In our first article, we took a look at social networking sites, MMA and the rise and fall of poker. In article #2, we will take a look at tabloid entertainment programs, reality television programs featuring judges and homegrown celebrities.

– We used to be big fans of Entertainment Tonight. The program used to feature previews of upcoming movies, interviews with celebrities and behind the scenes footage at award shows. This was the standard until Access Hollywood launched in the mid 90s. Now, there were two programs that featured the same type of features on the entertainment industry and its stars. As if two wasn’t enough… let’s throw in shows like ‘Extra’ in for good measure to make it a threesome. The overcrowding came to its peak when the E! Entertainment channel launched and featured extended versions of these programs 24 hrs. a day for anyone eager enough to watch this stuff all day long.

The problem came when each program tried to diversify their content from each other in order to stand out amongst the bunch. The rise of the paparazzi also created an atmosphere where anybody who could get the latest gossip or fetch the latest photo would get the ratings boost needed to beat out their competition. Ratings mattered more than ever and friendly celebrity chats and movie previews wasn’t what was going to be bringing viewers in anymore. Viewers wanted the dish on their favorite celebrities and would move to whichever channel had the goods on their favorite celebrity pals.Entertainment news was thrown out of the door and replaced by entertainment gossip programming. The rise in celebrity gossip and tragic ratings news events would bring about entertainment gossip clones like ‘The Insider’ or ‘TMZ.com’ who cared more about trashing celebrities rather than honoring them. We’d love to find out about an upcoming movie or find out what a certain celebrity thinks about their upcoming flick but unfortunately shows like Entertainment Tonight now feature stories on former celebs losing 50 pounds through liposuction or what celebrities are now in rehab and we must switch over to hardcore geek websites devoted to this type of stuff.
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There are people out there who love to drink soda. As in the random example above – there are those who really… really love their soda. For every ‘Coca-Cola Classic’, there has been a ‘New Coke’. Coca-Cola decided to officially re brand the formula for Coca-Cola in 1985 with a strong ad campaign telling people that they had made coke ‘Even Better’. Despite the backlash, New Coke actually sold well and helped the Coca-Cola company reach an 8% gain in sales compared to the previous year. Unfortunately, there was too much public outcry to return to the original formula despite scientific research in later years that proved that most people couldn’t tell the difference between the two drinks. The gigantic public relations failure by Coca-Cola actually turned into one of the best marketing campaigns of all time as the re-introduction of Coca-Cola under the brand name ‘Coca-Cola Classic’ helped to reinvigorate people with the brand and helped Coca-Cola outsell both ‘New Coke’ and Pepsi the following year. This isn’t the only example of bad soft drinks that entered the market only to be soon forgotten. Let’s take a look at some other drinks that hit the market only to eventually vanish and never be heard from again.

– In 2004, the Jones Soft Drink company got the weird idea of turning Thanksgiving classics such as mashed potatoes & butter or turkey & gravy into soft drinks in order to boost the company’s profile with the mainstream media. The holiday pack would also include cranberry soda and green bean casserole soda. The company’s spin on the concept was that people could enjoy the taste of a Thanksgiving dinner without ever having to chew a single bite. Needless to say, the drinks tasted awful and the concept was soon abandoned and never to be heard from again.
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There are many sports out there that are very physical and the chances of getting hurt or potentially killed in one of them increases every time that you participate in one of them. Some sports such as hockey are easy examples but there are some death traps out there that might not be so easy to spot upon first glance. Let’s take a look at some sports hazards that are lurking every corner whenever you decide to participate in them.

-There have been an estimated 376 injuries from 1948-2004 and 25 reported deaths since 1976 from alligators attacks. Statistics have proven that 10% of these injuries have occurred as a result of golfers trying to retrieve their golf balls in alligator-infested waters. Many golf courses in Florida and Louisiana are home to the American Alligator. Most golf courses are forced to hammer down signs that instruct golfers to be aware of Alligators that are present in the area but other than the signs there is not much that is keeping you from coming face-to-face with an alligator. As more and more golf courses are being built on alligator territory and less is being done to kill the reptiles due to animal conservation requirements; we urge people to never go into the water in these areas and to simply grab a new ball and continue playing with it and avoid the water at all costs.

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Gatorade is a sports drink that is made by Pepsi Co and is sold in over 80 different countries worldwide. In addition, the company now sells nutrition bars, protein drinks and additional merchandise with the Gatorade logo. The drink was created in the 1960s by a team of researchers at the University of Florida. Gatorade is the official sports drink sponsor of almost every professional sports league including the NBA, NHL, NFL,Nascar and MLB just to name a few. A popular term in sports culture is called a ‘Gatorade Shower’ where a member of the winning team will take a Gatorade cooler and dump it over the head of their head coach in celebration for winning the game. The main goal of drinking Gatorade is to re-hydrate your body after doing any physical activities. In 2010, the company went through a major re-branding after a poor restructuring of their product lines caused their market share to drop by more than 2%. The company now offers a ‘G’ series of product lines which help a person before, during, and after a workout. Furthermore, Pepsi Co has introduced a new low calorie version of Gatorade which they now call ‘G2’. The company has its own sports science institute located in Illinois which is constantly looking at new ways to help replenish the body after doing physical activities. Since June in North America marks the beginning of Summer; here’s a slogan from a company who offers a drink many people like to use to replenish their bodies during the summertime…

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Bill Maher is a television host, stand up comedian, political commentator, author and occasional actor. He began doing stand up comedy and appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman several times. He later got roles in several films such as ‘Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death’ and ‘Pizza Man’. In 1993, Maher became host of ‘Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher’ which was a late night political talk show on Comedy Central and was later moved to the ABC network in 1997. In 2002, the show was cancelled because of controversial comments Maher had made about the 9/11 terrorists. He had said that they weren’t cowards for blowing up themselves on a plane and that the real cowards were the American military for shooting cruise missiles from hundred of miles away at specific targets. He was accused of being anti-military but Maher defended himself by stating that he is a huge supporter of the military but won’t defend the military all of the time if they’re doing something which he feels is wrong.

In 2003, he got a new show on HBO called ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’. The format was very similar to his old show except he had more freedom on HBO to say what was on his mind compared to traditional broadcast television or cable TV. His new show would feature less actors/actresses and more political pundits, columnists,activists and journalists. In addition, Maher is also a political commentator who is a frequent guest on political shows such as ‘Hardball with Chris Matthews’ or CNN’s ‘Wolf Blitzer Report’. Maher is a very outspoken critic or religion and health care. In 2008, he created the film ‘Religulous’ which is a documentary criticizing extremism in religion. Also, he feels that the health care industry and the government aren’t the right people to help give you advice on dieting and that you must be very careful and act and choose by yourself what is the best nutrition for your body and is alarmed by the growing obesity epidemic in America. Maher’s personal life is highly criticized for his stance against marriage as he is a ‘confirmed bachelor’ who enjoys dating smart women but doesn’t see himself getting married anytime soon. One of the end segments of his HBO show is called ‘New Rules’. In this segment, Maher gives a quick editorial on popular culture and politics and finishes off with an editorial comment on a specific topic to finish off the show. Here is one of his ‘New Rules’ quotes for our quote of the month for May…

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