Since this site is more of a TV blog, I’m just posting the winners in the Television categories… and may I say, it’s good to know Chuck stars Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski have the teen vote! I just wonder why the show didn’t win in the Choice TV Show: Action category when in other genres, one particular show dominated each and every time (as in the case with Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars)… Hmmm…

Choice TV Show: Drama – “Gossip Girl”
Choice TV Actor: Drama – Chace Crawford, “Gossip Girl”
Choice TV Actress: Drama – Leighton Meester, “Gossip Girl”
Choice TV Show: Fantasy/Sci-Fi - “The Vampire Diaries”
Choice TV Actor: Fantasy/Sci-Fi – Paul Wesley, “The Vampire Diaries”
Choice TV Actress: Fantasy/Sci-Fi – Nina Dobrev, “The Vampire Diaries”
Choice TV Show: Action – “NCIS: Los Angeles”
Choice TV Actor: Action – Zachary Levi, “Chuck”
Choice TV Actress: Action – Yvonne Strahovski, “Chuck”
Choice TV Show: Comedy – “Glee”
Choice TV Actor: Comedy - Jonas Brothers, “JONAS”
Choice TV Actress: Comedy – Selena Gomez, “Wizards of Waverly Place”
Choice TV: Animated Show – “Family Guy”
Choice TV: Reality Show – “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”
Choice TV: Reality Competition Show – “American Idol”
Choice TV: Male Reality/Variety Star – Lee DeWyze, “American Idol”
Choice TV: Female Reality/Variety Star – The Kardashians, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”
Choice TV: Villain – Ian Somerhalder, “The Vampire Diaries”
Choice TV: Personality – Ryan Seacrest
Choice TV: Breakout Show - “The Vampire Diaries”
Choice TV: Female Scene Stealer – Hilary Duff, “Gossip Girl”
Choice TV: Male Scene Stealer – Chris Colfer, “Glee”
Choice TV: Female Breakout Star – Nina Dobrev, “The Vampire Diaries”
Choice TV: Male Breakout Star - Paul Wesley, “The Vampire Diaries”
Choice TV: Parental Unit – Mike O’Malley, “Glee”
Choice Summer TV Show – “Pretty Little Liars”
Choice Summer TV Star: Male – Ian Harding, “Pretty Little Liars”
Choice Summer TV Star: Female – Lucy Hale, “Pretty Little Liars”

For the complete list of winners, go to the source.

|source|

Tonight Show Shake Up

The Jay Leno Show is canceled; but they want to keep Jay, Conan and Jimmy. Talk about NBC wanting it all.
NBC reportedly planned to have Jay on at the 11:35pm slot, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien at 12:05am and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon afterwards. But if that’s going to happen, Conan O’Brien has issued a statement that he won’t do “The Tonight Show” following Jay Leno.
“My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of ‘The Tonight Show.’ But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.”
I’m Team Coco all the way. His statement has got to be one of the classiest and most eloquent responses to a news this messed up. NBC is just making messes all around. And Jay Leno’s smugness doesn’t help things one bit. I still can’t understand why he didn’t just retire altogether when he said he would leave “The Tonight Show.” And now with the way things are going, it seems like he’s going to go back to his old timeslot as if nothing changed. And Conan O’Brien! I love the man and his comedy way more than Jay Leno (This guy doesn’t even make me laugh.). I just wish things pan out for him in the long run; because he’s simply getting the shortest end of the stick here.

Simon’s Last Year

Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol after this season to concentrate on the American version of his Brit show The X Factor.
Well, that sort of throws the whole future of American Idol into a tailspin. After all, Simon Cowell IS the show. His opinions are the only ones that really really matter. Fox could only hope to find a suitable replacement that achieves even half of what Simon does for the show.
So I guess Ellen Degeneres, Randy Jackson and Kara Dioguardi are sure things for next year. Other than that, we could only enjoy the last few days of Simon Cowell on American Idol and only speculate on what will happen on the show’s tenth season.

January Pick-Ups

And onto some good news, here are shows that got early pick-ups for next season.
The Middle, White Collar, Modern Family, Cougar Town, Glee, Mad Men, Dexter, The Big Bang Theory.

