The death of TV

Looks like TV has some serious ratings issues...

NEW YORK - Whether it was the upcoming religious holidays, nice spring weather, school vacations or just plain boredom with their choices, many television viewers took a siesta from their sets last Thursday.

CBS' comedy "The Big Bang Theory" had its smallest audience of the season for a new episode, the Nielsen Co. said. ABC's "Missing" had a series low. All the originals on NBC's lineup — "Community," ''30 Rock," ''Up All Night" and "Awake" — had season lows.

The NBC showing is particularly eye-opening, especially considering the network's former "must-see TV" status on Thursday nights.

Only "Community" reached 3 million viewers. The comedies "30 Rock" had 2.79 million, "Up All Night" had 2.58 million and "The Office" had 2.52 million for a repeat episode. The hourlong drama "Awake" had 2.56 million viewers, Nielsen said.

On the same first Thursday in April 10 years ago, NBC reached 28.5 million viewers for "ER" and 22.6 million for "Friends."


While the talking heads try to explain the drop in all of these ratings, I think I have the reason. With the internet, I can watch any of these shows online at my own convenience. I'd rather be running, playing video games or doing some work when the show originally airs. Prime-time of 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. is my time, not televisions time.

Also throw in that I can watch anything I want to watch, Facebook, the 300 channels I have on DISH and the numerous You Tube clips or internet apps I can play - when new episodes pop up, I'm not going to make my schedule around them. I'm going to watch them when I have an opening.

With this kill TV? I dunno ask how mass media is going for newspapers. People are just being more and more specific with their tastes in entertainment. However, you know eventually who's going to pay for the splintering of all these entertainment interests? Us. Look for the pay-per-view model to get more and more common.

Jake Gyllenhall on Man vs Wild

On Monday, July 11, 2011, actor Jake Gyllenhaal joins Bear on an adventure to Iceland.

I can't wait!

Smallville final season

When I was 15 years old the WB (now the CW) debuted a new television show called Smallville. It was about the beginnings of Superman.

Now call me a nerd but I've always been into superheros. And when this show aired I knew I had to watch it.

I watched the promo and for the last 10 years have seen every episode. Well there are only two episodes left before the show ends.

But today I found this little gem. The original promo for the pilot episode.

Bear Grylls skills help save lost teen

Jake Denham, 14, spent nine hours in 1 degree Fahrenheit temperatures after getting separated from his parents on a ski trip.

But having watched the Discovery channel's popular television show Man vs. Wild, Denham knew what to do thanks to Bear Grylls.

He dug a snow cave for shelter as Grylls had demonstrated on the show.

Denham later used another tip from Grylls and followed ski tracks down Mount Bachelor, Oregon.

The teenager suffered only mild hypothermia.

Nobody likes baseball (on cable)

The MLB Network, apparently has some viewership issues, as in nobody watches it. The numbers are out and less that 100,000 people watch the newly launched network in prime-time. Apparently they're too busy watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" reruns.

In its first month of being rated by Nielsen, MLB Network is averaging less than 100,000 viewers in prime time, making its viewership more comparable to channels like Logo and Military Channel than to ESPN or Versus.

When the network launched 16 months ago to about 50 million subscribers, it became the most successful channel launch in cable history. Plus, the quality of its programming has been widely praised, as it took home four statues from last month’s Sports Emmy Awards, a record haul for a first-year network.

But viewership has been slow to follow suit.

Dude, when you're getting compared to the Military Channel, you know you're in trouble.

Life on Discovery

Remember Planet Earth?

Well tonight premiers LIFE on the Discovery Channel.

In case you didn't know, Discovery is probably my favorite channel. I'm looking forward to tonight's show.

It's on at 8 PM. Check out the preview.



(This is from Just Northwest)

Epic Video: Doctor Who

Tonight I was flipping through the channels and came across PBS.

The reason I stopped on this channel was because there was a giant talking slug on the TV. Yeah, who wouldn't want to watch that.

Come to find out it was Doctor Who and an episode called "The Twin Dilemma." And yes, it was a giant slug. Who happened to be named Mestor. Oh, and low budget television graphics where HILARIOUS in 1984. Check it out. Go slugman!

In case you missed 24...

... which I did, but I'm pretty sure Jack Bauer kicked some pretty serious terrorist butt last night at 8 p.m. Pacific Time. Not exactly sure what he did in the Central and Eastern Time Zones but would venture to guess that he did the same.

For those of you that are total piles, like myself, here's a handy-dandy 24 News Feed that should give you all the happenings in a day of Jack Bauer.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go torture some terrorists in the name of national security.

I thought CBS was for old people

What happen to the good days of CBS when they showed Walker Texas Ranger and Touched by an Angel?

CBS announced on Wednesday that Swingtown, which, until the strike hit, was supposed to launch midseason, now will get a summer debut. The nontraditional launch time for a scripted series, executive producer Carol Barbee tells the Reporter, actually "is perfect for Swingtown since the pilot takes place on the Bicentennial Fourth of July." Ahh, memories of me donning knickers for a Rogers Elementary School play....Swingtown, for those who can't remember back to last May's upfronts (when it was first brandished), follows couples experimenting with sexual and social mores in 1970s Chicago.

For the full article, head over here.

CBS has a reputation for being pretty conservative and catering to a slightly older audience (read: bingo halls) than the other networks. And now we have a show about swingers? Is this their answer to Desperate Housewives? Is Andy Rooney going to make a guest appearance? What the hell is wrong with television these days?

Thanks to Curtis from Douchebaggery on Display for the heads up on this story.