Will Jersey Shore lose its appeal?

In my last entry, I talked about how I couldn't bring myself to enjoy Mad Men. I know why - because I watch trash like Jersey Shore.

I hate reality TV, but Jersey Shore is just so ridiculous, I can't resist it. I wish I were more excited about the season two premiere on MTV tonight, but I'm not. Why? Because I'm afraid that it will be too scripted.


Yes, I realize that it sounds semi-insane that I'm bemoaning the potential loss of realness in an MTV show. After all, how realistic are these shows from the get-go? These eight strangers wouldn't have met and lived in their Seaside Heights home without the help of MTV, and I'm sure the cameras do influence their behavior. However, with Jersey Shore, I honestly felt as though there was little exaggeration when it came to the behavior of the cast members. I think Snooki will be Snooki whether there is a camera on hand or not. My brain hurts trying to comprehend the idea of the Situation wearing a shirt unless required by law. The way they acted in season one was really ridiculous and ridiculously real.

Back in March, I wrote about the issue that plagued one of MTV's biggest reality show hits, the Osbournes. It had an outrageous first season, and that ridiculousness is what made the show so addictive and fun to watch. Then, in the second season, the show became about the show and the fame the family got from it. It felt scripted and I got the idea that the family was acting in subsequent seasons. This is my fear for Jersey Shore.

For the beginning of this season, the cast will be living in Miami, and while I think it could make way for some interesting moments, I worry that the show will focus too much on their new fame. What was fun in season one was that the cast members seemed to act out these stereotypes in their own lives, and were just transported to New Jersey as they were - self-described guidos living the "Jersey Shore" life elsewhere. Now, I worry they truly have just become actors, and have lost touch with their real lives, and for me, that takes away a lot of the show's appeal.

I'm in Cleveland right now, and the hotel I'm in (the same one that has the unreliable satellite) does not feature MTV, so I'll either have to search it out online tomorrow night after it airs, or catch it when I go home, which is unfortunate. So, I'd love to hear everyone's comments on what they think of the season premiere tonight.

Mad Men returns tonight, yet I cannot bring myself to watch

I should be excited about the return of AMC's Emmy award winning drama Mad Men tonight. I usually love shows that are critically acclaimed and develop a rabid, if small, fan base. However, I just cannot bring myself to enjoy the show.

It's not that I think Mad Men is a bad show. I see exactly why people love it so much, and I recognize that it's brilliantly executed, especially in regards to cinematography. I love most of the cast members outside of the show, and from what I've seen, they give great performances on the show.

Yet, just because one realizes a show is brilliant, that doesn't make one a fan. The aspects of Mad Men that make it great just don't hook me at all. I've tried watching season one twice; I think I've watched the pilot episode three times. I find the pace to be too slow for my tastes, even though that's probably one of the things that makes the show what it is.

I've had people call me crazy for not falling under the allure of Mad Men. Usually, people react like this:



To be honest, I don't blame them. I don't know what mental block is stopping me from enjoying the show, because I want to love it. However, in my defense, and the defense of others who can't fall in love with Mad Men or other high-quality shows, I think it's good that I can recognize a good show when I see one. It's just that what I respect and what I like can be two totally different things.

I try not to judge shows based upon first viewing. I didn't like Modern Family or 30 Rock's pilot episodes, but now I enjoy the shows. I didn't enjoy Friday Night Lights' pilot, yet I feel like I need to give that show another chance for the same reasons I listed for Mad Men (the performances are supposed to be so good). But sometimes, no matter how hard you try, the spark isn't there, and that's what happened with me and Mad Men.

With that said, I'm happy for all of the fans of the show who have been waiting a year for their Dick Whitman fix (Why do I know that is Don Draper's real name considering I don't watch the show? It shows I know too much about TV.). I just won't share in their enthusiasm.


Are there shows that just couldn't hook you, no matter how many people praised them, no matter how many Emmys they received?

UPDATE: NBC not to blame for Writing Emmys snub

Well, TV fans, I have bad news, and I have even worse news.

