(S01E01) Live for the Moment goes for the heartstrings at the first minute. In the premiere episode, we meet Roger Childs who started to suffer from ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease). Even with his body degenerating, he's managed to continue to be positive for his wife and two children. Jeff Probst arrives, hands the family a journal with several "missions" and hopes that the family will live for the moment.
On paper, the show is basically Phil Keoghan's show No Opportunity Wasted, but with a bigger budget and longer timeline. Live for the Moment is truly a combination of The Bucket List, Big Fish, and Up! The show is saccharine sweet and would have fit perfectly on the Hallmark Channel.
On Conan, there really wasn't much to say. "We're in sort of the wowee mode right now," said entertainment president Kevin Reilly. After reiterating what he's said in the past on always being in search of a good five-night-per-week late night program, he went on to say that "I love Conan personally & professionally. Until he makes his decision (on whether to leave NBC), there's no conversation to be had."
But since he knows Conan's people, it's not like he hasn't been talking, at least informally. He classified them as being more in the "commiserating phase;" knowing Reilly's history with NBC (Jeff Zucker fired him three years ago), I could understand the commiseration.
Fox has pulled one of its reality game shows from its lineup. Is it because they felt the show was exploiting families and their gifted children by publicly humiliating them in front of a national audience for profit? Hell no, this is Fox, a network that would pit a bear against a roided bald eagle in international waters and call it "educational programming."
Producer Mark Burnett has temporarily pulled the plug on his newest venture called Our Little Genius because of the possibility that some of the contestants were coached before competing.
Burnett said he learned that some of the producers told the contestants the topics on which they would be quizzed and even some of the questions they would be asked. This doesn't mean the show is gone forever, just for the moment. Again, hello, it's Fox.
In his never ending quest to turn everything into some kind of reality series, Survivor and Apprentice creator Mark Burnett announced he will birth a new reality show baby based on the TV show Fantasy Island.
You might be thinking to yourself, "Isn't every reality show already just a real life version of Fantasy Island?" Not so fast Tattoo. Barnett's already got a trick up his sleeve. The contestants won't just be competing to have their fantasies come true. They are also competing to become the next Mr. Rourke.
I wish Ricardo Montlaban was still alive right now. He could "Khan" this whole production down with just one simple line.
Burnett, he of Survivor and a half-dozen other reality shows, is married to Angel star Roma Downey, and they're both executive producers while Wright is doing the writing for Sony Pictures TV. The show is the story of a lawyer who nearly dies in a car crash and gets a second chance at life when the ghost of his ex-wife appears to him.
No, reality television's favorite couple of prats, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt remain. You know, that could explain why everybody else is running from The Hills. The producers are hoping an injection of Kristin Cavallari, formerly of Laguna Beach will help. Personally, I'd be thrilled with the addition of some of the fine folks from the MMA to kick Speidi's ass. I'd watch that week after week.
Don't worry about Patridge, though. She says she's leaving The Hills to focus on that acting career she went to LA for. Which means starring in another reality show for MTV, apparently. The Audrina Show, produced by Survivor's Mark Burnett, will hit the airwaves 2010. Can somebody tell me what Burnett is doing attached to this project?
Question: what do you get when you combine The Apprentice and American Inventor? Well, possibly a headache. Of course, you could also get a new hit reality show, and that's what ABC is hoping they'll get withShark Tank. It features new business people and inventors pitching new products and ideas to a panel of judges/successful businessmen and women. Who gets the thumbs up? Who gets investment money? Who has to haggle and deal? Who cries? Who argues with the judges? The preview below makes me want to watch at least the first episode, though I wonder if ultimately this is a show better off on cable.
Mark Burnett strikes again with Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone, premiering tonight at 10 PM ET on History. The show channels a travel documentary with Burnett-style storyline. Four modern day explorers (Pasquale Scaturro, Mireya Mayor, Benedict Allen, and Kevin Sites) try to recreate the path that Henry Morton Stanley took to find Dr. David Livingstone. They forgo most of modern day technology (with the exception of water purifiers, sun block and medical kits) and depend on a map, a compass, porters, and two Maasai warriors.
It might seem crazy to suggest that either one of CBS's two long-running reality series doesn't work, but I'm sticking to my convictions. Survivor has lost the edge it had when it started, and it's no longer a show that works for me.
