Sadly for the broadcast networks, none of the new fall shows so far are turning out to big hits along the lines of last year’s “The Good Wife,” “Modern Family” and “Glee.”

Two are gone for good (ABC’s “My Generation,” Fox’s “Lone Star”) and one has been relegated to Saturday night (NBC’s “Outlaw”). CBS has escaped outright disasters just yet with “S#?! My Dad Says,” “Mike & Molly,” “Hawaii Five-O”(right) and “Blue Bloods” holding their own. NBC’s “Chase,” “The Event” and “Undercovers” are underwhelming. Even “Law & Order: Los Angeles” is losing steam.

On ABC, “Detroit 1-8-7″ and “Better With You” aren’t doing too badly but are hardly hitbound. Ditto with “No Ordinary Family.” On the verge of cancellation: “The Whole Truth.”

Fox’s “Raising Hope” is doing better than “Running Wilde,” which won’t last the year the way its ratings are trending. The CW’s “Nikita” is doing well, relatively speaking.

As for the week itself, Mike Rowe’s “Dirty Jobs” Tuesday on Discovery is the most …

Continue reading TV best bets with return of ‘Dirty Jobs’ and new CBS talk show »

Anna Kournikova embraces Scooby Doo before the Boys & Girls Club of America Champions of Youth dinner at the Cobb Energy Centre October 14, 2010. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

Tennis star and model Anna Kournikova says you can have your cake and eat it, too – in moderation.

She has recently shown up on two rather dichotomous reality shows: NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” and Food Network’s “Ace of Cakes.”

“There’s always a balance. You can live and enjoy life. You don’t to starve yourself. You don’t have to stuff yourself,” she said in an interview Thursday before the Atlanta-based Boys & Girls Clubs of America Southeast Chairman’s dinner honoring youth at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. Her other Atlanta tie: she’s been a Cartoon Network ambassador since 2007. (Thus, I had her pose with Scooby)

She’s been a spokeswoman for the Boys and Girls Clubs for seven years and comes to Atlanta every so often for events like this.

She also recently did a Maxim cover shoot.

“It was …

Continue reading Anna Kournikova in Atlanta for Boys & Girls Club dinner »

The third and final leak this week of cast members of Donald Trump’s 2011 edition of “Celebrity Apprentice” is out because the show started taping yesterday.

And Atlanta has its second representative after rapper Lil Jon: NeNe Leakes of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta!”

Yes, our gal is certainly guaranteed to bring on the drama. Who will she clash with? I can see a good rumble between her and Star Jones or Meatloaf. Others on the cast, according to Las Vegas Weekly’s Robin Leach, include a host of musicians: LaToya Jackson, Dionne Warwick, Meatloaf, David Cassidy, Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray and John Rich of Big & Rich fame. Trump likes eye candy so there’s 2010 Playmate of the Year Hope Dworaczyk and supermodel Niki Taylor.

Continue reading Report: NeNe Leakes joining 2011 cast of ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ »

Freddie Brooks, one of the first jocks at True Oldies 106.7, lost his job this week.

He’s a bit  mystified. He suspects it was an upstairs decision. Scott Shannon, who runs the syndicated music format out of New York, he said, may have been a factor. Here’s his email to me today:

Not really sure EXACTLY why I was let go today. You never really know if what they’re telling you is the truth, but it does seem that it was [Scott] Shannon’s push. They had no complaints, didn’t mention my ratings, I believe I was #10 overall 6+ in August (?). They told me I was an asset to the station, but corporate made the call. It came as a surprise to me as far as the timing, but not a surprise as far as IT”S RADIO. They didn’t indicate to me a replacement. I am guessing they’ll just leave Shannon’s network on in the afternoon. (?) I would really love to land somewhere else in this market as my wife Melissa is with the CDC, so there are no plans to leave Atlanta.
Thanks,

Mark Richards, …

Continue reading Freddie Brooks is out at True Oldies 106.7 »

Scott Lindy, a veteran program director left 94.9/The Bull two months ago under mysterious circumstances, has resurfaced as the program director at Star 94.

Lindy replaces J.R. Ammons, who was let go in early August from Star after a nearly two-year stint as program director. (Ammons had various jobs there from 1995 to 2006 as well.)

Lindy was only at the Bull for about 20 months but he helped turn around a station that was having trouble competing against the long-time country leader in town Kicks 101.5. He refocused the music and sound and hired Jason Pullman for the morning show with Kristen Gates. The Bull beat Kicks in the key 25-to-54-year-old demo for the first time ever last month in the Arbitron ratings.

Star’s ratings have slipped in recent years as the station has faced strong competition, especially from Q100. Star ranked 14th among 25-to-54-year-olds in the September Arbitron ratings and 12th among 18-to-34-year-olds.

Can Lindy transfer his country music skills to …

Continue reading Scott Lindy takes over at Star 94 as program director »

“The View” hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar stormed off the set today after Bill O’Reilly riled them up over the issue of a mosque near Ground Zero.

