The premiere of season 5 of the new version of Doctor Who is rapidly approaching, and to whet our appetites, the BBC has released another trailer.

The fifth season of Doctor Who is about to premiere in the UK, and two weeks after that we can expect to see it in the USA on BBC America.  This will be the first season for the 11th Doctor, portrayed by newcomer Matt Smith.  How his Doctor will stack up against previous versions remains to be seen, but the footage we have seen thus far does look fairly promising.

The new footage does show that we will, yet again, be seeing the Daleks.  Is there no way to finally be done with these guys?  Although … the Union Jack on their heads?  Interesting.

Here is the first clip the BBC aired after David Tennant’s last episode.

If all of the rumors are to be believed, things could be definitely looking up for Conan O’Brien.

Since Conan O’Brien left The Tonight Show, his future has been looking uncertain.  There has been no word on him getting a new talk show, and the only bright spot for him seemed to be his upcoming stage tour that was announced last week.

Well things have definitely started to swirl around the goofy late night show host.  It seems the rumors that the Fox network was interested in him are proving to be true.  According to the Los Angeles Times, top Fox executives, including network owner Rupert Murdoch, are open to bringing the gunny man to their late night time slot.  There are some hurdles still, such as Mr. O’Brien was working with a $90 million a year budget at NBC, but Fox would like to bring it in under $60 million a year.

There is also some question about where it would film, although NBC is willing to lease his just vacated stage to him, supposedly some of his staff have been scouting other sound stages over the past two weeks.

Apparently Fox would like to wrap this up prior to May 17th when the network will announce its new schedule, but the talks could still fall apart due to the early stages they are in.

As for “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour”, apparently there is some talk of it being turned in to a concert film.  Media Rights Capital has apparently already come forward to talk about financing it, and it is unclear if film crews would follow the entire 30-city tour, or if it would just be a film of one performance.

It looks like leaving NBC may turn out to be one of the best things Conan has ever done in his career.  Reduced money or not, it sure has built him an even larger legion of fans.

Michael David Barrett, the man arrested in the Erin Andrews peephole video case, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison as the results of a plea bargain.

In July of last year, Ms. Andrews, a well-known sports reporter for the ESPN network, was stalked and videotaped in secret via peepholes in hotel rooms while she changed clothes.  Known as the Erin Andrews Peephole Video Controversy, the stalker was finally revealed to be a 48-year-old man named Michael David Barrett, a father of two, this past October.

The details that followed were disturbing as it was revealed the Chicago-area insurance executive had followed Ms. Andrews to multiple locations, recording multiple instances of her changing clothes in the privacy of her hotel room via peepholes he had made.  During the course of the investigation, it was also revealed that Mr. Barrett may have also victimized as many as 16 other women over the course of his travels.

Mr. Barrett’s plea bargain had been for 27 months in federal prison, but after the hearing yesterday, where Ms. Andrews addressed him by saying, “You violated me and you violated all women. You are a sexual predator, a sexual deviant and they should lock you up,” the judge exercised his option to extend the sentence, and moved it up to 30 months.  Mr. Barrett tearfully said he hoped Ms. Andrews could someday forgive him, but talking to the press outside the courthouse after the session, she said that would never be possible.

Ms. Andrews will be be appearing on the new season of Dancing With The Stars which begins airing next week, she said during a Good Morning America interview this morning that she considers it part of her healing process.

Conan O’Brien has finally announced his long-rumored stage tour to kick off on April 12th.

The rumors had been circulating for a while now that Conan O’Brien would go on a multi-city tour as he is legally prohibited from being on TV until Sept. 1st due to his deal with NBC to leave The Tonight Show.  Entitled “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour”, Mr. O’Brien described the tour on his Twitter account as:

Hey Internet: I’m headed to your town on a half-assed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It’s half-assed.

The 30 city tour launches in Eugene, OR on April 12th, and wraps up in Atlanta, GA on June 14th.  Some cities, such as Boston, will get more than one night of performances.

