By Jeff Pfeiffer

It might not be the most unlikely TV show-to-video game adaptation I’ve seen (that distinction probably still falls to the Atari 2600 version of M*A*S*H), but it’s up there. This July, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is releasing a game based on ABC’s The Bachelor for Wii and Nintendo DS. Just like on the show, you vie for the affections of one of the hot Bachelors or Bachelorettes (five of the real-life Bachelors and Bachelorettes from the series will be featured in the game, including the recently married  Jason Mesnick, who ends up looking a little like Barack Obama in some shots from the game). Host Chris Harrison is also on hand. [Read more →]

Categories: TV News & Program Updates by RabbitEars
No Comments »

Tags: ABC, Jason Mesnick, Jeff Pfeiffer, The Bachelor, The Bachelor video game, video game, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

From ABC:

As “Losties” gear up for Lost’s sixth and final season, ABC Entertainment Group and CafePress, the online destination for user-designed apparel and gifts, unveil new ways for devoted fans to engage with this beloved series. Lost fans can now design and sell authorized show merchandise on CafePress and enter their new products into an exciting, national design contest.

The Lost design contest on CafePress invites fans to submit creative, new “Lost-inspired” merchandise designs in the following categories: The Island, Dharma Initiative, Airlines, Love “Square” and The Others. To enter the contest, fans will be asked to “tag” their designs with a special code based on the design category they choose and to post the new product in their CafePress shop and Marketplace. Contest details can be found here.

CaféPress will accept design entries from February 3- February 18. One winner from each of the above five categories will be chosen based on creativity, originality, aesthetics and concept. These five category winners will each receive a $200 CafePress gift certificate, a Lost DVD set and a T- shirt autographed by members of the cast. Subsequently, a Lost producer will choose an overall grand prize winner from the five category winners. This grand prize winner will receive an exciting, expense-paid trip to Oahu, Hawaii, the island where the series was shot.

Fans can visit CafePress to design custom items like T-shirts, Sigg bottles and tote bags, while also shopping for merchandise created by other show enthusiasts. As of today, “Lost” fans have designed more than 22,000 products at the Lost Fan Portal on CafePress.com, with many more being added daily.

Categories: TV News & Program Updates by RabbitEars
1 Comment »

Tags: ABC, CafePress, design contest, Lost

By Lori Acken

Move over, Trista and Ryan. It looks like number 13 is lucky after all.

A year after he scandalized Bachelor and Bachelorette fans  by dumping his Final Rose, Melissa Rycroft, for first runner-up Molly Melaney on live TV, Bachelor No. 13 Jason Mesnick will wed Melaney in a two-hour television special on ABC March 8.

The series’ first Bachelorette, Trista Rehn (coincidentally the first runner-up for the affections of Bachelor No.1 Alex Michel) married her last man standing, Ryan Sutter, on Dec. 6, 2003, in a lavish ceremony broadcast a few days later on ABC to the delight of 17 million viewers.  The pair now have a 9-month-old daughter and two-year-old son.

The Mesnick-Melaney wedding special will reportedly feature former Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants (no word if the recently married Rycroft will be among them) as wedding guests and also trail the future Mrs. Mesnick as she tries on dresses and plans her big day.

Photo: © 2008 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

Categories: Reality TV, TV News & Program Updates by buttonknows
No Comments »

Tags: ABC, Bachelor, Bachelor wedding, Bachelorette, Jason Mesnick, Melissa Rycroft, Molly Melaney, Ryan Sutter, Trista Rehn, Trista Sutter

Jamie Oliver is here to start a revolution.  The impassioned chef, TV personality and best-selling author is determined to take on the high statistics of obesity, heart disease and diabetes in this country, where our nation’s children are the first generation not expected to live as long as their parents.  Oliver is inviting viewers to take a stand and change the way America eats, in our home kitchens, schools and workplaces, with the thought-provoking new series, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, debuting Friday, March 26, (9:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. The series is produced by Ryan Seacrest Productions and Fresh One Productions.

