No Picture
Reality TV

David Hasselhoff meet David Hasselhoff: CBS premieres “Same Name” July 24

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide It was William Shakespeare who most famously wondered, “What’s in a name?” I’m guessing if you ask the William Shakespeares of San Diego; Las Vegas; Park City, Utah; St. Petersburg, Florida; Phoenixville, PA; Levelland, Texas and onward across the country, they’ll tell you something along the lines of, “plenty of trouble making restaurant reservations.” At least that’s the experience of 27-year-old Texas native David Hasselhoff Jr., who affably demonstrates his knack for getting hung up on in the July 24 premiere episode of CBS’s new reality series Same Name. The show — which also introduces […]

No Picture
Lifestyle

“Say Yes To The Dress” fans get a double header Friday on TLC

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide Outside of my family, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and beer, there are few things in this life I love more than TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress franchise. I can’t help it … I’m a sucker for slap-happy brides. And the simple joy of losing my mind over what people are willing to spend on a dress they’ll wear for one day, have sealed in a couple-hundred-dollar box and never look at again. Also, Randy Fenoli. And Monte Durham. I’m especially a sucker for them. So you can imagine my delirium upon finding out […]

No Picture
Reality TV

Hey “Blue Lagoon” fans: Christopher Atkins is coming to Bio!

By Lori Acken OK, I’ll admit it … Actually, I don’t need to admit it. I’m pleased as punch to report that my jaded old heart skipped a beat, maybe twelve, when I opened the latest Bio press release and saw that name. His name. The name of he who could send me walking into walls, make me furtively smooch a poster till it wore through to the faux wood panel of my closet door and — most of all — want to clobber Brooke Shields when I was in the 8th grade. Christopher Atkins. Richard. He of the loin […]

No Picture
Reality TV

Hugh Hefner plans the jilted-groom special of a Lifetime

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide For the remaining 3.7 of you who still believe that 85 year-old Hugh Hefner and 25-year-old Crystal Harris’ love was real, and that something terribly heartrending must have taken place in order for the bride to put the kibosh on their June 18 wedding mere days before — we understand. Clearly, they’re both devastated. As evidenced by Harris partying for pay with Heidi Montag pool side in Vegas on the day of the doomed nuptials. And Hef promptly picking a new blonde lady, named Anna Sophia, from the blonde-lady aisle at the grocery store or […]

No Picture
Music

Mum’s the word: VH1’s “Unplugged: Mumford & Sons” airs Friday

Mumford & Sons is of those bands, the ones that hipster Hollywood types like Carey Mulligan, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman — and a few music obsessed mortals like my friend Kiki — seem to know about a good year before the rest of us do. But once you finally get on the bandwagon, you’re awful glad to find yourself there. Especially if you think that squeezebox, banjo and stand-up bass never really lost their place in good music. Most folks got their first look at the English power bluegrass (Britgrass? Graygrass?) quartet —  made up of Marcus Mumford, “Country” Winston […]

No Picture
Comedy

Gray(son) Matter: Lifetime’s “Drop Dead Diva” returns for Season 3

Oh, how clearly I remember the first PR I got for Drop Dead Diva, Lifetime’s now 2-year-old hourlong dramedy: dipsy-doodle blonde model Deb dies in a car accident, huffily hits the Return button on the computer of her heaven-or-hell triage worker, and does indeed Return to life. Only in the body of a chubby, humorless, plain-Jane lawyer named … Jane (Brooke Elliott). Who just so happens to work in the same firm as Deb’s grieving fiance, Grayson (Jackson Hurst). Cliché meet stereotype — let the fat jokes fly. Except that wasn’t the case at all. Instead the pilot introduced a […]

No Picture
Reality TV

Tweets and meat and blowups and breakups are on the menu for WEtv’s “Braxton Family Values” finale

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide Oh surely you didn’t expect Toni Braxton and her contentious clan of sisters to go out with a whimper… No ma’am and sir, the girls are wrapping up Season One of Braxton Family Values with a bang and a Twitter, as each sibling will be tweeting live throughout the finale and the Wendy WIlliams-hosted reunion special to follow. You can be part of the party by using #BFV and seeing if your tweets appear on air with the Braxtons’. On tonight’s wrap-up, “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner,” the family convenes for dinner at Pampas Steakhouse […]

No Picture
Drama

Starz makes Kelsey Grammer the “BOSS” in October

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide The teaser for Starz upcoming scripted drama series BOSS features a somber Kelsey Grammer as dicey-but-productive fictional Chicago mayor Tom Kane striding through an austere looking building and silently ruminating on the sacrifices he’s made to reach the top of the Windy City’s power pyramid. Aw. Poor flag-on-the-lapel-wearin’, give-it-all-up-for-his-town kind of guy! Then he says, “Sacrifices are easy when you’re holding the knife.” Oh. Oh oh. Something ain’t right with this fella.

No Picture
Lifestyle

Bravo invites you to “Rocco’s Dinner Party” June 15

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide He didn’t exactly heat up the dance floor on Season 7 of Dancing With the Stars — but studly celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito sure knows how to entertain his pals with ambience and cuisine. Now Bravo has your invitation to his exclusive and swank soirees, courtesy of the network’s newest competition series, Rocco’s Dinner Party, premiering June 15 at 11pm ET/PT (the show moves to Wednesdays at 10pm on the 22nd). In each specially-themed episode, three talented chefs from all walks of culinary life — from restaurant all-stars to self-taught prodigies — will battle to […]

No Picture
Reality TV

Oxygen’s “The Glee Project” takes the stage this Sunday

By Lori Acken Follow @ChannelGuide My fellow Gleeks, hold a big old thumb-and-pointer “L” — as in lost, languishing, longing — up to your furrowed brow if that’s how you feel now that the second season is over and fall is still so very far away. But before you Freek out too badly, take heart — this Sunday, June 12, marks the premiere of Oxygen’s The Glee Project, a groundbreaking, 10-episode competition series straight from the mind of Ryan Murphy, co-creator and Emmy-winning executive producer of Glee. And the victor earns something even better than a cash prize: He or she […]