Happy new year everyone!! 2008 is here and I hope all of you are having a great one so far!!
On to the latest in the writers strike. I mentioned that Letterman and his company were trying to work a separate deal with the WGA going around the negotiations and they got it done. Very late last week, it was announced that Letterman would get his writers back along with the writers for Craig Ferguson as they obviously fall under the same umbrella. The WGA released this statement on the agreement with World Wide Pants: “This is a comprehensive agreement that addresses the issues important to writers, particularly new media. Worldwide Pants has accepted the very same proposals that the Guild was prepared to present to the [AMPTP] when they walked out of negotiations on Dec. 7. Today’s agreement dramatically illustrates that the Writers Guild wants to put people back to work, and that when a company comes to the table prepared to negotiate seriously a fair and reasonable deal can be reached quickly.” Letterman had these comments: “We’re happy to be going back to work, and particularly pleased to be doing it with our writers. This is not a solution to the strike, which unfortunately continues to disrupt the lives of thousands. But I hope it will be seen as a step in the right direction.” It should be pointed out that the other shows don’t have the advantage that Letterman does as any separate negotiations would have to be from the network. The WGA did comment on that as well saying: “It’s time for NBC Universal to step up to the plate and negotiate a company-wide deal that will put Jay Leno, who has supported our cause from the beginning, back on the air with his writers.” When I heard these negotiations were taking place, I wondered how it would effect things if Letterman did work a separate deal to get the writers back. We’ll have to wait and see if anyone else tries the same tactics. The Golden Globes has continued to try and stop a picket line from happening outside of the awards show. Well, the WGA does appear to be planning on picketing outside of the Golden Globe Awards. Bad news to finish this up as there are still no talks planned to negotiate a new deal. I am curious to see what happens when the directors guild starts their negotiations on their new contract and how it might effect the WGA talks.
Late night returned to the air with new shows last night. I recorded several of them to see how they would do. I am a frequent watcher of Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien so I knew what I was used to with those shows. I rarely watch Letterman so I don’t really know what to compare it to. One thing was really clear was that the hosts all took the sides of the writers and really spoke out in support of them. Two of the late night hosts had grown beards in support of the writers which were Letterman and Conan. I didn’t see it but I heard that Jimmy Kimmel wasn’t happy with the WGA for picketing outside of The Tonight Show saying that Leno shouldn’t have that happen to him considering he was paying his writers out of his pocket. So, I’ll get into my thoughts as I watched Leno, Conan, and Letterman. I really liked The Tonight Show. I thought Jay’s monologue was strong and I laughed out loud several times during it. The Q&A segment was all right and it was nice to see Leno just run with it. Overall, Tonight Show gets a big thumbs up from me. Conan was a fun show. He spoke out in support of his writers and had Bob Saget as his main guest. Conan was clearly working on filling time but made it fun. He did a segment talking about what he was doing since the strike has been going on. Look for that later in the Wrap Up in case you missed it. He then decided to do something on the air that they usually do behind the scenes and that is seeing how long he can get his wedding ring to spin on a table. The record was 41 seconds. He did his first attempt at 36 seconds if I remember right. He tried it again later in the show doing worse at 28 seconds. I don’t know why but I found this oddly entertaining. LOL. Conan did a good job with the show but you could really see his frustration in this strike still carrying on. Letterman opened with a video of Hilary Clinton talking about Letterman returning to the air saying “all good things must come to an end”. Letterman made sure to point out that this was the only show on the air with “jokes written by union writers”. Robin Williams, who was his main guest, came out and looked at Letterman with his beard making references to the beard including “happy new year grandpa”. Williams is normally an easy guest as you can usually just let him go and he’ll be entertaining. Letterman did a top 10 list on the demands of the writers that were read by writers from various shows. He took questions from the audience as well about what was going on with the strike. Entertaining show as well. So, late night had a good return overall.
Ratings were strong for the first night back for late night. Leno averaged 7.2 million viewers which saw a 43% rise from the average of viewers before the strike. Letterman had 5.5 million viewers which was up 45%. Conan had 2.8 million viewers which was up 37%. Craig Ferguson had 2.2 million viewers which was up 28%.
Movie box office numbers for last weekend. 1. National Treasure – $35.6 million. 2. Alvin and The Chipmunks – $30 million. 3. I Am Legend – $27.5 million. 4. Charlie Wilson’s War – $11.8 million. 5. Juno – $10.3 million. 6. Aliens vs. Predator – $10.1 million. 7. The Water Horse – $9.2 million. 8. P.S. I Love You – $9.1 million. 9. Sweeney Todd – $7.8 million. 10. Enchanted – $6.5 million.
The numbers are out for the album sales in America for 2007 and the sales were once again down from the previous year as it fell 9.5%. Albums sold as CD’s and other similar formats were down 15% from 2006. Digital sales were up. Digital tracks were up 45% from 2006 with 844.2 million sold as compared to 588.2 million.