In the series, Oliver heads to Huntington, WVa. — which has been called the unhealthiest city in America — to start his new cooking initiative. He hopes to help get Huntington off that list and start a chain reaction of positive change across the country. Oliver says, “The time is right for people to rediscover the sense of pride, satisfaction and fun you can get from cooking for the people you love. There’s an incredible community in Huntington, and I want this experience to be a celebration of what we can achieve when people come together. I want to prove that turning around the epidemic of obesity and bad health doesn’t have to be boring or dull in the slightest. Wonderful stories will unfold in Huntington, and hopefully this will inspire the rest of the States.”

Needled by local naysayers, challenged by ingrained unhealthy habits and government bureaucracy, and welcomed by some of the most surprising youngsters, families and local leaders, Oliver shows how, in just a few short months, he tried to transform Huntington as a template for the entire country. The stakes — simply the health of our country’s citizens and the legacy for its children. [Read more →]

Categories: Reality TV by sharrison76
No Comments »

Tags: ABC, Craig Armstrong, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Huntington, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, Ryan Seacrest, Stacey Harrison, TCA, The Naked Chef, West Virginia

Stephen McPherson, president, ABC Entertainment Group, announced early pick-ups of hit Wednesday night comedies Cougar Town, The Middle and Modern Family for the 2010-2011 Season today at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour.

Cougar Town (Wednesdays, 9:30pm ET)

Courteney Cox, who was recently nominated for a Golden Globe for her role on the show, stars as Jules, a newly divorced single mother exploring the honest truths about dating and aging in our beauty and youth obsessed culture. While most women in their twenties go through life experiencing the challenges and often humorous pitfalls of meeting men, Jules took on the responsibilities of marriage and raising a son. Now in her forties, she embarks on a journey to self-discovery.

The second-most-watched new comedy on television this season, behind only Modern Family, ABC’s Cougar Town ranks No. 2 on Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. in Adults, Men and Women 18-34. The freshman comedy is also improving the time period year to year for ABC by wide margins across the key Men demos: M18-34 +50%, M18-49 +63% and M25-54 +43%. On its most-recent telecast (1/6/10), Cougar Town marked its highest viewer and young adult numbers in nearly two months.

Cougar Town stars Courteney Cox as Jules, Christa Miller as Ellie, Busy Philipps as Laurie, Dan Byrd as Travis, Josh Hopkins as Grayson, Ian Gomez as Andy and Brian Van Holt as Bobby.

Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Spin City) serves as executive producer/writer/director, Kevin Biegel (Scrubs) as executive producer/writer, and Courteney Cox and David Arquette are executive producers. The series is produced by ABC Studios. [Read more →]

Categories: Comedy, TV News & Program Updates by sharrison76
No Comments »

Tags: ABC, Ariel Winter, Atticus Shaffer, Busy Philipps, Charlie McDermott, Chris Kattan, Christa Miller, Cougar Town, Courteney Cox, Dan Byrd, Ed O'Neill, Eric Stonestreet, Ian Gomez, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Josh Hopkins, Julie Bowen, Modern Family, Neil Flynn, Nolan Gould, Patricia Heaton, Sarah Hyland, Sofia Vergara, Stacey Harrison, Stephen McPherson, TCA, The Middle, Ty Burrell

Heat Wave by Richard Castle, star of the hit ABC series Castle (Mondays, 10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), has been a successful cross-platform collaboration between ABC and Hyperion. Published at the end of September 2009, Heat Wave has spent 14 weeks on the New York Times Hardcover bestsellers list, currently holding the No. 32 position for Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010. Hyperion has gone back to press eight times and now has over 170,000 copies in print. With this great success, a second book from Richard Castle will be published at the end of September 2010.

Heat Wave is Hyperion’s No. 2 bestselling ebook for 2009, surpassed only by The Last Lecture. It is also Hyperion’s No. 5 Kindle bestseller for the year. The free chapters of Heat Wave offered on ABC.com have been downloaded almost 100,000 times since the first chapter posted in August 2009. Heat Wave will be released as a mass market paperback edition in August 2010.