The bad news? The Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series Emmy award will still not be presented on prime time television, which I wrote about yesterday.

The worse news? NBC cannot be blamed for this (and let me tell you, since I get a real high out of hating the Peacock, this is a real buzzkill for me).

According to Deadline Hollywood, this Emmy category, and other writing nominations were pre-arranged by the Emmys and the Writers Guild of America to only air in prime time every other year. It just so happens that this is the year in which these categories will be presented during the Creative Arts Emmys, or the Schmemmys, as Kathy Griffin refers to them, one week before the prime time show.

When Conan writer Deon Cole Tweeted after finding out that his nominated category would not appear in prime time (the Schmemmys will air on E! one week before the prime time awards), many took it to mean that NBC was cutting the category out of the show as a conspiracy against Conan. It's not like that isn't something that NBC would do, as petty as they are. Unfortunately, NBC cannot be blamed for this oversight. Rather, the union that is working for the writers is downgrading their members' publicity by agreeing to appear only on the Schmemmys.

So, I think the two points I made yesterday still stand: the prime time telecast will lose one of the few highlights of the show (the nomination videos), and it's unfair that the writers are delegated to the Schmemmys. As the Deadline Hollywood article notes, NBC probably isn't too thrilled about losing such a highlight in the telecast (then again, as I said yesterday, they'll just use that extra time to shameless promote their soon-to-be-canceled shows).

Also, I want to note, I don't mean to downplay winning a Schmemmy (to be honest, my ridiculous dream in life is to win ANY Emmy award, Schmemmy or not). It's just that this arrangement seems strange. How unfortunate would it be to be nominated for a writing Emmy in an even-numbered year, when you will only be featured on cable and in industry chatter, but to be shunned in an odd-numbered year, when those nominated people will be shown on prime time? It should be an all-or-nothing setup, not this peculiar arrangement.

It's a shame that Deon and Conan's fellow writers won't be able to be recognized for the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (since it's their only year for that show to be nominated) and that the other nominees won't be recognized on prime time. It's also sad that the audience will lose such a fun moment in the show. But the biggest shame of all is that it can't be blamed on NBC.

Outstanding Variety Series Emmy awards removed from telecast, likely due to Conan O'Brien

^I don't think anyone could have summed up the latest Emmy news better.

Last week, I blogged about how exciting it was that the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was nominated for Emmys this year, even after all of the controversy with NBC. NBC executives were probably shaking in their boots, because if Conan and/or his writing staff won awards, they would have to suffer the awkward indignation of airing the acceptance speech of someone they so unceremoniously booted off of the network.

So, it doesn't come as too much of a surprise that, according to one of Conan's writers, Deon Cole, the 2010 Emmy broadcast, which will air on NBC this year, will not feature the Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program. Continuing their long-standing reputation of acting like petty 14-year-old girls, the network has decided to eliminate any possible way for Conan or his writing staff to appear on camera to accept an award at the Emmys, in their ongoing mission to pretend as though he never existed. Deon said that it wasn't NBC who made this decision, but I have a feeling that the telecast producers were largely influenced by the network (Jeff Zucker, in particular) to make the cut, and that he was just being polite.

This bothers me a lot, for two main reasons. First, the removal of this category will remove from the Emmy telecast what is typically the best part of the show - the nominee videos for the category.







I always enjoy seeing what the writers of the nominated shows come up with each year, and it bothers me that we will not be able to see the nominee presentations this year. Instead, knowing NBC, they'll use the extra time in the telecast to have Jay Leno on the show, complaining about how he wasn't nominated, or spending time shamelessly previewing the future failure fall shows on NBC. Even if the Tonight Show didn't win the Emmy (typically, the Daily Show wins, but Late Night did win in 2007), NBC apparently couldn't risk Conan and his writers using the nominee portion to take a dig at the network. I'm sad that we won't be able to see the Conan team's videos, as well as videos from the fellow nominees (the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live and Real Time with Bill Maher).

