Mike's Bloggity Blog

ABC announced that cast of the next season of Dancing with The Stars tonight!  Usually I wouldn’t touch this announcement with a ten-foot pole, but there is one contestant of note that’s worth mentioning:

Winnipeger and WWE champion Chris Jericho made the cut and will now be competing against the likes of Ralph Macchio, Kirstie Allie, Wendy Williams, Sugar Ray Leonard and Kendra Wilkonson. I’m embarrassed that I typed Kendra and Sugar Ray in the same sentance.

Let’s hope it goes better for Jericho the his last foray into reality television, when he competing in Celebrity Duets back in 2006!  Holy shoot, I bet you’re wondering why I remember that!  Well I was actually at the first taping of that show in LA and it’s kinda the reason I started the blog in the first place.  You see, I wanted my friends and family to keep track of my four day trip to Los Angeles. Yes, I was (am) that self-important.  (Click here to read the post.)  Sadly Chris Jericho was voted out on the first episode, which was a little awkward since I was there with his cousin.  Such a crazy time.

Anyway, Jericho is ridiculously charismatic, which means the soccer-moms are going to love him! I think he’ll stand a real chance!

Does that mean I’m going to watch?  Not a chance in hell!

Any big foodies out there?

The impending first season of Top Chef Canada made few big announcements today, including the cast of chefs who will be competing for the top prize of $100,000 and a GE Monogram kitchen worth $30,000!

A quick glance of the cast reveals, as usual, a bevy of Ontarians (seven to be exact) and one lowly maritimer, Todd Perrin from Newfoundland.  So we already know who is going to win the inevitable lobster challenge.

Here’s the cast:

Clayton Beadle, 26, Whistler, BC
Derek Bocking, 30, Montreal, QC
Darryl Crumb, 29, Winnipeg, MB
Connie De Sousa, 29, Calgary, AB
Francois Gagnon, 32, Montreal, QC
Dustin Gallagher, 28, Toronto, ON
Steve Gonzales, 35, Toronto, ON
Jamie Hertz, 31, Nelson, BC
Chris Kanka, 34, Toronto, ON
Dale Mackay, 30, Vancouver, BC
Andrea Nicholson, 28, Toronto, ON
Rebekah Pearse, 29, Calgary, AB
Todd Perrin, 40, Quidi Vidi Village, St. John’s, NL
Rob Rossi, 27, Toronto, ON
Michael Stauffer, 30, Dundas, ON
Patrick Weise, 40, Toronto, ON

The show also announced that the show’s resident judge will be Torontonian Shereen Arazm. According to the press release he is the creator and operator of Tinsel Town’s most respected tables including Italian eatery Terroni and sushi staple Geisha House.  Neither of which I would ever be able to afford.

I’ve never had a sampling of the Top Chef franchise, but I may have to give this a taste. The first season of Top Chef Canada premieres on April 11, 2011 on the Food Network!

This week’s Metro column is about the newly revitalized downtown core.  For those who aren’t from around these parts, here’s a crash course:

Calgary’s downtown core has always been a source of debate. For born and raised Calgarians, who don’t know any different, they think it’s fine that a major city’s core empties out just before 6pm.  Others, mostly visitors, are always surprised when they book  room at downtown hotel and realize there is nothing to do within 5kms of where they are staying.

The city has always seemed a little confused what to do with the downtown area but since moving here six years ago, I’ve noticed that slowly and surely, it is getting cooler.  Nothing like Vancouver or Toronto’s but it is getting close.

Click here to read my latest Metro column but be warned, if you’re a super mom, you may not like it.

Well that didn’t take long!

Just a few days after CBC disclosed that Brett Wilson would not be returning to Dragon’s Den, the network has announced that his still-warm chair will be replaced by Bruce Croxon!

Who’s that you ask?

No, he’s not the founder of Crocs, instead he is the mind behind Lavalife!

“I’m thrilled to be invited into one of the highly coveted Dragon chairs. I’ve always been drawn to start-ups and to the challenges that come with funding early stage businesses,” said Bruce Croxon, the newest Dragon. “All big ideas start somewhere and I’m really looking forward to the chance Dragons’ Den offers to take part in finding and investing in the best new undiscovered business opportunities the country has to offer.”

Croxon will first appear when the sixth season of Dragon’s Den premieres this fall on CBC.

Ladies and Gentleman, may I please present to you the next piece of evidence in the case against Network Synergy:

JWoww.

Quick lesson: JWoww is one of the stars of the MTV’s biggest show right now Jersey Shore. It’s like Teen Mom but the babies are actually grown ups.

As a part of her promotional duties, JWoww will be in Toronto on Monday and Tuesday doing the usual circuit. The problem, of course, is that when you are a on a CTV owned show, the “usual circuit” is pretty much any media source in Toronto. Okay, not every media source but it’s pretty frickin’ close. Yeah that’s right, I just dropped a Jersey Shore reference….or at least I think I did.

In 48 Hours, the reality show star will essentially be everywhere:

• CHUM FM
• CP24BREAKFAST
• THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW at 10 a.m. ET on CTV.
• MTV LIVE
• ETALK
• CANADA AM
• MTV NEWS
• MUCHMUSIC’S #TRENDING

Uhhh are you kidding me?  That is the definition of overkill. Let’s not forget, this is all within 48 hours!  Look, I get appearances on MTV, Much and ETALK. Their main audiences eat up Jersey Shore like it was a Beaver Tail.  But The Marilyn Denis Show?  Canada AM?  Really?  If she wasn’t making any appearances in Toronto except Canada AM, then I might understand, she’s good TV. But with so many other appearances scheduled, she really has no right showing up on a news program like Canada AM.  It really does just seem greedy on CTV’s part, no?