As to what the content of the show will be, that is anyone’s guess.  There is also no mention if Andy Richter or Max Weinberg will be involved in the tour, or if this will just be O’Brien going it on his own.  The official site states it will be, “A night of music, comedy, hugging, and the occasional awkward silence”.

It’s a great way to keep his name out there as he is sure to be prepping a new talk show in the not too distant future.

As Mr. O’Brien said, you can head to TeamCoco.com for information on the tour dates and links to purchasing the tickets.

Since Conan O’Brien left the airwaves, no one involved with the show has given interviews. Now, Andy Richter, Conan’s longtime sidekick, has made an appearance, and it’s fascinating to listen to.

No one from the former The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien has made any sort of TV appearances since the show went off the air.  Mr. O’Brien is actually not allowed on television at the moment as part of his settlement with NBC, however, Andy Richter, Mr. O’Brien’s longtime sidekick and friend, does not have such an agreement.

The other morning, Mr. Richter filled in for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly, and Kelly Ripa did bring up the whole late night debacle.  Through out the eight-and-a-half minute segment at the beginning of the show, you get some clarifications from Richter about some of the rumors about what Mr. O’Brien has done to help his former employees who moved from New York City to Los Angeles to work with him, only to lose their jobs (Richter confirms Mr. O’Brien is indeed helping them with funds out of his own pocket), he explains how NBC essentially left them out to dry and he also touches on some obvious bitter feelings he has towards Jay Leno.

If you were the least bit interested in what happened with the whole O’Brien/Leno situation, this is the video clip we’ve pretty much been waiting to see.  (My apologies for it being out of sync, still very easy to listen to though, and it is barely out of sync)

I want to know what the producers of Smallville have on the executives at The CW. Did they get pictures of them with German Shepards?  Did they kidnap their children and are holding them hostage?  There has to be something such as this going on to explain how this show has been renewed for a tenth season.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that Smallville is indeed returning for a tenth pain-filled season.  If you are unfamiliar with the show, it is the story of Clark Kent in his formative years before he became Superman, but the show has departed so wildly from the source material that it is barely recognizable any more.

The problem is, the show could be good if it wanted to.  I don’t even care about the fact it is so far away from the original any more, it has set up its own mythos, and that’s fine.  What annoys me is the fact that writing is just so silly as to be insulting.  I’m not sure who they think is watching this show, but the scripting is so insanely bland that it almost makes you wonder if they are trying to drive viewers away.

I recently started paying attention again due to the fact they’ve been adding other characters from the DC universe to the series, which has made it mildly more interesting, but the scripting is still atrocious, the sets laughable and the costuming looks like a high school production.  At least have some pride in your work, which no one involved with this show seems to have any more.

Oh well, the show will be back for another year to torture us all … oh joy.

Yep, it’s that time again, folks. Time to see what washed up, has-been “celebrities” ABC has decided are “stars” for the next season of Dancing With The Stars.

I have to say, I’m getting more and more impressed each season as they actually get people I know what they’ve done instead of leaving me scratching my head.  They’ve also been nice enough to announce the professionals this time around from the get go so we know who will be dancing with whom.  The line-up is … interesting, to say the least.

I know the links are a tad hard to read, sorry about that, but I wanted to make sure you could have quick access to information on each person.

An eclectic group to say the least.  Some quick facts on each:

• Aiden Turner used to play Aidan Devane on All My Children.
• Buzz Aldrin is the famous astronaut.
• Chad Ochocinco is the  football players from the Bengals.
• Erin Andrews is the ESPN sportscaster who was involved in that infamous, and unfortunate, peephole video scandal.  Luckily the man was later caught.
• Evan Lysacek just won the gold medal in Vancouver for men’s figure skating.
• Jake Pavelka was just on The Bachelor.
• Kate Gosselin is the famous mother of eight children from Jon & Kate Plus Eight.
• Nicole Scherzinger is the lead singer of The Pussycat Dolls.
• Nicey Nash is the woman with the annoying voice from Clean House.
• Pamela Anderson used to be on Baywatch and Home Improvement.
• Shannen Doherty was on the original Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed.

