TVSquad

Director Sam Raimi, the man who created such gut-wrenching horrors as The Evil Dead trilogy and Spider Man 3, takes his talent for disemboweling innocent people and chopping off limbs with a dull ax to television ... for a reality show?!?

13 - Fear is Real premieres tonight January 7 on The CW at 8 p.m. eastern. It puts 13 innocent (not really) people in the middle of a fake horror movie, and the last one standing on their bloody stumps takes home the grand prize.

The reality show aims to do for horror movies what Next Action Star did for action movies - rip them off and turn them into another schlock reality show that requires little to no creative ideas or thought.

Here are AOL Television's top picks of the week.

How I Met Your Mother (Mon., 8PM ET, CBS)
Come on down! The phenomenon known as May Sweeps is upon us, and that means explosive finales and guest stars galore. CBS will be commemorating Bob Barker's retirement from The Price Is Right later this month, so it's no surprise to see him also pop up on Mother. Barney, who believes Barker is his dad, travels to L.A. to get on the show and reveal himself. Showcase Showdown, indeed.

Veronica Mars (Tue., 9PM ET, The CW)
For those new to Mars, it's NOT too late to start watching. The show hasn't been cancelled yet and the final five episodes all feature standalone mysteries. For longtime fans, we'll take what we can get, right? Our favorite college detective takes on the case of an Arab couple whose restaurant is being vandalized with slurs. Daddy Sheriff, meanwhile, cracks down on underage IDs -- including ones distributed by his dear daughter.

Hey, everybody, here's a few tasty tidbits from the world of animation for you. Please chew carefully:

A fourth trailer for The Simpsons movie was released not too long ago. Most of you have probably seen it already, but if not, I've placed it at the end of this post. The brief shot of Lisa fainting over the cute boy gets me every time. The animation in that sequence is unlike anything they do on the TV series, which leads me to believe this movie is going to kick twelve essential kinds of ass.

In a very short and only somewhat informative interview with iF Magazine, Marvel independent producer Avi Arad listed a few cartoons that the company will have premiering on television sometime in the furture. Fans can look forward to a new cartoons based on Spider-Man; Wolverine and the X-Men; The Fantastic Four; and even an Iron Man cartoon after the movie based on that particular comic is released. I wish there was more information on these new animated series, but at least we know they're in the pipeline. I think I'm most interested in the new Spider-Man cartoon. If I recall, the last attempt made at bringing Spidey back to cartoon land was in 2003, and that series only lasted about one season.

[via Toon Zone]