Idea for a drinking game

Okay, with the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson ending soon, I thought that I would post this idea for a drinking game. Actually, there’s a lot of ideas for drinking games here. You do not have to do all at once. You do not have to do more than one. You do not have to do any at all. If you do play a drinking game, you do so at your own risk. But here’s what I think would be times that one could drink while watching his show.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson: drink every time music plays, drink every time a word is censored, drink every time they say something is edited, drink every time the show is said to be live, drink every time Craig calls Michael racist, drink every time they mention that Secretariat isn’t a real horse, drink every time that Geoff is mentioned as dead, drink every time an impression is done, drink every time a bell is rung, drink every time that a tweet is said to come from a bird of some sort, drink every time a sexual reference is made, drink every time an email or tweet is moved to the ground, drink every time something like a bit interrupts the email segment

Unannounced Shows

When the new television season starts or even a long time before it airs but it is simply announced on TV or other places, there tend to be a certain number of shows that are mentioned with it. Then, there are other shows that I like to call the unannounced shows of the season. It seems like every season, there are shows on multiple networks that air new TV shows that they never announced as part of the schedule. What gives? Why do they do that so much? Why does it happen at all? What purpose does it serve? What good does it do a show by not even saying in advance that it will be a part of the schedule before the promos for it start airing? I don’t get it. I don’t know if anyone else does. Does anyone even read this blog? If you get the idea behind unannounced shows, then let me know. As far as I understand, they were more of a scheduling decision that happened after the main schedule was announced as wasn’t part of the original plan for the network. Now, I ought to mention some of the unannounced shows from this season that ended up airing but never actually was part of the schedule they announced at the beginning of this season. They never seem to be fall shows and are always midseason shows. For the record, summer shows don’t count. Cosmos, Black Box, and Bad Teacher are just a few of the shows that I can think of that weren’t announced as part of the schedule at the beginning of the television season. So I tend to avoid these shows. I feel cheated by them. Why couldn’t they just be part of the schedule? But I can’t really think of a way to avoid this. But some of them make sense. Black Box was probably only ordered because of a sudden lack of Scandal. Cosmos is just really screwy because it probably replaced two cancelled shows, neither of which had aired. And Bad Teacher is easily explained because CBS changed their mind at the last minute to put it on the schedule when they originally said that they had passed on the show. Sorry for the lack of a better blog post at the moment, but I plan to update more in the near future.

Golden Huckleberry Award Nominees 2013-2014

Okay, it's been a while since I've blogged here. I'm sorry about that. But I should be able to post more information here as soon as possible. I'm still waiting for all the cancellation news to happen so that I know what from last summer is cancelled. I'm still working stuff out regarding that. I might have to do two cancellation lists. But I will work more on this blog in the future. For now, enjoy the nominees for the worst of television. I will update this blog later with the winners of the worst shows later.

Note on scheduling: There is a bit of confusion in my mind when one television season ends and another one begins. This is why my scheduling is mostly off of what the Emmys do. So you might have seen shows that didn’t actually air this season. I mostly blame the cancelled shows. It can take a long time, typically long into the next television season for some shows, summer shows mostly, to be officially cancelled. They still have not cancelled the Cleveland Show, but they also aren’t making new episodes of it either and Cleveland is set to return to Family Guy. But there are many rumors I hear about shows that don’t turn out to be true (whether it was a made up hoax in the first place or they cancelled the plans to do that after the word got out and fans stated their mixed opinions about it that were probably mostly hate) so we might not see him on the show again. Back on topic, I consider May sweeps to be in the end of one television season and the summer season to be the beginning of the next television season. So even though it isn’t the real schedule, it is still the one that I’m going with.

