Television

MTV released today the season three trailer for its hit scripted series "Teen Wolf" which will premiere the first half of its supersized 24-episode third season on Monday, June 3 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

The first-ever all-star Celebrity Apprentice concluded with Donald Trump breaking from tradition and selecting the finalist seated to his right, Trace Adkins, as the winner of the $250,000 prize, which goes to his charity, the American Red Cross, which also received the $1,554,072 he raised in the final task. Adkins easily outraised Penn Jillette, who earned $498,655 on the final task for Opportunity Village. His charity, which helps people with intellectual disabilities get jobs, also received $100,000 for his Walgreens ice cream. As a reality TV character and contestant, I liked Penn better, and wish he'd won, but Trace made a compelling argument for why he should win, not that Donald Trump has ever used evidence in his decision-making. Overall, the celebrities raised $3.332 million for charity, some of which came from the show and its sponsors. Trump also gave Lil Jon $100,000 for the American Diabetes Association, apparently as a way to make up for firing him for no actual reason. But the celebrities also dragged down the show. The money raised for charity is the high point in a season that really sucked the life out of the franchise by retreading familiar ground and giving us nothing new in its returning celebrities, who we already knew and/or were really sick of. Its ratings recovered, but NBC didn't give it a vote of confidence by saying a renewal decision would come in the future. I think the format still has the potential to recover, if the show can find the right cast, and also pull back a little: for starters, the live spectacle finale is pointless, because Donald Trump is no Jeff Probst, and also the show no longer justifies a live finale. I'd rather have more standard discussion and decision-making at the end of an episode rather than hear the live audience make noise. The show needs a bold shake-up, and I'd start with replacing Donald Trump with Ivanka. He's a complete asshole who alienates viewers. She's much smarter, more engaging, and a better judge, one who can get past the bullshit and really weigh evidence. Trump could still make appearances and pretend it's his show, but it never will be the show it once was (and still is in his mind), because his shtick is tired. Here's the fascinating thing: Despite Trump's irrationality, the show remains an authentic competition, just one that literally has no rules. Penn Jillette told Hitfix that the show is "capricious and arbitrary but all that is out front," and insisted "Every other reality show I'd ever done, and I'd done a bunch of 'em, were deeply dishonest. And The Celebrity Apprentice isn't. Everything is straightforward. They don't even redo things. You know, on every other reality show they say, say that same thing but over here. They don't do that." The world needs more authentic series, and again, the format has a lot of life left in it. It just needs to fire the right person.» comment on this story» read the latest news about The Celebrity Apprentice 6» more reality TV news and gossip on Twitter or on Facebook.

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First of all, here’s what we do know: We were all wrong about the surprise in the finale, and about the identity of Clara Oswin. Of all the theories I developed, and of all the theories I read about before the season finale, I don’t believe I read anything even close to the actual surprise, and credit to Moffat for coming up with something even better than the theories we all tossed about. The only issue I have is that Moffat has put the lid on one can or worms, and opened up another, and less than a few hours after viewing the finale (at the time of this writing), my head is already spinning trying to figure out the cliffhanger, develop more theories, and predict what’s to come next. It’s the most excited I’ve been about Doctor Who this season, and probably since the River Song mystery. But let’s take a step back and review what we learned from the season finale. 1. The Doctor is buried in Trenzalore. Trenzalore is not a new location to the Who Universe. It’s a battlefield graveyard, the one place a Time Lord should never go (and possibly what remains of Gallifrey), and what Dorium Maldovar suggested would coincide with the fall of the 11th in “The Wedding of River Song.” So, Moffat has had this storyline in his back pocket for a long while. Will it mean the fall of the 11th? Foreboding predictions like these have a tendency to come true (see, e.g., the Face of Boe’s prediction about the 10th Doctor). 2. The Doctor’s Tomb is the TARDIS, which grows bigger as the dimension dams break and the “bigger on the inside” begins to leak. That’s a pretty goddamn fascinating fact for a Whovian. 3. The Doctor chooses to go to Trenzalore, against the wishes of a very feisty TARDIS, to save his friends, Vastra, Jenny and Strax, who can apparently time travel through dreams (a fact that I did not know, but that I’m sure has been accomplished at some point during 50 years of Doctor Who). 4. The villain that propels the plot in the finale is the Great Intelligence. The Great Intelligence is a disembodied sentience who attempts to find a body and physical existence. It’s been around the Doctor Who since the late 1960s, but made its first appearance in the post-2005 Doctor Who in an earlier Matt Smith episode, The Snowmen. In that episode, the Intelligence inhabits the body of Dr. Simeon, and he reappears in Clara Oswin’s first official episode as companion, “The Bells of Saint John,” where The Intelligence (which had taken on the likeness of Simeon) used Miss Kizlet to aid him in creating an organization based at the Shard to collect and harvest the minds of people using the wifi. He shows up again in the season finale with The Whisper Men. It is the Whisper Men’s first appearance on Doctor Who, although as someone on Tumblr has already pointed out, they do share a remarkable resemblence with The Gentlemen from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 5. The only way for The Intelligence to gain access to the Doctor’s Tomb is if someone reveals the Doctor’s name. The Doctor is unwilling to do so, even at the cost of his friend’s lives. However, River Song whispers the Doctor’s name, opening the tomb (we never hear the name, no matter how many times we stop and rewind our DVRs). We knew that River Song knows the Doctor’s real name because she whispered it to him to gain his trust way back in the 2008 episode, Silence in the Library (that episode was also written by Steven Moffat, during the Russell T. Davies era, which also suggests that Moffat may have been planning this episode as far back as 2008). 6. The River Song stuff is confusing to me, to say the least. It’s always been a little confusing because River and the Doctor had always met on opposite ends of River’s timeline, which is something that’s even difficult to explain accurately. The first time the Doctor met River, sh

