There’s a great article over at TVSquad about the thing that has driven me, as well as many other TV fans nuts over the past few years. 

I suppose I should have seen the signs when they canceled Action, one of the few funny sitcoms of that season, but I always justified every cancellation. “Maybe Action was too edgy. Maybe Firefly was too good for TV. Maybe I was the only one who liked Vanished.” Sadly, I can no longer make excuses for FOX. 

They go on to talk about Drive’s premature departure from the network.  I’ve said for a while now, and recently again when we covered Drive’s cancellation, that FOX takes the quantity over quality approach to programming.  It’s like they take a random handful of shows out of a hat and throw them out there.  If something doesn’t immediately stick, it’s thrown out. 

Anyway, I’ve made this rant before.  Head on over to TVSquad to read their full post.

The SCI FI Channel has unveiled their summer schedule, boasting a mix of returning hits and new programming.

New Series’

• Destination Truth - Wednesday, June 6 - 10/9c
• Derren Brown Project (Title TBD) - Wednesday, July 25 - 10/9c
• Flash Gordon - Friday, August 10

Returning Series’

• Ghost Hunters - Wednesday, June 6 - 9/8c
• Doctor Who - Friday, July 6 - 9/8c
• Eureka - Tuesday, July 10
• Who Wants to be a Superhero? - Wednesday, July 25 - 9/8c

I haven’t ever really gotten into SCI FI programming, but I’m really pumped for Flash Gordon, and I hear that Doctor Who is good, too.  Looks like there will be no shortage of stuff to keep us entertained for the summer months ahead.

Michael over at AppleGazette cut the cable cord a month ago, and went 30 days without conventional television, using iTunes and the new AppleTV.  That 30 days has come to a close, and he now has his verdict.

So to break down who this is, and isn’t for, let me say this - if you get most of your entertainment off of the Internet and want to watch it on your TV…get an AppleTV. If you don’t watch a lot of television, and want to keep the shows that you do watch when you watch them - get an AppleTV. If you buy boxsets instead of paying for cable - get an AppleTV.

But if you’re a sports fan, a channel flipper, or a videophyle, don’t get an AppleTV as a primary means of watching entertainment. If you want one to get your downloaded content onto your television, or to watch podcasts, then - by all means - go pick one up.

Now, the big question is - am I going back to cable?

Head on over for the full review!

For the first time, Nielsen has officially released the ‘time-shifted data’ that showed how much of a boost shows have gotten from DVR viewings.  Hollywood Reporter has the story:

Fox’s “House” and ABC’s “Lost” led a recent week in increases in absolute viewers, with “House” gaining 2.7 million viewers in DVR playback — on top of the 19 million who watched the show live — and “Lost” adding 2.5 million to its 10.8 million viewers seeing the show when it first aired for the week ending April 8.

NBC’s “Office” was the leader in terms of a percentage gain, jumping 31% from 5.8 million viewers to 7.6 million viewers. Other shows — including “Lost” and Fox’s “24″ and “Prison Break” — did well in DVR playback that week. So, too, did an NBC show that has struggled to find a following: “Friday Night Lights” saw a 17% jump in viewership from 4.9 million to 5.7 million viewers that week.

Click here to view the rest of the story.

I wonder how much of this is taken into account when networks look at what shows should be renewed and what shows should be dropped.  As everyone knows, viewers translate into advertising dollars, which is, understandably, one of the largest objectives of the networks.  But, as the article states, roughly 50% of commercials are fast forwarded through by DVR viewers.  And if 16% of American households are DVR households, as the article also says, that translates to roughly 1 million viewers who did not see commercials on Lost, and 1.7 million who skipped them on House.

This is really interesting for me, because I never watch live TV.  The majority of my TV time usually comes between 10:00 and midnight.  And I skip pretty much all of the commercials, which I think more than just 50% of DVR viewers do, as well. 

It will be interesting to see, as the DVR becomes more and more commonplace in the American home, how it will affect the way that the networks choose their programming, and how they manage their advertising.

