DwtS 8 power rankings

Ranked from most likely to win to most likely to be eliminated

1. Gilles Marini
2. Melissa Rycroft
3. Lil' Kim
4. Shawn Johnson
5. Chuck Wicks
6. Ty Murray
7. David Alan Grier
8. Lawrence Taylor
9. Holly Madison
10. Steve-O
11. Steve Wozniak

AI 8 Power Rankings

Listed from most likely to win to most likely to be eliminated.

1. Adam Lambert
2. Danny Gokey
3. Lil Rounds
4. Kris Allen
5. Allison Iraheta
6. Matt Giraud
7. Anoop Desai
8. Scott MacIntyre
9. Megan Joy

AR 14 power rankings

Following the elimination of Mel and Mike on the March 29 episode, the following are my revised AR 14 team rankings, listed from most likely to finish first to most likely to be next eliminated:

1. Tammy & Victor
2. Margie & Luke
3. Jaime & Cara
4. Mark & Michael
5. Kisha & Jen

New Breakfast 24 news show debuts

As predicted at this blog last Tuesday, the debut of the new CP24 Toronto weekdays morning news show was indeed imminent. In fact it debuted today. All the predicted pieces of the puzzle remained intact. The programme debuted at 5:30 AM, getting a head start on rival BT on CITY tv. Concurrently, CTV re-branded CHUM FM's AM dial namesake 1050 CHUM as CP24 Radio. This positioned CTV to go head to head in Toronto on both TV and radio against Rogers' CITY tv and 680 News. Meanwhile, Rogers has also applied to the CRTC for a regional new specialty TV license. It will be interesting to see how the ratings split out now that both broadcaster have competing new feeds going head to head both on local TV and AM Radio!

New CP24 morning show?

Shortly after CTV acquired regional cable specialty outlet CP24 from CHUM-City and subsequently sold off Toronto's CITY-tv to Rogers (to meet CRTC ownership diversity requirements) , the separation of the CITY and CP24 newsrooms began. Long ago, CP24 supplanted the Citypulse newcast for the CTV Toronto alternative. The last programming relic of the old joint ownership structure is the Breakfast Television (or "BT") morning show, which is still being simulcast on both CITY-tv and CP24. But now it appears that sharing arrangement may be about to end soon as well.

For several weeks now CP24 has been running exclusive segments during BT commercial breaks entitled "More on CP24". The short segments have featured some faces familiar to BT viewers from past appearances on that telecast; including Ann Rohmer at the news desk, Nadini Sharma (who preceded current BT weatherman Frank Ferragine) on weather, Mika Midolo (hired away from TTC Control) on transit reports, Bob Summers (from CHUM FM) on traffic and (former TTC trooper) Cam Wooley roaming the roads in a SUV. BT meanwhile now uses Eva Fragiskatos for traffic, Kevin Carrington as Mika's replacement at the TTC Transit Control desk and Francis D'Souza as its news anchor.

But the most exciting change on CP 24 mornings coverage was unveiled this week when they introduced their new morning co-anchor team of Melissa Grelo and Matte Babel. Melissa and Matte offer a new younger alternative to BT's more veteran team of Kevin Frankish and Dina Puliese.

It would appear that CP24 now has a full team in place and may be poised to flip the BT switch off and mount its own rival morning show by expanding the More segments into a full length morning news and info show. While this evolution has not been formally announced and the exact date of the switch-over is unknown, the launch appears to be imminent. Clearly CTV has not invested in upgrading its CP24 on-air personality roster simply to produce two minute "More" insert segments that pre-empt lucrative commercial time! The More segments clearly appear to be a transitional measure to prepare viewers for the launch of a full length show to compete head to head against BT. Whether the new CP24 morning show will also feature "live eye" style remote features (a la the Jennifer Valentine hosted segments on BT) remains to be seen.

This development is clearly good news in a city where TV networks have recently been more inclined to cancel local news programming in cost containment measures reacting to advertising revenues plummeting in the recession! The GTA market is definitely large enough to support a second local-focus "newswheel" type morning show, offering fast weather and traffic updates!

