More People Tuned Into 'NCIS' Last Week Than
'American Idol'

post from Starpulse Entertainment News - TV News on 18 April 2012 10:28:24 PM. © Starpulse Entertainment News - TV News

CBS was tops in the ratings this week, fueled by the #1 status of stalwart ?NCIS,? which reclaimed the top spot. FOX had to settle for second and fourth place for ?American Idol,? respectively. ABC...

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'Real Housewives of Orange County': Gretchen
Rossi surprised by Vicki's comments

post from Matt Carter's feed on 18 April 2012 10:24:14 PM. © Matt Carter's feed

On Tuesday night's new episode of "The Real Housewives of Orange County," we saw something that very few fans of the show saw coming: Vicki Gunvalson admitting that she was wrong when it comes to saying...

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'American Idol': Joshua Ledet closes out top 7
show

post from Matt Carter's feed on 18 April 2012 09:56:27 PM. © Matt Carter's feed

Joshua Ledet had a tough week on "American Idol" the last time the top 7 hit the stage, and he had a challenge this time to avoid the bottom three again.Luckily, Joshua had the beneift this week...

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The ABDC Flo Rida Challenge Party Room is now
open -- join us!

post from Blogging America's Best Dance Crew on 18 April 2012 09:46:00 PM. © Blogging America's Best Dance Crew

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Emma Gray: ABC's 'Revenge': Why Women Can't Get
Enough Of This Melodrama

post from TV on HuffingtonPost.com on 18 April 2012 09:40:49 PM. © TV on HuffingtonPost.com

When I first started watching "Revenge" back in September, I thought I was going to have to sweep my viewing habits under the rug and treat it as a very guilty pleasure (similar to how I feel about "The Bachelor"). I was certain that the soap-opera set-up and absurdly rich characters would ensure that the show was terrible; something that I'd watch on my laptop at a volume low enough that even my roommate couldn't hear. But seven months and 16 episodes later I'm an out-and-proud "Revenge" fan -- and so are a whole lot of other women.

For those of you that don't watch the show, the set-up is pretty basic. A rich girl named Emily Thorne comes to the Hamptons, rents a beautiful beach house and proceeds to integrate herself into the elaborate social scene. What the viewers know, but the majority of the characters do not, is that Ms. Thorne is in town to exact revenge on the people who wronged her father years before -- which turns out to be pretty much everyone. (If you want the details on all of the complicated relationships, check out HuffPost TV's infographic web of "Revenge" connections.)

I first realized that I wasn't alone in loving "that new show featuring the girl from 'Everwood,' the guy from 'Gossip Girl' and that other guy from 'Roswell'" (other confession: I was a big fan of the WB growing up), in line at Trader Joe's. I heard the woman in front of me mention her plans to go home and watch to the cashier. I couldn't help myself and I joined in the conversation, which turned into an epic "Revenge" love-fest. (I can only assume that the other grocery-buying patrons were less than pleased.) When Jezebel's Dodai Stewart penned an essay entitled "Of All The New Ladycentric Programming, 'Revenge' Is The Best" in January, my viewing habits were 100 percent affirmed.

So in celebration of the return of "Revenge" after a six-week long hiatus, here are three reasons that I can't get enough of this melodramatic gem of a television show:

1. It doesn't take itself too seriously.
"Revenge" is a nighttime soap opera. It features sultry, oh-so-serious voice overs from anti-hero Emily Thorne at the beginning and end of each episode, takes place in The Hamptons and is built around ... wait for it ... a REVENGE plot. But the show knows exactly what it is, and instead of trying to be hip and new and innovative, it embraces its melodrama genre -- and does a damn good job. Sometimes I watch TV to see myself represented on-screen (which is probably why I'm cheering so hard for the success of Lena Dunham's "Girls"), but sometimes I just want a little escapism. "Revenge" provides that in droves -- bring on the billionaires, giant beach houses, cocktail parties and townies, and add a dash of murder to boot.

2. NOLAN ROSS.
Nolan is Emily's one semi-ally and most definitely the best character on the show. As a woman who once took a few Sociology of Gender courses in college, hearing Nolan explain that he's "about a three on the Kinsey Scale" won me over once and for all.

3. Women are the key power players of "Revenge."
There are a whole lot of men in the "Revenge" version of the Hamptons, but they consistently play second fiddle to the women, who really hold all of the cards. Emily's main love interest, Daniel Grayson, is head over heels in love with her and asks her to marry him -- all while she's waging a secret war against his family. Daniel is a good person and a character that the audience grows to care about, but while in other shows, the rich, successful business school grad would be in control of the storyline, young Grayson is more of a pawn.

Daniel's mother, Victoria Grayson, is the other woman to watch. She rules the social scene of the Hamptons with an iron fist, stopping at nothing to take down those who threaten her position. But to the "Revenge" writers' credit, Victoria is a (somewhat) complex antagonist. Even in her more awful moments, her character is compelling -- which is probably why Madeleine Stowe was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. The women of "Revenge" might not be realistic or groundbreaking, but they're pretty badass.

Do you watch "Revenge"? What are your favorite no-longer-guilty-pleasure TV shows?

