Who has time to watch TV these days? If ratings are to be believed, quite a lot of people indeed. However, I also know that there are a lot of people who are always on the go and that they do not have enough time to spend on watching their favorite TV shows. In fact, this is one reason TV series on DVDs has been catching on so much.
Here’s an option that could work very well for these people – watching TV shows over WiFi on the iPhone. This service is provided by Joost, which is actually one of the pioneers in offering TV shows online. Though they are one of the first providers of online TV shows, Joost did not really take off all that much due to other competitors getting the better of them. With this partnership with the iPhone, however, they are looking to make a big comeback.
Joost offers a free application for the iPhone by which users can watch TV shows from various providers such as CBS, Comedy Central, Warner Bros. and Sony. When viewed over WiFi, no charges apply.
This is certainly good news for a lot of iPhone owners who seem to be on the continuous lookout for applications that will not cost them anything but allow them to have a lot of fun. It is even good news for Apple as applications such as Joost are bigger incentives for those who do not own an iPhone yet.
Travel lovers will probably enjoy Maine’s first ever statewide adventure show. The Maine Show, as it is called, aims to highlight the potential of the state as a tourist destination. It is going to be hosted by two guides and will explore the different regions of Maine to show the rest of the world what they have to offer their visitors.
Maine Business has this report:
From Kittery to Fort Kent and Calais to Rangeley, “The Maine Show” explores each region’s recreational opportunities by presenting the distinctive destinations, local products, and authentic people that make Maine such a wonderful place to live, work and play.
“The Maine Show” is hosted by Maine adventurers Jeff Riddle and Stephanie Koetzle. The first episode of “The Maine Show” is on location in Kennebunk as Jeff and Steph ride the waves and surf the Maine coast.
“With the show launch, we wanted to profile an activity that people in Maine can enjoy year round,” said host Jeff Riddle. “Surfing is a great example of an activity in Maine that’s gaining in popularity. We show how it’s accessible to all Mainers. That’s what the “The Maine Show” is all about—activities we all can do right here in our own state that are right in our own backyard.”
If you want to catch The Maine Show, tune in to Time Warner Cable on Sunday, January 4, 2009 at 7:00 pm. Alternate showings are on Mondays at 11:30 am, Wednesdays at 7:30 pm, and Saturdays at 9:00 am.
I have no set plans for New Year’s Eve, do you? I am looking at going out of town to celebrate at some strange place. An alternative would be to go to one of those New Year countdown parties in the city. Another alternative would be to go home to my parents again (as we did for Christmas). I really do not know which option we are going to take but we might very well end up staying at home and having our own little party and if that is the case, we would probably tuned in to one – or two, or three – televised countdown parties. In the event that like me, you end up watching the tube on New Year’s Eve, here are some shows that you can look out for, courtesy of The Associated Press:
The granddaddy of New Year’s Eve entertainment is “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2009,” the title made even more torturous by the baton-passing between the two entertainment utility players. The show has a prime-time hour at 10 p.m. ET, breaks for news, then returns with Swift, the Jonas Brothers and Lionel Richie in Times Square. Fergie will host a Hollywood segment with the Pussycat Dolls and others.
Carson Daly is hosting his fifth New Year’s Eve special on NBC, with the same format: an hour in prime-time, a break for news, and a longer party. T.I., Ludacris, Katy Perry, the Ting Tings and Elton John all join Daly.
Daughtry and Scott Weiland are featured players on Fox’s late-night special, with Spike Feresten and Mark Thompson as hosts. It airs at 11 p.m. ET.
One recent trend is partying news networks: if you want to jam with Anderson Cooper or Bill Hemmer, you can. Cooper, teamed with comic Kathy Griffin, is in Times Square for CNN, which boasts a surprisingly cool lineup of Lil Wayne, My Morning Jacket and Hinder. Fox’s “U Party 2009″ has LoCash Cowboys and Chuck Hicks.
The hardest workers of the night? Try the classic rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd — they’re booked on both CNN and the Fox broadcast network.
Do stay away from CBS as they are resting that night. Instead of a full blown New Year’s Eve telecast (or even half blown, mind you) they are airing reruns of the Late Show with David Letterman.
Reality TV show fans have another treat to look forward to come the 4th of January. This dance show is said to be like no other reality TV show that we have witnessed in the past year. As the name implies, Superstars of Dance is all about dancing and proving who is the best in this art. However, this TV show is not something that you can dismiss lightly.
More than the celebrity that wants to become a dancer, or the nobody that wants to have his time in the limelight, Superstars of Dance actually features professional dancers who are at the height of their careers. Ace Showbiz tells us what to expect from Superstars of Dance.
