Schedule Unknown

And yet, nobody is watching YOU.

Here's the thing, NBC. I wanted to give this show a chance. A group of strangers wake up in an otherwise deserted town, each of them having been kidnapped and with no idea why they are there, or where "there" actually is.

It's the brainchild of Christopher McQuarrie  of "The Usual Suspects" fame, and promises to be only a summer mini-series of sorts, with a promise to wrap up the story by the time it is over, so there's no long-term commitment, other than tuning in each Monday at 10 pm for a few weeks when there's nothing else on to watch... OK, NBC, I'm in.

Except, this past Monday, even though the listings in my local paper clearly showed "Last Comic Standing" from 8 pm - 10 pm and "Persons Unknown" at 10 pm, for some reason known only to the network, they decided to flip-flop the shows while keeping it pretty hush-hush. 

What makes the decision even more confusing is that after airing two hours of generally generic and unfunny comedians on Monday, NBC opted to rerun half of the same semifinal showcase on Tuesday at 10 pm. 

So basically, anyone who was watching "Persons Unknown" have now missed an hour and are unlikely to return, and anyone who had set their DVRs to record the originally scheduled  two hours of "LCS" missed the second hour, and yet the network chose to rerun the FIRST hour again the following night, only with the "results" tacked on in the last five minutes.

Great job, guys. You should be... well, you know...

 

Faith No More

When watching Last Comic Standing, each time they cut to judge Natasha Leggero, I can't help but think to myself... she's like Eliza Dushku, only ten years older and not nearly as good looking.

The Shot Heard Round the World

We've been busy of late, but not too busy to feel that swell of patriotism that came with Landon Donovan's goal. As a longtime soccer fan, it's truly rewarding to see how this year's team has managed to get the country behind them...  Go USA!

Trek Tok, or $tar Trek

Swiss Goalie is Not a Cowherd - Or Is He?

No Agony of Defeat Here!

Good news! Good news! (Now, anyone know how to get on her "list"?)

It's officially official... we're going to be blogging a little less often as we devote our writing energies to our debut book.

Skyhorse will be publishing THE THRILL OF (VICARIOUS) VICTORY - a Freakonomics-style look at fantasy sports and how strategies for winning can come from unlikely sources, from the psychology of performance prediction on Wall Street and casino game theory, to the world of Ghost Hunters and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Right now, the plan is for an August 2011 launch date, but we'll keep you posted on our progress here as we get closer.

In the meantime, thanks for your continued support and please spread the word!

Building a World Cup Title - Brick by Brick

Mexico's Coach Killed Laura Palmer

The World Will Be Watching - Repeatedly

Friday marks the start of the World Cup, which for a soccer fan like me, is a month of pure nirvana. As a writer for ESPN.com, I have the good fortune of being able to watch each and every game, and not feel guilty, since it is in fact, my work.

Those of you interested in playing a March Madness-style select the winners game can find one here.

I wanted to take a moment to explain one thing I wrote in the introduction to this game, as it has been the source of several e-mails from people with nothing better to do than attempt to find fault with my writing, where frankly, none exists.

I state that the tournament "will be watched by a worldwide audience of more than 26 billion people" and this has resulted in an unexpected bevy of criticism sent my way. Here's a sample:

"There's only about 7 billion people in the world. In your article... you mentioned that the World Cup will have an audience of 26 billion people. This would be impossible... Just thought you should know."

To this I simply respond... If I had said 3,674,495 people attended games at Yankee Stadium last season would you bat an eye? Why would you, since that was the official attendance figure - and yet, wouldn't you assume that many of those who attended games went to more than one? So the number of actual individual people who went to Yankees games was likely far less than the actual attendance.

With 64 games on the World Cup schedule, if the same 1 billion people watched each and every  game, then the total viewing audience for the tournament would be 60 billion people. It's simply adding up the viewing audience for each individual game, which is what the World Cup officials do when releasing the official "total viewing audience" figure for the event - which in 2006 was 26 billion people. 

Mystery solved. Population crisis averted. Please go back to your regularly scheduled activities - all 26 billion of you.

What Wormhole Did I Just Go Through?

So, I see this link for a clip of a comedian performing on "Live at the Apollo" and decided to watch it.

Did you ever feel like you've suddenly been transported to an alternate universe? Because, for the love of Steve Harvey, this ain't the Apollo I remember.

I was kind of expecting something more like this...

Even Lelaina Pierce Understands This Irony

O Blogger Where Art Thou?

I know, I know. Where have I been? What's up with the lack of daily bloggitude of late?

Not AJ

Patience, dear readers. Some very cool news will be forthcoming next week to, like Clarissa, explain it all.

WOW! THAT'S ANNOYING!

So, three times in the last few weeks or so I've been lulled into deep REM sleep while listening to a West Coast baseball game on the MLB Network. They should really figure out how to capture the hypnotic essence of Vin Scully and Dick Enberg and put it in pill form.

Unfortunately, I've also been forcibly roused from my slumber on each occasion by this commercial which somehow decided that cranking the volume "to eleven" was a good idea:

Sorry, Staples. All you've managed to do is make me hate you. And Joey Slotnick, although in fairness, that wasn't too much of a journey.