Breaking OutIf you’re a “Breaking Bad” fan (and who around here isn’t?), but you missed out on the premiere of the “Breaking Bad” sequel movie El Camino because you don’t have Netflix, fear not. AMC (the original cable TV home to “Breaking Bad”) just announced a five-week “Breaking Bad” marathon, which will start on Jan. 19 and end on Feb. 16 with the cable TV premiere of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. The marathon (taking place every Sunday) will feature all episodes from all five seasons of the award-winning, Albuquerque-lensed crime drama. So if you never even started watching the show (shame on you), here’s your chance to catch up with your neighbors. Of course, the marathon is just a lead-in to the highly anticipated fifth season of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” spin-off/prequel “Better Call Saul”—which hits AMC on Feb. 23.Fancy DancerWell, that was inevitable. FOX has announced a spin-off of its guilty pleasure reality show competition “The Masked Singer.” It’s called—wait for it—“The Masked Dancer.” Instead of “celebrities” in elaborate, full-body costumes singing while doofus “judges” (and the audience, of course) try to guess who they really are underneath their masks, the new show will feature “celebrities” in elaborate, full-body costumes … ah, you can probably figure out the rest for yourself. Ellen DeGeneres, who came up with a similar segment on her daytime talk show, serves as executive producer on the new show. “This is gonna be just as fun and suspenseful as ‘The Masked Singer,’ but with a lot more Krumping,” promised DeGeneres in a press release. Awesome. In case you forgot, the first episode of “The Masked Singer” Season 2 ended when the judges somehow failed to determine that the Ice Cream Cone singing “Whip It” was YouTube videogame vlogger Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. I mean, how can “The Masked Dancer” ever hope to top thrills like that?Brick HouseCan’t get enough of celebrities competing against one another in trivial televised tasks? Trust me, FOX feels your pain. That’s why the network—in addition to announcing “The Masked Dancer”—also teased “LEGO Masters.” Former “SNL” star Will Arnett has been tapped to host this unscripted competition series which pits celebrity LEGO fans in a head-to-head battle to create various “themed” LEGO creations. Brainy actress Mayim Bialik (“The Big Bang Theory”), for example, will help build space-themed creations. Brawny actor Terry Crews (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), meanwhile, will stack blocks in a “Good vs. Evil” challenge. And C3PO, R2-D2 and BB-8 will be on hand for the show’s Star Wars-themed episode. The show debuts Wednesday, Feb. 5.Kidz NewsCBS’ venerable newsmagazine “60 Minutes” is the oldest show on TV, in terms of both time on air (since 1968) and demographics (everybody who watches is extremely geriatric). Starting in 2020, however, the show will begin targeting attention-deficit-having, Billie Eilish-listening, Tik Tok-loving millennials with its hip new “60 in 6” spin-off, which will eventually see the light of day on something called Quibi. The show—as the title suggests—distills the deep-dive investigative new reporting “60 Minutes” made famous down to easily digestible, smartphone-ready 6-minute “quick bites.” Enrique Acevedo, an award-winning anchor and reporter from Spanish-language network Univision, has been named as the show’s first correspondent. Quibi, in case you don’t know (which you almost certainly don’t), is a “mobile-first media technology platform bringing together the best of Silicon Valley and Hollywood.” Founded by former Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg and Wall Street business wiz Meg Whitman, the on-the-go platform is expected to launch this April. No date yet on when “60 in 6” will debut.
Idiot Box: Televised Tidbits From Around The Dial
Televised Tidbits From Around The Dial
4 min read
