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Kimbo Slice Puts Best Foot, Fist Forward

Posted by Vogt
at June 3, 2008

Kimbo Slice

It’s going to be a weird TV summer.

Prime-time ratings for hockey, that favorite beach-season sport, were way up. But they weren’t big enough to beat CBS’ foray into brawls. And Kimbo Slice wasn’t man enough to take down Regis Philbin.

Well, OK, the Regis thing wasn’t all that odd.

The man who made Who Wants to Be a Millionaire a phenomenon drove the new CBS game show Million Dollar Password to the top of the summer ratings. The premiere episode, which averaged 10.6 million viewers, ranked third overall for the week ended Sunday.

CBS was almost, if not more excited, however, about the inaugural performance of Saturday Night Fights, featuring mixed-martial arts star Slice in action.

The show drew fewer total viewers than the crime-show reruns CBS aired on Saturdays during the regular season, but it drew more young male viewers, who facing sold-out screenings of Sex and the City, apparently had no choice but to tune in Mr. Slice and friends.

Overall, the show averaged 4.9 million viewers, and ranked a middling 49th place. Fox’s America’s Most Wanted (38th place, 5.4 million) beat it in the 9 p.m. hour, but Saturday Night Fights got bigger and bloodier as its long night wore on, peaking from 11:30-11:51 p.m. with 6.5 million viewers for a bout pitting Slice against James “Colossus” Thompson.

There’s been no word on when the next Saturday Night Fights will air. Presumably sometime after it can be confirmed William S. Paley has stopped spinning.

Even the late CBS founder might have to appreciate, though, that an upstart sport such as mixed-martial arts topped the tradition of hockey’s Stanley Cup.

Airing on NBC opposite Saturday Night Fights in some time zones, Game 4 of the title series drew, on average, 4.044 million viewers (75th place). Hockey was nothing if not consistent. It posted an almost identical number for Wednesday’s Game 3 (76th place, 4.041 million).

Far from being miffed that hockey’s version of the World Series got iced, NBC was in proud, statistic-spouting mood. And for good reason. According to the network, last week’s Game 3 was up by 148 percent in viewers over last year’s Game 3.

And with no help from Regis, either.

Here are more ratings highlights for the TV week ended Sunday:

Overall, CBS averaged 7.3 million viewers, thanks to Regis and reruns, and won the week in total viewers. Fox averaged 3.1 million 18-to-49-year-olds, thanks to aspiring dancers and chefs, and won the week in young adults.

In cable, ESPN (3.1 million) and TNT (2.7 million) dominated prime time, thanks to the basketball playoffs.

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. Lost, ABC, 12.3 million viewers
  2. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 10.8 million viewers
  3. Million Dollar Password, CBS, 10.6 million viewers
  4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 10.3 million viewers
  5. NCIS, CBS, 9.8 million viewers
  6. Criminal Minds, CBS, 9.7 million viewers
  7. CSI: NY, CBS, 9.6 million viewers
  8. So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 9.56 million viewers
  9. Hell’s Kitchen, Fox, 9.5 million viewers
  10. So You Think You Can Dance (Wednesday), Fox, 9.4 million viewers

Celebrity Stories
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Jessica Alba Enters The R-Rated World

Posted by Vogt
at May 21, 2008

Jessica Alba Enters The R-Rated World

In a move sure to draw male viewers by the millions, Jessica Alba was cast in the role of Cam in the upcoming romantic thriller Good Luck Chuck; her co star Dane Cook portrays a man that is considered a good luck charm for women looking for marriage and the price they pay is sleeping with him. With a desire to end his string of one night stands, Good Luck Chuck is a sexually charged comedy as Dane tried to turn a one night stand into something more with Jessica.

The first time director Mark Hilfrich has certainly been creating anticipation in describing the background of the movie, “It’s a movie for adults, but it’s a hilarious comedy, romantic comedy. … These characters are rated R because there’s some adult language and footage in it. … I read the script, a hilarious script by Josh Stolberg, about three years ago. And at that time the script was PG-rated, PG-13. I took it and worked it into a nice R-rated film.”

According to insiders, Alba and Cook got so involved in the physical side of their relationship on screen, that during one shoot they actually kissed so aggressively that Jessica cracked a molar.  “And they kept going. I mean, that was not the end of the night. They just checked their teeth and they went on.”

Special thanks to whoever was able to convince Jessica to join the cast of Good Luck Chuck, you have just made millions of men happy.

Celebrity Style
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Catherine Bach Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

Catherine_Bach.jpg

This curvaceous brunette is best-known for her role as the feisty sister of “good ol’ boys” John Schneider and Tom Wopat on the popular CBS comedy-drama “The Dukes of Hazzard” (1979-85). Bach moved to California at 16 to study acting (at USC, and with coaches Milton Katselas and Anna Strasberg). She first came to the notice of TV viewers in the telefilms “Strange New World” and the “Matt Helm” pilot (both ABC, 1975). Her roles were small, and even smaller was her next billed part in “Murder in Peyton Place” (NBC, 1977).

But “The Dukes of Hazzard” came to her rescue, and from 1979-1985, Bach cavorted in cutoffs and tank-tops, the idol of male viewers in this mindless and popular rural comedy. The athletic and outgoing Bach also graced such ongoing TV specials as “The Battle of the Network Stars”, “Celebrity Challenge of the Sexes”, “Circus of the Stars” and “World’s Greatest Stunts”, as well as one-time shots on “The Nashville Palace” (ABC, 1980), “The Magic of David Copperfield” (CBS, 1981), and “Willie Nelson’s Picnic” (syndicated, 1987). She also provided the voice of Daisy in an animated version of the series, “The Dukes” (CBS, 1983).

Buoyed by her popularity but tied to the backwoods image, Bach appeared in two TV-movies: as a photojournalist up against “White Water Rebels” (CBS, 1983), and as “the other woman” in the PBS comedy “Drive, She Said” (1987). From 1992-1994, Bach returned to series TV as a businesswoman who moves to Africa with her teenaged son in “African Skies” (Family Channel). She agreed to reprise Daisy in “Dukes of Hazzard: Reunion” (CBS, 1997).

Bach’s forays into theatrical releases have not been as high-profile. She had small roles in Michael Cimino’s action comedy “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” and the drama “The Midnight Man” (both 1974) as well as Robert Aldrich’s thriller “Hustle” (1975), co-starring Burt Reynolds. She reteamed with Reynolds for “Cannonball Run II” (1983) and had her first starring role in the low-budget actioner “Driving Force” (1989). Since then it’s been large roles in small films: another actioner, “Street Justice” and the horror flick “Criminal Act” (both 1989); the biker road comedy “Masters of Menace” (1991); and the martial arts film “Rage & Honor” (1992). Former co-star Burt Reynolds gave Bach a theatrical showcase in the drama “Extremities” (1986), at his Florida dinner theater.

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