Blink

Twitter sparked the Joss Whedon fan base into a furor Thursday as actress Felicia Day mentioned, via the text messaging service, that episode 13 of “Dollhouse” was being scrapped by Fox.

“Man, day getting worse and worse. Found out my Dollhouse ep. #13 isn’t gonna air. Only on DVD. Such a great part too. Thx Fox. :(,” she said via Twitter.

The season finale, “Omega,” was announced by Fox Wednesday as the first season finale of the in-limbo show, scheduled to air May 8.

According to Fox, “Dollhouse’s” season order stands at 13, with “Omega” always set to be the season finale. Counting “Omega,” Fox will have aired only 12 episodes of “Dollhouse.”

But technically, there are 14 episodes of “Dollhouse” banked.

Bravo’s taking this whole chef thing pretty seriously.

Not only does the network tout its hit show “Top Chef” any chance it gets, now it’s entering the recipe business with sister network Oxygen and Web site Cookstr.

The two networks have inked a co-branding agreement with Cookstr.com, a site that’s not for your mom’s chocolate chip cookie recipes—it’s for recipes from big-name chefs and cookbook authors.

The two NBC Universal networks have now incorporated Cookstr recipes into their respective Web sites.

This is good news for friends of Bravo and Oxygen viewers; you no longer have to worry they’ll use their same tired family recipes when you show up for their dinner parties.

—Daisy Whitney

The WWE is mainly about guys smashing each other in the face.

Now you can do some smashing of your own as the WWE, in preparation for Wrestlemania 25 on April 5, is letting fans customize their own remixed video “smash-ups,” using clips from WWE programs such as “Raw” and “Friday Night Smackdown.”

Users can edit the lengths of clips, add music and title cards and share their smashes.

The WWE will select certain smash-ups for prizes, including a grand prize of $5,000, with the winning video to be posted on the main WWE web site.

Users can tackle clips of current WWE talent like John Cena or The Undertaker, or dig into the WWE archives to make a video tribute to old-school wrestling icons like Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, the “Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase or “Classy” Freddie Blassie.

Then again, an Internet video tribute about Mr. Blassie might get you labeled a “pencil-neck geek,” so proceed with caution.

—Andrew Krukowski

If you run into the spiky-haired, Mohawk-sporting, self-anointed “bizarre magician” Brian Brushwood, he might ask to practice some of his new scams on you.

That’s because his Web show, Revision3’s “Scam School,” has turned out to be such a hit that he needs some new tricks.

The Web series, launched last year, has earned more than 1 million views online and was named one of iTunes’ best podcasts of 2008. That good fortune also means the host needs to devise a new cadre of scams, tricks and gotchas to help viewers score free drinks and phone numbers at bars.

At the NATPE convention in Las Vegas last week, Mr. Brushwood said he’s been brushing up on his magic by practicing his new tricks for friends. He also spends about 30 minutes each day answering e-mails from viewers about the tricks they’ve already learned on his show.

“I want them to do the tricks well, so I have to manage my ambassadors,” he said.

—Daisy Whitney

What do you get when you mix a meeting at Starbucks, six hours on the streets of Manhattan and $2,500?

The genesis of one of the most successful Web networks ever.

That’s exactly how online video channel BarelyPolitical got started nearly two years ago with the super-popular viral video “I’ve Got a Crush on Obama” starring Obama Girl. She’s played by actress Amber Lee Ettinger, who detailed the network’s inauspicious beginnings at last week’s NATPE convention in Las Vegas.

“The idea came when [BarelyPolitical creator] Ben Relles e-mailed me out of the blue and said, ‘I have a fun project if you’re interested.’ We met at a Starbucks and he played me the song ‘I’ve Got a Crush on Obama’ and it reminded me of a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit,” she said.

She donned her high heels and tight T-shirt and spent the next six hours on-camera looking lustful for then-candidate Barack Obama.

Mr. Relles recouped his initial investment via sales of T-shirts and song downloads, and BarelyPolitical has gone on to rack up more than 125 million views for all of its videos created since then.

“I had no idea the video would take off the way it did. We did it when [Obama] was polling 11%,” Mr. Relles said.

—Daisy Whitney

Normally a fan-friendly site, Hulu ran into some angry “24” viewers over the holiday break who weren’t able to catch up on their favorite show on the online television site before season seven kicks off Sunday, Jan. 11. The show’s been off the air for more than a year due to last year’s Writers Guild of America strike.

On the “24” page on Hulu, the site says it adds three episodes of season one of Fox’s “24” each Wednesday, with five episodes available at a time. In addition, the site has been offering “five rolling episodes” of season six to build excitement for the new season launch this weekend.

But fans on the site’s forums reported that new episodes hadn’t been added for a few weeks.

In addition, a number of episodes in the middle of the season-one timeline were not posted, leaving gaps in the show’s hourly order, to the dismay of viewers.

Fans also noted problems with the season-six episodes on the site. Hulu acknowledged the season-six problems on the forums, citing an incorrect expiration date. “Looks like someone mixed up 2008 and with 2009,” a Hulu employee wrote in the forums. “Since this happened over the holidays, we missed it. We're processing the videos right now and will post ASAP. They will still adhere to the usual schedule,” the employee wrote.

