SNL To Have On-Air Search For New Talent, 'Meadow Soprano' To Star In UPN Show, 'Jeopardy' Guy Sets Record

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Call it “Last Not Ready for Prime Time Player Standing.”

NBC and “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels are discussing a televised competition for actors looking to join the venerable late-night show, with the winner would get a spot in the “SNL” cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The competition to become part of “Saturday Night Live” is often cutthroat, but audiences have never seen it before. That would seem to make it a natural for the unscripted talent search format.

Michaels would serve as a Simon Cowell/Donald Trump figure to the comics and actors on the show, deciding who gets to keep competing and who goes home. It’s a role “SNL” viewers would be accustomed to, as Michaels often does cameos that portray him as a godlike figure in Studio 8H.
The “SNL” talent search could be ready to go for summer 2005. NBC isn’t commenting.

“Sopranos” co-star Jamie-Lynn DiScala will produce and possibly star in a UPN drama based on the website Vivianlives.com.

The site, and three follow-up books, come from the mind of Sherrie Krantz and focus on the author’s alter ego Vivian Livingston. Vivian is a single, twentysomething career gal in New York City who seems to owe more than a little to “Sex and the City.” On the site, users can read Vivian’s journals, play solitaire and purchase a variety of associated products.

DiScala, Meadow on HBO’s Emmy-winning mob drama, brought the project to UPN. The actress’ biggest credit outside of her familiar series is the recent telefilm “Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss. DiScala plans to produce the series along with her husband and manager A.J. DiScala.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, DiScala plans to star as well, but she won’t be able to commit to the UPN project until her “Sopranos” commitments are fulfilled. The series isn’t expected to return to HBO before Spring of 2006.
Matt Walden and Barry Katz will executive produce the series for New Wave Entertainment.

Another record has fallen at the feet of “Jeopardy!” champ Ken Jennings.
The Salt Lake City resident became the No. 1 money winner in game-show history on Wednesday’s (Nov. 3) episode of the syndicated show. He added $45,099 to his winnings, bringing them to a total of $2.197 million in his 65th “Jeopardy!” win.

His winnings surpass those of Kevin Olmstead, who took home $2.18 million on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” in 2001.

Although Jennings says in a statement sent to press that he’s not playing “just for the money,” he told host Alex Trebek on Wednesday’s show that breaking Olmstead’s record has been a goal. “I actually know Dr. Olmstead a little bit, and he’s been very supportive,” Jennings said.
As has been noted countless times and will be again here, Jennings’ remarkable streak is the result of a rule change on “Jeopardy!” last season that allows winners to play until they lose, instead of retiring after five shows. The software engineer’s run has been a boon to the show’s ratings and made Jennings a celebrity.

Credit: Zap2It

Murtz Jaffer is the world's foremost reality television expert and was the host of Reality Obsessed which aired on the TVTropolis and Global Reality Channels in Canada. He has professional writing experience at the Toronto Sun, National Post, TV Guide Canada, TOROMagazine.com and was a former producer at Entertainment Tonight Canada. He was also the editor at Weekendtrips.com.