New dancing reality TV show “Superstars of Dance”, produced by Nigel Lythgoe and Simon Fuller, two masterminds behind “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance”, promises to bring in something different. Unlike two other dancing competitions, “So You Think You Can Dance” and “Dancing with the Stars” which determine their winners through viewers’ vote, this NBC’s TV show will rely its evaluation on the selected world-class judges.
“These are professional dancers; it would be very difficult for someone at home in their living room to pass judgment on the prima ballerina from Russia,” host Michael Flatley explains why audiences are not involved. “It’s very difficult to see how she might have done her pirouette or how she may have stood en pointe properly. It takes a specialist.”
I like the idea that the decision is brought back to judges. Although I believe in the power of the vote, it is also true that voting is very subjective while having professional judges do the decision making makes for less margin of error. Anyhow, I am an ignoramus when it comes to dancing techniques BUT this show is sure to be an interesting one to follow come the new year.
Christmas Day may have come and gone but it does not mean that you cannot give any more gifts, right? In fact, I still have a couple of people that I won’t be seeing till January so I have not bought gifts for them yet. I was thinking of getting them TV series on DVD. You might want to do something similar. Here are my top 3 picks.
The Gilmore Girls
Ok, I can hear people complaining – especially some men. But hey, you have to admit that the writing in this TV series is exceptional. The lines and the quips are just so witty that you really cannot expect to have them handy in real life. Well, unless you watch the shows over and over again. All the seasons of Gilmore Girls are available on DVD.
CSI
New York, Miami, Florida – each CSI fan his favorite “version” but I seriously wouldn’t mind having them all. After all, CSI episodes are always fun to watch, especially one after the other.
Charmed
I have to say that Charmed is one of my all time favorite TV series. True, the story is so out of this world. It is fiction. But hey, who can’t help but enjoy watching the Charmed ones kick the butts of all the evil demons that come their way? Not to mention the hip outfits and the romantic twists? I have the boxed set of seasons 1 to 8 and have seen them all over and over again. Oh, that reminds me, I think I shall start on one right now.
What’s on your ‘TV series on DVD” list?
Most people I know hate moving. Sometimes, the hassle and trouble just make you want to scream! It seems that TV show producers are not afraid of moving, though. This past year, we have seen so many TV shows move from one home to a new one. Reuters has this report:
However, you couldn’t say the same about TV shows. Several series switched homes this year, including “Project Runway,” “Scrubs,” “Beauty and the Geek,” “Inside the NFL,” “Nashville Star” and Tyra Banks’ talk show.
And after years of promise, the Internet-to-TV series pipeline finally started to produce (albeit mixed) results with transplants “quarterlife,” “Sanctuary” and “In the Motherhood.”
The biggest headline-grabber was the shocking April announcement of the move of Bravo flagship series “Project Runway” to Lifetime. Eight months and several lawsuits later, the shift has been put on hold by the courts, with the fate of the completed sixth season of the hit fashion series up in the air after Bravo’s parent NBC Universal won an injunction barring Lifetime from airing it.
Another cable staple, “Inside the NFL,” made a less acrimonious switch between pay cable rivals HBO and Showtime. Following HBO’s decision to drop the longest-running cable show after 31 years and after four months as a free agent, “Inside the NFL” signed in June with Showtime.
And that is only the tip of the iceberg! The article contains more dish on these TV shows. My question is – which TV shows are moving homes in the coming year? More so, how will the moves affect their ratings AND staying power? I don’t want to see a good show turn sucky just because they moved, do you?
Here it is again – another one of those lists which eventually crop up at the end of each year. This time, this is a list of the best TV shows that we had in the past year. This list was compiled by the people at The Connecticut Post and I do have to disagree with some items so I am merely noting down the ones I think should really be part of anyone’s list. Call me biased but here they are.
“Lost,” ABC: The wildest, most daring drama on broadcast TV continued to go for broke in its fourth season, bringing us time travel, the relocation of the island and a bunch of other nutty stuff. I don’t always know what’s going on on “Lost,” but the writing is so consistently smart and surprising that I always want more. Bonus: Michael Emerson’s pitch-perfect work as Ben Linus, TV’s best villain.
This only made number 5 on their list. Not a bad choice, don’t you think?
“30 Rock,” NBC: Though this was the year of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” her NBC sitcom about the nutty goings on at a sketch comedy show was also worthy of praise. The series struggled a bit after returning from the strike hiatus, but last season’s finale was great, as were several of this season’s episodes. My favorite was “Reunion,” in which we find out that Fey’s character, Liz, was evil in high school. The episode also gave us the line “I want to go to there,” now in competition with “I can see Russia from my house” for the best Fey line of the year.
