As I pondered what to write about this week, as always, I checked our customer care employee portal to see what topics were on the front page and I saw that it’s that time again for those pesky sun outages. We’ll receive calls from customers concerned about the quality of their pictures and have to consider whether or not the symptoms they are reporting require intensive troubleshoorting or even a field service call. If the symptoms are breakup, tiling, black screens, or static and only last for about ten minutes or so, it’s likely just a sun outage. To refresh you on what sun outages are and why they occur, please click here to read the article posted to this site in early spring. It’s pretty interesting stuff.
Dancing with the Stars Cast Announcement During The Bachelor Pad?
I understand the whole idea of cross-promotion for networks – Get your viewership numbers up for the night by getting viewers from a highly popular show to watch for your big cast announcement. But, really ABC, why would you try to force me to watch the Bachelor Pad just so I can find out who’s the next cast of Dancing with the Stars. There has been enough speculation going around about who’s on the show as is – with an even bigger focus on reality TV stars. Didn’t Kate Gosselin teach you anything? On top of reality stars, now we are getting more politics in the mix with Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol on the show. Seriously? I know that no one is going to be pleased with every single cast member that is chosen but don’t stray away from what made the show popular in the first place, dancing.
I would love to hear your thoughts about the show and the potential cast for this upcoming season.
Blackouts Revisted
In checking the WOW! internal customer service announcement page (the main place our customer service reps go to regularly for helpful information) for a good educational topic to blog about, a blackout announcement was right there on top. There’s a blurb about the Cleveland Indians game with the Chicago White Sox on WGN on August 30th and it occurs to me that football season is upon us. Oh wait a minute while I google it. It’s baseball, not football. Sorry, I’m not a professional sports fan although I do have a special place in my heart for the Colorado Rockies and notice, as I was googling about the other teams, that the Rockies just beat and stunned the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. Way to Go Rockies! Most often though, I have a hard time telling one team from another. But, I do know there’s always the start of a professional sports season lurking in the near future, so blackouts are a good topic to refresh everyone on. To do this, I reached way back into our archives to an article that Bob Pech contributed early in the year about blackouts. I thought it was a good one, one that you’d enjoy reading again if you’ve been following our blog, and if you’re new to the site, you’ll enjoy it as well. Click here to read it.
The 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, Live August 29
To me, Sunday night is my Super Bowl night. I’ve always loved TV, TV history, and watching the Emmys is one of my favorite award shows. I can pass on the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the SAGs, etc. Let me watch the award show for us true TV fans – the Emmys!
The Emmys will air this Sunday, August 29th on ABC. Here’s where you can tune in:
Chicago City, Chicagoland and Michigan customers: Channel 7 for ABC; channel
200 for ABC HD
Cleveland customers: Channel 5 for ABC; channel 200 for ABC HD
Columbus customers: Channel 6 for ABC; channel 206 for ABC HD
Evansville customers: Channel 11 for ABC; Channel 811 for ABC HD
Here is just a quick glimpse of who’s up for nomination in some of the top categories. For a full list of all of the nominees, click here.
