Category Archives: NBC
NBC Olympics Trial Coverage Begins Tomorrow
Since the 2012 Summer Olympics are opening soon, NBC is trying to get viewers excited with 56 total hours of Olympic coverage over the next three weeks.
The Olympic Trials coverage starts with diving this Tuesday at midnight ET on NBC Sports Network. NBC will air 14 hours of live diving trials including 5 hours of weekend coverage on NBC with the remaining coverage on NBC Sports. From Federal Way, Washington, NBC will have Ted Robinson doing play-by-play, Cynthia Porter doing analysis, and Alex Flannagan reporting.
Twelve hours of track and field trial coverage begins Friday at 9 pm ET on NBC Sports. Eight days will be covered in total, including four nights in primetime on NBC. The track and field broadcast team includes Tom Hammond, Ato Boldon, Craig Masback, Tim Hutchings, Dwight Stones and Lewis Johnson reporting from Eugene, Oregon.
For the first time, every night of the swimming trials will be shown in primetime on NBC. The 16.5 hours of trial coverage begin Monday, June 25 at 6:30 pm ET on NBC Sports. It will be followed immediately by the first of eight straight nights of trials in primetime on NBC at 8 pm ET. Dan Hicks, Rowdy Gaines and Andrea Kremer will be the team reporting from Omaha, Nebraska.
There will be 8.5 hours of gymnastics trials coverage beginning on Thursday, June 28 at 5:30 pm ET on NBC Sports. It starts 4 straight days of coverage ending with the women’s final in primetime on NBC on July 1. Al Trautwig, Tim Daggett, Elfi Schlegel and Andrea Joyce report from San Jose, California.
NBC Announces New Fall Schedule
NBC is using the Olympics to launch it’s fall schedule. On August 8, Go On will air commercial free following Olympic Games coverage. Animal Practice will get the same treatment, on August 12, following the closing ceremonies.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is the full NBC Fall Schedule with new shows in ALL CAPS.
Wednesday, Aug. 8
GO ON (sneak peek following Olympic Games coverage)
Sunday, Aug. 12
ANIMAL PRACTICE (sneak peek following Olympic Games Closing Ceremonies)
Monday, Aug. 13
8-10 p.m. STARS EARN STRIPES (two-hour premiere)
10-11 p.m. Grimm
The rest of NBC’s 2012 Fall Schedule is after the jump.
Timothy Poe Admits He Fabricates Stories
America’s Got Talent contestant Timothy Poe spoke to WFAA, an ABC affliate in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, admitting and apologizing for fabricating stories. However, Poe refused to say he lied. Instead, he gave excuses such as:
“I mean, as far as everything I said, I believe it wholeheartedly myself, but I feel like I’m going crazy.”
“I really don’t know right now what’s reality and what’s not reality.”
“I don’t feel like I’ve lied. That’s what’s driving me crazy, because I truly thought things have happened to me.”
In the past Poe has also claimed to have served in Iraq, but there is proof that he didn’t serve there. When asked about Iraq, he responded:
“I don’t know. I’m thinking, why have I for the last, over two years, believed things have happened to me and they might not have?”
In past interviews about his service, Poe did not stutter, so it is probable that it is not real.
I’m not a doctor, but it looks like Poe is a pathological liar. Poe even told WFAA that he knows he needs help and has already contacted the VA to make an appointment.
The video of the interview can be found here.
What do you think of Timothy Poe’s story?
The Munsters Becomes Mockingbird Lane
Portia de Rossi
You’ve probably heard about NBC rebooting The Munsters as a one hour drama. Now, Entertainment Weekly reports the show’s name has been changed to Mockingbird Lane, which comes from the family’s iconic address, 1313 Mockingbird Lane.
The show will star Jerry O’Connell as Herman Munster, British comedian Eddie Izzard as Grandpa Munster, and Portia de Rossi as his wife Lily.
This cannot be a good idea. The Munsters does not belong as a drama. The original show is remembered as a goofy sitcom. It was an alternative to The Addams Family. Mockingbird Lane just seems like NBC’s desperate attempt to cash in on a classic show. The only similarities between the two shows will be the characters names and probably personality traits, since the actors chosen do not look like the original cast members.
While Mockingbird Lane may be inspired by The Munsters, there is no good reason for NBC to make such a big deal about the connection between the shows. The two shows will be completely different from each other. I would even argue that it would have been smarter for NBC to change the names of the characters, remove any reference to the original show, and just advertise their unusual new drama, so that people would judge Mockingbird Lane on its own merits and not automatically assume it will be inferior to its 1960s counterpart.
Tampa Bay’s Not So Hot for America’s Got Talent
Big Barry posing with Howard Stern
America’s Got Talent has gotten a lot of coverage lately after the Tim Poe controversy, but I was just hoping to see some quality or at least memorable acts on Tuesday’s show. After all, it’s what the show should be known for. Whether it’s showcasing the true idiots of the world or actually finding unique undiscovered talent, the show has failed to do either many times this season. Tuesday was another disappointment.
The second Tampa Bay Episode opened with a Latin dance crew called The Untouchables, which is made up of kids ranging from ages 8-13. It was obvious that the group would make it through, for the simple fact that they’re kids with high energy that can be endearing. It’s also horribly boring. There is almost never a large dance act that isn’t reasonably coordinated and refined. It is not good for the viewer to know who goes through in advance. It would have been a little better if the performance was great, but it wasn’t. It was average. The show is at its best when it showcases the superior and the atrocious. This was neither.