The second reason this bothers me is that in NBC's increasingly pathetic attempts to do damage control, they are unfairly hurting the nominees. Outstanding Writing award doesn't just honor the show, but the people who help to put it together, the names that many people don't pay attention to when the credits roll. For that one second, their names, and possibly faces, can be featured on a prime-time show, and they can be publicly honored for their accomplishments. NBC is now taking away that honor for the writers of all of the nominated writers of all of the nominated shows. The writers for the shows should not be punished for NBC's failure to run their network. I like to see writers in the spotlight, and this Emmy category is a great chance for people to recognize their talents.

It's not that I feel sorry for Conan, but his writers, and the writers of all of the nominated shows. I feel sorry for Emmy viewers, who will be robbed of a show highlight. With award show ratings going down the toilet, you would think networks would want to do whatever they can to keep highlights in the show. Then, I remember, this is NBC we're dealing with, and everything makes sense.

I now wonder if Conan and his staff will even be invited to the Emmys this year. If they aren't, I hope some party crashing goes on, not to vindicate Conan, who has constantly reaffirmed that he does not want sympathy, but for the sake of the shunned writers. Plus, it would be a great middle finger to NBC.

This is why we can't have nice things, because the trolls at NBC will find a way to ruin it. It's what they do best.

Calling for cable

I'm currently in a hotel room in Cleveland, and I planned on spending the evening watching some movies on Showtime, since we do not have it at home. Just as one of the movies I wanted to watch started to play, a scattered shower came overhead, and knocked out satellite services to our hotel. This wasn't a massive monsoonal thunderstorm, but rather a much-needed rain that could refresh the plants on the ground. However, it was enough to knock out our channels for a good 25 minutes. In other words, it was enough to make me miss a big chunk of the movie, so I just gave up on it.

This leads me to ask a couple of questions - why is satellite television so popular? I would not want to trust my television to something as sensitive as a satellite, which is very temperamental. I've talked to numerous people who have satellite services, and they frequently have random blackouts due to natural weather movements (or, just randomly for no apparent reason). I'm still amazed that, years after satellite television came onto the scene, it's still so shaky and unreliable. I know that satellite services are widely dependent upon the environment. However, when you consider how much cable has improved in terms of not being so dependent upon the weather, why hasn't satellite?

Are the multiple channels really worth the risk of not being able to watch them? Can you even navigate the hundreds of channels you have on your satellite service? I have digital cable, and there are so many channels I forget about or miss in my perusal of the idiot box. At least, when I do find something to watch, with my cable, there are fewer chances of my picture suddenly going away. I am rather fond of our cable provider, Buckeye CableSystem, and while even their best packages don't offer nearly the same variety and volume of channels as satellite companies, at least their customers can trust that they're going to see what they have.

 It's just frustrating that when I do have access to premium channels such as Showtime, I can't even access them when I want to. Thankfully, the movie I was watching, Big Fan, is on DVD, so I can catch it later. Could I still be watching it if our hotel had cable?

Am I being too harsh on satellites? Have any cable horror stories (as much as I love cable, I will be the first to acknowledge that cable companies aren't perfect)? I'm genuinely curious about the ways and means in which people watch TV.

Fun Food Network Challenge captivates and cures the blues

It wasn't a great end to my weekend. One of my beloved cats, Sammy, passed away. I was very upset about this, and since I needed something to take my mind off of the fact that he's no longer in the house, I, being the television junkie that I am, turned to the idiot box for solace. In short: Thank God for the always wonderful Food Network Challenge, which always seems to air in a marathon on Sunday nights.

The show, which features professional chefs competing against one another to create the most delicious and aesthetically appeasing food for a $10,000 prize, is one of those shows that I will leave on any time I come across it when channel surfing. It's so addictive; it's highly drama without being overly ridiculous, and it's so fascinating to see how these elaborate creations come together. I'm especially partial to the episodes featuring cakes and other sweet treats, likely because they are the easiest to admire without actually using taste as a means to judge the creations.