I don’t make a personal habit of watching The View.  I know, that’s probably hard to believe.  But it’s been kind of hard to miss the obvious attention-grabbing that Rosie’s been doing over there.  Between her 9/11 conspiracy theories to her feud with Donald Trump, she’s done a great job of what I’m sure she was hired for…to make headlines.

It’s reported today that Rosie will be leaving the ABC estrogen-filled talk show, citing “a lack of agreement on contractual issues”.

What a travesty.

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard or heard about the unbelievable voicemail that Alec Baldwin left for his 11 year old daughter (listen to it here). 

Hearing this and all the press that it’s been getting, it reminded me of a conversation I had with my parents a while back.  I knew that 30 Rock would be a show that they would enjoy, and I recommended that they should check it out.  They both quickly said that they would never watch it.  When I pressed them further, their answer was simple.  “Alec Baldwin.”  See, my parents are very much Republican, while Baldwin is about as red state as a person can be.  His many tirades against the Bush administration drove my parents, along with many others, I’m sure, to the point where they will not have anything to do with anything connected to him.  I’m sure that the recent voicemail tirade against his daughter will serve to further that gap.

So…when do an actor’s actions warrant a boycott?  At what point does the off-screen behavior of a performer bring us to the point where we can’t maintain the ‘temporary suspension of disbelief’ any longer?  I know that it will differ from person to person, but here’s my stance on it.

30 Rock is not ‘The Alec Baldwin Show’.  It’s a show with many talented individuals that Baldwin just happens to also be on.  Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to not give an entire show a chance simply because of one actor’s actions.  Now, if a talk-show host said some of the same things, you might have a case, since that person largely is the show.  Case in point, the Bush-bashing that the country group Dixie Chicks gave a couple of years ago.  (Don’t take this post as being political…these two events were just the first couple of things that popped into my mind.)  Their actions resulted in being banished by the majority of country radio.  This makes a little more sense, with the boycott affecting the ones that performed the offending action, rather than penalizing a large production for the actions of one small portion.

So there’s my rant for the day.  What do you think?

This sends a chill down my spine.  MSNBC reports that Cho Seung-Hui, the man responsible for the mass murder at Virginia Tech on Monday, sent NBC News a large package containing photographs and videos that were created before he went on his rampage.  From the article:

The production of the videos indicated that Cho had worked on the package for some time, because he not only “took the time to record the videos, but he also broke them down into snippets” that were embedded paragraph by paragraph into the main document, Capus said.

This is the part that makes my blood boil.  While it’s impossible to think of what happened and not get chills, the fact that it was premeditated just puts it over the top.  I can’t comprehend what would put a person in that position.

Okay, editorial over.  NBC Nightly News plans to broadcast some of the video tonight.

…statusi…I’m not sure what the plural of status is.

Every year, USA Today takes a look at the networks’ lineups and divides them into three categories: ‘Renewed or almost’, ‘On the bubble’ and ‘Gone or nearly dead’.  The list has several “well, duh” on both extremes, such as Lost, Heroes, and 24 in the safe category, and the already long-gone shows like Day Break, Smith, and 20 Good Years in the dead category.

It does, also have some…well…not necessarily surprises, but interesting entries into both categories.  Veronica Mars, a long time cult fave, is lumped into the dead category, while the Brad Garrett comedy ‘Til Death, which makes me want to gouge my eyes out, is in the renewed column.

Head on over and check out the full list, and vote for the show that you want to survive. 

*sniff* *sniff*  Smell that?  It’s the new design smell, and I love it.

Thanks to the fine folks at Bloggy Network and Design Disease for the hard work and the great new look!

There’s been a lot of talk over the last couple of weeks about Apple’s new product, the AppleTV.   For those who don’t know, the AppleTV allows you to stream content wirelessly from your computer straight to your TV.  Though many people consider this a great addition to their existing entertainment set-up, a few have chosen to take it further.

 Michael over at our sister site Apple Gazette crunched the numbers and decided that it would cost less to purchase his content via iTunes than it would be to pay for cable.  So he cut the cable, and vowed to go the next 30 days with only content that he purchased from iTunes.

 Can a man live on Apple alone?  Head on over here to check out the most recent post, and here to read them all.