January 2008 Archives

PILOT shows are a TV tradition in the US, but in another indication that the ti mes are a-changing, NBC has said it is looking to save as much as $50 million a year by no longer producing expensive pilots for new TV programs. Here's an excerpt from the Guardian Unlimited artic le:

Days after announcing plans to end another of the US television ind ustry's cherished traditions by pulling the plug on annual "upfronts", presenta tions to advertisers, the NBC Universal chief executive, Jeff Zucker, said the ongoing US writers' strike had made the network re-examine its attitude to pilo ts as well. He said the cost of a typical pilot, many of which are never made into a full s eries, had soared from $3m to $7m in three years. Because that bore no relation to the eventual cost of a standard episode and was an increasingly poor indica tion as to its eventual success, Zucker added that they were becoming redundant . Every year, US producers pull out all the stops to produce pilots for series th ey hope will be picked up by broadcasters. But Zucker, in London today en route to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Swit zerland, and speaking to journalists before addressing NBC Universal's 16,000 w orldwide staff, said: "It's a different world, yet Hollywood is built on this s ystem of making pilots in the old way without realising things have changed."

By Abigail Kwok INQUIRER.net GET ready for another season of Americans and their attempt at three minutes of fame, ultra-powered belting, snide remarks from the judges, and of course⦠Si mon Cowell. On Jan. 16, QTV (surprise, surprise!) will be airing the seventh season of the highly syndicated singing competition, "American Idol," at 6 p.m. This came as a surprise for some of the "Idol" fans here as past "AI" seasons were aired on ABC 5. This was prob ably a result of "Pinoy Idol" moving to GMA 7 after talks with FreemantleMedia, developer of the popular series. During the first few episodes, viewers will be treated to state-wide auditions (admittedly the most entertaining and interesting part of the series). Those wh o pass the auditions will then be trimmed to 24, where they will be singing eve ry week and every week there will be eliminations. When the number of contestan ts reaches 12, the competition begins to quicken its pace. In the past few seasons, "AI" has produced quite a number of talents that have made a mark in the US music industry. Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood are both "AI" alumni and are b oth contest winners. But not only "AI" winners made it big in the music scene a s runners-up were also not left behind. In fact, Chris Daughtry (a runner-up in Season 5) won i n the 2007 American Music Awards for his breakout self-titled album Daughtr y, while Clay Aiken (Season 2 runner-up) is also a constant fan favorite because of his sweet and soothing sound. Sadly, "AI" has had its fair share of bad eggs in the dozen, particularly Willi am Hung. Hung managed to release not just one, but four albums! Imagine that. H ung has a relatively large cult following, probably as a show of support to Hun g in response to "AI's" attacks and criticisms against the Cantonese-American u niversity student. So whatâs in store for "AI" fans this year? According to the show's official we bsite, "AI" will be focusing more on the contestants this year. Compared to pre vious years where popular singers and music legends were featured every week, " AI" Season 7 will focus less on the contestants' interactions with their mentor s and more on the singing abilities of the talents. What's more, fiery judge Si mon Cowell also stressed that this season will have the best bunch of contestan ts yet: something that he means sincerely this time. "AI" executive producer Ni gel Lythgoe, in the show's official website, said that he is keeping his finger s crossed for a Beatles night, but Paul McCartney will be a no-show (as a Beatl es fan, I am deeply disappointed!). Prior to the airing of the show, concerns were raised that the show will be sac ked this year because it fared poorly in the ratings war last year and last sea son's winner and runner-up were not really gaining a foothold in the music indu stry. But obviously these concerns were quelled immediately after fans heard th at the show will be premiering in a couple of days. Another important part of "AI" this year is "Idol Gives Back," which will once again be featured this season. Last year's "Idol Gives Back" earned rave review s from Americans and people all over the world because of the help it gave to p eople in Africa and victims of Hurricane Katrina. This year, "Idol Gives Back" will once again extend a helping hand to people in need while playing beautiful music. From "AI," let's go back to our local version of "Idol," "Pinoy Idol." I wrote an entry before about Mau Marcelo, the first "Pinoy Idol" winner. I was honestly surprised when I saw the "Pinoy Idol" TV c ommercial over at GMA 7, where the channel loudly proclaimed âWant to be the fi rst ever Pinoy Idol?â (not verbatim). What struck me most was GMA 7's claim tha t they will be producing the first ever Pinoy Idol when Marcelo, clear ly the first Pinoy Idol, just competed in "Asian Idol" last year. "Pinoy Idol" will be opening its doors for second season auditions soon. Although I am hopef ul that GMA 7 will be able to take care of the "Idol" winner better in terms of his or her music career, I wish that GMA 7 will also remember to correct their arrogant claim of producing the first ever "Pinoy Idol."

THIS year's Golden Globes ceremony has been cancelled, according to this Agence France-Presse story. Here's an excerpt:

LOS ANGELES--This year's Golden Globes ceremony is to be cancelled after actors vowed to boycott the event in support of striking Hollywood writer s, the Los Angeles Times reported on its website on Monday. The Times, citing an email sent by broadcasters to studios, reported that the t raditional televised dinner and prize presentation had been scrapped in favor o f a press conference and a scaled-back event. The Globes organizers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), and NBC, the event's broadcasters, were not immediately available for comment. Ruben Nepales blogged yesterday abou t the impact the possible cancellation of the Golden Globes telecast would have on the non-profit HFPA's projects, such as its annual grants for scholarships.

AS a fan of the original "Knight Rider," I'm excited to see the new TV series t hat NBC will unleash on Feb. 17. I just hope that it can live up to expectations. The original KITT (Knight Indu stries Two Thousand) was one of the coolest characters ever on TV (heh, yeah, I miss the talking car more than David Hasselhoff, heh). Anyway, to whet your appetites, check out these video clips from NBC.com. (UPDATE 1: OK, something seems to be wrong as of this writing with the embed codes and even the Share URLs of the clips below, so I removed t he embedded clips. Just click here for the clips. UPDATE 2: And now the video of the pilot episode is no longer available. Is it technical difficulties? Or, jeez, NBC, why make video clips av ailable for sharing if you're just going to pull the plug later on, huh? Sheesh , when will TV networks really embrace the Web?) Here's the teaser for the Feb. 17 two-hour pilot episode. Here's writer and producer David Andon talking about making the new "Kn ight Rider" relevant to today's audience. Here's Justin Bruening, who's playing Mike Tracer, the estranged son of the original show's Michael Knight. And here's Deanna Russo, the actress playing Mike Tracer's love interes t Sarah Graiman. And, of course, here's the real star of the show, heh, the new KITT.