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Television
  1. It's Moving Day! Check Out My New Blog Format - Hey, it's moving day. We've updated our blog formats, so here's the address for my new blog: http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv  If you have this page bookmarked, pls change it. See you at the new blog.
    --Kiese
  2. Gary Burbank at Go Bananas Tonight -

    This sounds like fun for Gary Burbank fans -- Burbank hosts a special comedy/variety night at Go Bananas in Montgomery tonight. It's a fund-raiser for his Play It Forward nonprofit effort to help musicians facing big medical bills. Suggested donation is $10 for the show featuring:
    Steve Caminiti (HBO Last Comic Standing)
    Josh Sneed (Comedy Central)
    Bob Haney (Bob & Tom Show)
    Drew Hastings (Bob & Tom Show)
    Steve Booth and Dave Hyden (of Doritos commercial fame)
    Mike Cody (of Underbelly) 

    The show is 8-10 pm (doors open at 7) today @ Go Bananas, 8410 Marketplace Lane. That's about all I know, but here's the Facebook page about the event.

  3. New "Dancing with the Stars" Cast Announced - OK, who will be the first voted off "Dancing with the Stars?" this fall? Former Sen. Tom DeLay? Snowboarder Louis Vito? Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin? Realilty TV stars Kelly Osbourne and Mark Dacascos (Iron Chef)? Usually the professional entertainers -- singers and actors -- hang around for a while because they've had dance training and experience, and the former NFL star (Michael Irvin this time) good deep in the competition. Here are the 16 contestants:

    Singers Macy Gray, Aaron Carter, Mya, Ashley Hamilton (George's son), Donny Osmond  
    Actresses Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Clarissa Explains It All), Debi Mazar (Entourage, Goodfellas, L.A. Law),   
    Athletes Michael Irvin, Natalie Coughlin, Chuck Liddell (UFC) and Louie Vito
    Models Kathy Ireland and Joanna Krupa
    Reality TV stars MarkDacascos, Kelly Osbourne
    Politician Tom DeLay.

    Here is link to ABC videos for each. The ninth season premieres Monday, Sept. 21, the first day of the fall TV season.

    Who will be the first to go home? Who do you think will win?
  4. First Words On Second "Hard Knocks" Episode, -

    This just in from HBO, the first word on story lines for the second episode of "Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals." Says HBO: "Coaches make player evaluations as the Bengals play their first preseason game against the New Orleans Saints. The relationship betwen quarterback Carson Palmer, and his brother, back-up quarterback Jordan Palmer, comes under focus."

    My guess is that they'll show the team cutting Kenny Watson too. And the first show Wednesday ended with a preview of an interview with rookie linebacker Ray Maualuga from USC.

    So watch the game tonight and try to guess which players/plays will make "Hard Knocks" next Wednesday (10 p.m., HBO).

    And if you missed the season premeire, and can't watch it on demand, it repeats on HBO at 9:30 a.m. and 11;30 p.m. Saturday, and Sunday noon.

  5. Omarosa Coming To Ohio -- For The Seminary! -

    In-your-face reality TV star Omarosa is making a big change. She's entering the United Theological Seminary in Dayton on Monday. You know her from "The Apprentice," "The Celebrity Apprentice" and "The Surreal Life." The Dayton Daily News says Omarosa Manigault-Sallworth is enrolling in a two-year doctor of ministry. Here's a link to the story. 

  6. Derek Beasley Leaving Channel 5 - Chief meteorologist Derek Beasley is leaving WLWT-TV after four years. He's apparently got another job. Nobody at Ch 5 will return my call.... In fact, 15 minutes after I called the acting news director, the station sent out a Twitter message confirming he's leaving: "Might as well tell you before the paper does: Derek Beasley is leaving for another job. Can't say where he's going because no one told me."