Also, since NCIS: Red was passed on by CBS and given instead to some other new show, I thought that it might be a dumb move by CBS even if it is only in my own opinion. Since there is no way of me knowing which of these new shows replaced what would have been the time slot for NCIS: Red, then I will just have to guess between all the new shows that CBS has aired this season. While I could easily give it to Intelligence which is a pretty bad show, I am pretty sure that another NCIS spin-off would more than likely not be a midseason TV show. So I will give it to two bad comedies of theirs in this temporary award that might not ever reappear again unless another TV network passes on a great planned spin-off of a TV show. But since both NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles are still on the air and going strong, there will probably be another attempt at a spin-off at some other point in time. Why hasn’t Tony DiNozzo gotten his own team yet? With no Ziva to tie him down, you’d think that if they were guaranteed to pick up the spin-off, that it might not be too bad to see him leave the main show. But that’s just my opinion and fans say very opposing things sometimes. There are rumors of another attempt at an NCIS spin-off that you should be seeing at some point on the original show and not the Los Angeles show. Keep in mind that if this newly planned spin-off is successful (or at least airs more than just a backdoor pilot), then CBS would have righted the wrong from last season. And hopefully, this will be a better cast than NCIS: Red would have been. If NCIS: Red had been made, they would have made complicated sounding TV history by becoming the first spin-off’s spin-off to get a spin-off. That would have been a fourth generation spin-off for those of you who put it in other terms. And even if Tony never gets his own team, it doesn’t matter as long as CBS continues making the great shows they do (the ones that aren’t nominated). But CBS might have the change to right that wrong by picking up NCIS: New Orleans to series. While they passed on How I Met Your Dad, at least two of the three they were considering got picked up. And, regarding the award for worst reason to not do a spin-off, you might see that award again. Regardless, I should get to the list at hand that I’m doing.

Worst reason to not do a spin-off: Mom and We are Men- tie

Worst cliffhanger resolution: The Neighbors, Castle, The Good Wife, Revolution, How I Met Your Mother

Worst title: The Good Wife, Bones, We Are Men, 2 Broke Girls, Arrested Development, Save Me, Trophy Wife, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Rake, Back in the Game, Super Fun Night, Glee, The Mindy Project, Ironside, Reign, Scandal, Bad Teacher

Worst ending to a TV series: How I Met Your Mother, The Neighbors, Star-Crossed

Worst acting: 2 Broke Girls, Friends with Better Lives, Super Fun Night

Worst writing: We Are Men, Friends with Better Lives, Rake, Trophy Wife, The Arsenio Hall Show, Mom, Arrested Development, Intelligence, Bad Teacher, Dracula, Sean Saves the World

Worst plot: Sean Saves the World, We Are Men, Bad Teacher, Intelligence, Trophy Wife, Dracula, Mind Games, Rake, Friends with Better Lives, 2 Broke Girls, Arrested Development

The good riddance award: Arrested Development, America Now, Trisha

Why do people care award: Arrested Development, Criminal Minds, Intelligence, 2 Broke Girls, Mom

Worst idea for a show: American Idol, Mom, Welcome to the Family, We Are Men, Criminal Minds, Bad Teacher, Dancing with the “Stars,” Glee, Arrested Development

Biggest waste of time: Undercover Boss, The Vampire Diaries, American Idol

Most forgettable: We Are Men, Mind Games, Intelligence, Bad Teacher, Trophy Wife, The Arsenio Hall Show, Sean Saves the World, Mom, Glee, Arrested Development, Dracula

Bonehead decision of the season: We Are Men

Worst pilot: Mom, Rake, Mind Games, Friends with Better Lives, Intelligence, Bad Teacher, Sean Saves the World, We Are Men, Dracula

Worst drama show: Dracula, Mind Games, Rake, Criminal Minds, Glee, Intelligence, The Carrie Diaries

Worst comedy show: We Are Men, American Dad, Sean Saves the World, Back in the Game, Trophy Wife, Arrested Development, Friends with Better Lives, Mom, Bad Teacher, 2 Broke Girls

Worst new show: Mom, Intelligence, We Are Men, Dracula, Trophy Wife, Bad Teacher, Welcome to the Family, The Arsenio Hall Show, Back in the Game, Rake, Mind Games, Friends with Better Lives, Sean Saves the World

Why is it still on award: Criminal Minds, the Arsenio Hall Show, Undercover Boss, Dancing with the “Stars,” 2 Broke Girls

Most overrated show: Mom, Glee, The Vampire Diaries, Dracula, Arrested Development, Dancing with the “Stars”

Weakest Characters: 2 Broke Girls, We Are Men, Rake, Bad Teacher, Friends with Better Lives, Mom, Trophy Wife, Intelligence, The Vampire Diaries, Sean Saves the World, Arrested Development

Worst Reason to Cancel a Good Show: The Carrie Diaries

Why was it created award: Bad Teacher, Arrested Development, Mom, We Are Men

What were they thinking award: We Are Men, Bad Teacher, Mom, Arrested Development, the Arsenio Hall Show

Why do people like it award: Arrested Development, Mom, The Amazing Race, Intelligence, 2 Broke Girls, The Vampire Diaries, Undercover Boss, Dracula

