Last night, Nikki Finke reported that cable channel Starz will appoint Chris Albrecht, HBO's disgraced former chairman, as the network's new CEO starting in January. You may recall Albrecht's impressive reign at Home Box Office, where he nurtured a surge in original programming (The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Entourage, The Wire and more), but you may also remember that he unceremoniously departed HBO after he was arrested for assaulting a woman in Las Vegas. Either way, Starz is ignoring Albrecht's rap sheet and hoping that the creative genius can beef up its meager (but ambitious) original programming lineup. Will it work?
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With George Lopez, Stephen Colbert, Chelsea Handler and Jon Stewart already on holiday break, the remaining P.M. hosts scrounged up enough holiday cheer for the entire after hours schedule last night. The Jersey Shore cast mates were not available for another reenactment of the Christmas story, but Horatio Sanz and Julian Casablancas were game for some yuletide fun. That video, and the other moments you missed (including Betty White!) while still washing off that bronzer, after the jump.
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Game shows have enjoyed a splashy decade -- winnings multiplied, contestants' camera skills improved, and hi-tech advancements made sets even shinier and slicker than before. Movieline honors the 2000s by numbering its greatest game show moments, the times when common plebeians became righteous gods, and sometimes monsters. Join us on a decade trek where the only recession in sight is Chuck Woolery's forehead.
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· This season has been one long 20th anniversary party for The Simpsons with updated cast posters, 3-D specials on ice, A-list guest stars and a new character contest. And for Fox's final marketing push, it will cast a yellow glow over the network the week of Jan. 3. That means all graphical elements, Fox Web sites, special on-air promos, news anchors' neckties will be a Simpsons hue of yellow. Fortunately for Simon Cowell (yellow is not his color), the celebration will end before American Idol's Jan. 12 premiere. [THR]
Anna Nicole is overthrown, Apple plans to revolutionize television, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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The surprising progress made during this weekend's James Franco-hosted SNL will likely not stick,because the show has invited NBA retiree and admittedly out-of-shape sports commentator Charles Barkley to headline its first show after the winter break. His January 9 episode alongside Alicia Keys will mark the star's first time back in Studio 8H since 1993, when Barkley hosted with musical guest Nirvana. Will he poke fun at his friend Tiger Woods? Probably not. Will he suffer through Kenan Thompson's impersonation of him? Sure. Will SNL ever learn to not kick off the new year with a sports star host? Unlikely. [Associated Content]
Long before Spencer Pratt weaseled his way onto The Hills and Simon Cowell dressed down his first off-note performer, television audiences relied on fictional characters for their daily doses of evil. Take a scoundrel like J.R. Ewing of Dallas: viewers could watch as he swindled his own mama out of her rightful stake of the Ewing Oil fortune, click off the television, and not have to worry about hearing that J.R. got a D.U.I. on a late night burger run or was arrested for child molestation. Sure, our airwaves may have been invaded by parasitic reality evildoers, but this decade could still boast some of the best fictional television villains of all time. So please join us as we remember the best TV creeps of the last decade (no antiheroes allowed!):
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Emmy counterprogramming is a familiar venture -- and a totally failed one. Variety has it that the Paley Center is working with network TV to come up with an alternative award show to the Emmys. The idea feels absurd, but the ceremony has mainly honored cable series in recent years, even though it always airs on NBC, ABC, Fox, or -- like this year -- CBS. Thus, the networks feel obligated to save a little face with a new statue handout. The problem is, the "Emmy alternative" has been attempted before, and always to little avail. The American Film Institute's awards, The TV Guide Awards, and the American Television Awards have all tried and come up short. Movieline believes the "un-Emmys" could be a real success, but only when the following suggestions are heeded.
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If it's the week before New Year's, then it must be time for a battle between Time Warner Cable and one of its high-profile content providers. This time around it's Fox, which reportedly has demanded $1 per subscriber for the rights to broadcast the network after its current carriage deal ends Dec. 31. That's twice what TWC proposes, and it's an even more significant increase over the standard currently hovering between 25 cents and 50 cents. The PR war is on, naturally, centered around the one thing that pretty much all of TWC's 14 million subscribers want to know: Will this be settled in time for American Idol's season premiere Jan. 12?
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· How will CBS cap off its Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, the most watched television event of the year? With a new reality show called Undercover Boss. It's an odd move to fill the best time slot of the year with a series premiere, but the Tiffany Network is confident that drunk viewers will enjoy seeing top executives go undercover in entry-level jobs at their own companies. White Castle, 7-Eleven, Waste Management and Hooters will take part in the reality experiment. [THR]
Jeff Probst contemplates death, ABC invests in awkward situations, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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The shocking, perplexing death of Brittany Murphy, 32, is a blow to a number of camps: '90s diehards, fans of the creepy Don't Say a Word, and even defenders of late-night talk shows. Murphy's appearances on The Late Show and The Late Late Show evince a candid actress who truly didn't take herself very seriously. She was cool, in fact. While the events leading up to Murphy's death remain cloudy, we honor her memory by revisiting her funny, even disarming TV appearances.
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Franco has really gone and done it now. It was just another lazy afternoon in Port Charles: Kristina told Sonny to be more of a dad and less of a scary gangster" Maxie vented at length about her cheating heart, and Franco went grave-robbing. Viewers of General Hospital didn't actually see him digging into the frozen earth and wrestling a coffin open but they knew, because Franco brandished the bracelet he had stolen from Claudia's corpse and gazed at it meaningfully. Watch him deal with the consequences of his morbid actions in true Franco-style, after the jump.
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Another pillar in the reality TV dance competition community has fallen today. Shane Sparks, a judge on MTV's America's Best Dance Crew, was arrested this morning for alleged child molestation. Sparks, who also choreographed So You Think You Can Dance and You Got Served, will have to dance battle 9 charges including a lewd act upon a child that occurred in 1994 -- a serious allegation that could result in a ticket on the The Hot Sex-Offender-Registry Express. [PopEater]
Before we get to this week's inevitable winner, a question to all Jersey Shore zealots: Who expected Ronnie to be the most ridiculous cast member? I still can't believe it. He far outdoes JWOWW and Snooki, who, at this point in the tanning process, look like talking Chicken McNuggets from old McDonald's commercials. Ronnie cries often and bursts into fancy leg-jive boogaloos and shits where he sleeps and breaks his own rules about love-falling-in and pounds the floor when the beat gets too big. You can't dislike the "guido" whose dancefloor behavior looks like Sly Stone coping with a lava pit. Anyway, after the jump I crown this week's big wuss.
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NBC's after hours programming soared to new product placement heights last night when Jimmy Fallon invited a reverend onto his show to literally preach about Subway's Big Philly Cheesesteak Melt. Not to be outdone, Conan O'Brien staged a skit at a Subway restaurant and then rolled a clip of himself working at a Best Buy, where he aggressively tried to sell customers on the new Kodak S730 Digital Frame. The startling clips, along with the other highlights you missed while celebrating your lucrative Nickelodeon deal, after the jump.
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· Yes, that's her real name. And she acts, sings, dances and is the daughter of rapper-turned-actor Master P and the sister of pint-size rapper-turned-actor Romeo. Nickelodeon has snatched up the 13-year-old multi-talent with a substantial deal to add to her existing projects and possibly create a show for her. So start saving for those Cymphonique alter-ego concert tickets. [THR]
Julie Benz has no illusions about that unbelievable Dexter finale, NBC might be looking to replace Conan O'Brien, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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