Friends on TV

Right on the heels of Lisa Kudrow’s guest appearance on Courtney Cox-Arquette’s show Cougar Town, we’re hearing more shows from former friends are getting their own go signals. ABC has greenlighted to pilot the Matthew Perry-starring comedy Mr. Sunshine. |source| Meanwhile, Matt LeBlanc is forced to audition for the role of himself in the series/spoof Episodes for Showtime. |source|
I love seeing my favorite Friends stars on television. I deeply miss the show; and seeing them move on to (hopefully) good projects just feels great.

Thanks to The TV Addict‘s March 2009 TV calendar, we know exactly what to expect this month. There are a number of sweeps stunts coming our way (Please refer to our crash course # 1 to understand what "sweeps" is. Plus, an answer to why it’s March sweeps this year and not the usual February sweeps.). Also, there are a couple of series and season premieres on the horizon. Here are some of the highlights:

March 3
Reaper returns to The CW for a second season!
I really missed this show. The latter part of the first season has gotten really interesting; and my brother and his wife are just getting into it. So there’s really no choice but to get the latest episodes.

March 5
[edited]
We meet the 12 finalists of American Idol season 8.
After this Wednesday’s results show, Thursday will be the Wild Card Round. Each judge gets to pick 2 contestants from the Top 36. They will perform and the final three finalists will be chosen by the judges on the same night. Exciting!

March 9
Summer Glau guest stars on The Big Bang Theory as herself.
The geeks are gonna go crazy over this Terminator star and I can’t wait to see what happens!

March 15
It’s the series premiere of Kings.
I’m not so sure what this show is about; but there’s some buzz. I’m just being the usual TV drone that I am.

March 16
Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill return.
It’s been a long couple of weeks since we last saw a new episode. I can’t wait to get my hands on them. Seriously. Everyone’s been asking me where the new episodes are. They’re finally back!

March 18
Better Off Ted premieres on ABC.
I’ve seen the promo; and I think it’s a good, quirky comedy that probably won’t be appreciated by most Americans (i.e. Arrested Development). Still, I love these kinds of shows; and I’m hoping audiences will wise up and watch it.

March 20
It’s the series finale of Battlestar Galactica.
I know I haven’t gotten all caught up; but this means I can buy the complete series on DVD soon (original, of course!).

March 30
Greek returns for a new season!
I missed this show a lot. It’s one of those light and fun shows that I really enjoy. Plus, last season’s cliffhanger really threw me. I have to know what happens next.

March 31
Cupid premieres!!!
It’s finally here! Rob Thomas’ second chance at making his old creation a hit… I really hope it’s as good, if not better, than the original. Please!

After two weeks of performances and eliminations, we now have six finalists for the latest season of American Idol.

I’ll get right to the point. I think the performance shows were terrible; and the contenders generally sucked. I mean if you stood out, you stood out by a MILE. For the most part, they seemed clueless about choosing the right song for themselves. On the basis of these past two weeks, you would seriously doubt the judges’ choices and if these 36 semi-finalists really were the best singers Idol could recruit from all around the USA. I think we need to see more performances from each of them! The more performances an Idol had, the more people could see their singing ability and potential as the weeks go by. On the other hand, this one shot easily weeded out the good ones from the bad ones. And America decided that the good ones are:

(the chosen one) Danny Gokey	(pretty good jazzy style) Alexis Grace	(i like him but i like anoop more) Michael Sarver
Kris Allen (this season’s cutie)	Allison Iraheta (good singer but a bit awkward)	Adam Lambert (emo? broadway? really high voice!)

So far, the ones who made it to the finals were a bit of a surprise (in a good way); and I’m getting the feeling that people are now listening to what Simon says. They, in one way or another, deserve a spot. (More Anoop than Michael, though.) I’m pretty happy. Still, Kris Allen? Alexis Grace? I think they got the votes they needed mostly because of Simon’s endorsement. They’re good singers; but especially in the case of Kris Allen, he didn’t have that much screen time and now he’s in the finals. In a way, it’s good that people are finally relying on Simon. Still, I’m not contented with seeing just one performance before watching them in the finals. In any case, like everyone predicted, the guys are kicking the girls in the a**.

Let’s see what the next two weeks would bring.

