Project Runway's Heidi Klum by Barbara Nitke/Bravo Photo
As part of TVGuide.com's Strike Survival Guide, we've asked our staff of... staffers to tell you what they are biding their time with in these TV-anemic times. Up first is associate video producer Adam Schubak.I tend to take in a little of everything when it comes to my TV-watching habits. I even admit to getting some enjoyment out of the VH1 celebreality lineup. But with VH1 still prepping its next batch of shows and this whole strike nonsense showing no signs of stopping anytime soon, I've had to look elsewhere to get my fill of the tube (that is, until Lost comes back, of course!). So here's what I've been watching while waiting to return to my regularly scheduled programming: 1) Project Runway (Season 4 is currently airing Wednesdays at 10 pm/ET, Bravo)This is actually the first season I've caught from the beginning and not during some Bravo marathon. Everyone needs a little reality television in their life, and Project Runway is without a doubt the best one TV has to offer.2) ...
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Maria Menounos by Jamie McCarthy/ WireImage.com
The Greek goddess of Access Hollywood, Maria Menounos, has been tapped to host NBC's four-night Clash of the Choirs competition.... Season 5 of Comedy Central's Reno 911! reports for duty Jan. 16 at 10:30 pm/ET.... On Jan. 25, Spike TV premieres GameTrailers TV, an Entertainment Tonight for joystick junkies.... Spike TV has OK'd a second season of MANswers, but for only 10 episodes. (Just like a guy to commit half-heartedly.) — Ben Katner
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Coolio by Steve Granitz/WireImage.com
Oxygen has OK'd a reality show about rapper Coolio's attempts to raise six teens as a single parent. Coolio & the Gang will debut in the second quarter of '08.... Fox and McG (The O.C.) are developing Spaced, a comedy based (of course) on a British series from Shaun of the Dead creators Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. In it, two singles pose as a couple so they can rent a flat. Er, apartment.... Andy Barker, P.I. creator Jonathan Groff's new laffer, Private Lives of Public People, started a bidding war between ABC and CBS. In the end, the Eye landed the pilot about upstanding citizens whose home lives are disastrous.... Arrested Development alum Abraham Higginbotham got a go-ahead from Fox for his untitled comedy pilot featuring Reno 911's Niecy Nash among the lowbrow staffers at a highfalutin NYC hotel. — Ben Katner
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Niecy Nash, Reno 911!: Miami
Reno 911!: Miami, the just-released feature film spun off of Comedy Central's unscripted Reno 911!, offers fans "no bleeping, no pixillating and an officer in candy underpants," says Niecy Nash, who plays Officer Raineesha.
Seeing herself on the big screen wasn't as difficult as many an actress has lamented. In fact, Nash says, "I love that you get to see Raineesha's booty! I fell in love with my own self. I was saying, "Your booty's gorgeous!'"
Nash says that for all appearances promoting the film, not only did the actors conduct interviews in character, but she wore Raineesha's signature prosthetic booty. "I've had men be disappointed that I'm not Raineesha and that I don't have that body."
Like the television series, the film was improvised. N
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CBS has granted a full-season pickup to The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring Emmy winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus.... Despite a persistent fourth-place finish in its Wednesdays-at-9 time slot — which is so not gonna get better starting tonight — Justice has received from Fox an order for three additional scripts. Per the Hollywood Reporter, Fox may opt to try the show in a new time slot once it returns from its hiatus for baseball play-offs.... Comedy Central has renewed Reno 911! for a fifth season.
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Carlos Alazraqui, Reno 911!
From Barney Fife to Barney Miller, cops and comedy have made hysterical bedfellows. Comedy Central's cult hit Reno 911! is proof that the bumbling-police shtick remains in fine hands. The mostly improvised series plays its Cops-like parody for plenty of white-trash gags and silly sexual innuendos. Comic Carlos Alazraqui, who plays dim-witted deputy James Garcia, took a few moments away from World Cup action to lay down the law with TVGuide.com about his screwy series arriving on DVD this week, what the new season promises, and what's up with these modern Keystone Kops hitting movie screens. TVGuide.com: So, Reno 911! — The Complete Third Season is here on DVD.Carlos Alazraqui: Yeah, and fans will love the
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Among the new series revealed to be in production at other networks: KISS rocker Gene Simmons, his real-life honey, Playmate Shannon Tweed, and their kids will front Gene Simmons' Family Jewels, a new reality series from A&E, which is also in development on shows centered around Cheers alum George Wendt and champion drag-racer John Force, and USA Network has ordered the comedy-drama Underfunded, starring Reno 911!'s Mather Zickel as a "superagent" for the Canadian Secret Service.
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The creators of Comedy Central's Reno 911! are taking their law-enforcement spoof to the big screen. Production on Reno 911!: Miami — in which the officers attend a police convention during spring break, at which point all kinds of comical mayhem and gratuitous nudity ensues — will start later this month. Or, at minimum, cameos by Steve Guttenberg and Michael Winslow.
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It's hard not to feel jealous of the contestants on Fire Me... Please. The CBS hidden-camera show (Tuesdays, 9 pm/ET) features freshly hired employees trying to get themselves fired for a $25,000 prize. These baristas and salesclerks let loose and loony at work, acting out many a low-wage toiler's revenge fantasy, while host Dave Holmes secretly watches all the dramedy go down from a nearby van. The former MTV personality — himself a runner-up in the music channel's reality experiment Wanna Be a VJ — tells TVGuide.com why his new gig is worth holding on to.
TVGuide.com: Had you been looking to do reality TV before you landed Fire Me?Dave Holmes: Sure. For a while, it just seemed like every [reality show] was [about] having your face put back together or doing something really mean to somebody. This is funny and smart and not mean.
TVG: Do you really spend the whole day in the van while the contestants are
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