Worst retooling of a show: Two and a Half Men

Jumped the shark award: Two and a Half Men, Family Guy, CSI

What’s it about award: Intelligence, Arrested Development, American Dad, Trophy Wife, The Mindy Project, Mind Games, Rake, We Are Men, Dracula, Mom, Sean Saves the World

Worst show on FOX: American Dad, American Idol, Rake, The X Factor, Glee, MasterChef, Hell’s Kitchen, the Arsenio Hall Show

Worst show on ABC: America’s “Funniest” Home Videos, Dancing with the “Stars,” Trophy Wife, Mind Games, Back in the Game

Worst show on CBS: Mom, We Are Men, Intelligence, Criminal Minds, Bad Teacher, Friends with Better Lives, 2 Broke Girls

Worst show on NBC: The Celebrity Apprentice, The Million Second Quiz, Dracula, Sean Saves the World, Welcome to the Family, Save Me

Worst show on the CW: Oh, Sit, The Carrie Diaries, America’s Next Top Model, The Vampire Diaries

Worst show on every other network: The Real Housewives, Keeping up with the Kardashians, Arrested Development

Worst syndicated show: The Jerry Springer Show, Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Bethenny, Trisha, America Now, Maury

Worst show on television: nominees pending

Various Unposted Reviews of TV shows

Okay, so I've been wondering for a long time what I'm supposed to do with all the TV shows that I want to review but haven't published yet. So, I decided that before the news of cancellation of shows happens, that I should post the reviews of some of these shows. At least one of them has already been reviewed. Many of them currently don't have air dates on TV. I'm fairly certain that none of them have been reviewed before. I'm getting ready to start working on the summer TV schedule and the shows that are cancelled from this season. But I can't do that until they both happen. I am also working on my list of Huckleberry awards which I give to the worst TV shows from the season. You may have noticed that in my reviews, I've added a new part which says the reception of the show. Well I must apologize for not giving the most accurate reception section. I didn't really look up what the real reception was and was instead mostly just reading hate at www.tv.com which is mostly what the comments on the site are. So, I've come up with a better way of doing the reception section which says what other people think of the show. When possible, I will look up the information at www.wikipedia.org on what critics thought of the show. When I can't find information about reception there, then I just go with the general rating at www.imdb.com that regular people do. So these are unposted reviews of TV shows that I haven't added before.

The Mentalist: Status- Currently on CBS at 10/9 Central on Sundays. Why I’ve seen it- I thought that it might be interesting. Description- An adviser to the CBI uses his powers of observation to catch criminals as well as a serial killer named Red John, although I think that the Red John angle is mostly out of the show now. Pros- An interesting drama with some comedy that keeps you interested. The main character is funny with his methods of catching criminals. Cons- The main character can be annoying sometimes. It can also be dark including the Red John storyline that might have been dragged out too long. Recommendation- Watch this show. Prediction- This show might not last much longer since it has a bad time slot now. Another network might be interested in it even if CBS cancels it, although that’s more wishful thinking than actually likely. Reception: positive. Grade: A.

Suburgatory: Status- Currently on ABC at 7:30 Central on Wednesdays. Description- I don’t know what it is about except life in the suburbs after living in the city and culture shock involved with that. Notable People- Alan Tudyk from Firefly is on the show. Pros- Critics like it. It isn’t bad. Cons- I don’t get what it is about. I don’t understand it. Recommendation- I have none available right now. I don’t regularly watch this so I don’t have full knowledge of the show. Prediction- Toss-up. Reception: mostly positive. Grade: C-.

Community: Status- This is on NBC. Why I’ve seen it- It got my interest and the show I normally watched was showing a rerun. Description- This is a show about people at a community college and what unusual things happen there. Pros- The show is pretty interesting and not the type of thing typically shown on television. Cons- It’s hard to understand all of it and missing out on the earlier seasons make it feel like you missed out on something good. Recommendation- I’d say that you should watch it, provided that it is still on. Prediction- The network likes to screw with it so it probably won’t last as long as people want it to. Reception: mostly positive. Grade: B.