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series
Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory • CBS
Larry David as Himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm • HBO
Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester on Glee • FOX
Tony Shalhoub as Adrian Monk on Monk • USA
Steve Carell as Michael Scott on The Office • NBC
Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock • NBC
Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series
Bryan Cranston as Walter White on Breaking Bad • AMC
Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan on Dexter • Showtime
Kyle Chandler as Eric Taylor on Friday Night Lights
Hugh Laurie as Dr. Gregory House on House • FOX
Matthew Fox as Jack Shephard on Lost • ABC
Jon Hamm as Don Draper on Mad Men • AMC
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series
Lea Michele as Rachel Berry on Glee • FOX
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Christine Campbell on The New Adventures Of Old Christine • CBS
Edie Falco as Jackie Peyton on Nurse Jackie • Showtime
Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope on Parks And Recreation • NBC
Tina Fey as Liz Lemon on 30 Rock • NBC
Toni Collette as Tara Gregson on United States Of Tara • Showtime
Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series
Kyra Sedgwick as Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson on The Closer • TNT
Glenn Close as Patty Hewes on Damages • FX Networks
Connie Britton as Tami Taylor on Friday Night Lights
Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick on The Good Wife • CBS
Mariska Hargitay as Det. Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit • NBC
January Jones as Betty Draper on Mad Men • AMC
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
Chris Colfer as Kurt Hummel on Glee • FOX
Neil Patrick Harris as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother • CBS
Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Mitchell on Modern Family • ABC
Eric Stonestreet as Cameron Tucker on Modern Family • ABC
Ty Burrell as Phil Dunphy on Modern Family • ABC
Jon Cryer as Alan Harper on Two And A Half Men • CBS
Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series
Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad • AMC
Martin Short as Leonard Winstone on Damages • FX Networks
Terry O’Quinn as John Locke on Lost • ABC
Michael Emerson as Ben Linus on Lost • ABC
John Slattery as Roger Sterling on Mad Men • AMC
Andre Braugher as Owen on Men Of A Certain Age • TNT
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series
Jane Lynch as Sue Sylvester on Glee • FOX
Julie Bowen as Claire Dunphy on Modern Family • ABC
Sofia Vergara as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett on Modern Family • ABC
Kristen Wiig as Various Characters on Saturday Night Live • NBC
Jane Krakowski as Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock • NBC
Holland Taylor as Evelyn Harper on Two And A Half Men • CBS
Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series
Sharon Gless as Madeline Westen on Burn Notice • USA
Rose Byrne as Ellen Parsons on Damages • FX Networks
Archie Panjabi as Kalinda Sharma on The Good Wife • CBS
Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart on The Good Wife • CBS
Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris on Mad Men • AMC
Elisabeth Moss as Peggy Olson on Mad Men • AMC
Outstanding Host For A Reality Or Reality-Competition Program
Phil Keoghan as Host on The Amazing Race • CBS
Ryan Seacrest as Host on American Idol • FOX
Tom Bergeron as Host on Dancing With The Stars • ABC
Heidi Klum as Host on Project Runway • Lifetime
Jeff Probst as Host on Survivor • CBS
Outstanding Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm • HBO
Glee • FOX
Modern Family • ABC
Nurse Jackie • Showtime
The Office • NBC
30 Rock • NBC
Outstanding Drama Series
Breaking Bad • AMC
Dexter • Showtime
The Good Wife • CBS
Lost • ABC
Mad Men • AMC
True Blood • HBO
What’s all the Hoopla about Hulu?
Our Entertainment Editor, Libby, wrote an article last week about Hulu and encouraged you to go out to our new customer portal and check it out. She says it’s an easy way to watch all your favorite programs on the internet and I wonder, with my big two big TVs at home and my DVR why would I even want to do that? I’m intrigued so I thought I’d explore this topic a bit further. So off to the hulu.com site I go to see what all the Hulu hoopla’s about.
The Hulu company’s mission according to it’s website, is to “help people find and enjoy the world’s premium video content when, where and how they want it. ” Hulu, founded in 2007, offers all your favorite news, movies, sports, and series with new content added daily. TV, your way begins the Hulu product tour from the Hulu site. The first thing that comes to mind is the fast food commercial about “having it your way” which some of you might remember. “Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders won’t upset us.” There’s no fast food feast on Hulu but there is a fast content feast for sure. Next Stop: WOW!’s new home page to see how I get to the Hulu content from there.
To get to the Hulu content, go to the portal wowway.net and on the upper left hand side next to “News” click on “TV” From there you can watch thousands of videos from the WOW! homepage for free. Your WOW! homepage is now your ” one stop shop” for TONS of video content. Click on a network and page through lots of selections. Or use the search engines to find a specific topic. For those who are fans of “The Bachelorette” there’s a deleted Ali and Frank scene you might find interesting in the most popular episode window. For those of you who miss the Versus Channel you can pick it up online from here. So much to watch, so little time.
A poll of my WOW! colleagues shows that we’ve got quite a few “hulu gurus” here and as usual, I’m behind on the technology curve. Now that I’m up-to-speed though, it’s lunch time and I’m closing my door now so I can watch a Jimmy Kimmel interview with my favorite celebrity chef, Chef Ramsey, I found by searching on “Kitchen Nighmares.”
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