UNTITLED CASTLE BOOK 2 by Richard Castle —

In the sequel to Heat Wave, Castle’s new thrilling mystery continues the story of NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City’s top homicide squads. In what’s sure to be another smash sensation by this blockbuster author, readers will once again follow Nikki Heat and hotshot reporter Jameson Rook as they trade barbs and innuendos, all while on the trail of a murderer!

For more information on “Castle,” visit ABC.com

Categories: Comedy, Drama, TV News & Program Updates by sharrison76
No Comments »

Tags: ABC, Castle, Heat Wave, Nathan Fillion, Nikki Heat, Stacey Harrison, Stanka Katic, TCA

PASADENA, Calif. - Jan. 12, 2010 — ABC kicks off the 10th season of the hit reality series Dancing with the Stars with a huge two-hour premiere, MONDAY, MARCH 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network, as an all star cast of celebrities and their professional dance partners will hit the floor with two hours of dancing.

In week two, all of the couples will return and try to outshine each other once again in a two-hour show, MONDAY, MARCH 29 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET). The team with the lowest combined judges’ scores and public votes for both performances will be eliminated from the competition on the first results show, TUESDAY, MARCH 30 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET). Viewers may cast their votes via phone and online at www.abc.com.

The all-star cast will be announced a later date.

Categories: Reality TV, TV News & Program Updates by sharrison76
No Comments »

Tags: ABC, Dancing With The Stars, Stacey Harrison, TCA

A Charlie Brown Christmas and other specials are at ABC.com

From ABC:

ABC.com is celebrating the holiday season with the addition of several holiday specials to its Full Episode Player. Visitors to the site will be able to view both the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas and the new animated special Disney Prep & Landing beginning Wednesday, December 9 through Saturday, January 1.

Additionally, the site will offer a special Expert Commentary from the stars of Disney Prep & Landing — elves Wayne and Lanny and Thrasher the Reindeer. ABC.com’s new Expert Commentary feature allows viewers of the site’s Full Episode Player an opportunity to experience insights from the stars of ABC’s series and specials, as well as producers, writers, directors, production and costume designers, music supervisors and network executives. [Read more →]

Categories: Holiday, TV News & Program Updates by RabbitEars
No Comments »

Tags: A Charlie Brown Christmas, ABC, ABC Music Lounge, Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special, Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade, Disney Prep & Landing, Expert Commentary, Full Episode Player, Jennifer Hudson: I'll Be Home For Christmas, Jingle Jangle and Jive, Michael Giacchino, Video, Winter Wonder Lounge

By Elaine Bergstrom

Originally scheduled to air last Tuesday but preempted by the presidential address, Disney Prep & Landing will finally be making its debut tonight on ABC at 8:30pm ET (following A Charlie Brown Christmas).

The best holiday specials appeal to children and adults alike. With the animated Prep & Landing, all-ages appeal is achieved through a healthy dose of cynical zingers that will likely fly right over your little tykes’ radar like Santa’s sled. [Read more →]

Categories: Animation, Family, Holiday, TV News & Program Updates by RabbitEars
No Comments »

Tags: ABC, Dave Foley, Derek Richardson, Disney Prep & Landing, Lanny, Prep & Landing, Thrasher, Wayne

By Lori Acken

We hate to say we told you so. But we told you so. And to be fair, so did pretty much every other TV critic out there, pro or otherwise.

As news of Fall Premiere re-ups builds from a trickle to a stream, ABC has officially pulled the plug on its two weakest offerings, Kelsey Grammer’s sitcom Hank and the Rebecca Romijn/Lindsay Price dramedy Eastwick — shows whose admittedly appealing cast members still couldn’t save them.

How gone are they?

[Read more →]

Categories: TV News & Program Updates by buttonknows
No Comments »

Tags: ABC, cancellations, Eastwick, Hank, Kelsey Grammer, Lindsay Price, Lori Acken, Rebecca Romijn