Primetime: What Would You Do?: Status- This is an ABC show. It is a spin-off of 20/20. ABC news helps with this show. Why I’ve seen it- Commercials made it seem interesting. Cancellation of The Good Guys helped me decide to watch it. Noteworthiness- It is the first hidden camera show I’ve seen that wasn’t out to exploit people for laughs. It is actually very serious. Description- Different situations are set up to see how people react to them. The point is to get people to react to a situation and get them to help people out. Very serious situations are acted out using issues such as coming out, unwanted pregnancy, racial issues, gender issues, and more. Pros- It shows the good side among people and how they actually help sometimes. It is very interesting and could make good teaching material. There are different segments in each episode to keep you interested. It probably is a more realistic version than any scripted show could come up with. Cons- Some segments are better than others. A certain amount of deception is involved with the people. All the shooting locations tend to be in the same locations. The Would You Fall for That? segments are pretty dumb. One can question the legalities of this show. Recommendation- Everyone should watch this show. This is the best show currently on television. Prediction- It should be on until they run out of ideas, which is unlikely that they will. Whether it will stay around is for the viewers to decide. I think that it will last a while. Reception: positive. Grade: A++.

Under the Dome:  Status- Currently on CBS during the summer. Why I’ve seen it- I like the CBS network and nothing else was really on during the summer. Noteworthiness- This is based off of a book by Stephen King. He helps with this show. This was first pitched to the Showtime network which passed on it and gave it to CBS. Description- For some odd reason, a dome traps people in a small town underneath it. Notable People- Dean Norris, from Breaking Bad, is on the show. Britt Robinson, who was on Life Unexpected at The Secret Circle, is another character. There are probably others. Pros- The show is interesting science fiction. It keeps you into the show. The secret lives of the characters are pretty good storytelling. The mystery of the show is gripping. Cons- A lot of people don’t like it. It seems to drag on without a real purpose to it. One wonders what the point of it is in the end. Recommendation- I think that this show is pretty good and worth watching all the time. Prediction- If it keeps the good ratings that it has, it should last a while, even if it airs during the less watched summer. However, if the general negativity of this show continues, then I don’t see it lasting much longer than it already has. Reception: mixed. Grade: B+.

Whose Line is it Anyways?: Status- Currently on the CW on Fridays at 7 Central/8 Eastern. Why I’ve seen it- I liked the original show and am a general fan of improvised comedy. Noteworthiness- It is the remake of an ABC show and retains much of the original cast. Description- A group of comedians make up stuff and make us laugh while competing for meaningless points. Notable People- Ryan Stiles, who has a recurring role as Herb on Two and a Half Men, is one of the original people returning to this show. Wayne Brady, who had a recurring role on How I Met Your Mother, used to host the primetime version of Don’t Forget the Lyrics, and hosts the daytime show Let’s Make a Deal, is another original person returning to this show. I think that they were both on the Drew Carrey Show, but I’m not sure who was on both shows, although I know that some people were. There are guests from certain shows that are noteworthy, whether they are the fourth member of the group (which changes) or a different special member. Aisha Tyler, who helps currently cohost the Talk, is the new host of this show. Pros- This is more or less the same great show that we all knew and loved when it first aired. Most of the original cast is back. Even though everything is made up, it still manages to be really funny. Cons- There are always guests on the show that tend to slow things down and take away from the talent of the true part of the show. Recommendation- You should probably watch it. I don’t know why one wouldn’t like this. Prediction- This should last a very long time, provided that the cast can stay together throughout the run of this show. I’m pretty sure that the cast not being able to stay together is what killed it the first time, although low ratings didn’t help. Reception: positive. Grade: A+.

Enlisted: Status- This show airs on FOX. Why I’ve Seen it- I pretty much had to watch this since it was paired with another comedy that I watched. Description- It is a comedy about people in the army here in the United States. Pros- It isn’t bad. Cons- It can be hard to tell what the real point of it is. The episodes aired out of order. Recommendation- It’s your choice whether to watch it or not, I don’t really care. It isn’t bad if you want to watch it, but it isn’t really that good either. Prediction- I don’t see it lasting that long and it might be cancelled already. Reception: critically acclaimed. Grade: C.

