Results tagged “television”

MTV has posted the first trailer for The Real World DC on its web site. It includes a number of establishing shots of our fair city (including, inexplicably, an intro featuring President Barack Obama exiting Marine One to the tune of the Civil War-era song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," aka "The Ants Go Marching," ... maybe the producers confused it with "Hail to the Chief"?), and there are a couple of fun scenes showing off the D.C. locale: one of the cast members meeting Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), another playing around in the White House briefing room, that kind of thing. But most of the storylines that are teased are pretty much standard Real World fare: hook-ups, young people unsure of who they are or what they'll do with their lives, and of course, girls running around with their tops off.

Congress Heights on the Rise had the scoop Sunday morning: former D.C. mayor and current Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry is currently filming a pilot for a reality television series. No joke.

No word yet on when the show would make its way to TV or on what network, but folks are telling The Advoc8te they have seen the film crews trailing Barry about town and that members of his staff have confirmed that they are in fact filming a pilot for Barry's reality show. No idea yet on what the focus of the reality show will be, but if in fact true, The Advoc8te isn't really all that surprised. Wasn't it just the next illogical progression for the ultimate showman - his own reality series?

WARNING: This post contains Top Chef spoilers, albeit from last week's episode. Read no further if you are behind on this season.

The idea here is obviously that demonstrating how to do self-breast exams in a clear and precise manner could help save lives. But of course, it's also the start of the fall sweeps period, so the station is catching some heat for the appearance of showing naked boobs just to get ratings.

Via the masnsports twitter feed, it appears that some preposterously deluded reality television production company has picked the wrong major league baseball team to build a superfan show around. To wit:

Remember the scene in Fever Pitch where Jimmy Fallon nearly attacks his UPS guy for his season tickets? How about all the challenges he faces throughout the movie as he struggles to balance his baseball fandom with real life?

Continue reading "Reality Show in Works About 'Die-Hard Nationals Fans'"

Tips started rolling in Tuesday afternoon: cast members of The Real World D.C. were spotted variously loading luggage into large SUVs and driving off, or being filmed slowly walking away in dramatic fashion from their Dupont neighborhood house. NBCWashington.com has since filed this interview with the show's executive producer, who confirmed that after four months, the Real Worlders have at last left the District.

As if we needed any more evidence that the Washington Nationals are far from D.C.'s most popular professional sports team, the Washington Business Journal reports today that new ratings information indicates that "D.C. is the only TV market in the country where a team from another city gets better ratings than the hometown team." Yes, apparently an average of 16,000 D.C. households tuned into Orioles games on MASN this season, compared with 14,000 who watched the Nats. That's a rough slap in the face for the Nationals, though a MASN rep trots out that old canard that the D.C.-Baltimore area is "really one large mega-market."

Big news for the local D.C. music scene: influential '90s hardcore band Jawbox plan to reunite for a performance on NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Dec. 8, according to Billboard. City Paper's Aaron Leitko also reported word of the planned reunion today, noting that the TV appearance has been planned to coincide with the reissue of the band’s 1994 major label debut, For Your Own Special Sweetheart.

The cable network Bravo has gone ahead and ordered a full season of The Real Housewives of D.C., according to the Hollywood Reporter. The local iteration of the series marks the fifth locale for the Real Housewives franchise. Production is said to be already underway, with a series premiere slated for 2010.

Thanks to DCist Flickr contributor AnyaLogic for sending in this shot of actor Chloë Sevigny on the set of the HBO drama Big Love, which was spotted shooting exterior scenes for its fourth season around Washington, D.C.'s Union Station over the weekend. There's a lot of Big Love fans on the DCist staff, so we're as excited as anyone to find out more about the show's upcoming story lines in the District. All we know for sure is that a) Nicki and her recently discovered daughter from her first marriage, Cara Lynn, will come to Washington, and b) a lobbyist played by Sissy Spacek is somehow involved. The next season doesn't debut until January, so we'll either have to wait until then or pray for script leaks.

