PRISON BREAK or Water Break?

In a painfully obvious overreach of sweeps stunting and a horribly desperate ploy for ratings, the airing of David Blaine's special tonight is, in actuality, a relief because we're all so flipping tired of the wall-to-wall promos on ABC. Not that I'll be watching because I just can't take Blaine seriously and I really don't care if he becomes a human prune or whatever. The guy is a decent sleight of hand magician but he's not the second coming of Harry Houdini, no matter how much he'd like to think so.

WHAT ABOUT BRIAN finishes its run tonight. After last week's all-over-the-map episode, I expect there'll be plenty of stuff thrown into tonight's episode too. The show has a solid cast, I especially like Rick Gomez - he plays Brian's business partner Dave. I still can't believe they let the "let's try to have an open marriage" storyline drag through six episodes and there was no payoff for anyone. What a waste of Amanda Detmer; all we got to see of her was her frustrated or disappointed face. She deserves better than that. I still think Barry Watson is a very appealing leading man.

Stephen Colbert's White House Correspondents' Dinner speech was viewed over 2 million times on You Tube and then C-Span ordered them to take the clips down. Lots of disagreement in the blogosphere about the speech itself. I thought it read funnier than it played when viewing it but overall, I agree with Jon Stewart's assessment of the speech which, I believe, was "Ballsalicious!"

Last night's Sunday night TV was pretty good. I enjoyed SOPRANOS (those images of Christopher getting high and tripping near the carnival were positively haunting) and WEST WING more than DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (though I have to admit, the Beavis in me loved Edie setting Susan's house on fire) and GREY'S ANATOMY. Note to NBC: it was very cheap of you to cancel the previously-announced WEST WING retrospective. I know WING is a very expensive show to produce and that this season in particular was the most expensive one (at least according to a Lawrence O'Donnell interview I saw over the weekend) but the show deserves more than a repeat of the pilot episode before the final installment.

I recorded the L&O: CRIMINAL INTENT episode just to see Whoopi Goldberg's dramatic turn. Also recorded HUFF which is usually interesting but rarely anything to write home about.

The article at the end of today's email is from the Wall Street Journal and it's about Product Watch, TiVo's new on-demand service for ads. I'm interested in this because primetime TV is still dependent on advertisers and though I use DVRs, I still watch a good amount of commercials because a lot of them are smart, clever and interesting. Hence, I will definitely check out Product Watch. The other article I'd recommend today is one I read in AdAge regarding how this year's upfront is the most uncertain one yet; here's the link to that piece if you're interested: http://www.adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=109057

OK - it's time for tonight's rundown:
ABC: David Blaine: Drowned Alive (2-Hour Special), What About Brian (Finale)

CBS: King of Queens, How I Met Your Mother, Two & a Half Men, New Adventures of Old Christine, CSI: Miami
I keep hearing OLD CHRISTINE is getting better and better and of course I keep forgetting to TiVo it. I liked the first couple episodes I watched even though I didn't laugh out loud but unless I record stuff, my Monday nights are monopolized by 24 and EVERWOOD.

It's Horatio's wedding day on CSI: MIAMI when a pesky murder gets in the way of the good times.

NBC: Deal Or No Deal, The Apprentice, Medium
Kelsey Grammer guests on MEDIUM (in case you didn't know, he's also one of the show's Exec. Producers) as Death. And from the looks of it, he's a witty, clever embodiment of Death and he's haunting Allison Dubois.

FOX: Prison Break, 24
In the "could they have made us wait A LITTLE LONGER?" department, PRISON BREAK finally lives up to its title with tonight's big episode as Michael and his personal chain gang bust their move outta the big house.

On 24: Will President Logan shoot down the plan that Jack is on just to get rid of the incriminating recording?

WB: 7th Heaven (Series Finale), Everwood
The WB's longest-running series and its anchor show, 7TH HEAVEN, has its farewell episode tonight. Say it with me: it's sure to be a Very Special Episode.

EVERWOOD takes a serious turn as med student Reid employs a desperate measure to solve his academic problems.

UPN: One on One, All of Us (Season Finale), Girlfriends (1-Hour Season Finale)
Wayne Brady guests on the GIRLFRIENDS season finale. Animal Planet: Crufts Dog 2006 (Special) Discovery: American Chopper MTV: Punk'd, Call to Greatness Showtime: Penn & Teller: BullshitSpike: Ultimate Fighter Unleashed, Pros vs JoesTLC: Honey We're Killing the Kids, Shalom In the HomeTNT: NBA Playoffs: Los Angeles Clippers at Phoenix Suns (Live, 7:30pm EST) USA: WWE Raw

Today's SURF REPORT written while listening to "Left Behind" by Aqualung.

Heads up for tomorrow night - Tuesday 5/9:
ABC does their best to scare America with their original MOW about a bird flu epidemic in America. Stacy Keach, Joely Richardson and Scott Cohen star in the movie. A new episode of BOSTON LEGAL featuring guest star Parker Posey follows the movie.