30 Rock at number 7? Whoa…there’s something wrong here. I thought it should be at a higher place!
“Dexter,” Showtime: A lot of people disliked the third season of this drama about lovable serial killer Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), and I agree that this season wasn’t as good as the past two. But I’m putting it on the list for Hall’s always excellent work as Dexter, and Jimmy Smits’ fantastic performance as an assistant district attorney with a dark streak.
This was their last choice. Bad choice. Dexter should have been in the top 3 in my book.
What’s your opinion?
And you thought that you’ve seen it all when it comes to reality TV. Nope, you can’t be more wrong! As long as there is something going on in real life (and there always will be), TV producers will find a way of televising that. The general public’s hunger for reality TV will make sure of that.
The newest reality TV show to hit the waves is called Toughest Cowboy. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that this reality TV series will be featuring real life cowboys. With Mark Burnett at the helm, I am pretty sure that this show will make big waves in the year that is to come.
More details below courtesy of Raleigh MyNC:
The World’s Toughest RodeoTM kicks off its 2009 National Tour in Raleigh on January 3 at the RBC Center, and world-renowned entertainment producer Mark Burnett will have his crew on hand filming the daring competition for his latest television series “Toughest CowboyTM.”
Toughest Cowboy, the new revolutionary sports-drama based on the lives and rides of twelve cowboys premieres January 29 on Spike TV. These rodeo tri-athletes especially chosen for their grit and guts compete in eight episodes in a national tour that takes them from Raleigh to Chicago. Each rodeo show will be filmed and aired on Spike at 11:00pm EST with the premier on Thursday, January 29 for audiences across the country.
Fearless cowboys will ride in three dangerous events each night-bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding-an unprecedented test of endurance in modern rodeo competition. In reality-show style, one competitor will be pulled each week in a sudden elimination bull ride match, with the ultimate Toughest Cowboy champion winning the deed to a Rocky Mountain ranch near Laramie, WY.
For someone such as me who has always been attracted to the lives of cowboys, this is something to look forward to!
I doubt that many people under arrest would actually smile but hey, in this day and age wherein reality TV is a whole new reality on its own, who says that criminals would not smile when arrested? This tag line is not a joke, though. It is actually the title of a new reality TV series starring Sheriff Joe Arpaio of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Arpiao has gained fame – and notoriety – due to his radical approach to law enforcement. According to residents of the county, his methods and actions have not really done much to deal with crime in the area. Yet Fox has given him this new show. Hmmm…
Alternet recently ran this report:
Arpaio has transformed his police department into an immigration-enforcement agency, gaining international notoriety in the process. Armed with a 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a mandate to enforce immigration law, Arpaio has taken the pursuit of undocumented immigrants to “unconstitutional extremes .”
It’s becoming clear that the self-proclaimed “America’s Toughest Sheriff” and his over-the-top, media-grabbing immigration-enforcement methods are harmful to the people of Maricopa County and that local anti-immigrant policies are no substitute for comprehensive and substantive immigration reform at the national level.
Obviously, in spite of his reported inability to keep his county safe – well, at least from the “real” criminals and not the illegal immigrants – Sheriff Arpaio can still get some attention. And that is exactly why a big TV network is spending money on giving him his own reality TV show. Let’s see how long this one will last on air.
There’s going to be a new TV show in town – something similar to Sex and the City but “more appropriate” for a wider audience. Now I do not know if that will have a very good result as many Sex and the City fans may actually be after the inappropriateness of the series. The new TV show, titled Maneater, just might prove to be a success, though.
It is based on a novel with the same title by Gigi Levangie. The setting of the novel is Los Angeles and rumor has it that the people behind the show’s production is looking at some other place to shoot the series. AZ Central has this story:
But Maneater, adapted from author Gigi Levangie’s novel by the same name, takes place in Los Angeles, not New York. It’s no wonder Sony Entertainment turned to sprawling and auto-friendly Phoenix to help capture the soul of the City of Angels.
Apparently, film scouts are seeking out locations in town that resemble LA landmarks. It’s probably safe to say they’ll be exploring Phoenix’s historic neighborhoods and Biltmore mansions rather than its sea of strip malls.
Filming for the Lifetime Television four-part series is expected to run from February through April.
So why not shoot in LA? Who knows? Another question remains, though – is this going to be only a 4-part series? Or do they have plans of continuing the story line if the show meets success?
