This is the big week for the fall TV premieres. Each day this week, I’ll be highlighting the new television shows premiering that night during the evening activities entry.

Tonight is the season premiere of a new season of Cold Case (8PM) and Shark (9PM) on CBS. I’ve never watched either show, so I can’t really comment on how good or bad they are.

If you are a fan of animation, Fox has the season premieres of The Simpsons (7PM) and King of the Hill (7:30PM). Family Guy has an hourlong season premiere that pays homage to Star Wars.

The CW is debuting a new series called CW Now that they describe as a blend of news and entertainment to create the ultimate source for everything that’s hip, hot and happening now. It premiers at 6PM. CW will also be premiering Online Nation at 6:30PM, which is their attempt at highlighting online videos on national television. Perhaps they can highlight my 90,000+ view newscast video?

If you watch any of the shows, let us know how they are in the comments.

photo courtesy of The CW

I’ve been a pretty happy subscriber of SigecomWOW since they came to Evansville, but now I am starting to think I should move into Evansville so I can get Insight Cable as they have just picked up the Big 10 Network. The Big 10 Network is a joint venture between the Big 10 conference and Fox Sports to spotlight all athletics by schools like Purdue, IU and Illinois.

During the first week, the Indiana game is on the Big 10 Network (and in HD). The second week has the Purdue game in HD only on Big 10 and the third has IU’s game exclusively. These are games that would previously be on regional networks via ESPN Plus+.

As a die hard Boilermaker Football Fan, I am going to be without an outlet for watching many Purdue games this season. Last I checked, WOW/Sigecom is holding out on bringing on the Big 10 Network because they don’t want to put it as part of their basic cable package. I’ve called and complained to WOW tonight, and if you’re a college sports fan, I’d suggest you do as well.

Sigecom/WOW
812-437-0345

My favorite thing to do after a long day is to just sit in bed and watch a few TV shows on my TiVo. Say what you will about the TV rotting your mind. I use my brain for 8-10 hours a day. I don’t want to use it between the hours of 7 and 10PM.

If you have a favorite show that’s coming back or are looking to see when a new show is premiering this fall, here’s a full list as well as the local channel it will be playing on.

What shows are you most looking forward to?

The list is after the jump.

Continue reading Fall TV Schedule 2007…

If you’re looking for an excuse to take the afternoon off and get plastered, what better reason is there than watching a football (soccer) game? While soccer isn’t a big draw in America, it’s the biggest sport around the world and matches like this are a national holiday in some countries. We can pretend that soccer is a big deal in America for one afternoon only can’t we?

Ri Ra will be presenting the final of the UEFA Champions League between Italy’s AC Milan and England’s Liverpool. The UEFA Champions League is UEFA’s most prestigious club competition. The Champions League is open to each national association’s domestic champions, as well as clubs who finish just behind them in their respective domestic championship.

If you need to prep for the match, you can acquaint yourself with the chants and songs of both AC Milan and Liverpool respectively.

The match starts at 2PM.

While I was sitting at home yesterday trying to recover from this nasty flu bug going around town, I was watching a lot of Daytime TV. For about two hours of my day I watched Regis’ return from his bypass surgery followed by The View. During both of these shows there were several spots run previewing a story on the ABC25 news at 5 about lock bumping. For the uninformed, lock bumping is when a criminal has a special key made that he can just jam into a lock to open it. It should be noted that there have been absolutely no lock bumping cases reported in the tri-state area. Let’s see how many are reported in the next few months.

There’s nothing wrong with reporting on this type of story. My problem was with the teasers that ABC25 kept putting on the air with the ominous music and fear mongering dialog. In my opinion, the spots were preying on the fear of the viewer: if you don’t tune into our news, you might be a victim. What’s worse, there have been no reports of bumping in town, but the teases didn’t offer that up. They played out as if it was something that was happening frequently in the area.

This isn’t just a local thing. It has been happening with local news outlets all over the country. Opie & Anthony have a recurring bit on their morning radio show that highlights some of the worst of these news teases. Previous show favorites include teases that warn viewers that frequent hiccups could be a sign of cancer, how a law could _shut down religion, or city officials wanting to pack all it’s sex offenders into a single city block (it could be in your neighborhood!). If I had a VCR, I would have recorded this clip and sent it in. This is fear mongering at its greatest.

Am I the only one that is frustrated with what mainstream news has become in the past 10 years?

photo courtesy of dewitt

Other than WWE Smackdown, I don’t really fit into the demographic that local CW affiliate WAZE is trying to target. Every now and then I’ll tune in to an episode of Veronica Mars or Smallville, but beyond that, I don’t tune the channel in much. Today, WAZE’s parent company, Roberts Broadcasting, announced that it will begin banning programming it deems violent, sexist and racist.

The announcement comes a week after the Don Imus incident where everyone’s favorite 67-year-old jock called the Rutgers women’s basketball team a bunch of nappy headed hoes. Rogers Broadcasting is owned Steve and Mike Roberts, two brothers who are also black. Beyond owning WAZE locally, they also own other television stations and hip-hop radio stations around the region. In a letter to the staff of one of those radio stations, Michael Roberts wrote that the Imus case has certainly put new fire under the need to respect ourselves first — specifically the hip-hop nation and rap music’s role in desensitizing our country to derogatory comments toward women and each other.

The impact on Roberts’ television stations remains to be seen. They have said they won’t be filtering any CW network programming, but instead will be focusing on the content each station syndicates.

We’re big fan of Tina Fey’s 30 Rock that airs Thursday nights on NBC. It’s one of the few sitcom-type shows I can stomach watching. I like how Fey doesn’t have a laugh track, writes edgy humor (the runt episode) and let’s Tracy Morgan be himself. Did you know 30 Rock has a local connection to Evansville?

Jack McBrayer, who plays NBC Page Kenneth on the show, is actually a graduate of the University of Evansville’s theater department. McBrayer also had a feature part in Will Ferrell’s Talladega Nights, so next time you see him on screen, remember where he learned his craft. In an interview with Backstage.com, McBrayer says he attended UE to study theatre management, but ended up hating it. After graduating from UE, McBrayer moved to Chicago where he joined up with the world famous Second City. His success with Second City landed him the role of Kenneth in the 30 Rock pilot.

Since the show has been renewed for a second season, you’ll be seeing more of McBrayer on TV in the future. McBrayer isn’t the only local actor finding success on the small screen. Michael Rosenbaum, who plays Lex Luther on the CW’s Smallville, is a graduate from Castle High school.