Big Brother: Status- This CBS show airs in three hours of primetime during the summer and on live internet feeds at www.cbs.com. The three primetime hours are basically split into the mostly live show where people are voted out, the show where people get nominated to get voted out, and the show where people compete to possibly change the nominations on the show. Basically, you’d have to watch the average week of shows to get the way it airs. Why I’ve seen it- A parody of it on the Talk interested me in watching the real thing. Noteworthiness- There are many versions of it in other countries, most of which work very differently than ours. In case you were wondering, we were not the first country to do this show, although we were the first country to use the format that it has in almost no other country’s version of it. Description- A group of people, normally strangers, but sometimes not, are put into a house where they are recorded 24/7 and competing for a money prize. Notable People- Julie Chen, formally of CBS’s the Early Show and current cohost of the Talk, is the host of this show. She has hosted this show longer than any other host in any other country’s version of this show. Pros- While it may seem similar to other reality TV shows, it is very different to the usual. You can see whatever you want to online since CBS has live feeds of what goes on inside the house. Cons- Okay, I should warn you that this cons section might be misleading since, although I like the show, I can think of a lot of cons about it, but not that many pros. You have to devote a lot of time to watching it to not miss anything important. The live internet feed gets cuts a lot making it seem like the people that air the show is hiding something. Tons of controversies have arisen on the show, whether they were caused by contestants on the show or the people who make the show. The live shows make you wonder if contestants don’t follow the rules of the game. The live aspect of the show makes the editing of it strange since one doesn’t know what will happen. Information about what happens on the show can be known before it even airs. Recommendation- Despite the rather lengthy cons section that I just mentioned, this show is a pretty good show to watch. Prediction- It will probably last a long time, although it just as easily might not. Reception: mixed. Grade: B-.

Rookie Blue: Status- Currently on ABC during the summer. Why I’ve seen it- There was nothing else to watch during the summer so I watched this. Noteworthiness- This is a Canadian show that airs sometimes in America. Description- A bunch of rookie cops (or, at least they were rookies when the show started) solve a bunch of cases. Pros- The show gives you something different to watch on TV sometimes. Cons- It’s hard to know when this is on making it easy to miss. Recommendation- This show is pretty good and you should watch it. Prediction- It has lasted a good amount of time so far. Whether that means it will keep lasting a while or if it will end soon is unknown. I heard rumors that it might end soon but don’t know if those rumors are true. Reception: mixed. Grade: B.

Hollywood Game Night: Status- Currently on NBC. Why I’ve seen it- I generally like to watch game shows and there was nothing else to watch during the summer when this first started to air on TV. Description- Two regular people compete in a game show of various competitions. Each has a set of three celebrities (six total) that help them with the game. Notable People- Jane Lynch, from Glee, is the host of the show. Sean Hayes from Will and Grace helped create the show. Many of the guest are obviously famous (notice how I do not say all because fame is relative) but since they always change, I would not be able to mention all of them. Pros- It’s fun to watch the show to see the various antics played out by everyone. As usual, the celebrities are competing for charity instead of themselves. There are different games each week to keep things interesting. Cons- Not all of the games seem fair in every way. Recommendation- I’d say that you should probably watch this if you ever have the time to do so. Prediction- Right now, it seems like a show that fills any gaps in scheduling. Things typically don’t end well for those shows, even if they do last long and always wind up airing instead of possibly getting cancelled. But this could always wind up becoming a daytime game show like most good games shows are. (Typically bad primetime game shows get cancelled and good primetime game shows become daytime game shows.) Now I cannot say that will be the case with this show. But I will say that I expect it to stay around for a while, provided that they can keep getting celebrities to do this show. Reception: positive. Grade: A-.

Thoughts on midseason shows in the 2013-2014 TV season

Here are my thoughts on the midseason shows for this season. Since it is a long time since all these shows will air, a lot of the reviews could become outdated quite quickly. If you see a review crossed out, that means that the show was already cancelled before I even got a chance to post it. They probably deserved it. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before they all premiere. If any of them are summer shows or don’t wind up airing at all (like Murder Police), then I’ll just ignore the planned review and go without it. I’ve also included two fall shows that I should have mentioned sooner but haven’t because I didn’t plan on watching it or had some other strange reason about it.

The Goldbergs- This ABC comedy airs at 9/8 Central on Tuesdays. It is about a man’s life growing up in the eighties and is based on details that actually happened (although I’m not sure just how much). It can be pretty good and funny sometimes. Not quite sure what else to say at the moment since I haven’t seen that much of it yet. I give it three out of five stars.

The Arsenio Hall Show- This FOX talk show airs in the late night time slot at midnight in most time zones and eleven p.m. in the Central time zone, although it might air at different times in various different regions. Plus, it may air on more than just FOX. It airs five days a week and I think might even air on Sundays as well. I don’t know how often that might be. It could only be on rare occasions, often but not always, or all the time. As you can tell, I don’t really watch the show that much. I rarely tune in because the show is so bad; I find it quite hard to sit through a whole episode. I’m not sure what the farthest I’ve ever gotten through an episode is. There are plenty of other interesting things on and I’d rather go to bed than watch this. Its lack of humor is embarrassing. I don’t know why the audience is laughing at all. I give it one out of five stars.