The other evening, I caught the SpongeBob Squarepants birthday cake challenge episode, and I absolutely loved it. The cakes the competitors made were so amazing. Seeing nearly life-sized cakes of Mr. Krabs and Patrick? That is right up my alley. I loved seeing the competitors take existing characters and using their own creative pasty flair to make them come to life. Of course, the cakes don't always turn out so wonderful. I remember the infamous collapse of the Sully cake (from Monsters, Inc.) during the Pixar cake episode.

The amount of anguish and pain I feel for the competitors is pretty intense. I worry that all of the hard work they do won't matter, since they won't even be able to finish creating their ideal work. Last night, I was watching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame cake challenge episode, and I would have loved to have seen how it turned out, but my cable box decided to freeze up 15 minutes into the episode. However, during the moments I did watch, it was clear that the competitors were going to have issues with their elaborate cakes (especially those who were making theirs to look like the actual building in Cleveland). I felt so sorry for them.

I'll admit, my food palette is pretty boring, therefore, the recipe-based shows on the Food Network don't really interest me. But add in the pretty designs of these cakes or confections during the Food Network Challenge? You've got me sitting on the edge of my seat with my mouth watering.

My only question: Who eats the massive creations when they're done with the episode? Then again, are they even edible at all once they are finished, or are they just made with food?

Emmy nominations, LeBron James' tackiness and Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert's brilliance

It was quite the day for television Thursday, and there's a lot to discuss.

First up - the 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Award nominations were announced bright and early yesterday morning. The nominations feature a fair share of stalwarts, snubs and surprises, as always.

Plus, LeBron James inflates his ego by punching Northeast Ohio in the face on national television.

As if that weren't enough, Steve Carell made his first appearance on the Colbert Report, and the word "epic" doesn't even begin to cover it.

American Idols Live faces dismal ticket sales, cancellations

Anyone who has access to any form of popular media has probably heard that season 9 of American Idol, which ended in May with Toledo's own Crystal Bowersox NOT being crowned the winner (sorry, I'm still bitter), was the weakest season of the show. While contestants may have had talent, by and large, they lacked the charisma and panache of seasons past. It also didn't help that Paula Abdul left the show and Simon Cowell had mentally checked out of his judging duties (who remembers his excellent rant about Tim Urban still being voted in week after week regardless of his critiques?).

Conventional wisdom would say that because this season had so little fanfare, polarizing fandoms and captivating performers, ticket sales for the summer tradition that is the American Idols Live! tour would be weak. That didn't stop the planners of this tour to book an exceptionally large amount of dates, many in massive venues. That didn't turn out so well.

Tuesday, rumors of cancellations and date and venue changes were confirmed by American Idol. Dates in Cleveland, Toronto, Omaha, Neb., Kansas City, Mo., Buffalo, N.Y., Portland, Maine and Winnipeg, Manitoba were canceled, and the dates of eight shows were changed. Instead of the tour ending in mid-September, it will end Aug. 31 in Indianapolis (conspiracy theorists note that this may be to avoid paying the salaries of the performers and crew for the month of September).

I understand that these venues are booked far in advance, but I can't help but wonder if they could have made some of these changes and arrangements (such as the Pittsburgh venue change to a smaller pavilion versus the massive Consol Energy Center) before they announced the dates. It was pretty clear early in the season that this season was a dud, and maybe they could have lessened the blow of this PR nightmare.

For example, in Cleveland, the tour normally went to the Wolstein Center, which seats up to 14,000 people. This venue is where I saw Clay Aiken and company the American Idols Live in 2003, and I thought it was a perfect sized venue. This year, the year where it was painfully obvious ticket sales would be bad? They decided to go to the larger Quicken Loans Arena, where the Cavaliers play. No wonder the show was canceled.

