Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2008 > November > 06
Thursday, November 6, 2008
11/7: Shocker- Emory Med grad Marcus Lehman booted from “Survivor”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Emory Med School grad Marcus Lehman is not going to win “Survivor” like another former Atlantan Parvati Shallow. Instead, he was shockingly booted in a classic “Survivor” blindside, aided by a change in teams, bad luck and poor maneuvering tactics.
Lehman was a threat from the get go given his physical strength. He also seemed like a nice guy. But for him to survive, he needed to have an airtight alliance. Early on, with Charlie as his primary ally (and Corinne and Bob backing him up), things seemed okay for him. He didn’t make any apparent waves and helped win key challenges for Kota. (No sign of that arrogance Jeff Probst claimed before the show aired. He’s confident but not Ace-like arrogant or even Randy-like jerkish.)
During this episode, there’s a feast for all 10 remaining “Survivor” members. Ken sees a clue for the immunity idol but he is not secretive about it. So everyone nows. Randy finds it. Marcus has an idea to burn it. It’s a tempting target, the apple in the Garden of Eden. They dump it instead. “I have 10 people to throw an immunity idol into the ocean,” Marcus said, quite satisfied with himself. He feels safe because he’s part of the Koda 6 vs. the Fang 4.
Then there’s a twist. The ten members are changed into two new random tribes as opposed to a merged tribe, which was the presumption. Marcus loses his two biggest allies, Charlie and Corinne. He’s automatically vulnerable though he feels safe. “No immunity idol gets me to the finals,” Marcus thinks. Susie is the loose cannon here. Marcus is at least aware that she could turn on him and she admits she is not loyal to him because she feels she is on the bottom of the Koda tribe pecking order.
Crystal and Marcus bond over the fact one of Marcus’s best friends in Atlanta is Crystal’s cousin. Marcus is now torn over getting rid of Crystal and tells her he won’t. Crystal claims she won’t write his name down if they go to tribal but she tells cameras she is just playing the game.
This connection hurts Marcus. He promises Susie a top 3 spot, but she doesn’t really trust him and vice versa. So he takes a big risk by offering Crystal a spot in the Kota six instead of Susie. But they’d have to vote off Ken first, he says. (Marcus should have gotten rid of Susie first. Bad move.) Crystal feels too loyal to Ken so she tells Susie about Marcus’ shenanigans. “Marcus is playing the nice guy but he’s a schemer,” Crystal said. “I’m playing nice girl: liar and schemer!”
As a result, Marcus is screwed in tribal council. “I forgive but I won’t forget,” says a disappointed but not outwardly angry Marcus in the post-interview.
At least he will be on the jury. Susie was the turncoat but credit Crystal for the blindside. Outwit, outlast indeed!
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11/7: Adult Swim adds “King of the Hill,” 10 p.m start time; No Tom Joyner Sky Show this year
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over the past seven years Atlanta-based Adult Swim has been gradually eroding away Cartoon Network’s turf with an onslaught of repeats from Fox (especially “The Family Guy”) and quirky originals (“Robot Chicken,” “Venture Brothers”).
Now the network, which shares airtime with Cartoon Network, has snared repeat rights of another Fox animated series “King of the Hill,” which is ending its original run on Fox in 2009 after 13 seasons.
This pickup will anchor the new 10 p.m. hour for Adult Swim, taking an hour a night away from Cartoon Network, which is more geared to pre-teens than the young adults who flock to Adult Swim.
Currently Adult Swim starts at 11 p.m. except Sundays, when it opens at 10 p.m. By entering primetime territory, Adult Swim now takes up one-third of the network’s hours.
“This is the next natural step,” said Mike Lazzo, senior vice president of programming for Adult Swim. “There are a finite number of shows with enough episodes and are broad enough to play in primetime. ‘King of the Hill’ is one of them.”
Lazzo said he hopes the 10 p.m. will generate more revenue and allow the network to create pricier original programming on the level of “King of the Hill.” “We’re renting some content and we’d like to do more owning,” he said.
Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research for New York-based marketing firm Horizon Media, said he’s surprised it took Adult Swim this long to move to 10 p.m. “They’ve proven they can compete with a target audience marketers crave and have become a very successful brand,” Adgate said. “And what else is on at 10? Local news and dramas. So this makes sense.”
Lazzo said at this juncture, the network can’t afford to fund fresh episodes of “King of the Hill,” which will continue to air repeats on FX until December. (Variety reports that ABC has expressed interest in creating more original episodes.)
Adult Swim’s strongest show for years has been repeats of the indefatigable “Family Guy,” averaging 2.3 million viewers last week during the 11 p.m. hour. But its own shows such as “Robot Chicken,” “Moral Orel” and “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” are also big draws.
More original production is being done outside of Atlanta because the writers and CGI specialists are in Los Angeles and New York. But Lazzo said all the editing and packaging is done locally, as well as some shows such as “Aqua Teen.”
