ABOUT TEST PATTERN

Don't touch that dial: Test Pattern tunes into television, movie, music and pop culture links, as well as gossip and idle chat from around the Web.

Every week, msnbc.com entertainment producers Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, Denise Hazlick, Paige Newman, Kurt Schlosser and Anna Chan weigh in on topics ranging from TV commercials to movie hype to the latest celebrity blunder. We're not ashamed to admit our love for bad TV or reveal what's on our iPods, and invite you to join the conversation via your comments.



CW: A female 'Geek' on 'Beauty,' Chris Rock news

Posted: Friday, July 20, 2007 11:56 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:

The CW arrived Friday at the TV Critics' Association summer press tour, and entertainment president Dawn Ostroff kicked things off with a free-wheeling session discussing everything from CW reality shows to a little "Veronica Mars" mourning.

First, let's tackle the reality show tidbits:

--"Beauty and the Geek" will return on Sept. 18, with one tiny twist. In addition to a full complement of beautiful babes and geeky men, there will be one beautiful man paired with a supposedly geeky girl. (She looked geeky only in Hollywood's sense of the word, in other words, as soon as she takes off her glasses she'll probably be a babe too.) Why not do a whole show about handsome men and geeky women? I have my theories about that, namely, that unattractive smart women are not interesting to Hollywood, and that the beefcake men would be more likely to completely dismiss and be cruel to unattractive women than the reverse.

--"America's Next Top Model" won't be going anywhere for a while. Tyra Banks has been signed to do the show through 2009. The next "cycle" will start Sept. 19 in L.A., but the cycle after that will move back to New York, where the first three seasons were shot.

--"Pussycat Doll" winner Asia Nitollano is not, in fact, going to be the next Pussycat Doll. She's "pursuing a solo career," which made one critic ask what's the point of these shows if the winner doesn't really become anything. (Have you seen the "Top Model" winners actually becoming Top Models? Me neither.) But the show will be back, with the Pussycat Dolls this time helping select women for a new group called Girlicious.

--Two appalling looking new reality shows are on the way. "Farmer Takes a Wife" is kind of like "Bachelorettes in Alaska," where city women head to a rural area and proclaim that all they really want is to settle down with a real, salt-of-the-earth guy. I'm betting a) the relationship doesn't work out, and b) that we've already seen all the cliches of spoiled urban girls milking cows on "Simple Life."

The other reality show, "Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants," takes adult daughters and their well-preserved mothers (who all appear to have been high-school sophomores when they gave birth) and has them compete in beauty pageant type competitions. Critics howled when it was announced that the ceremony kicking one team off each week is called the "de-sashing," and a giant pair of ceremonial scissors was shown.

My favorite question of the session came when a critic asked Ostroff if she was proud of the "vision of life" that The CW's reality shows present to women. Let's see...that would be look beautiful ("Top Model"), look beautiful ("Beauty and the Geek"), look beautiful ("Crowned") and look beautiful so you can get married ("Farmer Takes a Wife"). Unsurprisingly, Ostroff said yes, that she thought the shows were "aspirational in many ways." Unless you aspire to contribute to the world in a non-looks-centered way, I guess.

Ostroff also offered some tidbits about CW's scripted shows:

--Like NBC, The CW will try and incorporate environmental issues into its shows, with each show featuring one green-themed episode. The only one filmed so far: "Everybody Hates Chris" has an episode called "Everybody Hates Earth Day." Heh.

--Some new characters are coming to "Smallville" and "Supernatural." Laura Vandervoort will play Supergirl on "Smallville." And on "Supernatural," Sam and Dean will be joined by two female evil-hunters, played by Katie Cassidy (daughter of ex-"Partridge" David) and Lauren Cohan.

--News for "Gilmore Girls" fans: Scott Patterson (Luke) will be joining the CW's new comedy, "Aliens in America." He's replacing previously cast Patrick Breen, and will play the father of a nerdy Wisconsin kid who blossoms when a Muslim exchange student comes to live with the family.

--Chris Rock has always been heard in voiceover on the show based on his childhood, "Everybody Hates Chris," but now he'll get an acting role, too, playing a school guidance counselor in the season premiere.

--"Buffy" fans waiting for a possible TV movie about Spike will have to wait a little longer. The CW has not had any conversations with "Buffy's" Joss Whedon about the film, said Ostroff, adding that the network "would love to be in business with Joss."

--Ostroff didn't talk much about departed shows "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls." Of "Gilmore," she did say that as the ratings continued to drop (they fell 25% in the show's final season), she and star Lauren Graham talked and decided it was best to end the show. As for "Veronica Mars," she said the show had "no stronger champion," and that the network "really tried to bring more viewers in" but was unable to do so.

