TVSquad

One Night Only: The Series, a new reality show on BET, debuts tonight at 7:30pm. The new series follows a group of students from McDonogh 35 High School, the oldest African-American high school in New Orleans, as they compete for roles not in Dreamgirls, but in One Night Only: Live on the Stage, a multi-media tribute to Dreamgirls. Taped in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the series will not only focus on the upcoming musical, but on the students' efforts to rebuild their homes and communities. Watching high school kids try out for a musical doesn't really interest me, but the mix of trying to be "normal" kids while dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history might make this one worth checking out.

The series will also feature guest appearances by Jennifer Hudson, Blair Underwood, Dwayne Martin, Tisha Campbell Martin, George Faison and Damone Roberts.

(S01E08) In this episode the KHBX news team finds out they might all be fired due to budget cuts. As Tillie tells her co-workers in the opening scene, it's either going to be them or the Doppler radar, and the Doppler is pretty popular.

Since everyone is convinced their days are numbered, they each being to look into different jobs. Alan the director decides to get into the business of directing Korean karaoke videos, which seems like a natural career move since his mother was bisexual. When Tillie corrects him and says he actually meant "bilingual" he explains that his mother's lover was actually Korean.

Marty, on the other hand, decides to try stand-up comedy, and in what manages to be both the funniest and least funniest scene he tries his act out at a comedy club where an agent is in attendance, and bombs horribly. Of course, A.D Miles, who plays Marty, is bombing on purpose, and it's funny to watch the agent try to explain to him why she won't take him on as a client.

I didn't spend much time around sports as a kid, and never developed much of an interest in any kind of competitive event, so ESPN is one network that I rarely watch, unless they happen to be showing one of those occasional drill team or cheerleading competitions. I always find those quite compelling. Oh yeah, and ESPN's live coverage of the Scripps National Spelling Bee is always fun to watch, also. Today from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST you can catch ESPN's coverage of the final rounds of the event. Then, flip on over to ABC from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST to watch the championship rounds. This is the first time this event has been shown in primetime on network television. Chris McKendry of SportsCenter will host the ESPN coverage along with former finalist Paul A. Loeffler. ABC newspersons Robin Roberts and Chris Connelly will also be joined by Loeffler for ABC's coverage of the final phase of the event.

Just a note to anyone who happens to see Ricky Gervais strolling down the street: hit him with a water balloon, he absolutely loves it. In fact, hit him with twelve. Heck, kidnap him, throw him in the back of a truck, and toss him into a public aquarium. Seriously, he can't get enough of that.

Okay, that's not entirely true, but Gervais was beaned with a water balloon recently while jogging in London. Apparently a group of students tried to get his attention, and when he didn't respond they decided to try something different. Gervais says he rang the doorbell to yell at the kids, but only as a joke. He admitted later he felt kind of guilty for it. Seriously, someone should give this man the Nice Guy of the Year award. I don't know anyone else who could be made to feel guilty after being attacked by bored students. I'm guessing Tom Cruise wouldn't have reacted the same way. Oh, that's right, he didn't.

What do the contents of your hard dirve have to do with your ability to connect sexually to another person? As far as I know, absolutely nothing, but that hasn't stopped MTV from creating a new reality series called Meet or Delete, in which college students get to check out each other's hard drives to see if they're compatible or not. Of course, I'm sure we'll be seeing the obligatory porn and other unseemly things, otherwise what's the point? It's not like college students in and of themselves are that interesting. The new show, which will air on MTV, MTV2, and MTVU, as well as on the network's Web properties, is being sponsored by HP, whose computers will also feature prominently on the show. The first episode will air on MTVU.com on May 10.

Chris also talks about this over on our ol' pal Ad Jab.

[via Lost Remote]

American Idol has always celebrated the most shallow aspects of the music industry, but music teachers say the show does have at least one redeeming quality, which is that it's making young kids more interested in singing than they were before. In some schools, teachers are using an American Idol-style curriculum and giving kids the chance to belt out a tune and let their peers judge them. While these teachers are quick to point out that a show like American Idol only covers limited singing styles, it's enough to get kids interested. I guess that's pretty cool?

The State University of New York at Purchase is in an uproar after a closed-circuit television station on campus aired a thirty minute show in which a white student decked out in blackface and another white student made jokes about blacks, gays, Jews, women... well, they pretty much ran the gamut. Billy Prinsell, the student who appeared in blackface, insists he was making fun of another host who had made fun of him, and that it was no different than what's seen on SNL or Chappelle's Show. While I haven't seen the offending show and couldn't speculate on whether Prisnell is racist or just grossly misguided, I don't think this story is uncommon to younger people who try to venture into satire for the first time. His comparison to Chappelle's Show is spot on, but not for the reason he thinks. When Chappelle gets impolitic, it's to expose a deeper truth. Mockery of other people is not automatically made defensible by slapping a "satire" label on it. It may seem like an easy way to be cutting edge, but this particular form of comedy takes a more skilled hand than people realize. When it's done haphazardly and without forethought, people get angry, and rightfully so.

Neilsen Media Research is finally going to answer that question, now that it has decided to include college students in its ratings research. Starting next year, it will include dorm-bound and apartment-dwelling college students in its national sample of viewers. This could increase the coveted 18-24 viewership numbers from 3 to 12 percent. Neilsen estimates that college students who don't live at home with mom and dad watch 24 hours of television each week.

What did/do you watch during college? I actually didn't watch much television during college. All I remember watching is Conan O'Brien and South Park, which began in my junior year.