TVSquad

As I type this, there are 11 court shows currently in first-run syndication, with Judge Judy leading the pack. These shows have become one of the more stable franchises for stations across America, as original programming has made way for pre-packaged fare. With the market seemingly saturated by the amount of court shows, you would think that the studios would be holding off in producing any new series.

Hello! It's television -- the obese glutton of the media world!

Four new series are being worked on right now. Three of these will make their first appearances as the fall season officially begins in a few short weeks. The fourth may not appear until 2009. However, when it does, it may push Judge Judy out of the top spot its held for several years. According to TV Week, former Minnesota governor and pro-wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura is currently in negotiations to host a court show aimed at the daytime television audience. Should the negotiations work out, Jesse could be presiding over some type of court cases by the fall of next year.

It's hard to believe, but next month marks the 15th installment of Survivor. This season, they're in China and the producers are getting all literary and stuff. The teams will begin in Shanghai and then go to a Buddhist temple where they will be stripped of all "worldly possessions" except the clothes on their backs. They will split into two teams and be given a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, which will apparently come in handy this season.

Today, CBS introduced the new 16-member cast. You can't tell much about their personalities from the general biographical information given out, but there are a few stand-outs already. For instance, there's a grave digger, a chicken farmer (whose name is 'Chicken'), a Christian talk radio host, a professional wrestler (Ashley Massaro), and a hiking guide from Kalispell, Montana. Okay, that last one is only interesting to me because she comes from my hometown. You can read more about the castaways here.

Survivor: China debuts on CBS at 8 pm on September 20th.

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper, one of the most charismatic characters on televised wrestling in the 1980s, has been diagnosed with lymphoma. Up until two weeks ago, Piper, 52, was touring Europe with World Wrestling Entertainment, but then he returned to Canada to have a doctor check out discomfort in his back. It turns out, he has a cancerous tumor on a disc on his spine. He'll begin treatment immediately, with the support of his wife and four children. Piper told a Canadian newspaper that he's determined to defeat the cancer.

Piper shared the wrestling spotlight with Andre the Giant and Hulk Hogan in the 1980s, starring in the first of the Wrestlemania events. He even co-starred in a Saturday morning cartoon with fellow wrestlers. Piper's real name is Roderick George Toombs, but he chose Roddy Piper as his wrestling alter-ego, complete with bagpipe and Scottish "rage".

[Via Pop Candy]

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