Intelligence- This CBS drama airs at 10/9 Central on Mondays. It replaces the probably cancelled Hostages. This show is about a man with a computer chip in his brain. In fact, that seems to be the only thing they talk about the show in promos. “We’ve given a man information only found in a computer,” is more or less the plot of every episode. You can’t expect much from that. This show is generally boring and uninteresting. There was not much there and barely any of it was remotely good or entertaining. I don’t really like it at all and only had to watch the first episode to realize that I would never want to turn into it again. While it’s not the only show I’ve seen where I thought that about the show, that doesn’t give the show any excuse as to why I should watch it again. I give it one out of five stars.

Rake- This FOX drama aired originally on Thursday and then was abruptly moved to sometime on Friday where it could slowly die a death that this network is notorious for giving shows it airs. This, however, is not a good show they are screwing with by any means. It’s a remake of a foreign TV show so you know that it is probably crap. And you would be right. This drama is about a lawyer with his own set of problems. They crammed so much into the first episode that not much was really accomplished in the end. This show has some good parts, but not enough to save it from anything that a show might need to not be cancelled. I give it two out of five stars.

The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon- This NBC show airs late at night Mondays through Friday at 11:30/10:30 Central or a bit later. It is the same Tonight Show that NBC is known for with its seventh (or sixth) regular host. This host is now Jimmy Fallon who was a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live before he had an ill fated attempt at a film career. Afterwards, he hosted Late Night for a while and then ultimately moved up an hour to this show. It is pretty much the same great show that he hosted on Late Night only it’s the Tonight Show instead. If you liked him before, then you’ll like him now. If you didn’t like him before, get a sense of humor and stop being a hater/troll. This show is pretty good and you might want to watch it if you don’t already have plans late at night. I give it four out of five stars.

Star-Crossed- This CW show airs at 8 Eastern on Mondays. It is about aliens living among humans in the future. It is inspired by racial events in American history. As usual for the network, it is a teen drama with characters in high school and supernatural twists. Well, this time it is science fiction twists, but it’s either one or the other on the CW. Despite it being the stereotypical type of show for this network, it is pretty good. The show is interesting and gives an updated version of racial dramas, even if the cast isn’t as racially diverse as one might like. It is among the good science fiction show that television gives us sometimes. I give it three out of five stars.

Enlisted- This FOX show airs at 9/8 Central on Fridays. It is a comedy about people in the army here in the United States. I haven’t seen that much of it. It isn’t bad or anything like that, I just haven’t had the time in the past to watch it and only did because it was paired with Raising Hope, a show that I do watch. It’s a pretty good show, even though it can be hard to tell what the real point of it is. I give it three out of five stars.

Late Night with Seth Meyers- This NBC show airs weeknights at 12:30/11:30 Central or a bit later. Based on your time zone, it technically actually airs early in the mornings on Tuesdays through Saturdays, although most people up that late forget that midnight is officially the start of the next day. Do people even care? Does it even matter when this show airs? The point is: Late Night now has its fourth host with Seth Meyers. I don’t know if there were ever guest hosts with this show. Regardless, I should give more of an actual review. If you didn’t already know, Late Night is a talk show. Seth Meyers had a long tenure on Saturday Night Live. He was the Weekend Update anchor for longer than anyone else on the show (although he did share his duties with both Amy Phoeler and Cecily Strong, the second of which is still the host with someone else now that he is gone). I’m not sure why people consider him to be a good person to host a late night show, but I would have to agree with them that he is a good host. (I have not looked up the reception of this show yet, I’m referring to whoever is in charge of this at NBC and other people who thought that this would be a nice idea.) Maybe Weekend Update gave him good practice for hosting a talk show, but whatever the reason, Seth Meyers is a good host in my mind at least. Now I have heard rumors that he was potentially a replacement for Regis Philbin on Live, but I don’t know how true that might be. If he was one of the guest co-hosts when Kelly was the only regular host, then that rumor might be true. In fact, this might have given more incentive to NBC to give Seth Meyers a talk show on their network, so that might be why he had great potential to be a replacement for a late night talk show host, should they ever need one. Of course, regarding the hosting of Live rumor, you’d think that he’d still be in a contract with SNL and not be able to switch there. But I shouldn’t be spreading rumors like this since I don’t know if it was true or not. Besides, they went with someone else to co-host Live instead. Back to the point, he seems to be a pretty good host of Late Night. His jokes and other bits work for the most part. He may seem a little timid as a host, but that could wear off once he’s been there a while. I give it three out of five stars.