Every year around this time, Donate Life America organizes a huge “push” in favor of organ and tissue donation.  This is a national effort to enlist new organ and tissue donors to save lives. This year is no different. Legacy of Life “Hometown” Campaign And one of the Donate Life America member organizations is especially dedicated in the use of its “hometown” celebrities to educate the public on giving of themselves to help others live. But the “public push” started long before this time of year.  Way back in November of last year, Legacy of Life had posters of some of its more famous supporters plastered all over the walls of local DMVs, encouraging people to check that box on their licenses to say, ‘yes, I’m an organ donor.’” A Strong Presence in the World of Organ Donation Legacy of Life has been going strong since 1987, and Nancy Downes, Marketing Director, tells me it “is the only federally designated organization in Hawai’i authorized to recover tissue and organs for transplant.” Legacy of Life works closely with medical professionals and local hospitals – as well as the Hawai’i Lions Eye Bank & Makana Foundation (for eye donation).  The organization offers strong community and educational outreach programs to inform the public about organ donation through its website at http://www.legacyoflifehawaii.org.  There are currently around 400 people in Hawai’i alone in need of life-saving transplants. Supporters from TV and Film A few of the supporters on Oahu, where this organization is located, are from the world of TV and film. One of these is KGMB’s Hawaii News Now anchor/reporter Shawn Ching. Speaking in a recent interview with me, Ching says, “When Legacy of Life Hawai’i asked me to participate in their public service campaign, without hesitation, I said yes.  I was already an organ donor.  I believe in what Legacy of Life Hawai’i stands for and the need for organ donation. Participating in the campaign was a no brainer for me. “We participated in a photo shoot, which was turned into posters and placed through the Department of Motor Vehicles in various locations all around Oahu.” Other famous TV island supporters are Ching’s five o’clock news co-anchor Stephanie Lum, KHON2 news anchor Joe Moore, and Hawaii Five-0 frontman Alex O’Loughlin, who is also an Ambassador for the cause. Ching has worked in television for the past 20 years and recently announced that he will be leaving his news position at the end of this month. We wish him well and thank him, as well as all organ donors, for continued dedication to the service of helping others through organ donation.  Cheryl has been a freelance TV/film writer for more than 10 years. Simultaneously, she has worked in PR for Bon Jovi Productions in NYC, PolyGram Records (also in NYC), and Rogers & Cowan Public Relations. Cheryl has published articles at suite101.com, “Sci-Fi Entertainment” magazine, and “Soap Opera Weekly.” She was also a credited researcher for English author Denis Meikle’s JOHNNY DEPP: A KIND OF ILLUSION. Cheryl enjoys writing for the entertainment industry and meeting new people. She is also an animal lover.

Production has begun on Star Wars Rebels, an exciting, all-new animated television series based on one of the greatest entertainment franchises of all time.

Yahoo buys Tumblr for $1.1 billion via Rickey.org Yahoo! announced this morning that it was buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion. The company promises “not to screw it up” in their new blog on yahoo.tumblr.com. Meh. I stopped being a fan of Yahoo! a few years ago. From Yahoo: We promise not to screw it up. Tumblr is incredibly special and has a great thing going. We will operate Tumblr independently. David Karp will remain CEO. The product roadmap, their team, their wit and irreverence will all remain the same as will their mission to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve. Yahoo! will help Tumblr get even better, faster. Via Verge Follow me on Facebook! • Follow me on Google+ The Voice • American Idol • The X Factor

"Downloaded," Alex Winter's documentary about the rise and fall of the transformative but controversial company Napster, will receive theatrical and VOD runs from VH1 beginning in late June, the music network announced on Monday. Directed and produced by Alex Winter, the film will open in New York City on June 21 and Los Angeles on June 28, and will then expand to Albuquerque, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Grand Rapids, Martha's Vineyard, San Francisco and Seattle, among other cities. Related Articles: Wake Up and Embrace the Technology, Urges Napster Documentary 'Downloaded' read more

Deborah Turness has been named president of NBC News. Her appointment has been something of an open secret in media circles. Turness joins the network from ITV News where she served as editor of the U.K. channel for nine years. Her move was confirmed by both ITV and NBC News. "I am hugely excited by the opportunities that lie ahead and look forward to working with the talented journalists and technicians who make it one of the great global news operations," Turness said in a statement. Related Articles: NBC News President Steve Capus Steps Down David Axelrod Joins NBC News, MSNBC as Senior Analyst read more

Martin Scorsese will present Mel Brooks with the American Film Institute’s 41st Life Achievement Award – America’s highest honor for a career in film.