    (12:10 p.m. update: This just in from Richard Dyer, Ch president and GM: "After nearly four years with WLWT, and six years with Hearst Television, Derek Beasley has decided to move to another opportunity that you will hear about in the coming days. We thank Derek for his service toWLWT and wish him the best in his future endeavors. Derek appreciates the support he has received from Hearst Television in his career as Chief Meteorologist and thanks the Company for its faith in his abilities."
    Dyer refused to make any additional comments about Beasley. He wouldn't say where Derek is going, or whether this came as a surprise to him. No acting chief meteorologist has been named. Dyer says hiring a new chief meteorologist will be a top priority for the new news director who should be hired "sometime soon" and start in September. He also says they're working on a plan today for adding a temporary weather person, since they're down to 3 with the release of John Bateman in May.) 

    Beasley was promoted to chief meteorologist two years ago, when Jim O'Brien was fired. Then last October, he was put back on the morning show, and ordered to work a split shift. He posted this message on his Facebook page shortly after midnight: Derek Beasley loves and will always love Cincinnati."

    Gee, another change in the weather for Ch 5. Beasley's replacement (Valerie Abati?) will be the seventh chief meteorologist in 12 years.

    He's very good. I'm not surprised his gone. It will be interersting to see how big of a market he jumps to from Cincinnati (#34).

    Will you miss him?

    And one more thing: Can you name the previous five meteorologists dating back to 1997?
  7. Fountain Square Pulls Plug On "Hard Knocks" -

    What did they used to say: It's not TV, it's HBO?  It never occured to Fountain Square program managers that HBO's "Hard Knocks" at 10 p.m. Wednesday could contain profanity, until they read my blog reviewing the show last night. In fact, Wednesday's season premiere was rated TV-MA (for mature audience, unsuitable for children under 17). So 3CDC has pulled the plug on live telecasts of the remaining four episodes of "Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals." 

    Kelly Leon at 3CDC says she's trying to get copies of the show from NFL Films so the potentially offensive language can be sanitized. (Good luck with that!)  Here's her email:

    "Hey John: Not being an HBO subscriber, I wasn't thinking about the potential profanity in the series.  (Until I read your story this morning.)  Because of that, we won’t be running the next four parts live. We try to keep our content PG13!   I'm working on getting dubs from NFL Films, so we can run edited versions in the future.  Don't know if I'll get anywhere, but I'm going to try.  Not sure how many viewers we had last night, but I didn't get any feedback today so I'm guessing not a whole lot."

    I'm told some people watched it at 10 p.m. for free on justin.tv.  Did anyone find any bars or restaurants showing "Hard Knocks," for those who don't subscribe to HBO?


  8. Anna Townsend Gone From Channel 12 -

    5:10 p.m. update: Anna Townsend confirms she's gone, but won't talk about why she was fired. She sent me a Facebook message saying:  "I have enjoyed my time here in Cincinnati. I will miss my co-workers and all the dedicated 'GMC' viewers. We've had some good times over the past four years," says Townsend, brought here from Missouri to replace Cammy Dierking in 2005.

    She refused to comment on her departure, referring questions to Ch 12 news director Elbert Tucker. He says he "can't comment on all personnel matters."

    Starting Monday, viewers will see Liz Boniz doing double duty -- co-anchoring mornings with John Lomax, then doing health stories -- "as we continue to look to shape the future of our newscasts and focus on changes in the industry in general," Tucker says. He praises Bonis as "one of the hardest-working employees in the building." Bonis came here in 2002 as Rob Carson's morning co-host on old WVMX-Fm (MIX94.1) and do medical features for Channel 12.

    Original blog post about 1:20 p.m.:
    Morning news co-anchor Anna Townsend has abruptly left WKRC-TV. Why? I'm still trying to nail it down. She was anchoring "Good Morning Cincinnati" today, but by 1 p.m. her bio was removed from the station website. The "Meet the Team of Good Morning Cincinnati" lists bios for long-time morning co-anchor John Lomax, traffic reporter Bob Herzog and reporter Jessica Donnellon. She's also not listed among the Local 12 anchors. 

    I'm told she was joking with her co-workers today during the show that she would be on vacation next week. Guess she won't be coming back...  

