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Monday, April 25, 2011

Hellcats: American Cheerleading Comedy-Drama TV Series



Hellcats is an American cheerleading comedy-drama television series that airs on The CW in the United States. Based on the book Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders by
journalist Kate Torgovnick, the series focuses in the lives of college cheerleaders, mainly Marti Perkins (Aly Michalka), a pre-law college student who has to join the cheerleading team, the Hellcats, in order to get the athletic scholarship she needs. The main cast also includes Ashley Tisdale, Robbie Jones, Heather Hemmens, Matt Barr, Gail O'Grady and Sharon Leal.
In May 2010, Hellcats had been picked by The CW for the fall 2010–11 season. Initially with a 13-episode order, The CW aired the series after America's Next Top Model on Wednesday nights. The pilot episode aired on September 8, 2010, and became the first premiere to ever match or build on an America's Next Top Model lead-in since The CW began in 2006. The CW later gave a full season order for the series, with executives saying they were "thrilled that [it] paid off for us".
Hellcats has been described as "Election meets Bring It On" by critics. It received generally mixed reviews during its first season, obtaining a Metacritic weighted average of 51 percent, based on the impression of 22 critics. The series also earned a nomination in the 2011 People's Choice Awards.

One Tree Hill: American Teen, Young Adult TV Drama



One Tree Hill is an American teen, young adult television drama created by Mark Schwahn, which premiered on September 23, 2003 on The WB Television Network. After its third season, The WB merged with UPN to form The CW Television Network, and since September 27, 2006 the network is the official broadcaster for the show in the USA. The show is set in fictional town Tree Hill in North Carolina and originally follows the lives of two half-brothers, Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan Scott (James Lafferty). Their relationship evolves from heartless enemies to caring brothers, and the basketball drama, as well as the brothers' on-again/off-again romances with female characters, are significant elements within the series.
The first four seasons of the show focus on the main characters' high school years. With the beginning of the fifth season, Schwahn decided to skip the timeline four years ahead, showing their lives after college. In the seventh season, he adjusted the timeline fourteen months into the future after the sixth season. The opening credits were originally intertwined with the song "I Don't Want to Be" by Gavin DeGraw playing in the background. The theme was removed from the opening in the fifth season; Schwahn said the decision was made to lower production costs, add more time for the storyline, and because he felt that the song was more representative of the main characters' adolescent past, not their present maturity. The credits then only consisted of the title written on a black background. The theme was restored for Season 8, due to audience demand, and is sung by different artists each week.
The series' second season was the highest rated in the series, averaging 4.3 million viewers weekly and a 1.9 Adults 18-49 rating. It has also won Teen Choice Awards. On May 12, 2009, it was confirmed that Murray and Hilarie Burton declined to return for the seventh season, although stories on what transpired vary. Their characters (Lucas and Peyton) had been two of the five main protagonists, as well as one of the central love stories, throughout the show.
The CW officially renewed the show for an eighth season consisting of 12 episodes on May 18, 2010. A back-order of nine episodes were later ordered. Schwahn has said that the future of the series is still unclear, so he is treating season eight as the last in the series.

Raising Hope: American Comedy TV Series



Raising Hope is an American comedy television series that premiered on Fox on September 21, 2010. The half-hour single-camera comedy airs on Tuesdays at 9 pm ET/PT. On January 10, 2011, Fox renewed Raising Hope for a second season.
A 23-year-old must raise his infant daughter, conceived by a one-night stand, with the help of his flawed family after the baby's mother (who has killed multiple boyfriends) is given a death sentence and executed when the baby is only six months old.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

America’s Next Great Restaurant: NBC Reality TV Show



America's Next Great Restaurant is a current NBC reality television show that features contestants pitching restaurant ideas to a panel of judges, where the winner will receive financial backing for their restaurant concept to open three locations nationwide — Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and New York — in May 2011. The judges include chefs Curtis Stone, Bobby Flay, Lorena Garcia, and Chipotle Mexican Grill founder Steve Ells, who will also be investors in the winning concept. The production company behind the show is Magical Elves, the same company who produces Top Chef. The premiere was on March 6, 2011 at 8pm. The show has been described as a cross between The Apprentice and Top Chef.
ANGR Holdings will be the company that will be running the winning concept's restaurants. It also hold register trademarks on several of the restaurant concepts' names.

Ax Men: American Documentary Reality TV Series



Ax Men is an American documentary reality television series that premiered on March 9, 2008 on History. The program follows the work of several logging crews in the second-growth forests of Northwestern Oregon, Washington and Montana. The show highlights the dangers encountered by the loggers. Following in the footsteps of other shows from Original Productions, like Deadliest Catch and Ice Road Truckers, the series is considered part of a recent "real-men-in-danger" television programming trend.

Bleach: Japanese Manga Series



Bleach is a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Noriaki "Tite" Kubo. Bleach follows the adventures of Ichigo Kurosaki after he obtains the powers of a Soul Reaper — a death personification similar to the Grim Reaper—from another Soul Reaper, Rukia Kuchiki. His newfound powers force him to take on the duties of defending humans from evil spirits and guiding departed souls to the afterlife.
Bleach has been serialized in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 2001, and has been collected into 48 tankōbon volumes as of December 2010. Since its publication, Bleach has spawned a media franchise that includes an ongoing animated television series that is produced by Studio Pierrot in Japan, two original video animations, four animated feature films, seven rock musicals, and numerous video games, as well as many types of Bleach-related merchandise.
Viz Media obtained foreign television and home video distribution rights to the Bleach anime on March 15, 2006. Cartoon Network began airing Bleach in the United States as part of its Adult Swim block on September 9, 2006. Viz Media has licensed the manga for English-language publication in the United States and Canada, and has released 34 bound volumes as of March 2011 as well as published chapters of Bleach in its Shonen Jump magazine since November 2007. Viz Media released the first Bleach film, Bleach: Memories of Nobody, on DVD in North America on October 14, 2008. The second film, Bleach: The DiamondDust Rebellion, was released on September 15, 2009.
Volumes of the manga have sold more than 50 million copies in Japan, and have reached the top of manga sales in the United States. The anime adaptation has been similarly received; it was rated as the fourth most popular anime television series in Japan in 2006 and held a position amongst the top ten anime in the United States from 2006 to 2008. The series received the Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen demographic in 2005, and is among the best-selling manga properties in both Japan and the United States.

Breakout Kings: American Drama TV Series



Breakout Kings is an American drama television series created by Nick Santora and Matt Olmstead, which airs on the A&E network. The one-hour pilot episode premiered on March 6, 2011 at 10 p.m.
In order to catch escaped convicts, a squad of U.S. Marshals makes a special deal with several current prisoners . If they agree to help, their sentences will be reduced by one month for each fugitive they bring in and they will be transferred to a minimum-security facility. However, if any of them should try to escape, they will all be returned to their original prisons and their sentences will be doubled.

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