24 / American Idol - Jan. 13, 2007

ON SCREEN:
THE 24
Sunday and Monday; Fox, Global
AMERICAN IDOL
Tuesday and Wednesday; Fox, CTV

BOTTOM LINE:
A strong one-two punch for a struggling network.


Just in the nick of time

Here we go again! Jack Bauer faces another bad day, while Paula, Randy and Simon brace themselves for another parade of bad singers.

By Eric Kohanik

January seems to have come along just in the nick of time for the battered executives at the Fox network.

The fall TV season turned out to be one bad day after another for those execs. It was a nightmare of failed new series (Justice, Vanished, Happy Hour) and struggling new shows the network has kept on the air (’Til Death, Standoff). Even worse were the ideas that didn’t make it. (Remember the O.J.Simpson debacle?)

So Fox programmers can’t help but be excited about the one-two punch they have in store for viewers this week.

Leading the way, of course, is Jack Bauer.Now there’s a guy who really knows what it’s like to have a bad day.

Jack has had a few really bad days. In fact, they’ve been the worst days of his life. And viewers have seen each one played out over the past five TV seasons on Fox’s Emmy-winning 24.

When last we saw Jack Bauer – played, of course, with Emmy-winning, steely intensity by Kiefer Sutherland – he had reached the end of the fifth worst day of his life. He had been nabbed by enemy agents and was acaptive on a slow boat to China.

And as the sixth worst day of Jack’s life begins to unfold this week, we’re about to find out that a lot has happened since then.

In fact, it’s almost two years later and Jack has been the victim of a lot of torture in thattime. Physically and emotionally, he has sunk just about as low as he can go.

Fox rolls out the sixth-season premiere of 24as a two-parter Sunday and Monday. It will be one of the most star-studded seasons in the show’s history.

Gregory Itzin and Jean Smart, who scored lots of critical accolades last season as the evil U.S. president and first lady, will put in return appearances. Also back in the picture are Mary Lynn Rajskub, James Morrison, Jayne Atkinson and DB Woodside.

This season will see a parade of new faces, though. James Cromwell joins the cast as Jack’s estranged father. The rest of the stellar lineup will include: Chad Lowe, Regina King, Rick Schroder, Peter MacNicol, PowersBoothe, Harry Lennix and Alexander Siddig.

Of course, it’s a different parade of talents that judges Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell encounter as American Idol begins its sixth season this week.

The formula is well known by now, of course. The first few episodes of the show offer highlights of auditions that took place in the summer and fall. After that, the show clicks into performance mode as it wends its way toward crowning the next Idol in the spring.

Viewers always seem split on which portion of the show’s run they prefer. Either way, they tend to watch it all, making the entire show seem stronger than ever.

And, no doubt, that will suit those battered Fox executives just fine.

The Apprentice - Jan 06, 2007

ON SCREEN:
THE APPRENTICE
Sunday; NBC, Global

BOTTOM LINE:
DONALD TRUMP DOES SOME CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'.


Back to business

Like a lot of reality shows, The Apprentice simply got boring. Maybe as new setting and a few new twists can keep the show from getting fired.

By Eric Kohanik

The trouble with a lot of reality-TV shows is the novelty tends to wear off quickly.

And when that happens, frankly, they just get boring.

So, it then becomes imperative for producers to reinvent the wheel. They do anything they can to keep it rolling.

That's exactly the point we're at as host Donald Trump and 18 new competitors get back to business on The Apprentice, which begins its sixth season – yes sixth season - on sunday night.

This time around, The Apprentice has switched home base, forsaking its traditional digs inside New York City's Trump Tower for the sunnier surroundings of southern California and a luxurious mansion that will be home for the show's competitors.

Well, some of them.

According to NBC, the show's plan for this season calls for a "social experiment of haves and have-nots." To accomplish that, each week's winners will get to live like kings and queens - er, make that Trumps and Trumpettes - inside the opulent mansion.

The losers? They have to camp in tents out in the backyard. They also have to use outdoor showers and portable toilets.

Aw, poor babies!

Yes, this is as gimmicky as TV gets. But then, The Apprentice and inventive executive producer Mark Burnett really do need every gimmick imaginable to reinvigorate waning interest in the show.

I truly devoured the debut season of The Apprentice. I watched it religiously, not only because I had been assigned to review each episode, but also because the concept was fresh and different. Plus, Trump's signature line - "You're fired!" - had not yet become the hackneyed expression it now is.

With each subsequent season, however, The Apprentice just became less and less interesting. In part, it was because we had been there, seen it. And, in part, it seemed that, more and more, all we were doing was watching one big commercial for The Trump Organization's assorted ventures. Topping off that feeling was the show's tiresome practice of suckling on the nipples of other corporate logos and product placements.

Now, The Apprentice is promising a bunch of "engaging" new twists. The winning project managers get to keep that role until their team loses. They also get to sit in the boardroom and advise Trump on which member of the losing team should be canned.

Whether all of this is enough to bolster the sagging fortunes of The Apprentice remains to be seen. If not, it might just be the show that ends up getting fired.