Mind Games- This ABC show aired Tuesdays at 10/9 Central. But then it got cancelled, and rightfully so. This show was pretty dull. I don’t know if they’ll even air the rest of the episodes. So this show was about people trying to change other people’s mind without them knowing it. That sounds like it could be a good show, but that isn’t what I saw when I watched it. It seemed pretty pointless and I didn’t understand what it had to give me that other dramas didn’t. I’ll tell you what I didn’t get from it that other shows do: quality programming, something I’d want to watch, or a good use of time. So the show got cancelled due to a general lack of interest. I’m still including this review, but crossed it out since the show’s already over. Sorry that it took so long but since many shows aired very late midseason (or not at all, as might be the case), I was waiting to do these reviews until all the ones I was interested in aired. I give it two out of five stars.

Resurrection- This ABC show airs on Sundays at 9/8 Central. It is a pretty strange show. I’m not really sure where they are going with this. Basically, for some unknown reason, dead people somehow return as they originally were before they died many years later. Mystery of how and why this happened seems to be the central plot of the show. So it keeps you interested in it, but it never really explains what it has going for it. But, it is worth watching if you aren’t already into something else. I give it three out of five stars.

Crisis- This NBC show airs on Sundays at 10/9 Central. It is on the board of a good show worth watching and a ridiculous show that isn’t any good. I can’t tell which it is yet so I will say that it is the better show for now, although it doesn’t seem to be that good in the end. It is close enough to being good to let it slide into that region for the moment. You see, while a group of students from Washington DC, including the president’s son, are supposed to go on a field trip of some sort, they are all kidnapped and held hostage causing a nationwide crisis. We then see FBI agents get into the case to try to fix things or otherwise figure out a way of solving the case for the better. Where the show gets strange is the fact that the kidnappers get the parents of these children to do a bunch of crazy things to get their children released while trying to accomplish their various evil plots (the kidnappers are). So the show could be better than it is, but it works in some ways. I give it two and a half out of five stars.

The 100- This CW show airs on Wednesdays at 9 Eastern. It has been described as like Lord of the Flies, so take that however you mean it. I think that it is good, although only average in the end. This show has a bunch of teenagers in a supernatural/science-fiction setting like many CW shows do. So bear with me for a moment. In the future, the earth has been labeled as uninhabitable to live in so one hundred people are sent down to see if living there would work. They are called the hundred, the name of the show. While they are living down there, interesting stuff happens in the space station that they came from. So it seems similar to lots of other shows from this network. But it is interesting and good in the end. I give this three out of five stars.

Friends with Better Lives- This show replaces How I Met Your Mother on television. It airs on CBS on Mondays at 8:30/7:30 Central. This show follows stereotypical groups of friends that have different relationships and are at different points in their lives. But is this watered down premise actually good this time? Sadly, no. This show is just the dumb type of thing people make it out to be. The show offers nothing new to the television world and just gives us a bunch of old, worthless stuff we’re already used to getting from other shows that were all appropriately cancelled. This one will probably follow suit. I give it one out of five stars.

Bad Teacher- This CBS show replaces The Crazy Ones. Whether The Crazy Ones returns to the air in later seasons is currently unknown. It airs at 9:30/8:30 Central on Thursdays. This show is obviously about a bad teacher and is based off of a movie with the same name. Now I don’t really understand why people would think that bad show, I mean, Bad Teacher, would be any good. It isn’t. I don’t know if there are people who think that it is. As usual in a bad show, the characters are dull and pointless leaving no satisfaction as to why one would be interested in watching this show again. I’m certainly not going to bother tuning in again. This show isn’t even funny. I give it one out of five stars.

Now there are three other shows that I wanted to add to this list. They are Reckless, Crossbones, and the Quest. You see, despite the fact that their respective networks all said that they were going to air these shows sometime at midseason, there is little evidence to show that these shows will be part of the schedule any time soon. They may all be cancelled before they aired. They may be some sort of summer series or wind up on next season’s schedule. I don’t know what happened to any of them and I’m hoping that somebody somewhere does know so that they can tell me about what happened to them and why that happened. So I planned on reviewing them for midseason, but decided not to since they didn’t seem like they would in the end. And I do want to update the midseason shows at some point soon since the upfronts and cancellation news is coming soon. So enjoy these reviews for now and more blog posts, as always, will be coming later at some point, I just don’t know when.