We’re five episodes in to the sixth season of Top Chef, with episode six airing tonight on Bravo at 10 p.m. As we've written before, the cast is relatively packed with local talent. There’s Michael Isabella, executive chef of downtown crowd pleaser Zaytinya; Bryan Voltaggio, who opened VOLT up north in his hometown of Frederick, Md. after spending several years on the Hill at Charlie Palmer Steak; and his younger brother, Michael Voltaggio, who shares his culinary passion and Maryland roots, has a D.C. boss in José Andrés, even if he's based in Los Angeles. All three have firm footing in Top Chef’s Las Vegas kitchen.

For as long as I can remember, syndicated episodes of The Simpsons have aired at 7 p.m. on FOX 5. And what a perfect time for America's longest-running TV comedy. At 6 you might still be at work, and at 8 you're ready for prime-time shows. But at 7 o'clock, it's time for re-runs of any of the show's 441 episodes. No longer, it seems. As of Monday, September 21, WTTG-FOX 5 is pushing its syndicated episodes of The Simpsons to the 11:30 p.m. time slot. Seinfeld will move up a half-hour to 7 p.m., while re-runs of The Office will debut in the 7:30 p.m. opening. Don't get me wrong -- that's a fine hour of TV. But dumping one of America's best cartoon shows to the nether regions of TV viewing times? That's simply criminal. How about a compromise we can all agree on? Push TMZ to 11:30 -- or just cancel it, I don't care -- and give The Simpsons the 6:30 slot. Just don't force me to stay up late to get my fix. (NB: New episodes of the The Simpsons will still air at 8 p.m on Sundays).

When The Real World D.C. cast came to town a few months ago, we heard that they'd be doing what so many folks in the city do -- working for a number of non-profit and advocacy organizations. Noble as that is, we wouldn't have necessarily guessed it likely that they'd be working on any local causes. But it turns out, they did.

We heartily heart Fishbowl DC for digging up these sweet 1970s-era spots for local television news channels. Here's one for WJLA in 1976:

Most of America only really knows two things about Marion Barry: he was once the District of Columbia's mayor, and he seemingly can't stay out of trouble with the law. With yesterday's HBO premiere of the new documentary, The Nine Lives of Marion Barry, it's likely that many people have gained a broader sense of who Barry was and what he once represented for the District. But even with the additional context provided by the film, it's less likely that all that many people will become more sympathetic to the aging local politico and his persistent troubles.

The new documentary by Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer about D.C.'s own Mayor for Life, The Nine Lives of Marion Barry, premieres on HBO tonight at 9 p.m. DCist caught the film when it debuted at SILVERDOCS earlier this summer, and overall the reviews have been a mixed bag. Critics already familiar with Barry and his lengthy history wanted more, while others were pretty much satisfied. You can be the judge for yourself tonight, if you've got access to HBO.

If it were up to conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, American citizens would still pay taxes and homage to Queen Elizabeth II. Think we're kidding? We're not. In a chat on the Post's website yesterday, Carlson inveighed against District voting rights and sided with taxation without representation. From the transcript:

Katy, Tex.: Non Palin question. Considering that the Washington, D.C., crowd continues to elect Marion Barry to publicly paid posts, why does anyone think it is a good idea to let them elect a full-fledged representative to the House?

Continue reading "Tucker Carlson Laments Independence from Britain"

D.C. is just too real for the Real World.

       

As we noted in Go Home Already, the cast members of the Real World house officially made their way to their new Dupont Circle home today. And I was not the only "reporter" waiting for them on the corner of 20th and S Streets NW. There was videoblogger elizabethany and her friend, along with self-proclaimed soon-to-be blogger Martin, who was keeping us informed of all the latest RWDC news (presumably via tweets from #RealWorldDCNEWZ), and a couple of other random stalkers. They brought me up to speed on what I'd missed a couple of hours earlier, principally that six cast members had arrived, without much fuss at all, despite some reports to the contrary.

A tipster just texted that the D.C. Real World cast appears to be arriving as we speak -- she reports seeing a blonde girl with a suitcase walking through Dupont Circle, looking clueless and being trailed by a camera crew. Of course, there have been apparent dry-runs previously, but this one could be the real deal, and the RealWorldDCNewz Twitter feed reports similar sightings. Yikes?