In addition, I think the locations of the tour stops were planned poorly. For example, a new addition to the tour this year is in Toledo, at our new 8,000 seat Huntington Center. This addition was likely made to include a hometown show for Crystal, and it seemed as though it was going to accommodate northern Ohio fairly well (but even that date isn't selling well). However, there were still too many dates around this city, or at the very least, in too big of venues (as mentioned with Cleveland).

Toledoans could stay home, or go to Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Detroit and Grand Rapids, all within about a 3 hour distance. That's just too many options. When Toledoans go to concerts, we can help fill big venues like the Wolstein Center in bigger cities. But when you have small market concerts with big ones too, it's just not feasible to expect bigger venues to sell out too, such as the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Simply put: the tour was too big and the talent too bland. Plus, in this economy, people just cannot justify paying even $20 (which are what some Idol tickets are selling for) for a favorite to sing 3 or 4 songs (this is why I'm not going to the Toledo show, since I'd only wish to see Crystal).

This is a bad year for American Idol, and this tour is making it worse. Couple that with Simon's departure next year, and I wonder if it means this could be the last Idol tour we ever see, because I wouldn't be surprised if next year would not only mark the end of the show, but wouldn't be able to support a tour. Next year's cast needs to be buzzworthy enough to make viewers pull out their credit cards.


For updated tour information, visit Idol's official site.

Jay Leno now delivers lower ratings than Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show run

I hope my American readers enjoyed their Independence Day (and today, if you got the day off for the holiday). Shame it was so hot here in Toledo that it was unbearable to be outside, hopefully the heat didn't ruin the day for everyone.

In the "News that even Helen Keller could have predicted" department (side note, Helen and I share a June 27 birthday. I love that. However, I also share it with Khloe Kardashian, so you win some, lose some.), Jay Leno is kind of failing.

After 4 months back on the Tonight Show, Jay's ratings are even lower than Conan O'Brien's were during his Tonight Show tenure. After starting off strong back in March, viewership has dipped 20 percent, and Nightline now beats both his and David Letterman's numbers.

Apparently, Jay's desperate attempts to be painted as the clueless victim didn't go over so well with people. Or, people have lost their taste for Jay's stale comedy after all these years.

I'll let Conan express my feelings for me:



It's so ridiculous. NBC "punished" Jay by putting him back in his coveted late-night spot, and in the processed, punished Conan for garnering lower ratings than Jay, who is now failing. Now, he's doing even worse, NBC still has to shell out money for 10 p.m. weekday shows and they have yet another fantastic story from a public relations perspective. I bet they're thrilled.

As the above article points out, NBC kept Jay and his team because he would have been more expensive to buy out than Conan. However, Jay's show is much more expensive to maintain than Conan's was and would have been had he stayed at NBC. Now, since decreased ad revenue is likely going to result from this, they're still losing big time, and have foolishly severed all ties with such a strong network icon, all because they impulsively acted out of panic in late 2009 as a result of their own stupid decisions.

Since I love some schadenfreude, especially when NBC is the one experiencing the misfortune, I'm writing this entry with a big grin on my face. I used to be neutral towards Jay and his team, but this whole debacle and his smarmy attitude after it (such as when he claimed that Conan ruined the Tonight Show franchise) has resulted in my reveling in his failure. If there's anyone I feel bad for in this, it's Jimmy Fallon and his show, which has vastly improved since last year. His ratings are suffering as well, and I think Jay is partially to blame.

Is that immature? Yes, probably. Should I feel bad for Conan since he's still a multi-millionaire? Probably not. But that's not the point. This whole incident came from an unfair and illogical decision from a tired network, and it still baffles and annoys me. In television, if your show fails miserably, as Jay's prime time show did, it's canceled, not rewarded with a better spot, that's just the way it should go, and didn't in this case.

I haven't watched the Tonight Show since Conan's last rerun aired in February. It's going to be tough not to watch Thursday, when Steve Carell and Jane Lynch are on the same show, but I won't, out of principle (one that is semi-irrational, considering I'm sadly not a Nielsen household, but still).

Are you the same way, or have you gone back to the Tonight Show?

