Blink

Revision3 took the cake in TelevisionWeek’s online poll to determine which Web-video studio is most likely to create the first Internet megahit (if a self-selected, Web-savvy population of Internet video enthusiasts voting compulsively constitutes a valid polling population, anyway). But Blink will temporarily banish its skepticism and embrace Revision3 as a true champion that pulled in 63% of the 700 votes received through Aug. 22. The studios “Internet Superstar” and “Diggnation” drew the attention of voters, who put MTV Networks vet Herb Scannell’s Next New Networks in second place with 16% of the votes.

—Greg Baumann

What happens in the 90210 will stay in the 90210…at least until 9.02.

That’s the word from the CW, which Monday put out a statement declaring that it would not be sending critics advance screeners of the two-hour premiere of “90210,” its new spinoff of Fox’s 1990s hit “Beverly Hills, 90210.”

“The CW and our studio partner CBS Paramount Network Television have made the strategic marketing decision not to screen ‘90210’ for any media in advance of its premiere,” the statement read. “We're not hiding anything . . . simply keeping a lid on 90210 until 9.02, riding the curiosity and anticipation into premiere night, and letting all our constituents see it at the same time.”

HARMLESS PDA "90210's" Ethan (Dustin Milligan) and Naomi (AnnaLynne McCord) share a smooch in a crowded hall.

Earlier this month on CNN.com, amid the stories on the presidential election and credit card reform, you would have found these quirkier headlines: “Mama duck saves stuck ducks,” “26-toilet mansion plan irks neighbors” and “Lover asks ‘bus girl’ to be his bus wife.”

They’d have taken you to video reports on a mother duck who quacked her ducklings from a drainpipe to safety; a blueprint for a Greenwich, Conn., home to be built with 26 bathrooms; and a bus driver who proposed to his girlfriend on the bus.

Now, if you’ve got a hankering to hang onto a headline, CNN.com will provide: The news site is adding to most of its breaking-news video headlines a T-shirt icon on which visitors can click to order a $15 shirt brandishing that headline and the words “I just saw it on CNN.com.” The goal is to get the word out that CNN.com isn’t just home to serious news—it tells water-cooler stories, too, said Andy Mitchell, VP of interactive marketing for CNN. The Web site draws about 35 million unique visitors each month.

— Daisy Whitney

So you know social networking is really big.

You know all the cool kids are not just on Facebook and MySpace, but Twitter and Pownce and Jaiku.
But how the heck do you use all these sites? How do you not get social overload? And how do you avoid the dreaded TMI? (That’s “too much information,” folks, and it’s a bad thing when it comes to netiquette.)

Enter “Social Brew,” an Internet show that premieres this week. It’s the latest from San Francisco-based Revision3, the online TV network that appears to be on a relentless quest to launch as many new Web shows as possible this year. Blink had the chance to sneak a peek at “Social Brew,” hosted by the lively Irene McGee. And Blink thinks the show can help all you folks who want to be Web social but have been afraid to take the leap. So just jump in.

— Daisy Whitney

Welcome back, Jack.

Russian Web site filmz.ru has obtained one of the first stills from the upcoming season of “24.”
Fox confirmed that this shot is the real deal, but hasn’t posted it on its press site, meaning filmz.ru might have used Jack Bauer-esque tricks to obtain it.

Political discourse has jumped to the wrestling ring as the WWE has finagled Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain to tape segments for tonight’s “Monday Night Raw” on USA.

The video includes McCainaics, smelling what Barack is cooking and something called HillRod. Full video and grades on the candidates’ promos after the jump.

Based on second-by-second audience measurement, TiVo is predicting that Syesha Mercado is getting the boot tonight on “American Idol.”

TiVo said according to its numbers, Ms. Mercado had the fewest number of people sticking around to watch her Tuesday-evening performance. The company added that for the past four weeks, the contestant whose performance was viewed by the lowest number of subscribers has been sent packing.

“Viewers tend to rewind and watch their favorite performances multiple times, while fast-fowarding through ones they don’t like. These viewing preferences correlate with voting patterns,” the company said in a statement.

For what its worth, David Archuleta was on the high end of audience viewership this week.

TiVo is doing this sort of prediction for one week only—meaning that either the company really hates Ms. Mercado to the point that even a machine decided that she sucks, or that bookies were threatening to do bad things to their logo’s antenna.

—Andrew Krukowski

In an update to our April Fools blog, here’s “The Price Is Right’s” 2008 April Fools day showcase showdown. That rascally Drew Carey gives a bum showcase to an unwitting Lisa. Our favorite moment is at the 52-second mark as Lisa feigns excitement over a vacation to “Boguslovania,” and then tries to ballpark a bid on something called a “transrebounder.”

Video goodness after the jump.

Here’s a roundup of some of the more noteworthy April Fools Day jokes circulating today:

'Office' Party "The Office" crew gets a makeover on April Fools Day.

• NBC’s Web site for “The Office” has been altered to make it seem like Dunder-Mifflin’s Scranton office has been duped by the rival Racine office.