Silver Globe Award 2013 Winners

Okay, I figured that I wouldn't want you to wait that long to find out who won the Silver Globe Awards from last year's television season. I thought about waiting a long time to tell you this so that I could figure out the worst show nominees and post the worst show on television at the same time as the best show on television. And while I still might do that, since it will be a long time before the 2013-2014 television season ends and nominees from that season to be finalized, it could be a long time before you figure out which show wins the best show on television because I still want to wait until the worst show is also decided to post that as well. And there is more that I have to explain about how I do the nominees for the worst shows different than the nominees for the Emmys. Plus, as always, there's still more blog posts I have to do as there are many TV shows that I need to review online that haven't already been posted here yet. There are midseason shows (a lot of which haven't aired yet), shows that are on the air but haven't been reviewed by me yet, and I'm already working on the cancelled shows for this season. As always, you can probably always expect to see eventual blog posts here, they are just always random and far apart. So I thought that since I was doing a post for a different blog I have, I might as well update my blog here with information that I have ready to post. So without any further rambling, here's the winners for the Silver Globe Awards from the year 2013 and the nominees for best show on television.

Best new show: Sleepy Hollow

Best one season show: Go On

Best cancelled or ending show: 30 Rock

Most screwed show: Friend Me

Best theme song: CSI: New York

Best idea for a show: Touch

Best series premiere: Hostages

Best series finale: Touch

Best cliffhanger ending: Law and Order: SVU

Best cliffhanger resolution: Hawaii Five-O

Best cast: The Big Bang Theory

Best writers: How I Met Your Mother

Best editing: Touch

Most interesting show: Survivor

Best music in a show: SNL

Time well spent award: Futurama

Most memorable: SNL

Most underrated TV show: Community

Best retooling of a show: Body of Proof

Why was it a midseason replacement award: Touch

Best comedy-drama: Emily Owens MD

Groundbreaking show: none

Best comedy: Family Guy

Best drama: Touch

Best PBS special: Celtic Woman: Home for Christmas

Best show on CBS: Survivor

Best show on ABC: Castle

Best show on the CW: Whose Line is it Anyways?

Best show on NBC: Law and Order: SVU

Best show on FOX: Touch

Best show on any other network: Futurama

Best syndicated show: The Jeff Probst Show

Best show on television: Survivor, Castle, Whose Line is it Anyways?, Law and Order: SVU, Touch, Futurama, The Jeff Probst Show

Christmas Commercials 2013

Finally, at long last, you get to see the number of Christmas commercials that aired last year before the official start of the Christmas season. For the first time, there were commercials in September. Even this late in January, there are still Christmas commercials (at least they aren't for later this year). The number has skyrocketed to an all time high. I've never seen a number like this before. And yet, it  might not be the highest it will ever be. Hopefully, the over counting I did makes up for the under counting that I also did. I have a bunch of crazy rules regarding Christmas commercials too. Some don't count and some count as many times as you see them air, even though their the same commercial. Regardless, I will include the information from last year as a comparison. Prepare to be shocked by the vast number of times they want to shove Christmas in your face before Thanksgiving is over. And they had to start these commercials as soon as they were done with back to school commercials (and back to school already happened for many people).

In 2012 the official count of Christmas commercials before October was 0. The official count before Halloween was 27. The official number of commercials before the official Christmas season started on the Sunday after Thanksgiving is 200.

I realize that last year’s number may have been a bit off since there were some I forgot to report on. And this isn’t my second year counting the number of Christmas commercials but the number of the years before was lost. I became the only member of the facebook group where I kept track of that sort of thing. But since facebook decided to remove all the members because of their new format at the time which is probably outdated now, I deleted the group that since I was the only one left and I didn’t want to have a group that isn’t used for most of the year anyways. Hopefully, it never would have been used for most of the year, even though I have still seen Christmas commercials airing in January. Also, I don’t know if December 1^st or the first Sunday after Thanksgiving is typically the start of Christmas season, but I’m going with whatever comes first. This year, it just happens to be at the same time. I don’t know if December 1^st ever appears sooner or not.

I think that it was around 90-99 the first year I counted, 123 the second year, and 246 the next two years. Then it dropped to the 200 that I reported from last year. In 2013, the first Christmas commercial aired on September 9 when school hadn’t started for many people, the television season was still in its summer shows and the fall ones had yet to premiere, autumn hadn’t even started yet, and Christmas isn’t for another three months. Five commercials (the same one that many times) aired in September. The official count before Halloween was 30. The official count before the Sunday after Thanksgiving was 600. That's triple the number of times it was last year. I'll continue to post this list every year. I don't really care if people are interested in it or not. I'm just amazed at the vast number of Christmas commercials that air before the Christmas season begins.