Teddy Folkman, D.C.’s latest representative on the reality food television circuit, was sent home from The Next Food Network Star in last night’s episode. It was the fourth episode of the season—he outlasted three of the ten fellow contestants, but didn’t make it to cook in Rachel Ray’s studio in episode 5. The ouster wasn’t a product of poor cooking, though we weren’t too thrilled with much of his offerings from his relaunched Capitol Lounge menu. In fact, his haute DLT sandwich (duck, lettuce, and tomato) won praises from the show’s judges in last night’s elimination challenge.

Here's some more places to avoid at all costs, or where you can try to get on TV -- earlier today, Capital Restaurant Concepts' Twitter feed said "Just did interview outside The Real World house...construction is ongoing and they're slated to visit our restaurants." Their restaurants include J Paul's, Old Glory, Georgia Brown's, Paolo's, Neyla and Pik a Pita. If you ask us, it's pretty lame that the Real World folks already have their destinations picked before they've even moved in. Maybe that's why some cast members are rarely shown on TV: they don't go to the chosen bars and restaurants with the rest. That, or they're really boring. For more places that have accepted or refused the Eight Strangers, check out our post from this past weekend. The cast is supposed to move in within a few days. Hat tip to the RealWorldDCNEWZ Twitter feed for the CRC post.

The DTV-pocalypse is finally here, and as broadcasters nationwide officially turn off their analog signals today and boost their digital ones, the local DTV channel line-up could be in flux for a while. A few months ago we rounded up the digital TV channels that have been widely available in the D.C. metro area for some time, but all the advice we're reading suggests you should rescan for possibly new or different available channels at least once a week for the next little while, as things may change or shuffle around. The Post's excellent tech guy, Rob Pegoraro, answered a bunch of questions about the transition in a live chat today, so check that out, too.

We've already had numerous looks at the Real World D.C. house, but MTV just today got around to actually confirming that an upcoming season of the long running reality show will in fact be based in Washington in the house in Dupont Circle.

If you haven't been watching The Tonight Show since Conan O'Brien took over the show last week, you might have missed a segment that aired Monday night featuring local WUSA-9 TV news reporter Armando Trull. The sketch, which Conan dubbed "Trull Busters," features a clip of Trull reporting on a story outside a Metro station (looks like it could be Silver Spring, but it's hard to make out), only to have a portly gentlemen take a rather exaggerated pratfall directly behind him. You can view the video here; the sketch gets going around the 11:30 minute mark.

Looks like someone took it upon themselves to re-post all those interior shots of the D.C. Real World house on Picasa. We're not sure who did it and the labels indicating what each room will be used for are gone, but go ahead and check 'em out in case you missed the chance after they were pulled down yesterday.

Quick, click over to this photo gallery full of interior shots of the D.C. Real World house at 2000 S Street NW/1734 20th Street NW (the corner building does appear to be two addresses fused together) before it gets taken down. An alert tipster found it by merely Google image searching for "2000 S. Street" and sent it in to DCist.

Oh for the love of Pete. We Love DC caught this post over at Reality Blurred that Bunim-Murray, the producers of the Real World, have started seeking production assistants in the area in earnest (unlike earlier this year, when they were only searching for a production accountant, they're now seeking a slew of people who know the city and can work with camera crews). As they note, unless they're looking to produce a brand new series, it looks like the rumor mill about a Real World season finally happening in D.C. is about to kick into high gear. Between Blonde Charity Mafia, Real Housewives of D.C., and the friggin' Real World (not to mention a new Owen Wilson film that's scheduled to being filming in June, partly in the District), it looks like we won't be able to swing a jumbo slice without hitting a camera crew.

Or so Tony Kornheiser of PTI fame described his replacement, Jon Gruden, on ESPN’s Monday Night Fooball. Gruden perfected his tan as head coach of the Tampa Bay Bucanneers for seven years and won one Super Bowl with the franchise before being fired this offseason.

Inside Edition's "Rat Patrol" returned to the District this week, taking aim, perhaps predictably, at the various D.C. fast food joints recently frequented by the Obamas. The television program confirmed that two of the eateries featured in the upcoming episode were Five Guys restaurants, including the Dupont Circle location where Michelle Obama took members of her staff for lunch back in February. Indeed, the Five Guys located at 1645 Connecticut Ave NW is shuttered this morning, with a sign on the door explaining that the fast food restaurant is "closed until further notice."