Things got off to a bit of a ho-hum start for a Friday the 13th and Day 4 of the Television Critics Assn.'s media tour at the Beverly Hilton.
That is, until CMT (Country Music Television) was up to introduce the latest installation of its reality competition, "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team."
At the end of the trailers, 12 of the 36 Dallas cheerleaders took to the stage and danced to the longest song in the history of the world.
Up and down and all around, the women performed what we learned later is "precision jazz-based dancing."
It finally ended when they all landed on splits, and Bob Kusbit, head of development at CMT, came back to the lectern and said two of the girls had pulled calf muscles and does anyone want to rub out their kinks?
All righty then!
Maria Elena Fernandez
--
'iCarly' invites viewer content
"This is the future of TV," Dan Schneider, creator and executive producer of Nickelodeon's "iCarly," told TV writers on Friday. The journalists, as inundated with new technology as anyone, were ready to believe it.
"iCarly" is a show-within-a-show that invites tween-age viewers to submit their own videos, a la YouTube, to be included in the show, which will premiere in September. Designed for kids who have grown up with a multitude of media, the show gives viewers specific assignments that relate to an upcoming show. They are then directed to a website to post their content.
The show stars Miranda Cosgrove as Carly, and Jennette McCurdy, Nathan Kress and Jerry Trainor as her friends Sam, Freddie and Spencer.
Lynn Smith
--
'Conchords' duo credits the Web
Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie, the uncombed, droll, nerdy/hip/comic musicians of HBO's "Flight of the Conchords," credited their lightning-speed fame to YouTube.
After their first HBO special was downloaded 500,000 times, they said they became instant celebrities.
"A lot more people want photos of us now," Clement said. "It used to be families and birthday parties. Now it's strangers," McKenzie, looking depressed, added.
HBO executives said that while the show has drawn 1.8 million viewers on premium cable, it had 1.2 million on their website.
Part of the reason, they said, is that the show is designed so that each scene can stand alone, and the musical numbers can be used as short music videos.
Besides fame, Clement and McKenzie said they're also getting used to living in Los Angeles.
