TVSquad

Advertising is everywhere on TV and online, and not merely in the form of traditional commercials. Most of us are used to viewing ads before watching online videos, and product placement can even be humorous if done properly (30 Rock does it particularly well). Can the partnership between advertising and entertainment go too far, though?

NBC Universal is joining forces with an advertising agency on a new venture: product-centered programming. The network's Digital Studio will work with the Omnicom Group to create several series that focus on the products of participating sponsors. These programs will air on NBC's "digital properties" (websites, for example.).

Ben Silverman has made his first major deal as programming head at NBC: he has bought a TV show about breasts.

Yup. Silverman bought the rights to the Colombian telenovela Sin tetas no hay paraiso, which means Without Breasts There Is No Paradise. That has always been a mantra for many guys but I didn't know they had made a televison show out of it. It is being developed as a show for NBC and also NBC-owned Telemundo.

The show is described as being about "a young woman who is determined to get bigger breasts in order to escape poverty."

I smell a number one hit show.

The Biggest Loser, the I-can't-believe-people-watch-this show on NBC, has been renewed for a fourth season.

Honestly, I don't know anyone who watches this show, and I've never heard of anyone who actually talks about it either (other than the coverage here at this site of course, but only because I work here). It's like NCIS, only for people who have to lose weight in a humiliating fashion. But somehow, it has become a successful show for the network, a show that NBC can actually count on to bring in consistent numbers.

I'm happy that people go on the show and lose weight and that some of them even have "life changing results," as NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly says. But I have no interest in watching it. First, it's a reality show, and I'm very choosy now in what reality shows I watch. And I also don't know why overweight people (or most other reality show contestants) would want to go on a show like this.

People watch this show, but they don't watch other NBC shows like Kidnapped (and enough of you don't watch Studio 60 and Friday Night Lights)? Sigh.

To add on to all of the "these shows are going to be canceled" talk going around the web for the past week, a quote from NBC chief Kevin Reilly about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Friday Night Lights, and 30 Rock:

"I'm sitting here right now with some very good television shows that I think have a lot of promise that need to be nurtured a little bit...I'm pulling for these shows and I'm trying to figure out what's the midseason schedule that can give them a chance, because I really believe some of these can really grow into bigger commercial assets."