For a girl that’s really only famous for being drunk and fighting, I’m pretty sure the most watched morning show in Canada’s producers are biting their tongue on this one.

And how bad is it that media-icon Marilyn Denis has to interview Jwoww not once, but TWICE within two hours.   Maybe she’s already regretting coming back to network TV?

While I’ve never claimed to be a marketing expert, I always thought that less was more.  How are any of the shows supposed to feel like they have any sort of exclusivity, when their co-workers are talking with her fifteen minutes later?  Then again, this is the network that had Ben Mulroney interview his boss on the Oscar Red Carpet, so obviously they aren’t trying to shy away letting you know that soon they’ll be in charge of everything.

You’ll remember a couple of months ago that MTV’s Jessi Cruickshank moved to LA to maybe someday become the Nancy O’Dell. Somehow that hasn’t happened yet. (Rumor has it that she was supposed to be on Access Hollywood Live but the deal fell through after she moved to the city of Angels.) So now CTV has her covering other Hollywood happenings while she presumably waits out her apartment lease.

Well things reached an all-time low for Jessi on Sunday night when she was featured on the ETALK Red Carpet Oscar special. Nope, she wasn’t on the red carpet, she wasn’t even in the booth that over looks the stars.  She was in behind the theatre. Literally.  Like in an alley.   Yikes.  While the gag of her trying to get into the show would be funny for a video package, the running gag became awkward when it became apparant that she was probably actually trying to get in. Obviously to the cringe-worthiness of her segments, Jessi even tweeted pictures of her less-than-ideal locale.  The whole thing brought back something I have paid a lot of money to forget: The Olympic Hot Tub!

Does the name Ben Mulroney get you nothing in Hollywood?

Remember a couple of weeks ago, it was Valentine’s Day, and the world was full of romance? There was flowers, chocolates and confessions of love?

I bet that seems like a lifetime ago now, right? You’ve probably settled back into your regular dull routine of  eating chips and watching How I Met Your Mother (that may be just me), well I want to spice it up by bringing the romance back into your life…for at least two hours.

I’ve got FIVE double passes to the exclusive Calgary of premiere of Beastly, the stylized new adaptation of Beauty and The Beast starring Vanessa Hudgens, Alex Pettyfer, Mary Kate Olsen, Neil Patrick Harris and Lisa Gay Hamilton. With the passes comes a whole bag full of Beastly swag too. Nothing says a great date like a free movie passes, am I right?  No seriously, nothing is sexier than getting stuff for free.

The screening is this Wednesday at Chinook at 7pm.

If you wanna win these passes, just leave a comment saying who your date will be!  Your BF?  Bestie?  Secret Crush?

Good luck!

Ever since  Survivor premiered more than ten years ago, Canadians have been desperate to get on the best reality show on TV.  Heck, “If I was on Survivor…” has been a boring party ice breaker ever since the first torch was put out twenty-one seasons ago. But no matter how many times we begged and pleaded, it seemed that Canadians would never be able to go on the show, (with the exception of Kel “The Beef Jerkey” guy from season 2, a Frederictonian with duel-citizenship.)

Well Jeff Probst finally addressed the issue on his blog and answered the question we’ve always been wondering, would those north of the 49th parralell ever get a chance to find the hidden immunity idol?:

“This is a very common question, and so many of you from all over the world asked the same question! The issue surrounds the ‘rights’ to the Survivor format. Mark Burnett/CBS only have the rights to do an American version of Survivor. This means you have to be an American citizen. As you noted, there are other countries, including South Africa that do their own version of Survivor. None of them as exciting as ours of course! By the way, we have several South Africans on our crew — good people!”

So it doesn’t look good for we poor Canucks.  Our only hope is that Global realizes the huge ratings would be worth the massive expense that it would cost to film their own version of Survivor.Please Global, pretty please!

But I only have one request: IF that were to ever happen, could we please keep Jeff Probst.  And if not him, can I recommend Daryn Jones?

Until the next Tribal Council, all we can do is wait.
(story via reality blurred)

Well I had heard the rumors but now it is official!

CBC has just announced that Brett Wilson will not be on the next season of Dragon’s Den!

The network says that they are already searching for a new Dragon and are expected to make an announcement in the next few weeks.  I’m shocked that my phone hasn’t been ringing.

Brett will definitely be missed.  He was always sure to support businesses that had a philanthropic angle, so I hope that CBC will be able to find someone with as much heart.

Julie Bristow, executive director, Factual Entertainment at CBC Television made this statement: “We’d like to thank Brett for his many contributions to Dragons’ Den over the past three successful seasons and the positive influence he’s had on Canadian entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, we were unable to reach an agreement on the terms of his contract. We wish him the best for all of his future endeavours.”

All four other Dragons, Arlene Dickinson, Robert Herjavec, Kevin O’Leary and Jim Treliving are in place for next season.

This is will definitely shake things up, so it will be interesting to see who they bring on to replace Brett!  Seriously…why isn’t my phone ringing?

A lot of people think I’m all about Top 40 pop music. But I got layers people, I’m deep. At least I hope that explains why I have Andy Brown’s Damn on repeat since it showed up in my inbox two weeks ago. On. Repeat. My neighbours hate me but I kinda think it might be worth not being invited to their awesome Father’s Day parties. I’ve been a long time fan of Andy Brown’s and this song is proof of his growth as a musician, which is why I’m puzzled: How is he still unsigned? I simply do not understand the music industry.

Have a listen and let me know if I’m going crazy. It’s good right?

(ps: dear neighbours: I’m totally joking, please invite me!)