Adult Swim has been the top cable network among men 18 to 34 year olds 12 of the past 14 quarters, according to Arbitron research. The network began in the fall of 2001 with just three hours of weekly programming. Starting in 2009, that number will rise to 56 hours.
- Tom Joyner, the syndicated talk show host heard on Kiss 104.1, won’t be coming to Atlanta this month for his Sky Show because he stopped touring this year for the first time in years.
His Sky Show, which usually came to the Atlanta Civic Center in November, was a free show featuring acts such as Cameo, Al Green, Jeffrey Osborne and the Gap Band. Joyner would rely on sponsors such as Southwest Airlines to pay for the cost of doing the show. And he’d get corporations to donate monies for scholarships. There’d be comics such as Sinbad, too, and an old-school dance contest. Thousands show up every year, many who stay overnight to get good seats when the show starts at 6 a.m.
I’ve gone several times and it’s a lot of fun. I left a message with someone at Joyner’s Reach Media today to get an explanation why it was cut off this year. I suspect it may have been a loss of sponsors and a cost issue.
-Marietta’s Alan Ball should be encouraged that ratings for his HBO drama “True Blood” has improved over time, from 1.4 million opening week to more than 2.4 million this past week. More than 6 million viewers catch it on demand or in repeats in a given week. That’s a far cry from “Sopranos” numbers but for HBO, this probably means a likely second season renewal.
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11/6: Dancing With the Stars tour January 25 at Gwinnett Arena
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Four of the “Dancing with the Stars” stars with extra time on their hands are on tour and coming to Gwinnett Arena Sunday, January 25 at 7:30 p.m: Lance Bass, part-time Atlantan Toni Braxton, Maurice Greene and Marlee Martlin.
Among the professional dancers include Mark Hough, Kym Johnson, Alec Mazo, Lacey Schwimmer and Edyta Sliwinska.
What do you think of this lineup? Who would you want to see who’s not coming?
Pre-sale begins Friday Nov.7 at 10 a.m. with the passwords STARS. Regular tix go on sale Monday at 10 a.m.. Ticket prices range from $52.50 to $225 for special tables.
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11/6: NASCAR leaving 106.7, seeks new home
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My colleague Rick Minter, who covers NASCAR, has filed the following:
Atlanta area race fans will have to move the radio dial next year to hear broadcasts of NASCAR races and possibly Georgia Tech football. Doug Rice, president and general manager of the Performance Racing Network, said his company and Motor Racing Network, which also broadcasts NASCAR races nationwide, are looking for a new Atlanta affiliate after True Oldies 106.7 informed them that it would not carry the races next year.
Rice said he’s talking to several local stations and is confident a new affiliate can be signed. He said the Atlanta market is a key one for both PRN and MRN.
Mark Richards, operations manager for True Oldies, said that with station’s switch from country music to oldies in February, NASCAR wasn’t the fit for its audience that it once was. He said the station is in negotiations to become the flagship station for Georgia Tech football, which is currently on 790/The Zone.
Where do you think NASCAR should go on the radio?
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11/6: CNN hologram mocked, explained
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Arguably the strangest gizmo of the night was on CNN: the “hologram.” It didn’t really add anything to the proceedings except a bizarre flashback to Princess Leia and R2D2 in “Star Wars.”
Jon Stewart had a field day mocking it Wednesday night, as did bloggers online since the technology was “unveiled.” Take Don Reisinger of the The Digital Home on Cnet:
Allow me to explain something to those who probably also get excited about buying a new hammer or watching a new Starbucks open up in their neighborhood: the “hologram” technique made the show look shoddy and stupid, and made Ms. [Jessica] Yellin look like a well-designed video game character.
Here’s engadget’s thoughts:
If you’ve been keeping your eyes fixed on CNN as this election unfolds, then by now you’ve seen Wolf Blitzer doing a “hologram” interview with Jessica Yellin. Not only does this technology seem completely creepy, but it’s without a doubt one of the most useless and unnecessary pieces of phantasmagoric TV ever enacted.
Gizmodo explains the technology:
-35 HD cameras pointed at the subject in a ring
-Different cameras shoot at different angles (like the matrix), to transmit the entire body image
-The cameras are hooked up to the cameras in home base in NY, synchronizing the angles so perspective is right
-Correspondents see a 37-inch plasma where the return feed of the combined images are fed back to them.
-Twenty “computers” are crunching this data in order to make it usable
Washington bureau chief David Bohrman attempted to justify the technology to Wolf Blitzer:
Well, I think it was an ornament on the tree. The heart of our coverage yesterday was calling the races, projecting the presidency and covering those amazing moments last night but television evolves and how we do things evolves and maybe at some point five years or 10 years or 20 years down the road, I think there is going to be a way that television does interviews like this, because it allows for more intimate possibility for a remote interview.
