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America's Next Top Model

2010-11-01T22:00:00.001-07:00

America's Next Top Model (often shortened and abbreviated as ANTM) is a show in which a number of women compete for the title of reality televisionAmerica's Next Top Model and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry.

The show was created and is hosted by talk-show host and model Tyra Banks, who also serves as the head judge and executive producer of the show. The first "cycle" premiered in May 2003 and was one of UPN's highest rated shows. The show's seventh cycle was the first of the shows among regular programming on UPN's successor network, The CW, and thus far is the network's highest rated series. The opening theme is performed by Tyra Banks and is produced by Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins. Banks co-produces the show with Ken Mok and Anthony Dominici, and is an independent production of 10 by 10 Entertainment and Bankable Productions (part of the dummy company/joint venture Pottle Productions), distributed for The CW by Bankable Productions and syndicated internationally by KingWorld (and its successor CBS Television Distribution). For the 2006–2007, 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 television seasons, ANTM was the #1 show in average viewers on The CW.

On February 16, 2010, The CW renewed the show for a 15th and 16th cycle.

Each season of America's Next Top Model has from 9–13 episodes and starts with 10-14 contestants. Each episode, one contestant is eliminated, though in rare cases a double elimination or no elimination was given by consensus of the judging panel. Makeovers are administered to contestants early in the season (usually after the first or second elimination in the finals), and a trip to an international destination is scheduled at about two-thirds of the way through the season (usually with five or six contestants remaining).

As of the fourteenth cycle, the current judging panel includes Vogue editor Andre Leon Talley, and fashion photographer Nigel Barker. Previous judges included fashion icon Twiggy, models Janice Dickinson and Paulina Porizkova, fashion stylist Nolé Marin, runway coach J. Alexander, designer Kimora Lee Simmons (Kimora was scheduled to be a permanent judge for Cycle 14 and changed her plans for not returning the show) and fashion editors Beau Quillian and Eric Nicholson. Photo shoot director Jay Manuel, though not a permanent judge, is featured every episode. Usually, an additional guest judge will sit in on the panel every week.

It was announced on January 24, 2006, that Top Model would be part of the new The CW UPN and The WB, when the next cycle started in September airing on Wednesdays. Prior to the announcement of merging with The CW, UPN had committed to renewing the series through its ninth cycle on January 20, 2006, for which casting was conducted throughout mid-2006. network, a merger between

To celebrate its tenth cycle, ANTM aired a special installment called America's Next Top Model: Exposed in two parts on the CW on Wednesday, February 6 & 13, 2008. It reviewed the best cat fights, mishaps and most memorable photoshoots, personalities, defining moments and contained other segments about the show since Cycle 1 to Cycle 9, and featured a special opening fusing all three openings together. Camille McDonald (Cycle 2), Toccara Jones (Cycle 3), Eva Pigford (Cycle 3 winner), Bre Scullark (Cycle 5), Cassandra Whitehead (Cycle 5), Joanie Dodds (Cycle 6), Jael Strauss (Cycle 8), Dionne Walters (Cycle 8), Heather Kuzmich Cycle 9), and Bianca Golden (Cycle 9) all returned to comment on events that happened in their or other cycles.

Keeping Up With The Kardashians

2010-11-01T21:54:00.001-07:00

Keeping Up with the Kardashians is an American reality television series airing on E! that premiered on October 14, 2007.

Tabloid princess Kim Kardashian and her colorful blended family, which includes step dad Bruce Jenner, are the subjects of this reality series that chronicles their often chaotic domestic life together. Although the family members frequently are at odds, especially Kim and sisters Kourtney and Khloe, they always support one another in the end.

The show was an instant hit for E! - in its first month on the air it became the highest-rated series on Sunday nights among women aged 18 to 34 and was also seen by 1.3 million total viewers. The second season continued the success and was viewed by 1.6 million viewers - a 36% increase from the first season.

The fourth season saw the show smash multiple records - the season premiere, The Wedding, became the highest rated episode in the series history with nearly 3.2 million viewers and also brought in the highest rating in the women 18-34 demographic E! had ever had. The second episode of the season then broke ratings records again and became the new highest rated episode in the series with 4.1 millionviewers. This record was then broken for a third time by the season finale with 4.8 million viewers - which also made the episode the most watched broadcast ever in E!'s history.

In April 2009, it was announced that a spin-off, originally titled Kourtney and Khloé in Miami, would premiere in August that same year and that the show would follow the two sisters as they open a second D-A-S-H store in Miami. The series premiered to 2.7 millionviewers and averaged 1.89 millionviewers. A second season began in June 2010 and averaged 2.717 million viewers, a 43% increase from the first season.

In October 2010, eOnline.com announced that a second spin-off, titled Kourtney and Kim Take New York, was about to begin filming in New York and is scheduled to air in January 2011. The show will be similar to Miami as Kourtney and Kim will oversee the opening of a third D-A-S-H store.

How I Met Your Mother

2010-11-01T21:44:00.000-07:00

How I Met Your Mother is an American situation comedy that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005. The show was created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.

