TVSquad

I sometimes look around the internet and am amazed by the sheer volume of content. People can write about almost anything -- especially when they're obsessed with a specific topic. And a lot of people seem to be specifically obsessed with television.

Not that I can judge. I'm TV addict who writes for TV Squad. But I sometimes wonder if it all really matters. Is anyone listening to any of us? And more importantly, do we have any influence on the television world at large with our opinions and criticisms?

As a devoted TV addict, I headed out last week to cover the New York Television Festival (NYTVF) and listened in on a panel discussion which looked at the explosion of blogs and TV fan sites and questioned their impact (if any) on the industry.

Came across this interesting news while perusing the personal blog of the Newark Star-Ledger's Alan Sepinwall: The Bravo network, part of the NBC Universal family, has bought Television Without Pity for an undisclosed sum.

In the deal, site founders Tara Ariano and Sara D. Bunting will remain on board as editors, and the site's other co-founder, lead designer and community engineer David T. Cole (who is Ariano's husband) will stay on as a manager of media technology production. The site will be part of the growing number of sites under the Bravo banner, including Brilliant But Cancelled, OutZoneTV.com, and getTrio.com. Ariano's side project, Fametracker.com, was also acquired.

According to Sepinwall, the founders told reporters on a conference call that they will retain full editorial control, which (for now) puts questions of their objectivity to rest. In other words, if they want to eviscerate Top Chef, they're still free to do so. FYI, they also told reporters that the recent closing of a TWoP message board thread on The Real Housewives of Orange County, a Bravo show, was merely a coincidence.

Remember that shout-out to Television Without Pity on last week's My Name is Earl? It's been in the works for a very long time. In fact, it looks like the character on Earl was created first on TWoP. This blogger figured out how the writers did it. Here's how it went down: In 2005, someone registered on TWoP forums with the screen name of "Whojackie". That person posted about 15 times before last week's episode aired. Then, on January 17th, one day before the episode aired, someone named "Bramlet06" posts how he/she wishes Earl would give winks to the audience more. "Whojackie" chimes in, noting that he tends to read out loud as he's posting. Then he goes off on television writers who try cheap gags and says, "No, I don't think shows should do more meta that cater to the online bloggers and I'm sure everyong at Television Without Pity agrees with me." If that line sounds familiar, it's because the character, Dead Josh, said it during a flashback on Earl as he typed on his computer. Two days later, posts from Joy and Crabman show up on TWoP notifying people of "Whojackie's" death.

I've gotta say that I like how Greg Garcia and company did this. They didn't monopolize the forum, but they just used it once to coincide with a show where they were giving the website a shout-out.