Idol Gives Back Cursed?
For American Idol, Sanjaya is the curse that keeps mucking things up.
Since the one who needs no last name was asked to turn in his mic last year, Tuesday's Idol has lost, on average, nearly 1.5 million viewers. Wednesday's Idol has shed nearly 3 million.
Last week, the curse seemed especially, if cruelly, effective, with Idol Gives Back, the franchise's charity fundraiser, drawing the least number of viewers for an Idol-related telecast in more than four years.
Notably, it was on the occasion of the first Idol Gives Back that the Sanjaya effect was first felt.
On April 18, 2007, the night the singing hairdo turned hot topic was voted off the show, the show averaged about 29 million viewers. One week later, on a Sanjaya-free April 25, the show was down 2 million viewers, despite the promise of the latest results and the lure of an all-star Idol Gives Back lineup.
In all, from the time Sanjaya left the show through the end of last season, Idol lost 1.7 million viewers on Tuesday, and 1.3 million on Wednesday.
In 2006, when Sanjaya's faux-hawk was not yet even a glint in some hairstylist's eye, Idol basically remained even on Tuesdays from mid-April through the end of the season, and grew by about a half-million viewers on Wednesdays.
To be sure, the Sanjaya curse has only been partly successful in blunting Idol. The show remains the No. 1and No. 2show in all of TV, and the latest Idol Gives Back telecast raised a reported $60 million.
The real Sanjaya, meanwhile, could probably use a reverse curse or something to jump-start his own career.
Here's a look at the 10 most watched broadcast network prime-time shows for the week ended Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research:
1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 24.7 million viewers2. American Idol (Thursday), Fox, 20.1 million viewers3. CSI, CBS, 20.09 million viewers4. Dancing with the Stars (Monday), ABC, 19.7 million viewers5. NCAA Men's Basketball Championship (Kansas vs. Memphis), CBS, 19.5 million viewers6. Idol Gives Back, Fox, 17.8 million viewers7. Dancing with the Stars (Tuesday), ABC, 17 million viewers8. Desperate Housewives, 16.4 million viewers9. Without a Trace, CBS, 14.5 million viewers10. NCIS, CBS, 14 million viewers
Emily the Strange - The First Movie Adapted From a Sticker?
Emily the Strange was created by Santa Cruz skateboarder Rob Reger in the early 1990’s to help promote his company Cosmic Debris Etc. Inc. Before becoming a cult counterculture icon, Emily began on a sticker that was passed out for free at concerts, record stores and skate shops to help promote Cosmic Debris. I give you this back story because I think it’s very important to establish that Emily The Strange will be the first movie ever to be adapted from a sticker. And I remember a few years back when people thought it was strange that DreamWorks was making a movie out of a line of action figures.
The character is a goth looking 13-year old girl who is usually accompanied by her four black cats: Sabbath - the troublemaker, Nee-Chee - the schemer, Miles - the creative, and Mystery, the leader of the group. The franchise has a considerable merchandising catalog, including clothing, stationery, stickers, and accessories, very popular with the Hot Topic crowd.
Dark Horse Entertainment president Mike Richardson will produce the film, which is currently on the hunt for a director. Richardson says that the filmmaker choice may in turn dictate what format will serve the story best: live-action, animation, or a combination of both. I can’t really imagine Emily the Strange as a live-action movie. May-be they could do a mixture using the Sin City approach. The story is said to be based on one of the four Emily the Strange young adult novels, which will be published next year by HarperCollins. Not much is known other than it will offer up some backstory on the character, and will feature her four cats.
The project is also not yet set-up at a studio. Universal, who is producing the comic book company’s Hellboy series, has a first-look deal.
source: The Hollywood Reporter
Seth Rogen to Star in Jody Hill’s Observe and Report
With his 2008 slate nicely stocked with cheeba and T&A (The Pineapple Express, Zack and Miri Make a Porno) gruffy, young superstar Seth Rogen looks to keep the debauchery rollin’ into ‘09. He’s set to star in the mall cop comedy Observe and Report, to be written and directed by Jody Hill, the latest to join Judd Apatow’s smoked out dugout and hot off the indie-com The Fist Foot Way. Apparently Apatow isn’t producing the film however.
Rogen will play Ronnie Barnhardt, an ego-maniacal head of mall security who tangos with with the local cops (you know, the real po-po). If you’re suddenly taking more of an interest in the oft-ignored, chubby rent-a-cops at your local superplex, that’s because actor Kevin James also has an ‘09 flick on deck called Mall Cop. Variety reports that Observe and Report will basically be awesomer because it will not deviate from Rogen’s grandma-scaring brand of hard comedy. Producer Donald De Line adds that the film will, “Definitely go to the edge.”
The pitch might as well be sprinkled with nuts like a cheeseball, sure, but the talent involved is quite ace. Malls haven’t been properly terrorized in a comedy in ages, so there’s definitely potential in watching Rogen wallop some Hot Topic punks with clever expletives and a wimpy baton.
Discuss: Anyone have a good mall cop story? Are you diggin’ this project? If Rogen had starred in Semi-Pro in place of Will Ferrell, would it have still bricked?
Machete Poster
Numerous sites are reporting that the following poster is A.) new; B.) significant proof that Robert Rodriguez’s straight-to-DVD Machete movie is moving forward or completed; C.) proof that, in hindsight, Grindhouse was the scuzzy masterpiece promised to us; D.) wall-worthy.
Unlike the SAT, all of these bubble answers are wrong, even D.), which is wrong by default because you’d have to trek into the mall and into the store, the one where 12-year-olds “buy” Doc Martens and Sex Pistols piggy banks, to purchase the Machete poster to hang on your wall. Unless you waited outside of the mall for it to come to you, in which case, we’ll count D.) and you can proceed to university in Awesomeville. View the poster in digital form and then consider practicing your rusty noogie technique…
Update: 010101. This is the Hunterbot. 0101. I cleanup after Hunter human’s inferior, convoluted human style. 01010 The Machete poster below serves the promotional purposes of a motion picture called Grindhouse and not a separate Machete motion picture as many Internet websites incorrectly posted yesterday. 0101. A human interested in purchasing the Machete poster to hang on a wall will need to enter a store called Hot Topic. 010101. The human called Hunter does not believe this to be a valid option fo humans aged 12 and over. 010101. Like Hunter human, Hunterbot did not like Grindhouse, either, but liked three of four of the motion picture’s trailers. 0101010101001. Hunterbot’s favorite book is Microserfs by Douglas Coupland. 0101101. Hunterbot will gladly take Hunter human’s position at. 01010. ‘Kay? 010.
