TVSquad

Something about the syndicated Who Wants to Be a Millionaire seems off this season. It might be the gimmicky "Tournament of Ten" that they've been building towards; it starts next week. Or it might be the bumped-up money tree they've instituted, paired with tougher questions; now it's easier to get the first safety level (now $5,000) but much more difficult to get to the second (still $25,000).

But what might also be off is that the producers have been mixing in some very young contestants into the show, and when they're on, the program screeches to a halt.

Why? They're too young. Even if they're the most book-smart kids on the planet, their knowledge of pop culture and historic events goes back maybe ten years, and those questions are a large part of the stack most contestants get.

AMC is bringing a serous, post-apocalyptic zombie suspense series to television, but it's not the first time that idea got kicked around.

As we reported, The Walking Dead is on its way to TV, with Frank Darabont writing and directing to get the series off to a good start.

But, two years earlier, a team of writer/producers planned Alive, a syndicated series featuring a small pocket of human survivors fighting to find a cure for a global viral pandemic that transformed humans into zombies.

In a move that should bring some veteran dragon slayers out of their parents' basements long enough to turn on the TV, Legend of the Seeker is headed back for a second season.

According to producing partners Disney and ABC, the syndicated fantasy adventure show will return this fall. A descendant of the Hercules and Xena food family, Seeker tells the story of a woodsman whose life "gets turned upside down after discovering that he has a profound destiny to fulfill as the Seeker."

It's a burdensome duty that thrusts him into an unfamiliar world of magic, sorcery, evil and heaving wenches. The Seeker fights to protect innocent lives by confronting dangerous and evil forces because that's generally what heroes do in these sword and sorcery tales.

Comedy talk shows are a vastly underrated wasteland of quality programming, but they're shorter on female eye-candy than the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show.

ABC is hoping to change that by giving comic babe and former Talk Soup slinger Aisha Tyler her own piece of programming.

The network is letting her develop a pilot for a "hybrid" style talk show that incorporates sketch, stand-up and other variety comedy into a fully "wired" show that will communicate with their audience over the Internet's series of complex tubes.

For the pink tile ... it's Trivial Pursuit! The ultimate trivia challenge finally makes the leap back to the television airwaves [thanks posters-jh]. The upcoming syndicated Trivial Pursuit: America Plays has cleared 55% of the nation, including eight of the top 10 markets. What this means to you and me is it's virtually a lock that we'll be able to participate in this new show soon.

Yes, you read that right. The show will feature viewer submitted video questions. You could get your ugly mug ("No, no, not you ... you're beautiful ... I'm talking about the rest of them.") up on the screen asking your very own trivia question. Man, I hope they have a pretty hefty screening process for this. I don't want some redneck yahoo standing there in his cutoff jean shorts and too small high school football jersey yelling "How many interceptions did I make in the big game against the Duke County Daisies in '76? ... or was it '77?"

TV Week tells us that after clearing 85% of the market with a few last-minute sales, including to one of my local stations in St. Louis, The Bonnie Hunt Show is now able to get things in order for a Fall 2008 launch. Hunt filmed a pilot in June of 2007 and was picked up with a two year commitment in September.

Bonnie Hunt is one of those Hollywood names everyone knows, everyone in the industry likes, and she's been around forever, but she's never been in anything "big-time." Her biggest TV role was probably her Emmy-nominated performance in the short-lived ABC series Life with Bonnie, in which Hunt played ... a TV talk show host ... well, that's kind of weird. I guess all she's really wanted to do is direct-- I mean, host a talk show. Sorry, they all want to direct, of course. Goes without saying. So I probably shouldn't have.

NBC is creating a syndicated version of Deal or No Deal, but it's going to be a little different than the prime time version of the game show. Howie Mandel will still be the host, but everything else is going to be slimmed down. For instance, the syndicated version will last 30 minutes instead of an hour. And the maximum amount a contestant can win will be $250,000 rather than $1 million. Also? Fewer suitcase models.

The game show is being picked up on at least six NBC-owned affiliates as a companion to a new, Merv Griffin-produced game show called Crosswords. Both are scheduled to begin airing in the fall.

Cool news for Family Guy fans: the series will be going into syndication in 24 of the top 25 markets, including Minneapolis (which probably doesn't mean much to any of you, but I live in Minneapolis).

While I'm not as fanatical about Family Guy as some, I think it's perfect for syndication. It's a series with the kind of light humor that's perfect for playing in the background while you clean your house on a lazy afternoon, and I don't think it'll suffer too much from the obligatory editing that often happens when a program goes into syndication. When a show is as heavy on non sequitur gags as Family Guy, cutting one or two doesn't hurt the overall flow of the episode too much.

So there you go: between airings on FOX, Adult Swim, TBS and now a syndicated run, you'll be able to get your daily allowance of Family Guy. If you can learn to grow your own food inside your house, you'll never have to leave.

FOX is preparing to launch a new morning show with Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy, former weekend co-hosts of Fox and Friends. The new morning show will air at 9am in markets where News Corp. owns the stations. I never watched Fox and Friends, so I can't tell you how entertaining these two hosts are, but FOX is confident that the show will mix well with its other popular morning programming.

Before coming to Fox and Friends, Jerrick hosted specials on HBO and SciFi and was also a co-host on Good Morning Philadelphia. Huddy started at Fox News as a reporter in 1998. According to AP, the new show will use some of the same elements as other shows but also try a few different ideas to set itself apart. Ultimately, however, I think the success of any new daytime talker will come down to how likable the hosts are. You can try all the gimmicks you like, but if the hosts can't endear themselves to the audience, you've already lost.

The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet premiered this morning. If your caught it, I'd like to hear your reaction.

Whoops. A day late and an episode short. Here's your reminder that the G4 network is now showing Arrested Development weeknights at 11:30 EST. There are just so many ways to go with this news that I can't pick. On the one hand, I have the tried and true G4 killed TechTV angle, which is always solid, because man did they do a number on the TechTV shows. Of course, there is also the pro G4 angle of what does this have to do with video games anyway? Probably not a lot of takers on that one though. And as always, holy crap, how is it that this show never found an audience? Choose your anger and let it tide you over until tomorrow when we can all sit back and watch another episode of Arrested Development.

For more info, you can find the schedule, an episode guide, chat and forums on the G4 Arrested Development page.

[thanks, Rocko!]

Actress Whoopi Goldberg will hit the morning radio airwaves starting on July 31 with her new syndicated radio show called "Wake Up with Whoopi." You know, until I heard about this radio show the phrase "Wake up with whoopi" held entirely different connotations for me. Goldberg points out there aren't a lot of women hosting their own radio shows, and she hopes to give listeners something different. She's quoted as saying, "I haven't heard someone quite like me in the morning." Well, yeah, that is true, but isn't that actually a good thing? Aren't most people who listen to lame morning DJs usually thinking to themselves, "Well, at least it isn't Whoopi Goldberg?" Her new show will air on terrestrial radio only, there are no plans for her to take it to satellite radio.