• “The Price Is Right” held an April Fools Day showcase showdown, something the game show hasn’t done in several years. The Daily Blink is working on getting the video of the showcase up in the near future. Video of a past April Fools showcase after the jump.

The last month or so haven’t been terribly kind to “Quarterlife.” The original Web series from thirtysomething” creators Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick made waves when it was picked up for broadcast by NBC during the writers strike, when the network was strapped for fresh content.

The series was quickly shipped to sister channel Bravo after it imploded on NBC in its first airing on Feb. 26, pulling in record-low ratings for its time slot.

Bravo, in turn, ran the entire seven-episode series on Sunday, March 8, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“How I Met Your Mother,” the critically appreciated CBS show currently in limbo for renewal, is turning to the one sure thing to get hype in the media industry: Britney! The network has released clips from her cameo on the March 24 episode of the show to stir up interest in the program.

She'll be playing a lovelorn receptionist at a dermatologist's office (a psychiatry clinic would be insensitive, we suppose).

Video after the jump...

Everyone with an Internet presence nowadays is concerned with a little three-letter acronym: SEO, or search engine optimization.

SEO boosts traffic to a site by convincing Google and other search engines that it’s the most relevant thing to a user’s search, which means that page will show up first during a search.

CBS looks like it’s slowly becoming a master of SEO, because look at what’s the first item returned if you search Google for “shark,” minus images.

Nope, not those sharp-toothed things that live in the ocean, but Mr. James Woods.

If this trend continues, confused and lazy schoolchildren everywhere will be submitting science fair projects about Mr. Woods, or perhaps Johnny Galecki.

These Google shenanigans are nothing new to CBS, as Showtime has been mining search data for relevant ads for a while.

—Andrew Krukowski

The Daily Blink, in its perambulations around the Web, keeps stumbling across promotions for HBO's upcoming miniseries "John Adams" in rather unusual places.

First it was at the U.S. Post Office Web site, where the noted letter writer was shilling for the power of the written word. The Daily Blink believes letter writing is a lost art, and most people use stamps only to pay bills and send birthday cards, but if anyone can persuade people otherwise, it is probably the second president of the United States.

Today Mr. Adams and his miniseries turned up as the sponsor of the Daily Poll at the Internet Movie Database site. The question: What is your favorite Laura Linney movie of the last decade?

Ms. Linney, of course, portrays Abigail Adams, the recipient of so many of those letters, in the HBO miniseries. The Daily Blink feels sure John Adams would vote for either "Man of the Year," with its theme of democracy in action, or "Kinsey," because, well, he was a bit randy himself.

The Daily Blink wonders where this little "Where's Waldo"-esque Web campaign will pop up next. Wig makers and blacksmiths probably don't have much of a Web presence -- maybe the tourist information site for Colonial Williamsburg?

—Lisa D. Horowitz

Got a tax rebate check burning a hole in your pocket? Instead of being a sap and saving it, why not stimulate the economy by buying massive amounts of pop culture knick-knacks?

For instance, Guernsey’s Auction House is prepping its Pugliese Pop Culture Collection for the block next week.

What well-respected person about town wouldn’t want Batman’s Shakespeare bust? You can set up the button in the neck to fire off a large cannon full of hundred-dollar bills.

Sally Field’s “Flying Nun” costume?

Or go for the gusto and buy the Maltese Falcon. A mere estimated bid of $500,000 to $800,000 stands between you and something once held by Humphrey Bogart.

The auction is set to start Saturday, March 15.

Today’s relaunch of FSN New York as MSG Plus may or may not be one of the Greatest Days in New York sports history, but the network is proceeding as if it is.

The network is launching a series of one-minute Greatest Days interstitials discussing 50 top sports events of all time, such as Joe Namath’s Super Bowl Guarantee, Mike Tyson knocking out Michael Spinks and the Rangers winning the Stanley Cup after a four-decade drought.

Lydia Murphy-Stephans, MSG Networks’ executive VP for programming and production, said the channel will be looking for choices from New York-area fans by taking cameras to sporting events and asking for submissions on its Web site. The idea is to make the channel a home for the fan.

“We’re encouraging fans to be interactive,” she said.

Some fan suggestions will run on air, others online. The program will culminate later this year with a one-hour roundtable special featuring sports figures and fans discussing the Greatest Days in New York Sports.

— Jon Lafayette

Google has a lot of fun applications buried deep within its all-knowing exterior. Especially Google Trends, which maps out search trends in this handy-dandy line graph.

Let’s fire up Trends and see what we can find from this year’s television season so far:

Here we have the three most recently famous flash-in-the-pan broadcast shows: Fox’s “Anchorwoman,” CBS’s “Viva Laughlin,” and NBC’s “Quarterlife.”

According to the all-knowing Internet, “Anchorwoman” was the biggest flash. But don’t count out “Quarterlife” just yet. Its NBC days may be over, but Bravo is up to the challenge of showing how twentysomethings deal with crucial problems, like jobs.