I can’t sleep.

I decided to just read up on American Idol online. Here’s the Top 36 revealed in the last episode (and yes, I watched it).

I’m rooting for Anoop and Danny (this season’s ‘chosen one’, I think). So far, these are the only ones I’m really happy about. I also like (for a little bit) Ju’Not Joyner, Scott Macintyre and Michael Sarver. From the girls, maybe Jackie Tohn, not sure about the others (maybe Casey Carlson or Jasmine Murray?)… I was pissed Jamar didn’t make it. I also have so much contempt for this Tatiana girl. Yes, she brings the drama; but have you heard her screaming? She is so annoying.

Anyway, I was wondering how this was gonna work and how the Top 36 will be narrowed down to the Final 12. Here’s how it goes:

Every week for the next three weeks, 6 girls and 6 guys will perform. During elimination day, only 3 out of 12 will make it to the FINAL 12: (1) the top male vote getter, (2) the top female vote getter, and (3) the next male/female with the highest number of votes. This gives us 9 finalists.

After that, the fourth week will be a WILD CARD SHOW where the judges will choose singers among the previously eliminated contestants (from the Top 50, I read). Then, during elimination day, 3 contenders will be chosen by the judges to make it to the finals. There goes your 12 finalists.

This means that the FINAL 12 won’t necessarily be 6 girls and 6 boys, which is very good since in my opinion, the boys would beat the girls in a heartbeat considering the talent I’ve seen this year. What’s bad is that we’ll only get to see each of them perform once before America votes them into the finals. Unlike previous seasons, these semi-finalists don’t have to survive week after week to make it in. They just have to perform really, really well on the week they’re singing; and they need to have a really, really huge fanbase by now to secure a spot. That’s it. If you weren’t as exposed as the others were, then start packing your bags. As for the wild card round, I really do hope it’s from the Top 50; because I want Jamar to have one more chance. I don’t want to wait for next year before I see him sing again. (I’m sorry. I just really liked his rendition of "Hey Delilah") But if the judges were to make the decision, maybe Jamar won’t make it. I don’t know. We’ll see.

GROUP 1 who will perform next week are as follows…
GIRLS: Casey Carlson, Jackie Tohn, Anne Marie Boskovich, Alexis Grace, Stevie Wright, Tatiana del Toro
BOYS: Stephen Fowler, Ricky Braddy, Brent Keith, Michael Sarver, Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai

This is a pretty unfortunate grouping. A lot of the good ones are already here.

I can’t believe it. For the first time, Simon’s last words after the final performances didn’t seal the fate of the results.

David Cook is the new American Idol; and he won over Archuleta by 12 million votes!

I absolutely love this rocker; and I’m so happy he won. I literally jumped out of my seat and screamed. I really thought it was going to go the other way even if I liked “Cookie” more.  Whichever way it went, however, I think the final two this year would have long and fruitful careers ahead of them.

Still, DAVID COOK won! DAVID COOK won! Ha ha!

This is the way it should be.

As predicted and expected, it’s a David vs. David finale on Idol this year. It isn’t that exciting since we saw this a million miles away. Still, season seven has become an interesting competition because of these two contenders; and they deserve their spots in the final two. Whether it will go one way or the other, I’m hoping for David to win but I think the other David will win it all. (I’m referring to specific Davids. You can figure it out.) As a consolation, the David I like more could probably go off and do bigger and better things if he becomes second. And the other David is young enough to be molded by “the powers that be” into who and what they want to package him as.

What do you think?

TV Calendar Update
Just wanted to share some premiere dates with you:
Chuck has premiered last April 21 on C/S. It’s on Mondays at 8pm.
Aliens in America premieres May 2 on JackTV.
Pushing Daisies premieres May 6 on 2nd Avenue.

Pretty Old News But Needs to be Mentioned
Friday Night Lights officially has a third season thanks to a joint partnership between NBC and DirecTV. It will air first on DirecTV; and NBC will air them in January 2009. I don’t care how they worked out the kinks here; but I’m just happy that this show gets to have another chance. It’s just absolutely amazing week after week; and I couldn’t imagine it ending the way season two ended.