No clue who will win this one, but somehow I suspect it won’t be Buzz Aldrin …

Season 10 of Dancing With The Stars premieres on March 22nd.

Capt. Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie, one of the ships on the popular Deadliest Catch series, has passed away after suffering from a stroke on Jan. 30th.

It has been confirmed that Capt. Harris passed away on during the evening of Feb. 9th at the age of 53.

Capt. Harris had suffered a stroke on Jan. 30th while the Cornelia Marie was off loading a load of Opilio crabs in St. Paul.  He was taken to the local medical center, and was later flown out to Anchorage by medevac.  He had undergone surgery, but put into a medically induced coma and eventually came out of it to look like he was making progress.  Sadly it seems he unexpectedly took a turn for the worse and passed away.

Capt. Harris’ two sons, Jake and Josh, released the following statement to the Cornelia Maria Web site:

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our dad – Captain Phil Harris. Dad has always been a fighter and continued to be until the end. For us and the crew, he was someone who never backed down. We will remember and celebrate that strength. Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and prayers. – Jake and Josh Harris

Discovery channel has also made an official statement:

Discovery mourns the loss of dear friend and colleague Captain Phil Harris. He was more than someone on our television screen. Phil was a devoted father and loyal friend to all who knew him. We will miss his straightforward honesty, wicked sense of humor and enormous heart. We share our tremendous sadness over this loss with the millions of viewers who followed Phil’s every move. We send our thoughts and prayers to Phil’s sons Josh and Jake and the Cornelia Marie crew.

Capt. Harris had suffered health problems over the past two seasons of the popular television series, but it is doubtful anyone saw this coming.

My deepest condolences to the entire Harris family and the crew of the Cornelia Marie.

In what had to be the biggest, “What in the …” moment of Super Bowl XLIV, Jay Leno, David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey appeared together in a 15-second ad for The Late Show with David Letterman.  There is surreal, and then there is this ad.

The New York Times has a detailed account of how this whole thing came about, and it seems Mr. Letterman came up with it, they contacted Ms. Winfrey who said “yes” immediately and then Mr. Leno was contacted who had to get NBC’s permission, but was all for it.  Ms. Winfrey was snuck into the Ed Sullivan Theater, where Mr. Letterman tapes his show, during the filming of last Tuesday’s show, followed by Mr. Leno being snuck in in a hooded sweatshirt and wearing a fake mustache.  The two celebrities were hidden until the taping ended, and the building cleared.

Once set to go, Mr. Letterman and Mr. Leno spoke for the first time in years, but kept it all very cordial according to Rob Burnett, David Letterman’s producer.  The 15-second spot only took 20 to 30 minutes to film, they were done, and everyone went their separate ways.

This had to be the most unexpected ending to the Late Night Wars of ‘10, and no one saw it coming, that’s for sure.  Letterman and Leno haven’t spoken in years, and have been bitter adversaries for quite a while now, including during the recent Conan O’Brien dust up.  What ever brought about the truce, it led to an awfully amusing advertisement.

It seems that NBC would just like to forget Conan O’Brien ever worked for them, and the network has set about scrubbing all remnants of his tenure with the company from its halls.

It’s been two weeks since Conan O’Brien signed off from The Tonight Show, and NBC would like to forget he was ever there apparently.  Pictures circulated earlier this week of Conan’s image being replace by Jay Leno’s all over Rockefeller Center in New York, the corporate headquarters of the network.

Aaron Bleyaert, a former researcher and blogger for The Tonight Show posted pictures of the offices on move out day this past Friday, as well as the state of the set.  Neither picture set is very uplifting to say the least.

What is good news, though, is that there is some news that Mr. O’Brien and Fox are in talks to do something together, but not quite in the format anyone anticipated.  While Fox has the right to take over the post-local news time slot on its affiliate stations, those slots are currently filled with lucrative syndicated programs.  The affiliates would be less than pleased to see those spots disappear, so what could Fox do to get Mr. O’Brien in to their network, but not upset the affiliates?

