Froodee

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Forget the Superbowl, There’s a Glee Marathon!

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Attention Gleeks: the weekend of February 5th is notable for something besides the Superbowl. Yeah, yeah, I know that whole football thing is a pretty big deal, but for those not into the game (or those wonderful commercials), you finally have a decent alternative.

Starting at 11:AM on Saturday, February 5th, Oxygen will run an all-day Glee marathon, showcasing fan-favorite episodes from both seasons, including “The Power of Madonna,” “The Rocky Horror Glee Show,” and “Britney/Brittany.” The marathon is part of an Oxygen promotion for its upcoming competition show, The Glee Project, in which undiscovered talents will compete for a multi-episode guest spot on the show in Season 3.

Oxygen is hosting a live chat with Glee fans during the marathon, where fans can interact and offer their thoughts on what kind of character The Glee Project should supply for Season 3.

Glee Reality Show Searches for New Stars

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The Glee empire just keeps getting bigger. Now, the song-and-dance high school dramedy is getting its first official spinoff, but it’s not what you may expect.

The Glee Project, set to air on cable’s Oxygen, is a reality show where Glee‘s casting director searches for new talent for the show. MySpace submissions and casting calls will whittle down about 40,000 entrants to 12, and then eventually to one undiscovered actor/singer who will be given a seven-episode arc as a guest star on Glee during its third season. Kind of like Darren Criss’ guest arc this season.

The flagship show’s showrunners, Ryan Murphy and Dante Di Lorento, told the Television Critics Association winter press tour that they’re “very serious about growing talent,” and this reality show is a natural outgrowth of that philosophy. Robert Ulrich, Glee‘s casting director, is overseeing The Glee Project‘s talent search (see below), with an eye toward avoiding the hyper-dramatic antics of a typical reality competition. Instead, this competition will echo Glee‘s dedication to acceptance and diversity, offering a mixture of competitors from all walks of life, including people with disabilities.

The Glee Project premieres this summer. Will you be watching?

All this empire expansion is great and stuff, but there is such a thing as growing too much too fast. At what point does Glee reach a point of over-saturation? (Is it already there?)

NBC Snags Spielberg Musical

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Now that Glee has proven that there’s room on the small screen for musicals, it’s inevitable that more song-and-dance series will make their way to television screens. But I don’t think anyone expected Steven Spielberg to be behind the next one.

Spielberg has just sold a musical idea to NBC called Smash, which follows a group of characters as they put together a Broadway musical. Reportedly, new NBC honcho Robert Greenblatt first tried getting Smash on Showtime, where he formerly worked. But now NBC has greenlit the pilot, which was written by playwright Theresa Rebeck and is being produced by Broadway heavyweights Craig Zadan and Neil Meron of Hairspray, along with Spielberg and DreamWorks TV.

Unlike Glee, Smash will utilize original songs written for the show, from award-winning songwriters Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman.

Glee hit on such a unique formula: a situation that calls for music to believably enter the drama, witty/quirky high school characters, and fun remakes of established hit pop songs. I’m unconvinced that its success can be so easily replicated.

The Most Pirated Shows of 2010

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Lost has garnered one more accolade for its final season, though I’m not sure if this is one that it’s creators would relish.

According to TorrentFreak, people are still illegally downloading TV shows instead of watching them on live TV. In fact, two of 2010’s most-pirated shows — Heroes and Dexter — outnumbered their live Nielsen ratings.

Anyhoo, here’s the ten most pirated shows of 2010, followed by their approximate number of illegal downloads:

  1. Lost – 5,940,000
  2. Heroes – 5,480,000
  3. Dexter – 3,880,000
  4. The Big Bang Theory – 3,270,000
  5. House – 2,610,000
  6. How I Met Your Mother – 2,490,000
  7. 24 – 2,240,000
  8. True Blood – 1,920,000
  9. Glee – 1,700,000
  10. Family Guy – 1,620,000

Must Watch: Glee Invades Fox Christmas Card

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When it came time to put together Fox Television’s annual video Christmas card for viewers, chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman shrewdly decided to turn to the woman who has arguably been the network’s MVP over the last year: Jane Lynch.

As Glee‘s cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester, Lynch chews up every ounce of scenery she’s in, and even though she’s the show’s main villain, she’s impossible not to love because of her outrageous proclamations and one-of-a-kind view of the world. In this video Christmas card, Lynch channels her alter-ego even though she’s playing herself, making gut-busting observations about her fellow cast members and her own value to the network. Glee‘s Ian Brennan writes all of Lynch’s dialog for the show, and he scripted this little video as well, which Glee creator Ryan Murphy directed.

This is a laugh-out-loud vid that you just have to watch.