Interesting to see the ups and downs of “American Idol” year-to-year, while “Survivor” sits in a steady holding pattern of “Oh, that’s on?”

Supposed fall of Western civilization “Moment of Truth” couldn’t withstand the rumbling blogosphere, filled with early ’90s aficionados clamoring for “American Gladiators.” God forbid NBC’s Ben Silverman greenlights a live-action version of Nickelodeon’s “Doug,” which would grind the Internet itself to a halt.

Speaking of nostalgia, “A Raisin in the Sun” might have stirring family drama, but does it have a talking car? Didn’t think so.

—Andrew Krukowski

The FX con-artist dramedy “The Riches” is teaming up with eBay in a confusing, if altruistic, publicity gambit.

Viewers are invited to bid on a prize package that includes $100,000 in cash, with auction proceeds going to Oxfam America, the charity of choice of “Riches” star Minnie Driver. Also included are lunch with Ms. Driver, a season-one DVD box set and an “authentic prop” from the set of the show.

The press release invites bidders to go as high as $5, $10, even $25,000 for “a chance at attaining the American dream, without any of the con-artist consequences,” all “while making a difference.”

So why not just give $100,000 to Oxfam and auction off the swag and the meal with matchstick man manqué Minnie? FX marketing Executive VP Stephanie Gibbons explained that the chance to buy lots of money with lots of money “could be the deal of a lifetime for someone.”

Someone, that is, whose $25,000 bid can be authenticated, and whose “American dream” includes a faux date and a ski mask smeared with Eddie Izzard’s mascara.

The charity auction is featured at www.eBay.com/TheRiches from March 13-23.

— Julieanne Smolinski

As you may know, tomorrow night is the big “Project Runway” season finale on Bravo. If you didn’t know, fake it, lest the fashionistas and gays smite you for your ignorance.

To catch you up: Last week’s episode concluded with a faceoff between Rami Kashou and Chris March, who both designed full collections in hopes of being selected for the final round. After they had showed just three pieces each, however, Heidi Klum gave March the “auf Wiedersehen,” allowing Kashou to join Christian Siriano and Jillian Lewis in tomorrow night’s final showdown.

(From left: Siriano, Lewis, Kashou.)

That’s a pretty bare-bones summary. Throw in some drapery, human hair and a couple dozen uses of the word “fierce” and you get a better assessment of what’s going on.

Now that you’re au courant, check out this sneak peek of tomorrow’s episode.

Also, just for kicks, find out why the official fan-favorite contest winner Siriano is so fierce.

— Sergio Ibarra

Neighborhoods will get a little friendlier March 20, as Family Communications kicks off Sweater Day in honor of what would have been Fred Rogers’ 80th birthday.

“We’re asking everyone (including members of the media) everywhere (from Pittsburgh to Paris) to wear their favorite sweater on that day,” David Newell, aka Mr. McFeely, said in a statement. Mr. Newell is the public relations director at Family Communications, founded by Fred Rogers.

“It doesn’t have to have a zipper down the front like the one Mr. Rogers wore on the program. It just has to be special to you,” he said.

Sweater Day is a part of Pittsburgh’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” Days, running March 15-20.

In honor of that, the Daily Blink has two Fred Rogers-related items today. First, here’s Mr. Rogers addressing the U.S. Senate about cutting back funding for PBS in 1969.

And secondly, for your buddy/mom/co-worker who explains Mr. Rogers’ iconic sweaters by swearing up and down that he was a Navy SEAL with tattoos covering his arms, here’s proof that it’s just not true.

—Andrew Krukowski

Pop culture blog “Best Week Ever” has been trying to rally the Internet troops in order to save “Friday Night Lights,” NBC’s critically acclaimed but low-rated high school football drama.

Because every “save this show” campaign needs a massive mailing since “Jericho’s” successful nut bombing of CBS, BWE has suggested mailing light bulbs to NBC Entertainment Co-Chair Ben Silverman.

A petition also cropped up on the site, and also had embeddable ads for the petition, so readers could link to it.

Let’s take a look at how the petition is doing…

Wait, what? Thanks to the magic of Google cache, this is how the page was doing.

Seems to be running pretty well there.

More than 10,000 signatures, plus an additional 1,000 or so comments at the bottom of the page. But the BWE crew hasn’t commented on the petition since Feb. 12, which is about a decade's worth of avoidance of a topic in terms of blogging. What gives?

BWE didn’t respond immediately to e-mail requests for comment, but the media gadflies over at Defamer believe there’s some corporate skullduggery afoot. Defamer reports that insiders have said higher-ups at Viacom (parent company of VH1 and therefore BWE) weren’t thrilled about using their funds to promote a show owned by rival NBC, and dropped the hammer on the whole thing, even though it was pretty successful in generating response.

Defamer points out the irony of that, considering the VH1 show “Best Week Ever” is built on using media from outside of Viacom.

—Andrew Krukowski