Watching The CW

Lots has been happening about 90210 this week. Some of it is a little disappointing. Well, no Luke Perry. How do they expect to have a show without Dylan McKay?? Apparently, Luke doesn’t want to get involved without Aaron Spelling, which make sense, and also, he doesn’t see how it can help his career, since he’s already been there, done that. But, honestly, Luke, what have you been doing since those days? I mean have you become a big international star and I missed it.

Also not returning, at least for a while, apparently, will be Tori Spelling’s Donna Martin. Its not lack of her daddy’s involvement that’s stopping her, but her recent C-section.

We will, however, be seeing Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth, though, as well as Joe E. Tata (Nat of the Peach Pit). Also new to the cast are Meghan Markle, who you may know as a case model from Deal or No Deal, as the school’s sexy vixen, and Kellan Lutz, as the star lacrosse player. (I remember him from Accepted, but that’s just cause I’ve seen the movie like a dozen times).

On the more bad news front, Horizon Media, in their annual report, has speculated that 90210 won’t have the zip (pun intended) to pull up the CW’s ratings and made it a real contender. Its possible that means the show itself won’t last, but maybe the CW will give it a chance. Either way, it will be fun to see the whole gang again, even if it’s just for a little while.

The CW has posted their 2008-2009 season primtime schedule:

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM GOSSIP GIRL
9:00-10:00 PM ONE TREE HILL

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM 90210 (New Series)
9:00-10:00 PM SURVIVING THE FILTHY RICH (New Series)

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL
9:00-10:00 PM STYLISTA (New Series)

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM SMALLVILLE
9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL

FRIDAY
8:00-8:30 PM EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS
8:30-9:00 PM THE GAME
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL (Encore Presentation)

Notably missing from this schedule are Aliens in America, Beauty and the Geek (just when I started watching it!), Farmer Wants a Wife, Girlfriends, Pussycat Dolls, Life is Wild and WWE Friday Night Smackdown.

It may appear that Reaper is also missing, but don’t worry, it’s coming back mid-season. So we are losing seven shows, and only gaining three, but I think these are good decisions. Maybe annoying reality TV is on the way out, which is a good thing. And apparently, at least on the CW, it’s being replaced with young adult soaps, which can also be a good thing. I guess we’ll find out.

Here’s a link back to the CW blog, where they have lots more info on the shows and what’s happening, as well.

I was surprised to see that they are reviving everyone’s favorite zip code in 90210. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original series, but I was certainly aware of it and I think it will be interesting to see how they have updated and modernized the show. I’m also interested cause I heard Rob Estes is in it and I’m in love with him. And I mean, really.

In any case, it looks like the CW has a great season set up for us and I’m looking forward to checking out the new shows. As for this summer, I plan to also try to catch up on some of the shows from this season that I just didn’t get a chance to watch the first time around. When I do, I’ll let you know all about. You count on that!

The CW’s Gossip Girl is presently filming five new episodes, and is scheduled to return on Monday, April 21 at 8:00 pm ET. If you regularly read this blog, or even just glance at it occasionally, you’ll have realized that I don’t watch Gossip Girl. I can’t really say I have anything against it, it’s just not my thing.

So, for those of you like me, who don’t know much about the show, I thought I’d do a little research and see what’s the what. Apparently, the show is aimed at a teen audience, as many shows these days seem to be. That’s probably the main reason I never got interested in the show. I’m definitely no teenager. (Although, I am pretty immature, if that counts.)

The setting is a prep school for privileged teens on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The crowd is entirely young, thin, rich and beautiful. And somewhat vicious, I think. No one knows who the Gossip Girl is, but she knows them and her blog keeps their exclusive group connected through website and text messages, with the latest scandal. Add high fashion, partying, reckless living, sex and intrigue, and I think you’ve got a good idea of what you’re getting. Maybe it is my kind of show after all.

In any case, I know many of you do watch Gossip Girl and I thought you might enjoy some candid pics I found of Serena (Blake Lively) and Dan (Penn Badgley) during on the set filming in New York City.

I have some exciting news for everyone. Well, especially for me. You can now pre-order American Idol alum Chris Sligh’s new CD at his website. It comes out on Tuesday, May 6, 2008, and if you pre-order, for only $10, you can get an autographed copy!!! If you want to hear some of his music (provided you haven’t any of the many other times I’ve mentioned it), you can check him out at his myspace.com/chrissligh. There are six songs up there now that you can listen to including the first single, Empty Me, which is also available now at iTunes.