CBS has NCIS then two episodes of THE UNIT.

NBC: TV'S OUTRAGEOUS MOMENTS (2 episodes), then a new episode of SCRUBS followed by a repeat episode, then a new episode of LAW & ORDER: SVU.

FOX: It's ELVIS night on IDOL, followed by a new episode of HOUSE.

WB: GILMORE GIRLS has its' season finale and the last episode The Palladinos worked on. It features a "GilmorePalooza" as the episode brings together a whole bunch of musical acts. According to Dan and Amy Palladino, they made a wishlist and to their surprise, they got a lot of acts they wished for including Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Sparks, Joe Pernice and Sam Phillips (the wonderful singer who croons the "la la las" you hear every week on the show). After GILMORE, it's a fresh episode of the catch-it-while-you-can PEPPER DENNIS.

UPN has AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL as the remaining girls go to Phuket. Keep the off-color jokes to a minimum please. After TOP MODEL, it's the VERONICA MARS season finale. I refuse to even THINK it's the show's series finale as I expect Dawn Ostroff will include VERONICA MARS when the new CW fall sked is announced in New York next Thursday.

TiVo's Latest Viewing Option: Commercials
Viewers Can Order Up Ads That Depart From Tradition; How to Grill a Frozen Pizza
By BRIAN STEINBERG - WALL STREET JOURNAL May 8, 2006; Page B3
As the first brand-name digital-video recorder to be adopted widely by the general public, TiVo has become synonymous with the ability to skip TV commercials. Now, a group of marketers wishes to see whether consumers will use TiVo to find ads they want to watch.
TiVo will today launch Product Watch, a service offering on-demand ads to its subscribers. TiVo has signed up about 70 advertisers, including marketers such as Kraft Foods , Ford Motor , General Motors and IAC/InterActive's LendingTree, to participate in the service. TiVo announced plans for the service in November.
For the most part, the marketers won't run traditional 30-second TV commercials. Instead, they will offer longer ads that attempt to be more informative than typical commercials. Kraft, for instance, will offer 20 different cooking videos that will show such things as how to grill its Tombstone pizza, potato-salad basics, or how to create a cantaloupe-and-Jell-O dessert.
Commercials on Demand: Watch the Penn & Teller ad1, which will be available on TiVo.
General Motors, likewise, will offer detailed video presentations about its vehicles. Ford is trying something more entertaining: one-minute takes of magicians Penn & Teller performing various tricks on a golf course, with a Ford vehicle shown nearby. ( Watch ad2)
TiVo users will be able to search for ads in several categories, including finance, lifestyles and travel and leisure. LendingTree's ad, in the finance category, features personal-finance expert Suze Orman giving step-by-step overviews of different types of loans.
Similar ads already are available on video-on-demand services offered by cable operators such as Comcast. Madison Avenue and the TV industry are closely watching consumer reaction to the services. Growing availability of on-demand ads comes as marketers are scaling back their emphasis on traditional TV ads, while Web ads and DVR use become more popular. For some marketers, on-demand ads could be a new way to reach TV viewers.
The TiVo service "could be a good indication of what advertising is going to be like in coming years," says David Cohen, U.S. director of digital communications at Universal McCann, a media-buying firm owned by Interpublic Group that is involved in the project. TiVo has more than 4.4 million subscribers.
Traditional TV ads are a turnoff to many, interrupting the flow of a program. But TiVo is betting that viewers will use its on-demand ad service to research products or services they are thinking about buying -- much as people search the Web for information on potential purchases. "People have gotten comfortable using electronic media to search for ads and product information," says Tom Rogers, TiVo's chief executive officer, referring to how consumers use the Web. "Now the medium they spend the most time sitting in front of gives them the opportunity to do that."
To entice advertisers, TiVo will charge marketers only for viewers who download an ad -- an arrangement akin to the pay-per-click model in paid-search Internet advertising. The only other charge will be a setup fee when the advertiser first signs on. Charter advertisers will get the first month free of any charges. TiVo wouldn't discuss details of the ad deals, including the size of the setup fee or the length of time that advertisers have committed to run their ads.
The pay-per-view cost structure of the service already has proved attractive to some advertisers with smaller marketing budgets. Tourism Australia, for instance, will use TiVo to offer four documentary-style vignettes about things to do Down Under, including seeing marine life on the Great Barrier Reef. Talking to consumers on a one-to-one basis is preferable to chatting with masses who may or may not be interested in the ad message, says Michael Londregan, vice president of Tourism Australia, the country's national promotion board. "Australia doesn't have the budget to aim broadly and fire erratically at the whole consumer market," he says.
Whether or not the venture ultimately will work remains to be seen. "It's hard enough for Hollywood to make a hit show and get people to watch it, so for advertisers to be able to do it is challenging," says Jason Kuperman, director of the interactive and entertainment practice at Tequila, part of Omnicom's TBWA\Worldwide.

That's a wrap for today.