Hulu has said it continually aims to obtain as many episodes from each show it carries as possible.

“24” is produced by 20th Century Fox TV, which shares with Hulu its parent company, News Corp.

—Daisy Whitney

It seems Joss Whedon fans have been very good this year, because this holiday season they’re getting “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” on DVD.

After making its debut online in July, Whedon’s evil superhero musical debuts on DVD Dec. 19 exclusively through Amazon (the same day the Paley Center for Media in New York hosts a “Dr. Horrible” sing-along).

The Daily Blink was able to secure an advanced copy, popped that sucker in and immediately thought her DVD player was broken.

See, the DVD’s standard FBI warning suddenly starts to flicker and goes fuzzy, then is replaced by an ELE (that’s Evil League of Evil, for the uninitiated) Warning.

“This disc is designated for evil purposes only. … DON’T BE A HERO!” the DVD warns.

You know who’s not a hero? The ten lucky evil fans whose Evil League of Evil application videos made it onto the DVD. If ever there was evidence of Joss Whedon’s huge global fan base, it’s in the ELE video submissions, which come from all over the world and feature a minute-long list of Dishonorable Mentions.

Among the extras: a “Making of Dr. Horrible” featurette, with writers/Whedon brothers Joss, Jed and Zack and Maurissa Tancharoen, as well as actors Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, talking about the movie, the music and the project’s reception. You’ll learn that frequent Whedon collaborator Ben Edlund had been pitching Bad Horse on “Angel” for years and that Zack Whedon wrote the infamous “The hammer is my penis” line. You’ll find out that the video received 1,000 hits per second the first day it was released, crashing the site’s server. You’ll see footage of the writers laying down demo tracks and Mr. Harris and Ms. Day singing “My Eyes” for the first time, which brought tears to Joss’ eyes.

With all of the talk about Jay Leno getting the 10 p.m. weeknight slot on NBC, the launch of “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon’s” video blog was pushed to the back burner.

The show’s vlog launched Monday at 12:30 a.m. ET, with Jimmy “The Giggler” Fallon giving a quick tour of his new surroundings at Rockefeller Center’s Studio 6B.

Why viewers need to wait until 12:30 a.m. to see unfinished studio and office space is anyone’s guess.

Mr. Fallon introduces the Roots as “Late Night’s” house band and tries to solicit questions from viewers that will be answered on the video blog.

However, instead of some kind of simple question submission form, NBC is trying to get viewers to sign up for its “discussion forums,” which just isn’t going to happen. Nice try, NBC, but I’d rather handwrite my question and stuff it in an envelope addressed to “The Internet” than try to traverse an online fan forum.

Check out the thrilling first vlog from last night:

It’s like Seth Cohen’s wet dream come true.

The latest project from Josh Schwartz (“The OC,” “Gossip Girl,” “Chuck”) is all about music.

ROCK IT Liela Moss from The Duke Spirit performs on “Rockville, CA.”

“Rockville, CA,” a music-themed scripted Web series for TheWB.com debuting in 2009, began production today at Los Angeles music venue the Echo. Each episode of the weekly drama will feature a set by an indie band at the show’s fictional Rockville club.

Executive producer and music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, who’s had a hand in picking out music for everything from “Grey’s Anatomy” to “Mad Men,” has already tapped the Duke Spirit, Eagles of Death Metal, Earlimart, Frightened Rabbit, the Kooks, the Little Ones, Lykke Li, Nico Stai, Passion Pit, White Lies and “The OC” theme song crooners Phantom Planet to perform on the show.

Because this is the Internet, TheWB.com will attempt to simultaneously thwart illegal downloaders and lure music lovers by offering downloads and streaming of exclusive tracks from the show.

Something tells the Daily Blink viewers of this series aren’t going to be in it for the storylines. But for those who care about fictional drama, “Rockville, CA” will star Andrew West, Alexandra Chando, former “Veronica Mars” “Dick” (not being mean—that was his name!) Ryan Hansen, Mighty Rasta and, of course, a bunch of hipster musicians.

—Vlada Gelman

Calling all television writers!

The online community First WivesWorld.com is aiming to develop your work into pilots, but with a twist. Its approach is to first launch an idea as a blog, see how it works, then migrate it to another medium, such as a TV show, book or film.

One of the first such projects under the First Wives World umbrella is “Hot Flashes,” a fictional blog from the “Grey’s Anatomy” writer Mimi Schmir that’s now being turned into a novel to be published by Amy Einhorn Books, a division of Putnam.

“We are focused on working with TV writers, taking their projects and developing them to take them to the next level,” said Danielle Montalbano, head of entertainment at First Wives World.

Another TV scribe who has brought her pen to First Wives World is “Medium’s” Melinda Hsu, who will write the “Sweet and Sour Chronicles,” a fictional blog, for the site next year.

“We want to build an audience and take them to the networks,” Ms. Montalbano said.

Hmm, sounds like this is just the sort of pilot development “testing process” that a certain Jeff Zucker talked about way back at NATPE. Perhaps it won’t be long before we’ll all be following the First Wives World model?

--Daisy Whitney

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