Whats Hot On TV

This afternoon we have some dance and pairs finals for skating, and tonight we have the women’s finals. I enjoy watching skating during key times in between football seasons and during the Olympics. So we’re not quite done with football yet, but without it on this weekend at all, I’m making an exception. One bummer of the evening is that Saturday Night Live is a repeat. I hate when that happens.

1. Figure Skating U.S. Championships. From Cleveland, the pairs and dance finalists compete.

2. Back to School. Classic Rodney Dangerfield. He stars in this film as a millionaire store owner who goes back to college alongside his son. Sally Kellerman and Robert Downey, Jr. costar. 2:00 PM CT Comedy Central

3. The Last Mimzy. A kids sci-fi fantasy film with a brother and sister that find a toy and a stuffed animal from the future, and the toy begins to make this normally gifted boy much more so, while the stuffed animal gives directions to the little girl. Timothy Hutton, Joely Richardson, and Rainn Wilson star. 6:00 PM CT HBO Family

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The following is a press release about USA Network’s newest initiative, Characters Unite. They’re asking us all to take part and pledge for tolerance and understanding. The following is a promotional video followed by the press release:

USA NETWORK TO LAUNCH

“CHARACTERS UNITE”
NEW MULTIMEDIA PLATFORM TO COMBAT INTOLERANCE AND PROMOTE ACCEPTANCE

Network Announces National Pledge Drive, Advisory Board and Plans to Field a National Opinion Survey Exploring Prejudice

Launches on Martin Luther King Day

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – January 15, 2009 – Recognizing the history-making election of Barack Obama, Bonnie Hammer, president, NBCU Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions, today announced that USA Network is launching CHARACTERS UNITE, a new multimedia platform committed to combating prejudice and intolerance while advancing acceptance and understanding.

Drawing on the legacy of USA’s award-winning Erase the Hate campaign in the 1990s, CHARACTERS UNITE is based on the premise that life is richer when people see beyond stereotypes and appreciate our individual differences – from race, ethnicity, religion and national origin to age, gender, sexual orientation and physical disabilities. The program will focus on what each of us can do individually and collectively in our daily lives to acknowledge and respect our shared humanity. Continue Reading »

While People.com published an article with the title of Ellen Finally Gets Her Man, I couldn’t help but think as I looked at another People.com article, that Ellen got her man and her woman.

Since Ellen has moved to the Warner Brothers studio lot, she has had a running gag going. She is close to both George Clooney’s and Clint Eastwood’s offices. While she had a tour of Eastwood’s office, and even had him on the show a few times, Clooney remained elusive.

Ellen tried everything she could think of to get George on her show. When she would show up on his doorstep, he was never around, and she then started sending over gifts and people meant to trap him. She sent baskets of goodies, the Rockettes, and even a marching band. Continue Reading »

Honestly, what is it about people that they can’t control themselves, even after they are in the public eye and know everyone’s watching. Current Biggest Loser contestant Shanon Thomas, 30, of Centerline, Michigan, was arrested Thursday and charged with domestic violence.

The police received a call from Michael Nolden, a tenant of Shanon’s that lives in her basement, saying that she had thrown flour in his face, according to MSNBC. She yelled at him to turn his television down, then reached for a bag of flour and tossed it into his face, getting some in his eyes in the process. Police arrive on the scene and found the evidence of flour on the floor and couch. Her excuse was that Nolden had tried to throw a pan at her.

Shanon, currently a massage therapist, entered a not guilty plea in the incident when police charged her with domestic violence. She’s no stranger to this process, as previously, she had pled guilty to a DUI offense back in 2004.

The MSNBC article does have a fact wrong in the case. They state that both Shanon and her teammate, her mother Helen Phillips, were sent home, when in fact it was only Shanon. The nine teams on the show that neither won the first challenge nor won the first weigh-in were told to choose which person of their team would be sent home. They were sent home with the hope of coming back if the remaining teammate is able to stay for the next thirty days without being eliminated.

Shanon and Helen decided Shanon would be the one going home with the hope of coming back, and she stated she wanted to prove it could be done at home and wanted to inspire other people. Perhaps she was just inspiring Michael Nolden by throwing the flour in his face when he threw the pan at her. She was probably just sharing a healthy recipe learned from Bob and Jillian.

Photo courtesy of nbc.com

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It’s that time of year again, when we start having the glut of awards shows. The People’s Choice Awards kicking us off tonight is always one of my favorites, since it’s us picking the winners. Not that I always agree, but I can appreciate the choices more. Other than that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the programming options tonight. CBS is running reruns, other than the awards, ABC is running a repeat of the Scrubs episodes that were just on last night, but showing other new programming, and Fox is following their lead repeating 90210 from last night, yet debuting a new show, 24 - Fear Is Real. Fox seems to still be taking the week off until American Idol starts.

1. High Fidelity. This is a great movie for when you’re not having a good day and don’t want anything to change your mood. John Cusack stars as the owner of a vintage record store who goes through a breakup, prompting him to run through a list of his top five breakups. 11:45 AM CT Starz 6

2. The Devil Wears Prada. A novice writer ends up in a job as an assistant at a fashion magazine and finds it quite the challenging job. Stars Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, and is directed by David Frankel who also directed many Sex and the City episodes. 6:30 PM CT FX

3. Knight Rider. Vanessa Williams stars as a foreign ambassador in the clutches of a crazy terrorist. Mike and KITT work to save her. Sarah and Dr. Graiman work on repairing a broken robot. 7:00 PM CT NBC Continue Reading »

Mark Ballas of Dancing With the Stars seems to be a little late to the party. Most of the other professionals, and celebrities as well, went through it during the season, but Mark waited until after the season was over to get hurt.