As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor),[1] with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to him meeting their mother, which explains the title and allows for a narration in the past tense. How I Met Your Mother's other main characters are Marshall Eriksen (Jason Segel), Robin Scherbatsky (Cobie Smulders), Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris), and Lily Aldrin (Alyson Hannigan).[1]

The show was renewed for a sixth season by CBS, which premiered on September 20, 2010.

nspired by the idea "let's write about our friends and the stupid stuff we did in New York," How I Met Your Mother is Bays' and Thomas' idea. The two drew from their friendship in creating the characters, with Ted based loosely on Bays, and Marshall and Lily based loosely on Thomas and his wife. Thomas' wife Rebecca was initially reluctant to have a character based on her, but agreed if they could get Alyson Hannigan to play her. Fortunately, Hannigan was available, and was looking to do more comedy work.

The bar "MacLaren's", in which some of the show is set, is based on a bar in New York City called McGee's. It has a mural that Carter Bays and Craig Thomas both liked and wanted to incorporate into the show. The name for the bar is from Carter Bays's assistant, Carl MacLaren; the bartender in the show is also called Carl.

Usually each episode is shot over three days, where most other sitcoms are typically shot in a single day, and features upwards of 50 scenes an episode with quick transitions. The show uses a laugh track and flashbacks are frequently featured in the story. The laugh track is later created by recording an audience being shown the final edited episode. Due to the larger scope of the show, co-creator Thomas claims that shooting in front of a live audience would be impossible, and doing so "would blur the line between 'audience' and 'hostage situation'".Later seasons were filmed in front of an audience on occasion when smaller sets are used.

The theme song is a portion of "Hey Beautiful" by The Solids, of which Bays and Thomas, the two co-creators of the show, are members. Episodes from the first season generally started with the opening credits. A cold opening has been used since season two. Viewers then occasionally see Ted's children on a couch and hear him talking to them, telling the story of how he met their mother. Alternatively, scenes from previous shows or shots of New York City with Ted narrating over the top are shown. Thomas has explicitly said that Future Ted is an unreliable narrator since he is trying to tell a story that happened over 20 years earlier, and therefore tends to recall events incorrectly. A scene directly relating to the identity of the mother, involving Ted's future children, was filmed near the beginning of season two for the show's eventual series finale. This was primarily done because the teenage actors portraying them will be adults by the time the final season is shot.

During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, How I Met Your Mother shut down production, but once the strike ended the show returned on March 17, 2008, with nine new episodes. A change in timeslot was also announced, to 8:30 ET/7:30 CT, flip-flopping from the summer schedule with The Big Bang Theory. The show was renewed for a fourth season by CBS on May 14, 2008, which premiered on September 22, 2008.

In September 2008, it was announced that Lifetime Television had purchased the right to rerun How I Met Your Mother at a rate of about $725,000 per episode. The four-year syndication contract stipulated that the studio must deliver at least 110 half-hour episodes by the year 2010, and allows for up to eight seasons of the show. At the end of the fourth season only 88 episodes had been produced, and a further 22 episodes were required ensuring there would be a fifth season. On May 19, 2009, the fifth-season renewal was announced. On May 20, 2009, CBS announced that How I Met Your Mother would move back to 8 pm, leading into the new comedy, Accidentally on Purpose. On January 12, 2010, the show hit the milestone of its 100th episode. It was also announced that the series will return for a sixth season on CBS. In response to being syndicated, co-creator Craig Thomas said, "We're thrilled that it will live on in other forms," and that they were proud of the show and that it was great to see that there was a strong desire for it. However, cast members have suggested that the show will run for no more than eight seasons.

On September 13, 2010, reruns of the series began airing on local U.S. broadcast television stations and on Chicago-based cable superstation WGN America; featured in these airings are vanity cards previously unseen in the CBS and Lifetime airings due to marginalized credit sequences used by the two networks, called "The Bro Code", a list of rules frequently referenced by Neil Patrick Harris's character, Barney Stinson, on how men should interact with each other while both pursuing the same member of the opposite sex; these vanity cards are shown in between the closing credits and the production company credits.

Gossip Girl

2010-11-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

Gossip Girl is an American teen drama series based on the book series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar. The series was created by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, and premiered on The CW on September 19, 2007. Narrated by the omniscient yet unseen blogger "Gossip Girl", voiced by Kristen Bell the series revolves around the lives of privileged young adults on Manhattan's Upper East Side in New York City.

The series begins with the return of Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) from a mysterious stay at a boarding school in Connecticut. Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), who creators describe as the queen at the center of their chess game, is a longtime friend and occasional rival of Serena's, and the Queen Bee of Constance Billard School's social scene. The story also follows Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick), the bad boy of the Upper East Side, Nate Archibald (Chace Crowford), Chuck's best friend, and other characters of the turbulent Manhattan scene: Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley) , Nate's friend and Serena's on-again, off-again ex; Vanessa Abrams (Jessica Szohr) , Dan's best friend; and Dan's ambitious sister Jenny Humphrey (Taylor Momsen).