On the other hand, The Amazing Race continues to set the industry bar high for quality reality (assuming you don't think that's an oxymoron). So, stacking them up, one versus the other, here's how The Amazing Race tops Survivor.
Have you ever wanted to audition for a reality television show, but didn't have enough sick leave to fake an illness for your boss or the patience to wait in lines that would rival the bread lines in Cold War Russia?
Mark Burnett has struck a deal that will let people produce their own audition tapes. Burnett signed a deal with Studio One Media to supply high traffic areas with self-serve kiosks that let people put together their own tapes for a measly twenty bucks. They can also provide a web-based service that lets contestants upload their own videos.
What's better than one hour episodes of Celebrity Apprentice? I would answer "zero hour episodes" but NBC is thinking a little different. Celebrity Apprentice is now going to be two hours long.
That's right, Mark Burnett has announced that each episode of the next edition of Donald Trump's reality show is going to be two hours long and will run on Sunday nights. No word on when the show will debut, but sources are saying that it will probably bow in February, with cast members Joan and Melissa Rivers, Andrew Dice Clay, Clint Black, Tom Green and others vying for the top spot.
When I first heard about a reality show called The Shark Tank, I thought, oh great. They've taken things too far and are planning to throw people into tanks with sharks. It's not quite that insane, but budding entrepreneurs might want to tune in for some pointers.
Helmed by Mr. Reality himself, Mark Burnett, The Shark Tank has been ordered to pilot by ABC. As I understand it, the unscripted project is adapted from a Japanese show called Money Tiger, which aired on Nippon Television from 2001 to 2004. The show has since been produced in Australia, New Zealand, Israel, Canada, the Netherlands, Finland, Nigeria, and the U.K.
The premise is interesting: aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to moguls, a.k.a. "Sharks," in hopes of landing investment funds.
TheSurvivor producer is probably not the only person wondering that, but Burnett is getting a little more specific.
Mandel was nominated for his hosting gig on Deal or No Deal in the "Best Reality Host" category. Now, I'm just as surprised as you are to see that DOND is considered a reality show and not a game show (I think it's the amount of time they focus on the contestants and the family members on stage and the tears and the personal stories that tip some primetime game shows into the reality realm). Burnett doesn't think it's fair that you have someone like Jeff Probst, who hosts an unscripted (?) show like Survivor put up against people who host talent shows and game shows.
I've always enjoyed jingles, you know, those catchy commercial tunes that get in your head and never leave. "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." See, after all these years, it's still there. I wonder if Gene Simmons would have liked that McDonald's jingle?
We'll soon find out what the Kiss star likes in musical commercial craftsmanship because Gene Simmons has been tapped as one of the judges on the CBS reality show Jingles. It's a competition show, from producer Mark Burnett, he of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, Survivor and The Apprentice fame. We'll just forget about the ones that didn't fly, like On the Lot (that was painful to watch), Pirate Master (unwatchable) and Rock Star: INXS (truly a train wreck).
Jingles should be pretty challenging for contestants; it's hard to fake it when it comes to writing words and lyrics. The winner gets a contract with an advertising agency and $100,000.
Fox has pulled one of its reality game shows from its lineup. Is it because they felt the show was exploiting families and their gifted children by publicly humiliating them in front of a national audience for profit? Hell no, this is Fox, a network that would pit a bear against a roided bald eagle in international waters and call it "educational programming." 
What happens when the producer of Survivor collaborates with his wife, an actress who starred in 
Audrina Patridge is the latest "cast" member to leave The Hills
It might seem crazy to suggest that either one of CBS's two long-running reality series doesn't work, but I'm sticking to my convictions. 
Have you ever wanted to audition for a reality television show, but didn't have enough sick leave to fake an illness for your boss or the patience to wait in lines that would rival the bread lines in Cold War Russia? 
What's better than one hour episodes of Celebrity Apprentice? I would answer "zero hour episodes" but NBC is thinking a little different. Celebrity Apprentice is now going to be 
When I first heard about a reality show called The Shark Tank, I thought, oh great. They've taken things too far and are planning to throw people into tanks with sharks. It's not quite that insane, but budding entrepreneurs might want to tune in for some pointers. 
The 
What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.
I've always enjoyed jingles, you know, those catchy commercial tunes that get in your head and never leave. "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun." See, after all these years, it's still there. I wonder if Gene Simmons would have liked that McDonald's jingle?
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