Taylor Swift reacts as she accepts the album of the year award at the Grammy Awards on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

I’m blogging about the Grammy’s as it goes along. I’m also making comments on my Twitter page.

Lady Gaga opens with a suitably over-the-top musical theatre act. She starts with “Poker Face” in an outfit stolen perhaps from the Xanadu set. “She’s a monster!” a narrator says. Indeed!

She is joined by part-time Atlantan Elton John in part two of her opener. Both appear to have survived some sort of nuclear holocaust with Elton’s diamond-studded glasses and random limbs on the dueling pianos doing his first hit “Your Song.” What helps her, underneath the makeup and razzmattazz,  is she can truly sing.

“Stay away from Katy Perry,” said Stephen Colbert to his daughter.

Other mildly amusing quips. “What I’d like to see is Adam Lambert and any sense of restraint.”

“I have one issue with the Grammy’s. Why isn’t Susan Boyle here? Sure, …

Continue reading Blogging about the Grammys… »

NFL ratings are way up this year. Despite two relatively small-market teams in this Sunday’s Super Bowl, they are the two top-ranked teams in the league. So it’s very possible the game could break 100 million viewers for the first time and even challenge the “M*A*S*H” finale (106 million) as the most-watched program of all time in the United States.

The other big story of the week is the return of “Lost” for its sixth and final season starting Tuesday at 10 p.m. on ABC. The network has kept details of the final season more or less under wraps and trailers are thin on content.

And for fans and foes of Michael Vick, he follows in the footsteps of T.I. and tries to seek a road to redemption via reality show on BET Tuesday at 10 p.m.

MONDAY
“House” 8 p.m. Fox — Foreman’s brother (Orlando Jones) pops up.
“The Bachelor” 8 p.m. ABC — In four episodes, Jake has cut the pool from 25 to five. Expect the other women to keep on undermining Vienna.
“24” 9 p.m. Fox — …

Continue reading TV best bets with Super Bowl, Lost, Michael Vick Project »

I interviewed Stephanie Abrams and Jim Cantore, the two biggest personalities on The Weather Channel before I left for my honeymoon two weeks ago. They were promoting two new shows, “Weather Proof” and “Cantore Stories,” which debuted on Sunday, January 24. I ran out of time to write this post before Mexico. So belatedly, here’s what I gleaned:

The Weather Channel realizes that people are increasingly using other sources to get the five-day forecast. So it’s seeking fresh ways to talk about the weather.

“We have to be creative,” Cantore said. “We have to find new ways to grab that viewer with ‘weathertainment.’ ”

Abrams, who co-hosts “Waking Up With Al” on weekday mornings with Al Roker for the Weather Channel,  shot six episodes of “Weather Proof,” in which she tests dangerous weather-related situations. The first episode focused on how well various building materials stand up against raging flames. They also recreate being trapped in a burning building and getting out …

Continue reading Stephanie Abrams and Jim Cantore gab up their shows on the Weather Channel »

An Adult Swim publicist sent me new art today and more details about the previously reported “Freaknik: The Musical” one-hour animated special on the network. It’s set to air March 7 at 11:30 p.m.

T-Pain spoke to Associated Press recently about the show, too.

“You can’t do what you want to do, you can’t be as silly as you want to be (and) people won’t take you seriously in music,” T-Pain said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles Wednesday.

“It was a gift … I always wanted to do a cartoon and I didn’t know it would be this good,” the 25-year-old said, who executive produced the special.

The special will feature voices including Andy Samburg (of “Saturday Night Live”), funk legend George Clinton, R&B singers Cee-Lo and Kelis and rap stars Big Boi, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and Lil Jon. The article notes that T-Pain has worked on the show for two years.

From the latest press release:

Ten years after the city of Atlanta shut down Freaknik, the biggest spring break party known to …

Continue reading “Freaknik: The Musical” set for Adult Swim March 7 »

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All three Atlanta dance crews boogied their way into the finals of MTV’s ‘America’s Best Dance Crew” last night, beating out two Houston groups.

The clean sweep featured Jungle Boogie, Swagger Crew and Royal Flush. The first four season winners were from the West Coast or East Coast. This trio, who all know each other, will give the Dirty South a real shot at giving the region a victor. The finals begin Feb. 18 at 10 p.m.

Atlanta’s Jungle Boogie showed off “crankin’ ” featuring plenty of primal street moves. New judge Omarion liked them but noted that the moment when two dancers did a little whirly wrestling move was a little sloppy. Lil Mama said they were tight in the beginning but got a bit loose toward the end. “Just tighten up,” she said. J.C. Chasez liked their energy level.

Ghost from Houston definitely gives off a scary vibe. J.C. Chasez: “I …

Continue reading Atlanta trio Royal Flush, Jungle Boogie, Swagger Crew clean sweep into ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ finals »

Adult Swim has made its mark with animated shows geared to beer-guzzling guys, the types who grew up on heavy doses of  MTV and irony. Think “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” “Sealab 2021″ and “Space Ghost Coast to Coast.”

