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TV Tonight: The Office, Earl, and Gladiators Play the Feud

BuzzSugar — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:34:55 -0700

Tonight, NBC is airing the one episode of Celebrity Family Feud that I've truly been waiting for. The casts of two great NBC comedies - plus a third show, which I suppose could be considered a comedy depending on how you feel about people in spandex racing against other people in spandex - will face off in an epic feud.

The episode will have several rounds, and of them, I'm most excited about the accountants of The Office taking on the American Gladiators (who are, naturally, in costume). There's something inherently funny about Al Roker crying out "Kate! Venom! Let's play the Feud!" Add in some whooping whistles from Wolf (still my favorite Gladiator) and a brave Phyllis challenging him to an arm-wrestling battle, and we've got quite the show on our hands.

NBC has a couple of preview clips for the episode; they give away the scores at different points - but not the winner - so if you'd like to remain pure and unspoiled, you might not want to watch them yet. On the other hand, if you really just want to see what answer Creed gives for things people practice doing in a sexy way, just read more.

Photos courtesy of NBC

Will You Be Watching Any of Tonight's Wacky Game Shows?

BuzzSugar — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:30:14 -0700

Tonight's a big night for game shows: Three new ones are premiering, two on ABC and one on NBC, all with different levels of zaniness.

NBC's entry, Celebrity Family Feud, is the most recognizable of the three, as it's the latest in a long series of Family Feud updates. Tonight's show pits Ice T vs. the Rivers clan and Raven-Symone's folks against Wayne Newton's. I'm holding out for The Office vs. American Gladiators.

More curious are the shows making their debut on ABC: Wipeout, otherwise known as that show where people fall all the time, and I Survived a Japanese Game Show. Both are based on common tropes of Japanese game shows, as this New York Times article explains, and both involve humiliation played for laughs.

I saw an extended preview of Wipeout during the upfronts, and the voiceover narration making fun of the mud-covered, dazed contestants made me feel extremely uncomfortable. But I am a little curious to see Japanese Game Show, which I hope will be more wacky and less mean-spirited.

Do you think you'll be watching any of these shows tonight?

Celebrity Family Feud: It Might Actually Be Sort of Funny

BuzzSugar — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:30:52 -0700

Let's just say I wasn't exactly thrilled when NBC announced it planned to take up part of its Summer programming block with Celebrity Family Feud. Combining a game show whose best years were a few decades behind it with yet another set of pseudo-celebs embarrassing themselves on national TV (see also: Celebrity Circus) sounded like a recipe for utter disaster.

But then NBC announced the list of participating "families" for the show this week, and - well, maybe it's the Summer heat going to my head, but I think this could be pretty funny in the "reality TV trainwreck you can't stop watching" sort of way.

I mean, I simply have to watch the episode where the accounting nerds of The Office take on the muscle-bound warriors of American Gladiators. The Hatfield vs. McCoy-style battle between two factions of the My Name is Earl cast - the Hickeys vs. the Camden County All-Stars - could be pretty great, too. And there's just a certain amount of curiosity that comes with hearing Ice T's clan will be taking on Joan and Melissa Rivers . . . or that Vincent "Big Pussy" Pastore will be feuding with the cast of The Girls Next Door.

Granted, they're not all great (I could do without the Bill Engvall vs. Larry the Cable Guy matchup, though admittedly I'm not in their demographic, and they kind of missed a chance to woo sports fans by having both Tiki Barber and Deion Sanders on the show but not competing against each other). But overall, it's already more than I was expecting from this show. And hey, it's for charity. The show will premiere July 1. What do you think? Do you sense the potential hilarity here?

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