    Townsend was hired four years ago to replace Cammy Dierking, who was moving to late afternoon anchoring. For most of her four years here, Ch 12's morning show remained No. 1 in the ratings, despite losing Dierking and meteorologist Steve Horstmeyer last year to Ch 19.

    Don't know if this is a budget cut to go back to a single-anchor format, or what happened. I'll post more as I know it. And if anyone knows her, tell her to email me or give me a call. I'd love to hear her side of the story. 

    Do you watch "Good Morning Cincinnati?"  Will you miss Anna?   Will the Ch 12 changes hurt the station's ratings -- or boost morning viewership for Chs 19, 9 or 5? Which station could gain?

  9. More Praise Than Knocks For "Hard Knocks" - As a casual Bengals fan, I was pretty impressed with HBO's "Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals" tonight. They provided me with drama, surprises and a few laughs, and that's what I want from a TV show. They surprised me by not featuring some of the obvious stories -- Carson Palmer's elbow, Chris Henry's new attitude, what makes Mike Brown tick (but they did Chad, of course) -- and introduced me to some  players I didn't know, like safeties Roy Williams and Chris Crocker.

    I was impressed that they went to Alabama to show holdout Andre Smith working out alone... and they were very candid about how his last-minute roster replacement, Gus Parrish from Kent State, just wasn't cutting it.

    The focus on tight ends was obvious, with Reggie Kelly's season-ending injury,  Ben Utecht getting knocked unconscious and rookie Chase Coffman having to step uip his game instantly.

    But here's my question: If NFL Films has a bazillion cameras at Bengals camp, how did they miss injuries to both Kelly and Utecht? We didn't see them until they were flat on their backs on the field!

    Another question: Who thought they'd focus on running back J.D. Runnels? I didn't expect that, but I also didn't realize he would get cut so quickly. Now I"ll be reading Joe Reedy's stories closer to see how Chris Pressley does, since "Hard Knocks" has introduced him to fans, and his mother in New Jersey (near NFL Films headquarters).

    It was interesting to see the process of training camp -- checking in to rooms, paying extra to rent a TV, etc. -- to see the tight ends meetings (coaches ripping on Coffman, and making him do push-ups) -- and to see some of the lighter moments, like joking that Parrish looked like Randy Jackson.  And props to writer Gerry Reimel for describing Chad Ochocinco as an "amatuer linguist."  (I'm not a big Chad fan, but I loved him saying he was so p---ed off he was at "the highest level of pisstivity.")

    And speaking of language, here's another question: Who would have guessed that viewers would hear the phrase "It is what it is" more times (4) than the f-bomb (3) or sh*t (3) during the hour? (Imagine what Tracy Jones will say about that...) 

    I had hoped to get to know the assistant coaches better, and maybe that will come in the next episodes since they had to establish Marvin Lewis in the premiere. I'd like to see more of offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski, who takes so much heat for our lack of offense. And it looks like they also plan to focus on rookie USC linebacker Ray Maualuga next week, an obvious but worthy story.

    Did you like it? Was it as good as you hoped it would be?

    And one last question: What did Pat Barry do for "Hard Knocks" to be the first listed under "special thanks" in the credits? Provide weather forecasts?
     
  10. Public TV Stations Fighting Time Warner PBS cuts -

    Cincinnati, Dayton and Oxford public TV stations are going public with their fight to stop Time Warner cable from dropping eight public TV channels on Aug. 25. Channels 48, 16 and 14 began airing a two-minute spot today with David Fogarty, president over the three stations, informing viewers that Time Warner plans to make "significant program changes" on Aug. 25.

    As I reported last month, Time Warner plans to drop eight of 22 public TV channels. Covington's WCVN-TV (Ch 54) and Dayton's WPTD-TV (Ch 16)  would be dropped from basic cable. Ch 54 would remain on digital, but Time Warner would drop CET Kids channel, plus Ch 14's HDTV and all multicasts.

    Here's a link to Fogarty's video and statement, which encourages subscribers to call Time Warner.