I realized that I’ve mentioned time and again how much I love Chris Sligh. He’s absolutely one of my very favorite artists ever to come out of American Idol. I’ve been watching this show since the second season and in all that time, I’ve really only liked about four people. Well, liked enough to buy their CDs anyway, and this is one CD I’ve really been looking forward to buying.

If you read my other blog, watchingsitcoms.com, you’ll see that I review American Idol each week, and I get way more excited and involved than someone my age really should over a TV show. That being said, you can begin to understand what it means that as much I love the show, I still haven’t liked that many people that I was willing to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, and buy their CDs.

Just as a reminder, you can also buy Chris’s previous CD, Take A Chance on Something Beautiful, with his band, Half Past Forever, on Amazon.

In my Internet travels today, I came across an article detailing the shows that the CW is renewing for next season.

The show I’m most excited about is Supernatural. I was nervous and so was the show’s creator, Eric Kripke. But luckily for all of us, the CW has renewed Supernatural for a fourth season!! And there’s still new eps to air this year, so as far as I’m concerned, its all good.

The CW also renewed Smallville for it’s 8th (and probably last) season. I’ve read elsewhere that they are probably gonna use this season to tie up all the ends and bring Superman up to true Clark Kent adulthood. I’m just not sure how they plan to make him a nerd with glasses.

Other shows renewed by the CW are Gossip Girl for its 2nd full season, One Tree Hill for a Season 6, and sitcom, Everybody Hates Chris. Also, America’s Next Top Model was renewed for both an 11th and 12th cycle. No word yet on new shows Reaper and Aliens in America. I’d like to see Reaper renewed cause I think the show has potential. Don’t forget that there are still three new eps of Reaper to watch starting this week on Thursday, March 13 at 9:00 pm. You should check it out and see what you think if you haven’t seen it yet.

Finally, don’t forget Beauty and the Geek. The fifth season premieres tonight, Tuesday, March 11 at 8 pm. It’s worrisome that it would premiere opposite the Top 12 singing from the Lennon/McCartney songbook on American Idol, but that’s why we have DVRs, right?

I don’t mean to get all political or anything, but I saw the news today and now it’s bothering me. I don’t watch the news too much, cause I’m just not that interested in current events. Also, I can’t really watch too much political stuff, cause it always makes me angry. But we happen to be having a bit of snow here in the Northeast (they say where I am we might get 2 ft, which is fun) and we had the weather on, which then turned into the news.

The story that made me a little steamed is where Barack Obama’s aide resigned after some remarks she made about Hillary Clinton. First of all, I’m sure we can all agree that her remarks were definitely rude. But why isn’t an apology enough? I mean, did she have to resign? Everyone is entitled to an opinion, and we have the freedom of speech that allows us to express our opinions. Obviously, it’s wrong to be rude to others, but still an opinion is just that, an opinion. It’s just a little name-calling. Isn’t that what happens in politics all the time? Besides how do we know its not true. From what I know about Ms. Clinton, I’d say she is definitely willing to stoop to anything to get what she wants. She was willing to forgive her sleazebag of a lying, cheating husband to keep the power of the White House. I know what you’re saying, don’t judge because you don’t know what you would do in the same position. But I can tell you this, if my husband ever cheated on me with some young chick from his office - in his office - I wouldn’t sit around and suffer the humiliation of everyone finding out about it. One of us would be out of the house so fast, heads would spin. I mean, either he’d be going or I would. I don’t care what it would cost me in power or money or anything else, cause my self-respect is more important and it can’t be replaced. Obviously, Ms. Clinton feels differently and the power was more important than anything else. So, again I say, maybe what that aide said was true. Still rude, but true. So why isn’t an apology good enough? (Did you ever notice that the more liberal people are, the less liberty they tend to allow others?)

The last part of the story was where Ms. Clinton apparently retaliates (cause, obviously, we’re all six-year-olds and when someone calls you a name, you have to call them a name, too, right?) Anyway, she said something about how Obama’s people say one thing and he says another, referring to his stance on the war, and that people won’t know what to believe.

Mr. Obama’s response was that he would end the war in 2009. That’s got to the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life. I don’t know if anyone told Mr. Obama, but you can’t stop a war by just saying so. I’m sure its a lovely thought, but its certainly not honest or practical. He can pull the troops out, but that doesn’t end the war. It is, however, a slap in the face to all those who have sacrificed their lives; it makes their lives and their sacrifice worth nothing. If we don’t accomplish and complete what we started, what was the point of their deaths?