The Laugh Factory has a marathon battle going on. Dane Cook told jokes on stage Tuesday night and continued until 7am on Wednesday night for a total of seven hours. He broke the record that was set at six hours and twelve minutes by Dave Chappelle last month.
The cast has been announced for the new season of Survivor. Survivor Micronesia will be Fans vs. Favorites. Entertainment Weekly has the following announced for the cast.
The Superfans:
Joel Anderson, 32, firefighter from Avondale, Ariz.
Natalie Bolton, 32, personal trainer/bartender from West Hollywood, Calif.
Michael Bortone, 34, writer/actor from Los Angeles
Tracy Hughes-Wolf, 43, commercial builder from Fredericksburg, Va.
Alexis Jones, 24, motivational speaker from Beverly Hills, Calif.
Erik Reichenbach, 22, ice cream scooper from Ypsilanti, Mich.
Mary Sartain, 29, real estate entrepreneur from Emeryville, Calif.
Jason Siska, 22, student teacher from Fox River Grove, Ill.
Kathleen Sleckman, 45, golf course vendor from Glen Ellyn, Ill.
Chet Welch, 48, beauty pageant coach from Ford City, Pa.
The Favorites:
Yau-Man Chan from Survivor Fiji
James Cement from Survivor China
Ami Cusack from Survivor Vanuatu
Jonny Fairplay from Survivor Pearl Islands
Cirie Fields from Survivor Panama
Amanda Kimmel from Survivor China
Ozzy Lusth from Survivor Cook Islands
Eliza Orlins from Survivor Vanuatu
Jonathan Penner from Survivor Cook Islands
Parvati Shallow from Survivor Cook Islands
This should be fun to watch. I seem satisfied with who they picked. Yau-Man was a favorite from Survivor Fiji and was right there at the end. I’m glad to see Eliza coming back as she was a favorite of mine from Survivor Vanuatu. She stirred things up and had a fun personality on there. We’ve got three from Survivor Cook Islands with Ozzy (almost didn’t recognize him in the new photo with his hair different), Jonathan, and Parvati. Ozzy was really strong on that season and I have no doubt it will be more of the same here. Amanda and James will get a second chance after just coming off of Survivor China. Can you imagine if James found a hidden immunity idol again? Can you imagine his thoughts of “I’m using it this time!!”? When Jeff Probst was asked about Jonny Fairplay’s involvement, he replied: ”You can’t do the season and not invite your most notorious person. And Fairplay delivered, I will say that. This guy is no threat to win this game — zero.” I like who they have picked out as the superfans. They are excited to be picked and it will be interesting to see what they do game wise knowing these players that are returning. Will they pick off the ones that they know could stir things up and cause trouble or will they team up with them? It does appear that Exile Island will not be returning which is fine with me. The concept was fun at first but it just never really paid off to be something big. I’m really excited for this new season. To see more about the cast and the article from Entertainment Weekly, check out these two links:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20168991,00.html
http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20168950,00.html
Moving on to this week’s Amazing Race. The episode saw a very fun battle between Kynt & Vyxsin and Nathan & Jennifer as they battled to the finish to see who would be eliminated. Nathan and Jennifer ended up finishing 4th and avoided elimination. Kynt & Vyxsin put up an amazing fight to try and stay in the race including them having to do the speed bump task as well. First place went to TK & Rachel who I really like. It is interesting to watch them on this race as they stay cool headed toward each other even when they are very frustrated. I really like to see that and I think it has helped them a ton.
I ended up watching the Buffy The Vampire Slayer musical episode again last week. I really never get tired of that episode. It has been a while since I’ve seen it though so it was fun to watch it again.
One Tree Hill returns with its new season on Tuesday night on The CW. The show will flash forward into the future by four years from where it left off with its season finale last year.
I never watch hockey but I was fascinated watching the Buffalo and Pittsburgh game on New Year’s Day. The game took place outside in a football field which was the home of the Buffalo Bills. 70,000 fans packed in the stadium to watch this unique NHL game. What made it even more unique was the snow. It snowed throughout the game and gave the game itself a challenge with the snow on top of the ice. The 3rd period saw the winds arrive along with the snow. It was an amazing scene to watch of this amazing crowd, an outdoor hockey game, and all the weather. The overall broadcast was a lot of fun seeing all the broadcasters having fun in this amazing setting as well. The game went to overtime and to a shootout where Pittsburgh won 2-1. This game is going to be something that everyone involved will talk about for a long time to come.
TV on DVD releases for Tuesday, January 8th. All New Super Friends Hour (Season One – Volume One), Gunsmoke (Season Two – Volume One), Happy Tree Friends (Season One), Lovejoy (Season Two), The Riches (Season One), Rob & Big (Seasons One & Two), Two And A Half Men (Season Two), The Waltons (Season Six), What’s New Scooby Doo? (Season Three).
TV Line Of The Week: From The Amazing Race as Nathan and Jennifer had trouble sewing in their task.
Nathan: “That is terrible. I don’t understand how you can’t do this Jen, you’re a girl.”
Jennifer: “I didn’t understand how you couldn’t row a boat. You’re a guy.”
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