Predictably, the cast and host of “Saturday Night Live” had a little bit of fun with Ashlee Simpson’s backing-track snafu on Saturday (Oct. 30).
Host Kate Winslet joked in her monologue that “I can assure you [the show] is live because I’m hyperventilating a bit. I do, however, wish it wasn’t the week after the Ashlee Simpson incident because now I really do have to perform live.”
Cast member Horatio Sanz later sang a tribute to Jessica Simpson’s street-cred-seeking younger sister, to the tune of Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” called “Ashlee Simpson You’re a Phony.”
What’s less clear was whether musical guest Eminem was joking when he apparently used a backing track on one of his own songs, the anti-Bush rap “Mosh,” during the show. Video clips from the performance clearly show Eminem dropping his mic at two points during the song, but his vocal track continues.
Unlike Simpson, who had a band backing her on the Oct. 23 “SNL” when a technical glitch revealed the backing track, Eminem was backed only by a DJ. It was obvious to viewers, then, that at least the music for “Mosh” was prerecorded. The use of prerecorded tracks is also a more common practice among pop and hip-hop artists than it is among rock bands.
Whether Eminem was obliquely poking fun at Simpson, or whether he just didn’t sync his performance to the backing track, is unclear.
The Boston Red Sox have been ratings gold for FOX in the past two weeks, lifting the network from fourth place to second in total viewers for the TV season and to the top of the heap in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic.
Baseball season is over now, though, and it’s still two months before the network’s other big ratings engine, “American Idol,” returns to the schedule. In between, FOX will do something that is possibly unprecedented in network-TV history: give over more than half of its scheduled to unscripted programming.
Starting Monday (Nov. 1) — three days before November sweeps begin — FOX will air nine hours of unscripted programming per week and six hours of scripted comedies and dramas. Only Thursday nights, which will feature “The O.C.” and “North Shore,” will be free of reality show.
ABC, with “Monday Night Football,” two “Extreme Makeover” series and two newsmagazines, actually has 10 unscripted hour in primetime, one more than FOX. But since ABC has seven more hours in primetime each week (22 vs. 15) FOX is the only network in which a majority of its programming is unscripted. (CBS has but five unscripted hours, while NBC has six.)
That wasn’t FOX’s original intention. Back in May, seemingly five or six schedule permutations ago, FOX’s November schedule was an exact opposite of what will air this week, with nine hours of scripted shows and six of unscripted fare. Since May, however, two of those scripted shows have fallen by the wayside, one was put on a temporary hiatus and another has been cast into scheduling limbo.
“The Jury,” which FOX planned to air at 9 p.m. Fridays, didn’t make it out of the summer. Comedy “Method & Red” lasted a little while longer but got the hook in September. “Meth & Red’s” planned Wednesday-night lead-in, “The Bernie Mac Show,” has been put on hiatus to allow its title star to get over an illness. And “Tru Calling,” slated to follow “The O.C.” on Thursdays, has been put off indefinitely.
“North Shore,” which aired on Mondays during the summer and early fall, will now shift to Thursdays after “The O.C.,” starting Thursday (Nov. 4). The unscripted series “Trading Spouses” will fill the vacant Monday spot, paired with “The Swan.”
A new reality show, “Nanny 911,” is moving into the 9 p.m. Wednesday spot where “Bernie Mac” and “Method & Red” would have been. Fridays have been given over to “Totally Outrageous Behavior” and “World’s Craziest Videos” — which are replacing another unscripted show, “The Next Great Champ” — and “Renovate My Family,” filling in for “The Jury.”
FOX will begin to resemble its more typical self in January, when “American Idol” and “24” return to join staples like “The Simpsons,” “The O.C.” and Emmy winner “Arrested Development,” all of which premiere this week.
Credit: Zap2It