If that’s his plan, then he’s a monster, too.

Happily, now that the strike is over, we are gonna get some new shows and new eps of returning shows!! Yay us!! Honestly, I think I held up pretty well during the strike, all things considered, but it’s still good to have some new shows starting up. I’ve done a little research about it and I’m getting some conflicting information. However, I’m ignoring whatever doesn’t make sense and trying to give you what I think is right. While some of this might be a little off, I think it’s close. See, some shows, like Smallville and Reaper, still had some pre-strike eps to air, so those air, then the show is off for a couple of weeks, and then they come back with more eps. Or at least that’s what I’m getting from this.

So, here you go, here’s a list of what’s (very probably) happening in the near future on the CW:

Sunday, March 2
Everybody Hates Chris - 8:00 pm (12 more eps)
Aliens in America - 8:30 pm (8 more eps)

Tuesday, March 11
Beauty and the Geek - 8:00 pm

Thursday, March 13
Smallville - 8:00 pm (3 more eps)
Reaper - 9:00 pm (3 more eps)

Sunday, March 23
The Game - 9:30 pm (9 more eps)

Monday, April 14
One Tree Hill - 9:00 pm (6 more eps)

Thursday, April 17
Smallville - 8:00 pm (5 more eps)

Monday, April 21
Gossip Girl - 8:00 pm (5 more eps)

Tuesday, April 22
Reaper - 8:00 pm (5 more eps)

Thursday, April 24
Supernatural - 9:00 pm (4 more eps)

Sorry if you missed the new eps airing last night. But remember, you can watch full episodes of the any of these shows, once they’ve aired, on the CW website.

America’s Next Top Model kicked off Cycle 10 last night with a gaggle of pretty little princesses. Most of them seemed pretty wild this time. Not the same tame but boringly weepy little girls as usual. But maybe its too soon to comment on that yet. I’m not gonna waste a lot of time on the people who didn’t make it. I want to just give my initial impressions of the top 13, wait, make that 14, girls who will now be in the competition:

Allison - she seems like she thinks she knows more than she really does, but she’s really, really pretty.
Fatima - she has a bit of an attitude, although I thought she had the right of it with those “ghetto” chicks. I can just see that causing trouble.
Katarzyna - just seems very foreign, which makes me wonder, why is she on America’s Next Top Model.
Kimberly - she comes across as way too young. I’ll bet she’s a crier.
Stacy Ann - I just have a vague feeling that she’s gonna be kind of annoying. But we’ll see.
Amis - (one of the changed-name Amy’s) she’s beautiful and very classic looking.
Aimee - seems like she’s cute, but not too polished yet.
Claire - she’s a little weird. I mean the whole baby and breast milk thing. Ewwww.
Whitney - she’s a plus sized model and I thought her looks were arresting from the first moment I saw her on the show. I hope she lasts longer than other plus sized models have on this show.
Marvita - this is a second chance for her, and I think she seems much more together than last time. We’ll see.
Lauren - she’s just seems sloppy and not well put together. Like she’ll be this year’s Heather.
Atalya - I don’t really have any clue about her.
Anya - she was a little annoying, but sometimes people are just hyper. I’ll give her a chance.
Dominique - was kinda too domineering for me. They may have made a mistake adding an extra spot for her. But we’ll see.

I’m not making any guesses at this point. Let’s wait and see how they do next week.

Reaper is back in repeats. But it’s opposite American Idol and I don’t get that. Does the CW want the show to die? I’m not saying everybody watches American Idol, but everybody watches American Idol. Reaper is definitely a niche show, so I just don’t see how anyone, just because they don’t watch AI, is just gonna stumble on it by mistake or anything. It should be somewhere more better.

I realize its just repeats, but this is the perfect opportunity for them to find the people out there who would like the show and want to watch it, but missed it the first time around. Most of them are watching American Idol. I’d bet on it. Then the plan, as of February 28, is to move Reaper to Thursdays, right into Supernatural’s spot, which I like even less. Plus, I don’t see how that will help. I guess Smallville is a good lead in show, but it obviously hasn’t helped Supernatural, since it’s disappearing from the schedule altogether. I don’t want them messing with Supernatural.

As far as what else is happening on the CW, America’s Next Top Model is starting up cycle 10 on February 20 at 8 pm, which is good. But also, they starting a new season of Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious on February 18 at 9 pm. Yuck! I mean, what is that??

