by film producer Donald De Line (The Stepford Wives, The Italian Job).

Meanwhile, Battlestar Galactica co-executive producer Toni Graphia is developing American Girl, about a Wal-Mart employee whose personality changes after she witnesses a robbery. I was hoping for a show either based on the line of dolls, or possibly the Tom Petty song of the same name, but I guess this works, too.

For Penn & Teller fans who don't have Showtime (me! me!), this is a treasure trove.

Someone (not sure if it's official or not) has posted several segments from the duo's acclaimed TV series, including segments on profanity, bottled water, feng shui, creationism, the Bible, recycling, ghosts, college, PETA, environmentalism, alien abductions, conspiracy theories, exercise, and a whole lot more (you can access the other videos from the profanity link above).

[via Metafilter]