Fox also owns the FX cable network, and the current rumor goes that Mr. O’Brien would have a show on the cable net four nights a week, and then have one episode a week on Fox on the weekends.  The problem is that comedienne Wanda Sykes already has a weekend show on Fox, and there is no word how this would be juggled as of yet.  The talks have thus far only been preliminary, but are expected to pick up speed over the next six weeks so the show could be prepped for a fall debut.  (Mr. O’Briens agreement with NBC states he must not host a new show before Sept. 1st of this year)

In other news, it seems that 50 Tonight Show staffers were somehow left with no severance pay in the show cancellation due to them just being stage hands.  According to TMZ, Mr. O’Brien has paid all 50 of the employees six weeks pay out of his own pocket to help them out until they find jobs.  This is not unheard of for the late night show host as he helped staffers out of his own pocket during the Writer’s Guild of America strike of 2007.

Capt. Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie, one of the ships on the popular Deadliest Catch series, has suffered a stroke.

News has come out that Capt. Phil Harris suffered a stroke on Jan. 30th while the Cornelia Marie was in port at St. Paul Island in Alaska, off loading a cargo of Opilio crabs.  Fans of the series Deadliest Catch will be familiar with this being the second half of the season, which is always the rougher portion of the show.

He was was immediately taken to the medical center in St. Paul, the same facility he was taken to when he suffered a blood clot two years ago.

Upon further examination he was medivaced to Anchorage, where he underwent surgery sometime during the evening of Jan. 30th.  His sons Jake and Josh were both at his side during the surgery, and a family friend named Derek Ray has flown to St. Paul to become relief skipper of the Cornelia Marie for the remainer of the Opilio season.

Jake and Josh updated the Discovery Channel on Feb. 1st that their father was resting comfortably, and was recovering.  They promised to pass along more information as it became available.

Fans of the show will remember that two years ago, Capt. Harris suffered a blood clot while out at sea, and was informed not to return to fishing for the remainder of that season.  The following year he skipped the King Crab season (the first half of the season each year on the television series), but did return for Opilio season.  While his health was not back to 100 percent, he did seem to be improving as the season wore on.  There is no word as of yet as to how he had been fairing this year.

As the Cornelia Marie is one of the featured ships of the series, Capt. Harris’ stroke is sure to be a central focus of the Opilio portion of this season, which should premiere sometime in April, although no official announcement has been made yet.

My most heartfelt well wishes to Capt. Phil for a speedy recovery.

Update Feb. 3rd: According to TMZ, Capt. Harris has awoken from his medically induced coma, and is talking.

One really good sign — his sons tell us that shortly after waking up, Harris told his doctors and nurses: “Don’t f**k up.”

UPDATE 02/10/10: Capt. Phil Harris of the Cornelia Marie has passed away

It would seem that someone at NBC has a twisted sense of humor.

Conan O’Brien has a production company named Conaco, and the company is currently working on a new series named Justice about a supreme court justice that retires to start his own law firm.  Not much else is known at this time, but it sounds like your typical law drama, and you know you can never have too many of those on the air.

As spring is approaching, the television networks are prepping for the 2010 – 2011 television season.  This is when all of the new shows are ordered to film pilots, or they even get series orders to go into full production.  Well, congratulations to Conan O’Brien’s Conaco as Justice’s pilot got picked up!

… by NBC.

What …
The …
Heck?!?

Is this someone at NBC’s idea of a joke?  As I am sure anyone who was born earlier than last Friday knows, Mr. O’Brien had a very public fight with the network, and he has now left the network as host of The Tonight Show.   Some speculated that this was part of his exit deal, but Nikki Finke has confirmed the production company is as surprised as anyone else by this turn of events.

The sad thing is, just because a pilot has been picked up, that doesn’t mean it will go to series.  There is every chance, and this is pure speculation on my part, that NBC picked it up merely to block it from going elsewhere.  There is a chance, albeit slim, that NBC truly did this to just mess with him.  Again, I stress this is slim, but you never know.

Congratulations?