Anyway, they have moved a few other things around, too, so here is the schedule for The CW’s midseason:

Monday
8:00 pm - Gossip Girl (Beginning January 28)
9:00 pm - Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious (Beginning February 18)

Tuesday
8:00 pm - Reaper (From January 15 - January 28)
8:00 pm - Beauty and the Geek (Beginning March 11)
9:00 pm - One Tree Hill

Wednesday (Beginning February 20)
8:00 pm - America’s Next Top Model
9:00 pm - Pussycat Dolls Present: Girlicious - Encore

Thursday
8:00 pm - Smallville
9:00 pm - Reaper (Beginning February 28)

Sunday (Beginning February 10)
7:00 pm - CW Now
7:30 pm - Everybody Hates Chris -Encores
8:00 pm - Everybody Hates Chris
8:30 pm - Aliens in America
9:00 pm - Girlfriends
9:30 pm - The Game

So there you have it. The new line up. Tell me, where is Supernatural?

New Smallville and Supernatural are coming!!

There’s another new ep of Smallville airing on Thursday, January 31. Plus, there’s another new ep on 2/7 and 2/13. It appears there are a couple other eps in the hopper as well, so maybe, just maybe we’ll get to see those before the season ends. I know I haven’t really watched too many eps of Smallville this season, but I’ll definitely catch this one. Mostly because James Marsters will be reprising his role as Braniac, and you know how I love James Marsters. I am still seriously considering borrowing my nephew’s Smallville DVDs as well, so I can just watch everything from the beginning. I think I’ll be able to appreciate it even more then.

Also new on January 31 is an episode of Supernatural. It looks like there are three more eps that haven’t aired yet. One of them, entitled “Dream a Little Dream Of Me” which is scheduled to air on February 7, sounds like it’ll be really fun. They have to go into their dreams to save Bobby, and fight their worse nightmares. Interesting.

I’m really worried about this show. It seems like the CW isn’t giving Supernatural its due. The show is one of the better shows on the network, if you ask me, but for some reason they seem to play it down. I can’t believe they really mean to do that. They must just think that other shows need more promotion. See, that’s me being naive, isn’t it? Since everyone knows that all network execs are evil villains, I should just resign myself to the fact that they want to kill off a perfectly good show just to ruin my day.

I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Smallville, Supernatural, James Marsters

Yesterday I was at Jury Duty (you can read about my adventures and new sitcom idea here), and I’m watching people. I’m sitting next to a real estate attorney, who is closing deals on the phone. There are all these strange people and we get to hear everyone’s name called. I love names. One person was named Champagne Young. Isn’t that fun? Another one was named Crystal Gazer. Now, what do you think someone named Crystal Gazer would look like? I pictured a tall, willowy woman with long dark wavy hair all loose around her shoulders. She is wearing a flowy peasant skirt, sandals and a long scarf wrap.

They called her several times, but I was never able to pick her out or anyone I thought fit the name. Finally, towards the end of the day, I was able to see her. Did she look anything like I pictured her? Absolutely not. She was short and heavy, even a little dumpy, probably in her 50s with very short straight blondish hair. I was amazed. Maybe she never realized that her name is Crystal Gazer as in one who gazes into crystals and tells people’s fortunes. Or, you know, whatever.

So, pulling myself back into this blog topic, the CW has released the winter schedule. Here’s the scoop from tvbloggin.com.

According to the CW site, Reaper is moving to 8 pm on Tuesday starting next week (1/15) and re-airing the first ep. Then it’s moving to Thursdays at 9 pm starting on 2/28. Apparently, it’s being paired with Smallville to gain more exposure, and I get that. But I have one question, what’s happening with Supernatural?

Jury duty, the CW, Reaper, Supernatural

I wasn’t at all surprised to see Jenah leave first last night on America’s Next Top Model. I believe I’ve called for her to come in third at least a couple of times over the last few weeks. (It’s OK, you don’t have to congratulate me or anything.) Although, I was sorry when she cried and was talking about having to raise her little sisters by herself. I didn’t know that and it was a bit surprising.

In any case, I wasn’t really surprised to see Saleisha and Chantal as the top two, even though I had some worry a while back that they were grooming Heather for the top spot. I have to say that Saleisha has always been one of my favorites and I thought she and Chantal were among the best.