Shows that won’t be coming back ’til the next season: Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice (which I won’t be watching anymore), Heroes, and most importantly… Friday Night Lights. We all have a long wait ahead of us. I just hope they’re all worth it… and that I don’t forget anything that’s happened.

The CW is currently developing a remake of Beverly Hills 90210 featuring a whole new cast of characters (for the YouTube generation) living in the same famous zip code. When news first broke, the network was reportedly looking at Rob Thomas to head the show; but since then he has backed out simply because he’s working on two pilots for ABC… One of which is a reimagination of his short-lived but wonderful show Cupid. (Can I just say this guy’s like Josh Schwartz last year?) I’m simply happy for the guy. He’s behind the masterpiece that is Veronica Mars so if he has the good fortune of developing two shows in one go, then I’m all for it.

Not Really News… Some Rants or Raves or Random Thoughts
The last episode of American Idol I watched in its entirety was the Mariah Carey week; and until now, I haven’t gotten over how good David Cook’s rendition of “Always Be My Baby” was and is. It’s practically on repeat in my player. Love it! It has got to be the two Davids in the finale or there’s gonna be a public outcry.

Since Britney Spears’ guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother, I’ve been reading that the show’s ratings have picked up. Is this it? Have people finally realized how great this show is? Well, it’s about time! It’s been three frickin’ seasons! And oh yeah, Robin Sparkles part two? Not as great as part one; but considering that it tanked (in TV reality), it had to be less interesting than “Let’s Go to the Mall.”

Gossip Girl is mixing things up pretty extremely in the latest episodes. The scandals and developments are as juicy as ever. I hate social-climbing Jenny now more than ever; and I’m loving the new “evil” that is Georgina Sparks. She makes Blair look like an angel.

I’ve got a lot more on my mind; but that’s it for now. Keep watching!

That was fast. We’re now down to the Top 12 finalists of American Idol. And they are:

Amanda Overmyer Brooke White Carly Smithson Chikezie Eze David Archuleta David Cook

David Hernandez Jason Castro Kristy Lee Cook Michael Johns Ramiele Malubay Syesha Mercado

Ipersonally think America got it right this time… At least from the performances I’ve watched. This is a pretty good group of finalists; and I’m hoping they only go up from here in terms of performances. Again, there are some clear favorites right off the bat… David A, Carly, etc. I’m rooting for the little girl with the big voice; but I haven’t really chosen a clear favorite. There’s no Elliott Yamin in this bunch, I will tell you that; but I’m optimistic about the batch this season. I’m honestly looking forward to the next few weeks of competition.

I am hoping this season of American Idol will be a good one, especially after seeing (and hearing) the potential this batch of 24 finalists could offer. I doubt any of them could match the craziness that ensued circa Season 5 with Elliott Yamin; but I believe this year, the judges have got a good selection of talent.

The Top 24 are:

Top 12 Girls	Top 12 Boys
JoAnne Borgella Amy Davis Alexandréa Lushington Alaina Whitaker Syesha Mercado Kristy Lee Cook Brooke White Ramiele Malubay Amanda Overmyer Carly Smithson Asia’h Epperson Kady Malloy	Chikezie Eze Jason Castro Michael Johns David Hernandez Danny Noriega Colton Berry David Archuleta Luke Menard Garret Haley David Cook Robbie Carrico Jason Yeager

Clear favorites (of producers and judges alike) have been given significant airtime. There’s David Archuleta, Michael Johns, Carly Smithson and Brooke White. Of course, there’s also the Fil-Am Ramiele Malubay. I’m rooting for you, girl. Others I haven’t heard of until yesterday. Some I sort of remember. Overall, what I watched last night during Hollywood week showed a lot of promise with this season.

… and check out the photoshoot. They actually set aside some budget this time.

I was just disappointed that Kyle Ensley wasn’t given a chance to be on the Top 24. This guy is seriously adorable and likable that I felt so bad when he was finally cut. I share Simon’s sentiment when he said that he thinks Kyle is someone that America would like and root for. He’s not the best in the bunch; but it would’ve been interesting to see how far this guy could go.

Okay, rant over. I’m looking forward to next week’s performances. After all those useless audition episodes, we’re finally witnessing the competition as it should be. Can’t wait!