Dancing With the Stars had its share of injuries and illness this year. Jeff Ross was kicked in the eye by Edyta Slawinska before even stepping on the stage for the first time, and it was just the beginning. That was followed by numerous twisting of ankles to many of the dancers, with Misty May-Treanor’s injury so bad she had to leave the competition. Derek Hough blacked out during a practice, and his sister Julianne left the show for a few weeks to recover from endometriosis surgery.

Now, a month after the show has ended, pro Mark Ballas has suffered a groin injury which will require him to take a few weeks off of the Dancing With the Stars tour. He still danced a few dances on Saturday night, just to not let down the fans too much, as he did a routine with his winning ex-partner Kristi Yamaguchi, as well as a hip hop routine with Derek Hough and Lacey Schwimmer.

It may all be coming at a good time for him, though, as Julianne isn’t the only one pursuing a musical career. Mark and Derek have formed the Ballas Hough Band and just finished recording their first album which is due to be released in March. They were doing double duty recording as well as practicing for the tour, so a few weeks off will probably do Mark good.

Interestingly enough, Julianne used to be in a band along with Mark and Derek, but then split out on her own. It’ll be interesting to see who meets with more success, or who gets injured again first.

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I am trusting that all those celebrating are having a great holiday. I hope you all understand me taking the day off from offering up the What’s Hot On TV List. I had the programming of new iPods to oversee as well as a sick daughter on my hands today, preempting not just my daily programming list, but our Christmas plans as well. It just wouldn’t have been right to expose her possible illness to everyone at the Christmas gathering today, and it also wouldn’t have been right to leave her not feeling well while I sat researching and writing up my list for a few hours.

After a day of watching iCarly on a tiny little iPod screen today, then watching too many hours of The Christmas Story marathon (and when I say too many, I mean I normally like this movie, but five hours of it was just too much), I switched it up to Rocky when the marathon was finally over. What a refreshing change of pace this is, both from the marathon, as well as something a little different after watching a lot of holiday programming this month.

Fret not, I’m already hard at work on tomorrow’s list of What’s Hot On TV, which probably won’t have too many original things on there since it’s Friday and the day after Christmas. We should all be hitting the great sales tomorrow anyway. I think I’ll be spending part of my day at the pediatrician’s office, though.

Until then, I hope everyone is having a warm and safe holiday!

Photo courtesy of imagedownloads.blogspot.com

It didn’t take long after America’s Most Wanted aired the episode featuring the Top Ten Fugitives of 2008 that the show led to the latest capture. After being on the run since last August, convicted murderer Sarah Pender, the most wanted female, was caught, thanks to viewer tips.

On August 4, Pender became the fifth most wanted fugitive in the country after an escape from the medium-security Rockville Correctional Facility in Indiana. She was aided by Scott A. Spitler, whom she was allegedly having a sexual relationship with. Interestingly enough, it was a reversal of situation, as usually the women fall in love with imprisoned men and help them escape. Spitler had been an officer at Rockville for five years when he put it all on the line to help Pender as he drove her out of the facility as she hid in his van. Continue Reading »

Be careful what you wish for, Clay. In a recent article on People.com, American Idol season two runner-up is reflecting back on what was a huge year for him, more so personally than professionally. He states he can’t wait for his new son to start walking and talking, but speaking from experience, if you think you’re busy now, wait until he’s mobile. Then wait until he’s 15 for him to start talking back to you.

We assumed that Clay announcing he would be a father after his close friend Jayme Foster gave birth would be his biggest news of the year. It caused all sorts of speculation, as we wondered if he had actually done the dirty deed with Foster or whether there was artificial insemination involved, both due to the fact that they’re friends, and because of the constant speculation on his sexuality. Either way, he seemed tickled to become a dad, and that’s not surprising considering his original career plans to become a special education teacher. Continue Reading »

I can’t imagine anything worse to happen to a parent than the death of a child, and simply not knowing what happened to your child would have to be somehow worse, as if pain could be measured in that way. Finally for America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh and wife Reve, there is peace in the knowledge.

There are certain headlines in the news that grab us, but nothing grabs us more than a missing child. Those of us that are parents know that fear, as all of us have faced losing a child, even if just for a minute or two, at one point or another. Even those that aren’t parents understand this to be a horiffic realization. Just in the last few years we can point to stories of Elizabeth Smart and Shawn Hornbeck, and just this summer we had the case of Caylee Anthony. Luckily for the Smart and Hornbeck parents, their children were eventually found alive. It wasn’t the case for Caylee’s mother and grandmother, and with that I’m leaving the possibility of the mother’s guilt alone.

There is a much older case that grabbed us twenty-seven years ago, that of 6-year-old Adam Walsh. I remember reading the book his father had written on the case. I finished it in a matter of days, it was so grabbing. Adam and his mothe had been shopping at Sears, and she left him playing video games with some older boys. When she went back to get him, all the boys were gone. Reportedly a security guard had thrown the older boys out, and it was assumed that Adam just left with them, most likely being abducted from the front of the store. Continue Reading »