Which, as it turns out, they were. I thought it was interesting to see that little clip where Saleisha says to Chantal at the very beginning, “Let’s be the last two standing.” It does make you wonder a bit if this whole thing is rigged. I don’t know that I think it is and it doesn’t really matter to me that much. I’ve pretty much always thought American Idol was rigged, and I love that show. I don’t watch reality tv cause I’m truly expecting reality, I watch it cause it’s entertaining. Sometimes. Now that I come to think of it, I do believe that ANTM and AI are the only two reality-type shows that I actually watch. Oh, wait, and Hell’s Kitchen.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand. In watching the runway walk, I did think that Saleisha was much stronger than Chantal - although, I really felt sorry for Chantal when that guy fell on her dress. You could just see that she wanted to turn around and help him back up, but realized that she couldn’t do that. Then, when the judges were telling them how they did, even though most of the positive comments went to Saleisha, you could almost see a look in Chantal’s eye that said she was confident she had won. Saleisha, on the other hand, looked hopeful, but unsure, like she didn’t think she really deserved it. I thought that was interesting, cause it does seem like the most confident person should win and, also, I thought maybe they were faking us out by only showing the negative criticism of Chantal. Apparently not.

Overall, even though I didn’t call it, I’m glad Saleisha won, cause I think she’s adorable and I think that she really was one of the best there, especially role model-wise. Good luck, Saleisha!!

America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks, Saleisha, American Idol, Hell’s Kitchen

Wow, I really didn’t think Bianca would be going anywhere this week on America’s Next Top Model. I’m really off my game. My game’s left the country. And the way she left, with Tyra telling her that she just didn’t have the natural chops to be a model and the other girls were pretty much there. Yikes! That hurt me and I wasn’t even there. I know Bianca has been a first class bitca, but still and all, it seemed pretty harsh to me.

I really thought it would be Jenah, cause she’s been whining so much about being homesick. When she was saying about how she just wanted it to be over cause she missed her bed and family, etc., I was thinking, honey, when it’s over, if you win, you’re not really going back to that bed. And then Miss J told her the same thing, but they still kept her over Bianca. Well, maybe she’ll be that unknown third person like I said a couple of weeks ago. I mean she even admitted that she doesn’t know who she is, so how the heck can she excpect the rest of us to have a clue.

So the Top 3 are Saleisha, Jenah and Chantal. I think either Chantal or Saleisha would make a great Cover Girl, cause they are both so upbeat and fresh-faced, which seems like Cover Girl to me, plus both would do well in Seventeen magazine, cause they both look young. Well, of course, they both are young, but still sometimes models and actresses look a lot older than they really are, probably from their unusual lifestyles and, maybe, all the makeup. It can’t be good for your skin to be constantly covering it with tons of makeup. I don’t know where that came from. Just another weird little side effect from having my brain.

Anyway, if I’m picking a winner now . . . um, I still don’t know. But its not Jenah.

America’s Next Top Model, Tyra Banks, J Alexander, Cover Girl, Seventeen magazine

OK, so this has nothing to do with the CW, but I just wanted to share.

It may come as a surprise to some of you, but I really love American Idol. I know, its stupid, but I love it. At first, I didn’t. I used to have a very hard time watching the first few weeks when everyone makes fools out of themselves. Honestly, sometimes I still have to leave the room when that happens. But I love when the real competition kicks in. Last year was a bit lacklustre, except for Sanjaya, who was at least interesting. But my fav of the season was Chris Sligh. He just made the Top 10 when he was eliminated, so I got to see him in the concert and I think he was the best one there.

His CD, which was put out with his band, Half Past Forever, just before he went on Idol (I believe) is called Take a Chance on Something Beautiful and its one of my favorite CDs. I listen to it constantly (well, except for right now when I am listening to Christmas music, of course). There’s something about his voice that makes me think of Chris Daughtry singing with his prior band, Absent Element. Don’t misunderstand me, the two bands are nothing alike, but just something about the tone of Sligh’s voice reminds me of Chris Daughtry’s voice on that album.

Anyway, below is a link to Sligh’s myspace, which has some of his new songs and, personally, I like them. So go take a listen and see what you think.

There is a fantastic interview with Kristen Bell at TVGuide.com and she will be doing 13 episodes of Heroes but this wont infere with her voiceover duties at Gossip Girl.

Ausiello as a wee Supernatural scoop regarding the demon whom Dean sold his soul to last season - just tell me it has a happy ending!

The CW, Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars, Heroes, Ask Ausiello, TVGuide.com, Supernatural