He called the mosque “inappropriate,” which upset Behar and Goldberg.

Behar believes the mosque should stay and said  “We’re Americans!”

“Seventy percent of Americans don’t want that mosque down there so don’t give me this ‘we’ business,” O’Reilly said.

“Muslims killed us on 9/11,” O’Reilly added a few moments later.

Then it deteriorated quickly. “Oh, my God! That’s bullxxxx!” Goldberg said. “Extremists did it!”

They started talking over each other. The ladies walked off.

Barbara Walters then said: “You have just seen what should not happen. We should be able to have discussion without washing our hands an screaming and walking off stage. I love my colleagues but this should not have happened.”

The two came back after he acknowledged that it was “extremist Muslims.” “If I was inartful in explaining, Muslim fanatics, …

Continue reading Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg storm off ‘The View’ over Bill O’Reilly’s Ground Zero ‘mosque’ issue »

Jesse Ventura this Friday is back again with a whole set of conspiracies to parse out, courtesy of truTV.

“I’ve been flying like my wrestling days,” he said in an interview last week. “It wore me out.” He finished shooting last month.

He chooses conspiracies based on both their likelihood of truth and their impact. “Then it gets down to me fighting with the network,” he said. “We’ll battle back and forth. We’re not like the Democrats and Republicans. We’ll come to a resolution and move forward. If I don’t get something I want, then maybe if we’re picked up for another season, we”ll do it.”

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One he’d like to look into that didn’t make it: chemical trails made by planes in the sky. Is the government releasing deadly chemicals?

“Our government is not a very honest entity,” the former Minnesota …

Continue reading Jesse Ventura back again with more conspiracies »

Channel 2 Action News’ veteran evening anchor John Pruitt announced today that he will retire at the end of the year.

Pruitt, the longest-serving anchor in Atlanta, has been a familiar, iconic broadcast personality. He joined Channel 2 in 1964 and became an evening anchor in 1973. He left for WXIA-TV in 1978 but returned to Channel 2 in 1994 and has been there ever since alongside Monica Pearson.

The move had not been unexpected. Pruitt presently anchors the 6 p.m. news, having relinquished the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. slots to his successor Justin Farmer. Farmer will take over the 6 p.m. program starting early next year.

Pearson, who said she’s going to retire in July, 2012, called him “irreplaceable. Nobody has the institutional knowledge that John has about politics in Georgia. He’s a newsman’s newsman.”

Pruitt is the longest-running on-air news anchor in Atlanta. But at age 68, he said it was the right time to leave. Though he talked about retirement 18 months ago, he said he …

Continue reading Channel 2 Action News’ John Pruitt officially announces retirement »

Leaks are flying for the upcoming “Celebrity Apprentice” and Atlanta looks to be represented, courtesy of rapper Lil Jon.

TMZ broke the news that Mr. “Get Low” will join steroids-pumped former baseball player Jose Canseco, “Survivor” winner Richard Hatch, supermodel Niki Taylor.

Three other names were leaked yesterday: former “View” talker Star Jones, LaToya Jackson and Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray.

Lil Jon, 39, helped make the phrase “Get crunk!” famous. His most successful run of hits was from 2003 to 2006. His solo album released this year didn’t do particularly well.

Set to come out early 2011, this will be the fourth “Celebrity Apprentice” for Donald Trump. After a three-year-break, he and NBC tried to revive the non-celebrity edition this fall using the premise of unemployed white-collar folks seeking redemption. It has failed miserably, not even drawing 4 million viewers a week, a dismal showing for an NBC show at 10 p.m. Thursdays. (Yes, that used to be the spot “ER” …

Continue reading TMZ reports: Atlanta’s Lil Jon joining ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ with Jose Canseco, Richard Hatch, Star Jones, LaToya Jackson »

AP

The suave Bruno Mars now has the most played song in town with his mid-tempo love song “Just the Way You Are.”

The tune was spun 236 spins last week, with 126 from the Groove, 81 from Q100 and 29 from Star 94.

It’s a three-way tie for second: Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite,” Usher’s “DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love” and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” all landed with 212 spins.

Although the B.o.B. song “Airplanes” is long past its prime, the Groove is giving it 127 spins, pushing the to No. 6 overall and up 63 spins in one week. By dropping Enrique Iglesias to from its top spin rotation, that song drops to No. 9 after a two-week run at No. 1.

The second biggest gainer was Lil Wayne’s “Right Above,” which jumped from 14 to 59 spins.

Hot 107.9 adds two songs: Nicki Minaj’s “Right Thru Me” and Rick Ross’ “Ashton Martin Music.” Both were recent big BET Hip Hop Award winners. V-103 added Lloyd’s latest “Let’s Get It In” and Mo Pain’s “Meet Me in the Tunnel.”

Star didn’t add any new songs but it …

Continue reading Bruno Mars’ ‘Just the Way You Are’ tops Atlanta radio »