RIP Party Down and NinjaVideo (but you didn't hear that from me)

Television cancellations are no fun. This was proven today when Starz announced they were cancelling Party Down and Gravity. I never watched Gravity, but I did enjoy Party Down, so this made me sad. It was like a mini-Veronica Mars reunion, with hilarious characters and great one-liners.

It doesn't come as much of a surprise, really. The season finale only garnered 74,000 viewers, and this season, star Jane Lynch left to join Glee full-time, and Adam Scott's hilarious role on Parks and Recreation would likely cause scheduling issues. No disrespect to Starz, but I wish a show this good could have been on a network like HBO, where it could at least benefit from a bigger subscriber base and a bigger influence when it came to marketing.

On the bright side, the show did go out in prime form before it got the chance to die a slow, painful death (like the Office), so I'll choose to look at this cancellation as a bit of a blessing in disguise for the show's quality.

Since so few people actually have the Starz network, I'm betting that they probably watched the program on the Internet. Well, those who watch television shows on the Internet were dealt quite the blow today when the feds shut down sites such as TVShack.net and, my personal knight in shining armor, NinjaVideo.net.

I know the piracy argument. I understand it. To an extent, I can agree with it. But, for now, I would just like to say one thing.

Last week, I blogged about how I had fallen in love with Modern Family. Do you know how I found all 24 of the season's episodes, while helped me experience the show? Not Hulu or ABC.com, who only have five of the episodes, but NinjaVideo. I now plan on being a regular viewer of the show in the fall.

The same goes for season 2 of Chuck; season 1 was on theWB.com when I watched it last summer, which helped me really enjoy it (see? Official network sites pay off!), but it was season 2, which was on NinjaVideo, that really cemented my love for it. Subsequently, I bought both seasons on DVD. I began watching Spaced on there, and I proceeded to buy the DVD set.

Again, I can see the arguments against sites like NinjaVideo. But, it is just not rational that people are going to go out and blindly buy box sets of TV shows without previewing them. If official sites aren't going to offer them, people are going to turn to outside sources, like NinjaVideo. I watch whatever I can on Hulu or official sites, but they offer such a limited selection, they can only go so far. The Internet has helped me fall in love with television, and I would argue (and I doubt I'm alone), caused me to spend more money on the medium, because I never would have bought a big chunk of the DVDs I have without watching the shows online first.

Last week, I went to Cleveland and I found season 1 of the Channel 4 series Shameless at the library. I really love it; the problem is, there are 7 seasons of the show, and this is the only season of the show released in the US. So, I could buy season 1 here, but I would have had to have turned to NinjaVideo to watch the rest of the series. Now, I don't know if I'll ever finish it.

The Toledo-Lucas County Library, my home library, doesn't own season 1. I wouldn't have seen it had I not gone to Cleveland, so, how many people are now in the same boat? They don't have the luxury of previewing the show on DVD without buying it blindly, and have now lost a way to watch it in the first place. That could have been one more season 1 DVD sold.

Media companies should be willing to fully adapt to the demands of consumers, rather than turning to archaic methods to keep products away from consumers. 30-40 second ads on Hulu don't bother me, as I said, I try and watch as much as I can on there. But I'm not going to pay for it, and if I do pay for a full season of a show, I want a tangible DVD of it, a one-time purchase, which I can bring wherever I go, Internet or not. THAT'S portability. I will buy shows once I fall in love with them, not before I see them. I strongly believe that shutting down sites like NinjaVideo will prevent people from seeing TV shows, supporting them and giving them buzz.

I'm just really going to miss NinjaVideo. The video quality was amazing, and while I rarely watched new content on there, videos were posted so quickly after they aired. The site helped me discover so many shows thanks to its vast library. I wonder how many shows I would have fallen in love with on there had it not been removed, it's a shame.

Are you still reeling from the loss of a wonderful site? Are you glad sites like these are gone? Are there recent television cancellations that have brought sadness to your life? (Should I be terrified that the feds are going to bang down my door for admitting my love for NinjaVideo?)