Where to be & what to watch…
By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/3/2008 8:00:00 PM
Monday, Aug. 4
Teenagers everywhere will be glued to their screens, as a veritable cornucopia of programming appealing to the high school set hits the tube. The Teen Choice Awards, hosted by the now much-more-famous-than-her-dad Miley Cyrus, kick off on Fox at 8 p.m. ET, with red carpet coverage of the teenyboppers on TV Guide Channel leading in. Elsewhere on the dial, VH1 sends professional reality show-girl New York to Tinsel Town to pursue an acting career with New York Goes to Hollywood at 7:30, then scours the country to find young people who want to work for hip-hop impresario (and television producer) Diddy with (natch) I Want to Work for Diddy at 8 p.m. Between these and I Love Money, it appears VH1 has mastered the art of naming television shows.
Tuesday, Aug. 5
It's earnings time, as Charter Communications faces the investors with its second-quarter earnings call at 9 a.m., and Nexstar Broadcasting Group goes at 10:30 a.m. Oh, yeah, some guy named Rupert Murdoch and a little company called News Corp. announce earnings at 5:30 p.m. Fox Business Network will probably be all over it. Later, The Man in Black himself, Johnny Cash, gets some play on PBS as the network re-airs the classic 1969 documentary Johnny Cash: The Man, His Music, His World at 10 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 6
Hey, Texans, pack your boots for this year's Texas Association of Broadcasters/Society of Broadcast Engineers Convention. You won't have to travel too far, just mosey on over to the Renaissance Austin Hotel. Elsewhere in the Lone Star State and on ESPN, the Texas Rangers take on out-of-town barnstormers (and scourge of small-market teams) the New York Yankees at 8 p.m. Also on cable, Man vs. Wild's Bear Grylls explores the Baja Desert in Mexico on Discovery at 10 p.m., teaching viewers how to survive, provided they have their own camera crew and wildlife experts. Meanwhile, Spike busts down some doors and cracks down on dope with the premiere of Real Vice Cops: Uncut, also at 10 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 7
It's Chase Carey's turn, as the president and CEO of DirecTV hosts a call and Web-cast to talk second-quarter results at 2 p.m. On the agenda from the company that saved Passions could be another compelling plot line. Will the addition of Friday Night Lights to its Channel 101 boost subscribers? Tune in to find out. Atlanta-based Gray Television hopes to have good news for investors when it gives its Q2 earnings at 11 a.m. Elsewhere, NAMIC holds a Webinar as part of its leadership suite, “Executive Coaching for Multicultural Executives,” showing media execs how to become the best leaders they can be.
Friday, Aug. 8
New NBC affiliate (and last week's B&C cover story) WMBF officially launches in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The switch will be flipped right on time for the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics at 8 p.m., anchored by Bob Costas. NBC will be carrying competitions and ceremonies from the Games on all of its 6 bazillion channels and streaming even more online, so you can finally watch the table tennis medal ceremony live, the way it was meant to be. Notably absent from NBC's promotions: the official mascots of the Beijing Olympics, the Fuwa, led by fearless leader (and Olympic flame analog) Huanhuan. Hard to blame them, though: Michael Phelps could bring in more viewers with one stroke.
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