But the Atlanta-based network’s most popular original TV series isn’t technically animated. It’s ”Robot Chicken,” a sketch comedy show featuring toys and clay figures using old-school “stop motion” technology. The creators manipulate real-life figurines, often toys or clay objects, and shoot them one frame at a time, giving the illusion of movement. 

The Emmy-nominated show, which debuted in 2005 and airs at midnight, averaged 883,000 viewers in its target 18-to-34 year old demographic season four. That’s comparable to competitors such as David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel. And ratings don’t drop off markedly when Adult Swim repeats old episodes multiple times.

As a result, Adult Swim recently greenlit two more seasons and 40 more episodes.

“I’m still shocked …

Continue reading ‘Robot Chicken’ gets two more seasons on Adult Swim »

There’s no “i” in team – except when you’re a Project Runway fashion designer trying to impress Heidi Klum, et al, with your supreme vision.

As always, the Dior gloves came off as soon as the designers had to pair up in twos to create the team leader’s high-end signature look.

From the commercial teases, Atlanta resident Anthony and Seth Aaron seemed to be two grizzlies ready to charge each other. Watching the show, it quickly became clear they were just roughhousing cubs, complete with pet names (“Ant” and “Papa”).

Miya was increasingly annoyed by Jay. She felt like he was a little too lax since he had immunity this week (to be fair, isn’t that the unspoken benefit of immunity?)

In the end, it was off-kilter but sweet Ping who tasted power and needed a little Prozac. She and Jessie were at each other’s throats about the designs, materials, models – everything. Of course it didn’t help that everyone also had to complete a second “look for less” …

Continue reading Project Runway: Season 7, Episode 3: Tag-team tantrums »

The first four seasons of MTV’s hit show “America’s Best Dance Crew” featured exactly zero Atlanta-based crews. That has been similar to the drought on Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance.”

But for local hoofers, things are looking up. Tonight, during the regionals of the fifth season debut of “America’s Best Dance Crew,” three Atlanta dance groups will be featured out of five Southern groups.

And since three of those five will make it to the finals, that means at least one local group will finally represent the ATL on the show, which is hosted by Mario Lopez and produced by “Idol” judge Randy Jackson.

Here are the summaries of each of the three groups, courtesy of MTV:

Jungle Boogie (Stone Mountain, GA): These dancers (above) pride themselves on their southern “Cranking” style and are on a mission to become kings of the dance jungle. “Cranking” uses big step movements and arms to cover the entire dance floor and each of the six members has a unique animalistic move to …

Continue reading MTV’s ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’ has three Atlanta crews in regionals »

Stilwell at a recent PAWS fundraiser. CREDIT: Rodney Ho

My colleague Katie Leslie did a piece in the print edition today about Atlanta’s Victoria Stilwell, who is like the Supernanny for dogs on Animal Planet on “It’s Me or the Dog.”

Jennie Torres-Odom remembers watching Animal Planet’s “It’s Me or the Dog, ” a reality show about training unruly canines, and being overcome with emotion.
“I was watching and literally just crying, ” said Torres-Odom of Atlanta. “I thought, ‘Why are those dogs doing it, and why aren’t mine?’ ”

Torres-Odom and her husband, James, had their hands full with 3-year-old twin girls and four rowdy dogs. Their English bulldog and French bulldog had daily battles; their rescue Lab mix was racked with anxiety; and they were unwittingly heading down the dangerous path of training their puppy presa Canario, a large-breed muscular animal, to become a protection dog.

“It was a calamity of errors, ” Torres-Odom said. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I just knew …

Continue reading Interview with Atlanta’s Victoria Stilwell, host of ‘It’s Me or the Dog’ »

I’ve already reported the jaw-dropping ratings for the NFC/AFC Championship games from Sunday. Here’s info about other shows for the week of January 18.

- SyFy aired the debut of its “Battlestar Galactica” prequel last Friday but the two-hour premiere had already been available on DVD and online for months. The result: just 1.6 million tuned in. That’s not terribly good for SyFy on a Friday night. The key test will be how it does this Friday.

-”Jersey Shore” on MTV finished with a series high 4.8 million last Thursday triple its original numbers a few weeks back.

- Fox’s “American Idol” actually pulled in better ratings in its second week than it did a year ago, averaging about 26.3 million viewers over the two nights.

- ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” had its worst original showing that I can recall with fewer than 13 million viewers tuning in last Thursday. Locally, it drew 355,000 viewers.

- Fox News beat USA Network last week during primetime, a rare victory for the news channel …

Continue reading Fox News, iCarly, ‘Jersey Shore’ have big weeks in TV ratings; Robin Thicke big on Atlanta R&B radio »