 

MAIN PAGE

Email this EMAIL THIS

Comments

I have dubbed Beauty and Geek as "Cheetoes for the Brain." It's horribly artificial and terrible for my health, but, despite that, I am still addicted.

Brandy, FL (Sent Friday, July 20, 2007 5:44 PM)

It baffles me that the CW powers couldn't understand why "Gilmore Girls" ratings went down.  For legions of loyal fans, the show lost its magic from mid season 6 when Amy Sherman Palladino brought in a plot device (Luke's long lost daughter)and drove Luke and Lorelai's characters into the proverbial ditch. David Rosenthal then decided to waste fifteen episodes with "Pod" Lorelai (who marries callow and unworthy Christopher).  Gone was the strong, big-hearted Lorelai we loved.  Gone was the intelligent, sparky banter between Luke and Lorelai.  It was lamely replaced with the immature "quippy twins" of Chris and Lorelai.  It was as if they were constantly trying to one-up each other.  Fans were not amused to see Luke and Lorelai replaced with Joey and Dawson.  We yelled. We screamed.  We were ignored.  We stopped watching.      

Lisa, Boston, MA (Sent Friday, July 20, 2007 11:21 PM)

I think the role reversal beauty and the geek failed partially because of lack of interest from potential cast members too. I remember there actually was a casting call for geeky women to participate in the show (it may not have gotten past the low-level stages, but I had a friend who was asking around at grad schools for participants...almost all people she spoke to said no without hesitation.). Appearing on TV show that labels you as 'geeky' is not exactly advantageous to a woman's career. Add in that it's socially acceptable for a man to be geeky, but a woman is expected to care about her appearance regardless of occupation, and it's not hard to see why they didn't pursue that type of show.

Erin, Los Angeles, CA (Sent Sunday, July 22, 2007 6:03 PM)

The CW was unable to bring more fans to Veronica Mars because they had no idea how to market a smart show and further, they had no clue who their target demographic was. If they really wanted to bring viewers to the show, they should at taken a look at who was already watching, instead of repeatedly attempting to "dumb down" for a younger, uninterested market. Apparently if you're old enough to have taste- your tv watching dollars don't count.  

VM was failed by the CW, no matter how they choose to spin it now.

Tracy Medley, Salt Lake City, Utah (Sent Monday, July 23, 2007 11:08 AM)

The whole concept of the CW is a joke.
I'm getting really sick and tired of these 'makeover' shows. I see nothing wrong with 'nerds' and 'dorks.'
The CW completely destroyed Gilmore Girls, and as for Jericho, it's just plain annoying!
All those people who brought it back to life - get a job!
All in all, these new shows are a complete nuisance.

Bring back Veronica Mars!

Bring back Veronica Mars!

BRING BACK VERONICA MARS!

Natasha C., Tucson, AZ (Sent Monday, July 23, 2007 12:18 PM)

I think that many "geeky" women are less in need of the makeover offered by the show.  As a professional engineer and occasional geek, I watched even the geekiest of girls in classes and workplaces often dominated by geeky guys get lots of attention from the opposite sex becasue they were in situations where there were 10 guys to every girl.  To survive in that environment they had to achieve a level of social skill never found by many of my fellow geeky guys.

David Prescott, Arizona (Sent Monday, July 23, 2007 1:16 PM)

The CW is dead to me, Gilmore Girls was the only show I couldn't and didn't miss in the whole week.  Everybody I talked to knew with the change in writing direction, that things will go bad.  You could feel the effect, it was like things continued to hang in the air, instead of resolve.  I still hated that it seemingly ended out of no where.  I will miss it dearly, and hope all the talented actors get great jobs.  

jody whitt, richmond, indiana (Sent Tuesday, July 24, 2007 10:00 AM)

CW cancelled it's only intelligent offering by removing Veronica Mars from the lineup. Regardless of what is stated by Dawn Ostroff, they attempted nothing out of the ordinary to obtain more viewers for the show. Alternative/inventive marketing could have worked wonders, yet they sat on their laurels wondering why they cannot capture viewers. The CW had a show that could appeal to people outside their standard demographic, yet they chose to ignore that fact. Now they have a lineup of crap reality TV.

I guess now they are trully down to the "targeted" demos. 12-16 year olds who cannot understand a logical thought or witty writing.

Kelly Green, St Louis, MO (Sent Friday, July 27, 2007 1:00 PM)

Obviously Dawn Ostroff has no interest in intelligent storylines, attractive men or smart women, and could care less about talent.  Now I know why she is ruining SUPERNATURAL.

Dairwendan, Indiana (Sent Tuesday, November 27, 2007 3:48 AM)



SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

Your name, city and state (John Doe, Seattle, Wash.): 

 Your e-mail address (jdoe@msnbc.com):

Your website (it's okay if you don't have one):

Remember me? (We'll keep it private)

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://testpattern.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=280508