The montages, both successful and unsuccessful, also were not anything exciting. Granted, these are the acts deemed unworthy of a viewer’s full attention, but that shouldn’t lend itself to inadequacy and boredom. A singer with an okay voice, a dancing duo, an illusionist get sent to Las Vegas. A singer with a slightly worse voice and some variety acts whose talents are unclear do not move to the next round. They’re all basically the same. The people voted through will probably not be seen again. The people who were rejected won’t get talked about again. It just seems like an elaborate time filler.
Another act featured was a squirrel that water skis. Some animal novelty acts can be fun and entertaining. This one certainly wasn’t. As Sharon and Howard agreed, it is nowhere near big enough for a Vegas show. Howie disagreed only out of curiosity to see the act do better in Vegas. It honestly would have been more entertaining to watch the squirrel go too fast around the pool and fall multiple times. That would have been worth a proper and unequivocal rejection. Instead, the squirrel technically succeeded with the act. It just wasn’t good. This act was not good enough to be considered a worthy talent. It was not horrible enough to be considered a hopeless excuse for entertainment. If it does not fit either of those, it isn’t worthy of being aired at all.
Another Reality Show, Another Liar
Monday’s America’s Got Talent introduced America to Timothy Michael Poe. He appeared to be the embodiment of patriotism: a southern cowboy injured during his military service who overcame his injuries to fulfill his dreams. Everyone wanted to believe him. For a day, we did. Now, the Associated Press reports that Poe probably lied about his injuries.
Poe did not lie about his service in Afghanistan, but he was not injured there. He did not need to lie, especially since he is talented. Poe would have been considered a hero just for serving a month in Afghanistan or any time in the military. However, Poe’s lied completely destroyed any respect America had for him.
As Howard Stern said,
“You could be the most f—ked-up liar on the planet, but you never lie about military service. This lie is so wrong on so many levels.”
America’s Got Talent Goes Goth
Andrew De Leon
Last night America’s Got Talent was a little light on the entertainment again. NBC is killing the show. Each week, viewers only get two hours of new acts followed by several repeats throughout the week. In the past, we saw three to four hours of new acts and they were repeated once. It doesn’t help that each hour only has 5 full performances and four short ones mixed in with a bunch of boring montages consisting of people kissing or people with pets or some other boring activity the producers think will make the audience go “awwwww.”
On Tuesday, AGT was still in Austin. I think this is the first week NBC has aired both parts of a city’s auditions back to back, which helped with understanding Howie Mandel, Sharon Osbourne, and Howard Stern in the Snapple Chat.
The first act was the Aurora Light Painters. They painted with light. I really don’t know how to describe what they did without being captain obvious. The Aurora Light Painters somehow manipulated light and took advantage of a cameras light sensitivity to put on an interesting show. It wasn’t one of my favorites, but the judges loved it. (If anyone knows how the Aurora Light Painters performance works, please leave a comment. My head hurts just trying to figure it out.)
America’s Got Talent Goes to Austin
America’s Got Talent held auditions Austin, Texas. The first thing that struck me was that there were very few dance acts and that this season seems to be more positive than past ones.
Sebastian De la Cruz and his mariachi band were the first act of the night. Despite only being 10-years-old, De la Cruz was charming and a perfect gentleman as well as extremely talented. He also dressed the part, which only added to his preciousness. (Seriously, the number of times Sharon Osbourne and the Internet have used that word to describe De la Cruz is not going to do him any favors in high school.)
Time for the bad act montage! That would be great if any of the acts were remotely memorable. There was a sideshow act, which I barely remember because all sideshow acts make me sick. Well, except this one. The Tinderbox Circus Sideshow appeared to solely exist so that the members can staple paper to each others chests. It was very tame compared to the sideshow from earlier in the season that had one of its members pick up a brick with his eye sockets.
TV Shows Get Meta on Facebook
Some really loyal fans of classic shows like Hogan’s Heroes, Mash, Bonanza, and Highway to Heaven made Facebook accounts that are written as though the fictional characters are real people. It gets bizarre, but is also really funny at times.
On Colonel Robert E. Hogan, the following message was posted today.
“Newkirk just told me that the actor who portrayed him on the show about our missions, Richard Dawson, passed away yesterday at the age of 79. R.I.P Mr. Richard Dawson. A truly great actor.”
Don’t think about how meta that is because your brain will hurt. However, I will miss Richard Dawson. He was in a lot of things I grew up watching in reruns, but I digress.
So far Corporal Peter Newkirk is the only other Hogan’s Heroes character that has a page. Other characters that have pages are: (Those with asterisks are regularly updated as are Hogan’s page and Newkirk’s page.)
From M*A*S*H:
*Capt. Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce
From Bonanza:
Joe Cartwright
Carmen Sierra Cartwright
From Highway to Heaven:
*Jonathan Smith
America’s Got Talent Visits St. Louis
Issac Brian Brown
I had some faith that Tuesday’s episode of AGT would be better than Monday night’s, simply because the odds are they would start to find better talent. I was mostly right. They had never visited St. Louis prior to this season, which sort of surprised me. Regardless, St. Louis’ first audition show two weeks ago was also a good showing. It makes some sense that this show would be good too.
America’s Got Talent begins every episode with a feature story. It’s normally a tossup as to whether it would be a terrible act that happens to be entertaining or an act of genuine talent. When “Imagination” from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” started playing at the beginning of the guy’s feature, I knew that this wasn’t going to be a good act. When the contestant said he was a puppeteer, I was positive it wasn’t going to be good. Aside from the fact that this type of act is immensely unlikely to be worthy of 1 million dollars, the viewer quickly discovered he wasn’t even a good puppeteer. Nick Cannon promptly turned to the camera with a sock puppet in his hand and said, “I’m a better puppeteer than this dude.” Despite the complete lack of potential this act had, I was still entertained. The contestant had very high energy and the judges’ spirits seemed very high. This was going to be a captivating hour.
Wait! What's A Dial? 