Idol Power Rankings I

Here's my ranking of last night's Idol performances from best to worse:

Adam Lambert “Black or White,”
Danny Gokey “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”
Allison Iraheta “Give In to Me"
Lil Rounds “The Way You Make Me Feel.”
Michael Sarver “You Are Not Alone”
Kris Allen “Remember the Time”
Matt Giraud “Human Nature”
Alexis Grace “Dirty Diana"
Scott McIntyre “Keep the faith”
Jasmine Murray “I’ll Be There”
Megan Corkery “Rockin’ Robin"
Jorge Nuñez “Never Can Say Goodbye”
Anoop Desai “Beat It”

Reality series power rankings

With The Amazing Race and Survivor four weeks into their current season runs, the latest season of Dancing with the Stars debuting last night and American Idol moving in to the Top 13 round tonight, we are obviously in to the meat of the networks' reality show cycles now. Part of this may be due to rating agency AC Nielson pushing back the February sweeps to March this year (to avoid colliding with the original analog to digital signal switchover date).

In any case, I thought the time was ripe to update my list of the Top 10 non-fiction program "power rankings". My ranking is based on a weighting of factors including longevity, popularity, critical acclaim and influence. To qualify to rank on the list the show must be currently airing in prime time on a major US network (ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC).

Cue the list:

1. American Idol FOX
2. Survivor CBS
3. Dancing with the Stars ABC
4. The Amazing Race CBS
5. America's Funniest Home Videos ABC
6. TIE Cops/America's Most Wanted FOX
8. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition ABC
9. The Bachelor ABC
10. Big Brother CBS

Bubbling Under:

The Apprentice NBC
The Biggest Loser NBC
So You Think You Can Dance FOX
Americas Got Talent NBC
Wife Swap/ Supernanny ABC

The Idol Top 40

With the current season (the eight) of American Idol underway, its time to look back to take stock of the past successes of Idols alumni as recording artists. Up until last week, 39 former Idol performers had recorded tracks that had appeared on the Billboard charts. Billboard magazine is the recording industry bible for ranking song popularity, measuring radio airplay and sales (mainly digital downloads) in the USA.

Shortly after performing “Hold Up My Heart” live on last week's Idol show, seventh season finalist Brooke White vaulted into the top 10 on Apple's iTunes chart. Although the song had no airplay points, its digital sales were sufficient to rank the single in this week's Hot 100. It ranks at No. 47, making it the highest new chart entry of the week.

This makes Brooke White is the 40th “Idol” contestant to join the chart club. She is also the fifth to make a chart appearance from season seven.

Here is a listing of the 40 Idols to appear on the Hot 100 grouped and ranked by season:

Season one: (five)

Kelly Clarkson
Justin Guarini
Tamyra Gray
R.J. Helton
Jim Verraros

Season two: (four)

Ruben Studdard
Clay Aiken
Kimberley Locke
Josh Gracin

Season three: (seven)

Fantasia
Diana DeGarmo
Jasmine Trias
LaToya London
George Huff
John Stevens
Jennifer Hudson

Season four: (four)

Carrie Underwood
Bo Bice
Constantine Maroulis
Mario Vazquez

Season five: (nine)

Taylor Hicks
Katharine McPhee
Elliot Yamin
Chris Daughtry
Paris Bennett
Kellie Pickler
Ace Young
Bucky Covington
Mandisa

Season six: (five)

Jordin Sparks
Blake Lewis
Melinda Doolittle
Phil Stacey
Chris Sligh

Season seven: (five)

David Cook
David Archuleta
Jason Castro
Brooke White
Kristy Lee Cook

Other (non-finalist)

William Hung

Will the Simpsons ever end?

US broadcast TV network Fox has announced the renewal of its flagship animated sitcom The Simpsons for another two seasons. This means episodes will continue to air though until the 2010-11 season. Historically, this will make the series the longest running regularly scheduled prime-time scripted series in the history of US television. The Simpsons debuted on Dec. 17, 1989 after originating as a sketch on The Tracey Ullman Show. Unlike live action family sitcoms, the Simpson children have not aged a single day since the first episode!

The current leader for scripted series longevity is Gunsmoke, which ran from 1955 to 1975. Among other currently airing series, NBC’s Law & Order is just one year short of matching Gunsmoke's record.

Set out below is a list of the 10 longest running scripted series to air in US network prime-time:

Gunsmoke (CBS): 1955-75
The Simpsons (Fox): 1989 – present
Law & Order (NBC): 1990 – present
Lassie (CBS): 1954-71
ER (NBC): 1994-2009 (series-finale on April 2)
The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet (ABC): 1952-66
Knots Landing (CBS); 1979-1993
Dallas (CBS): 1978-91
Bonanza (NBC): 1959-73
The Danny Thomas Show (Make Room for Daddy): (ABC) and (CBS): 1953-65