• True to form, Kanye West plays it safe and gets bold with 50 Cent at the same time. I kind of like his style. [YT]
• And Kenny Chesney, whose last four albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, tells Kanye and 50 not to forget about him on September 11. [AHH]
• LL Cool J’s back in the acting business. His television show, The Man, might get a mid-season pickup. [EUR]
• Which is more frightening, the fact that Foxy Brown’s having a baby or the fact that Nicole Richie’s is? I’ve gotta say I’m on team Nicole with this one. []
• The internet alone helps keep many 13-24 year-olds happy. And that’s sad. [Jossip]
Does the popularity of shows like American Idol among black viewers mean that networks no longer have to specifically target shows to the black audience? According to research, blacks and whites are watching more of the same shows than they did 10 years ago, when television viewership was divided along color (and network) lines. Now, UPN and the WB are long gone, and reality shows, which feature diverse casts, rule the airwaves.
Among the top 10 shows with black viewers in 1996-1997 were two sitcoms on UPN: Moesha, and Malcolm & Eddie, which featured comedian Eddie Griffin and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who had played Theodore Huxtable in NBC’s Cosby Show during its run from 1984 to 1992.
The WB’s top 10 entries that season: The Jamie Foxx Show, a comedy with Foxx playing an aspiring actor living in Los Angeles, and The Wayans Brothers, a sitcom starring Shawn and Marlon Wayans.
“The WB and UPN were targeting black audiences, and the black audiences responded by watching the shows that had black characters in them,” says Dates. “Now, the CW offers far fewer shows of that type.”
It’s not just American Idol that crosses color barriers. Shows like Lost, Grey’s Anatomy, and House boast diverse casts that the famous shows of the 90’s, like Seinfeld, Friends, and Frasier never could.
But nevertheless, the major networks are still rolling out black shows for the fall. Don’t forgot about Cavemen.
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Not only is ABC’s planned sitcom version of the popular Geico caveman commercials a bad idea in general, it is also shaping up to be very questionable, racially speaking. Very.
ABC has already had to reshoot the pilot after receiving intense heat from television critics. Apparently, the cavemen are experts on the dancefloor, in the bedroom, and on the basketball court and football field. Hmmmm, are Cro-Magnuns honorary black men? Sounds incredibly offensive to me.
Wednesday’s panel discussion here was the first time “Cavemen” producers have discussed the show in public, and they said people are reading too much into what they called a “fish out of water” story.
“Unfortunately, in our society, if you pick an offensive stereotype of any kind, it’s going to bump into some ethnic group,” said Mike Schiff, one of the executive producers. “Is the show about race relations? No. Is that a background to the show? Yes, of course.”
Lawson, who wrote the original Geico commercials as well as the pilot, said that if the Cro-Magnons are an allegorical stand-in for anybody, it’s not black people but outsiders.
Can I get a Hot Ghetto Mess-inspired boycott, here? Actually, I’m not sure we have that much to worry about — it can’t air more than a few times before ABC pulls it and tries to pretend like it never existed.
[PDN via Racialicious]
In an industry-wide effort on the part of cable networks to completely dumb down their programming, formerly high brow channel, IFC, has aquired the rights to R. Kelly’s “Trapped In The Closet” and is developing 10 new episodes with him. I’m not sure what this says about the state of our country, but it’s probably the smartest move IFC ever made, even if we have seen a lot of it on YouTube already.
The deal is part of an effort on IFC’s part to move away from independent film and develop original series. Typically confused, R. Kelly said the IFC collaboration is perfect, because he always thought of “Trapped” as an independent film.
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The Game Show Network is steppin’ their programming game up with their new show, Without Prejudice, which airs tonight at 9 pm. On the show, five contestants put themselves at the mercy of five strangers who decide based on looks and a few soundbites which contestant most deserves $25,000. In the above clip, it only takes one judge 4 minutes and 50 seconds to say he doesn’t like one of the contestants because he’s black. Should be an interesting show.
Reports that Star Jones will come clean about her dramatic weight loss in an article in Glamour magazing called, “Getting Over Myself,” are not surprising, because I have a keen sense that “coming clean” does not mean the same thing to Star Jones as it does to most people. I’ll be very surprised if she actually cops to having gastric bypass instead of that diet and pilates crap she’s been feeding us since she started to become the incredible shrinking woman.
Rosie O’Donnell called her on her weight loss stories, but Star says she would still like to have her fellow ostracized View lady on her new Court TV show about criminal justice and pop culture. Rosie O’Donnell? Probably not as enthusiastic. Although they do also have the whole “gay spouse” thing in common.
[US]
For all his talk recently about being courted by NBC, the only sure thing Washington has going on at the network is a guest spot on the show Bionic Woman. It doesn’t really compare to being Dr. Burke, does it?
In his defense, he’s also inked a development deal with the network for an action show he pitched. We’ll see what comes of that. The lesson we should all take from this is that even when you go berserk in your place of business, do a PSA, get fired, and then blame the man, there is always such a thing as a second chance.
[US]
It’s not just me (and probably most of you) — advertisers are catching on to the fact that BET’s new show, Hot Ghetto Mess is, well, a hot ghetto mess. State Farm and Home Depot told BET they no longer wish to be associated with the show, which airs July 25, either on its web page or during its commercial breaks.
BET declined to confirm specific advertisers defecting from the program but released the following statement: “A few of our clients have asked to move to other programming dayparts, and we simply accommodated their request.”
The corporate retreat appeared to be in response to a growing chorus of critics who have been calling for an advertiser boycott of the series, which is scheduled to premiere at 10:30 p.m. July 25. (A copy of the pilot could not be obtained before press time.)
“Mess” is a compilation of viewer-submitted home videos and BET-produced man-on-the-street segments that exhibit blacks in unflattering situations that typically illustrate the excesses of so-called hip-hop culture.
So if advertisers don’t advertise and viewers don’t watch, that must mean the show can’t exist, right? Too bad there is no shortage of corporations that will pick up where State Farm and Home Depot left off, not to mention the thousands of people who will find this show endlessly amusing. In other words, get ready to see a hot ghetto mess on a television screen near you.
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BET’s much hyped new lineup of original programming began last night with the very MTV-sounding Hell Date and the Toccara and Joe Clair-hosted game show Take the Cake, which AOL Black Voices gives . Apparently, the buxom ANTM graduate is better in front of a still camera than a video one.
Despite their missteps last night, BET claims it’s trying to class up its lineup with an original sitcom Somebodies and its Laguna Beach-inspired Baldwin Hills, which premieres tonight at 10pm. It’s just a shame that whatever inroads the network has made in programming will be erased by Hot Ghetto Mess. Just when you think BET is changing for the better…
[NYT]
Being Bobby Brown was a guilty pleasure. Flavor of Love, I didn’t watch per se, but when I did catch the show, it was like a train wreck that I couldn’t look away from. That said, I will never, ever, ever watch Beauty in the Beast, a new reality show starring Ice-T and Coco.
Unless it’s really good.
[AHH]