LOOK: Women Tweet About "Revenge"

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'Desperate Housewives': Eva Longoria teaming with
Giuliana Rancic on new show

post from Matt Carter's feed on 18 April 2012 09:37:44 PM. © Matt Carter's feed

Eva Longoria's run on "Desperate Housewives" ends this spring, but we are going to be seeing plenty more of her in a different capacity soon.NBC announced on Wednesday that Eva's upcoming show &quot...

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Live Play-by-Play for ABDC's Flo Rida Challenge
is now open - join us!

post from Blogging America's Best Dance Crew on 18 April 2012 09:36:00 PM. © Blogging America's Best Dance Crew

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'Confessions Of An Eco-Terrorist' Chronicles
Controversial Marine Activist Group

post from TV on HuffingtonPost.com on 18 April 2012 09:00:50 PM. © TV on HuffingtonPost.com

"The camera is the most powerful weapon ever invented."

Captain Paul Watson delivered this well-groomed line by phone to The Huffington Post while discussing a new documentary "Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist" about the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

It was some 30 years ago when director Peter Jay Brown began filming Watson, Sea Shepherd group's founder, to publicize his fight to protect the oceans -- and whales, in particular. After Brown set off to film the group in 1982, he stuck with the group and now considers himself a member.

"Confessions" is his compilation of three decades' worth of Sea Shepherd's often controversial campaigns. This is a group that counts among its accomplishments activities like "ramming and disabling" a whaling ship as it tries to halt the hunting of whales and other marine animals.

Watson, who studied communications in college and likes to quote media theorist Marshall McLuhan, told The Huffington Post, "You have to utilize the media to get any message across, whether you’re selling Coca-Cola or running for president."

"We were the first generation to understand the media and use it to our advantage," Brown asserted.

"In the early days of Sea Shepherd, we considered ourselves like acupuncture needles," Brown said. "We were so small, all we could do was make a point and let the bigger groups come in behind us and get the job done."

"Confessions" describes how the Makah tribe of Neah Bay, Wash., planned in 1998 to re-establish a traditional hunt of the gray whale after it was removed from the U.S. endangered species list.

Sea Shepherd staged multiple publicity stunts in Neah Bay, such as bringing in a mini submarine, that, in fact, had a major leak. "Perception in our world outranks reality," Brown says in the film. "Much like poker, a little bluff goes a long way."

Another stunt, shown in the film, involved plotting an arrest. "The media people wanted violence and weren't getting any," Brown claims in the documentary. "Their bosses were telling them to give up and come home."

Watson told his campaign organizer Lisa Distefano to trespass on tribal property, according to the film, which shows Distefano's arrest. "Someone managed to bloody her up a bit, which absolutely guaranteed her a spot on the evening news," Brown says in the film. The campaign is declared a success by Brown because "with so much media attention, there was no possible way the Makah could bring back commercial whaling as originally planned."

The Makah's tribal council states on its website, however, "The antiwhaling community is very well organized and very well financed and puts out a steady stream of propaganda designed to denigrate our culture and play on human sympathy for all animals. Perhaps what is lost in all of their rhetoric is an appreciation of the value of preserving the culture of an American Indian Tribe."

"Confessions" also shows how whalers in the Danish-affiliated Faroe Islands were targeted multiple times by the Sea Shepherd group because of their whale hunts, which involve villagers rounding up a pod of pilot whales and killing them.

During one campaign while dozens of journalists were aboard a boat, Sea Shepherd members "donned our survival suits, put on gas masks and set off smoke canisters for no other reason than to make pretty pictures," says Brown in the film. Activists planted underwater speakers off the Faroe Islands to give the impression that loud sounds would scare off the whales. The speakers didn't even work.

A Faroe Island whaling information website defends whale hunting in this manner: "The commonly occurring pilot whales are taken in the Faroe Islands for their meat and blubber in a whale drive which is organised on the community level and regulated by national legislation. This unique and traditional form of food production in the Faroe Islands has over the years successfully adapted to modern standards of resource management and animal welfare."

"A special whaling knife is used to sever the spinal cord, which also severs the major blood supply to the brain, ensuring both loss of consciousness and death within seconds," according to the Faroe Islands whaling information site.

Despite the efforts of Sea Shepherd and other groups, some countries still hunt whales. Japan, Iceland and Norway have also been targeted by the Sea Shepherd and other activist groups and governments for continuing to kill whales.

“They say the first casualty of war is the truth sometimes," Brown told HuffPost. "Paul Watson is backed by the truth. That’s his end. My end as a filmmaker is to make it exciting and entertaining so we can get the truth across."

"Whales were being killed, whales are going extinct," Brown added. "I just would try to get people interested somehow.”

SnagFilms plans to release "Confessions of an Eco-Terrorist" through video on demand channels on April 22. See a trailer from the film below.

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'American Idol': Jessica Sanchez recovers from
judges' save with Alicia Keys

One week after being saved on "American Idol," Jessica Sanchez had quite a challenge for herself. She not only had to deal with the emotions still of being at the bottom last week, but she had to find...

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'The Big Bang Theory' spoilers: First photo of
Casey Sander as Bernadette's dad

On the May 3 episode of "The Big Bang Theory," we are going to see Howard square off against someone who may be his most intimidating adversary yet: Bernadette's father.Based on the photo to the...

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