Pants To Make Your Butt Look Big - This Week on 'The Late Show with David Letterman' - June 11-15, 2007

It's a new week and it's a new list o' guests!

Fresh pants!

Here's who's scheduled to be on the show this week:

• Monday, June 11: Denis Leary promoting the new season of Rescue Me, Flight of the Conchords (HBO's Flight of the Conchords).
• Tuesday, June 12: Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Sir Richard Branson, Maroon 5 (latest CD is It Won't Be Soon Before Long).
• Wednesday, June 13: Bear Grylls (Man vs. Wild), Jeremy Piven (Entourage), Elvis Perkins (CD is Ash Wednesday).
• Thursday, June 14: John Cusack promoting 1408, musical guest Pink Martini (CD is Hey, Eugene).
• Friday, June 15: Michael Moore promoting Sicko and comedian Bill Burr.

'Big Brother 8' Programming Schedule Announced

According to The Futon Critic, Big Brother 8 will return to the same scheduled evenings as last season -- the season premiere will be Thursday, July 5 at 8 PM ET/PT. On Sunday evenings, the show will air at 8 PM ET/PT while the Tuesday night show will start at 9 PM ET/PT, an hour later than last year.

Pirate Master will follow BB8 on the premiere night, then settle into the 10 PM ET/PT slot on Tuesday evenings. It seems that it's been cast adrift, mateys.

There's still no casting news, nor news on the live feeds.

TV Newsy Bits - Thursday, June 7, 2007

Whoa... lots of news out there today!

Unfortunately, no new news on the upcoming Big Brother 8 cast, twists, or air times...!

There's good news, bad news, and odd news.

Here we go:

• Jericho fans can rejoice! Due to pressure from the fan community, CBS has ordered seven more episodes of the show after making the announcement that the show was cancelled. The New Jersey Star Ledger is just one of the sources for this story. So, it's true -- fan reaction actually mattered for once!
  


• It appears that someone has broken the non-disclosure clause of their contract over in Hell's Kitchen. Online betting venues have stopped action on the show due to "suspicious patterns." This Reality TV World article has more, but be warned -- the spoiler for the possible/probable winner is within the article. If you don't want the show spoiled for you, don't read the article.
  


• Nicole Ritchie was on The Late Show with David Letterman last night. He gave her a bit of the third degree (justifiably) about getting arrested, possible jail time down the road and more. What world does this girl live in, I ask? She thinks "everyone goes to jail." Say what? I have never been in jail and I'm twice her age. I even did some stupid things in my more youthful years and managed to not get arrested and not go to jail. AOL TV's Top Five has a clip of her appearance on the show. I'm still scratching my head over the girl.


• While you're at the AOL Top Five clips page, check out the one for So You Think You Can Dance. Twitch was amazing!
  
  
• In more So You Think You Can Dance news, here's Hok's MySpace page.
  

'Big Brother 8' News (And Lack Thereof) and Rumors

Thanks to graphic artist Zoetawny, I have a new fancy Big Brother 8 graphic! So, I'm ready for the season. Now, where's the news? What's the skinny on the show?

Alas, more of the news out there right at the moment is rumor and/or speculation rather than anything concrete.

If we go by the history of the show, it's likely that the houseguests themselves don't know if they made the cut or not. It's usually not until mid-June, a bit later even, when the houseguests are whisked away to sequester pre-show, pre-entering the Big Brother house.

So, cast announcements probably won't be made before the third week of June or thereabouts. But usually there's more news at this time, at least about the schedule of the show. For some reason this year, CBS is being mum about things. We know that Julie Chen (the Chenbot) will be hosting again. We know that Arnold Shapiro stepped out and Alison Grodner will be the sole executive producer. We know the premiere date -- Thursday, July 5.

But... but... what about Pirate Master? Our friends at Buddy TV asked the very same question in this article. After all, that airs in the same Thursday night slot where BB usually resides. Perhaps C.S.I reruns will be bumped for the summer? I doubt that as even the reruns are a cash cow for CBS.

The TV Grapevine website has the rumor that this season's twist is going to revolve around high school bullies. I hope that's just a rumor -- that wouldn't be my idea of good television. The MSNBC site has a blurb mentioning the show (with a pic of Mike Boogie), but tells us nothing new besides the fact that Rock Star doesn't seem to be returning.

So, that's where we stand. Rumors, speculation, but all we really know for sure is that July 5 we'll be watching the show. As news about the feeds is released, as well as news about the cast or showtimes or twists, I'll let you know!

Whatever Will I Watch Tonight? - Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Once again, I know this isn't my usual graphic. It's a ladybug on clover in bright sunshine -- you can click on it to see it in its full bug-glory. I'm still playing with the new camera and new computer. Of course, these will be my only major expense playtoys for the year, but the digital camera I had was over four years old and had been dropped a lot. With the new computer, I don't even have to hook (either) camera up to the computer to download the photos -- it has card-reading slots for almost every media there is and treats them like a separate drive.

One thing I have to do is go out and get amplified/powered speakers for the new computer, though. I have two sets of computer speakers which have always worked fine. I never really depended on my computer for fine stereo sound. But the speakers are operating at such low volumes that I can barely hear them now.

And the computer was overdue, too. I still have working computers in Windows 95 (yikes), Windows 98, and Windows XP... but the first two can only do dial-up without major work. And the most recent, the XP OS, is almost seven years old and was starting to flake out a bit.

The new computer, after rebates, is only costing me around $500 compared to the really wimpy Windows 95 machine which cost me over $2,500 about 13 years ago. The XP 'puter was a good deal -- an open box buy at $500 which should have gone for $1200. So, I have a TriGem (heh), Compaq, and two HP Pavillions spread out over the years. I'm not mentioning the strictly DOS ATT 'puter from the 80s. That one never did online other than local BBS stuff and used 5.25" floppies. Yes, I'm a geekette, I guess.

But with Big Brother 8 on the horizon, I had to get myself up to snuff. I can't be breaking down amidst the live feeds, can I?

Enough about computer doings... what will I be watching tonight?

The 8 PM hour (ET/PT) is a bit slim pickings for me. I don't want to watch hockey on NBC. So You Think You Can Dance is a repeat in that hour on FOX, but it's a maybe with me. Doubled-up repeats of The King of Queens on CBS just don't make the grade with me. ABC has a new The Next Best Thing. That'll be a maybe. I have no interest in CW's new Hidden Palms, but it is indeed something new. I guess I'll decide what I'm watching at 7:59 PM.

In the 9 PM ET/PT hour, I have a definite will-watch show - So You Think You Can Dance in a new episode on FOX. There's a new American Inventor on ABC, but the show lost me last season. I doubt I'll watch it at all this season unless there's nothing else on I remotely want to see. CW has a new One Tree Hill episode, but I've never watched the show... don't believe I'll start now. TBS has new back-to-back episodes of House of Payne. If you're a Tyler Perry fan, check 'em out! Since I've already seen the episodes in screener versions, they're a maybe for me for recording. It's always interesting to see the differences between the screeners and the aired versions.

In the 10 PM ET/PT hour, there's a new Traveler on ABC. I know the show should be something I like, but I couldn't get into it when I tried to watch it last week. Instead, I'm going to watch two back-to-back new episodes of Cash Cab on the Discovery Channel. I may record Traveler to give it another shot, but new Cash Cabs I just can't not watch! There's a new Top Chef on Bravo, too. With that network and show, they re-air the shows often enough to keep up with them. I'll just have to check future listings or record that instead of the Traveler. Decisions, decisions.

What will you be watching tonight?