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Simon Cowell's Sale of the Century

Oh the things they find in video vaults!

A former contestant on the UK's Sale of the Century was digging through her old videotapes when she noticed that in her appearance on the old game show, she had been beaten by a record company executive named Simon Cowell.

The 1990 episode shows a smart, cheerful, and fresh-faced Cowell years before he became the famous American Idol judge.

In the episode Cowell becomes champ, but only wins a bunch of kitchen utensils. There's a clip you can see, here. And you will also see that the Brits Sale was heavily based on Tony Barber's wining format too.

Thanks to The Sun, UK.

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Young & Restless star down under

Foxtel is bringing Young & Restless hunk Doug Davidson to Sydney for a promotional visit.

Davidson, who plays Paul Williams, will appear at the Astra Awards on April 23.

He will also meet fans at Westfield Parramatta at 1pm on Tuesday 24th April.

It's another opportunity for Foxtel to remind aggrieved fans of Y&R; that it's been wlecomed with open arms to cable television.

Press Release:

FOXTEL today announced that Doug Davidson, a leading cast member of popular daytime drama THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, will be visiting Australia in late April for a promotional tour, which will include a guest presenting role at the 2007 ASTRA Awards.

Doug Davidson stars as handsome private investigator ‘Paul Williams’ in THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS, which launched exclusively on the W. channel on April 2, airing weekdays at midday and 6.40pm. He joined the hugely successful daytime drama in 1978 and now has more than 3,000 episodes to his credit.

Davidson will be visiting Australia from April 23-27. His tour will include an appearance as a guest presenter on April 23 at the 2007 ASTRA Awards, the annual awards that recognise excellence in subscription television.

He has received numerous awards for his work on Y&R;, including the 1997 Soap Opera Award for Best Supporting Actor and Soap Opera Awards for Outstanding Hero in 1991 and 1992. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy® in 2003 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.

Davidson’s acting credits include roles in the Judith Krantz mini-series I'll Take Manhattan and The Initiation of Sarah. He has also appeared as a guest-star in series such as Diagnosis Murder, co-starred with Paul Reiser in the feature film Mr. Write and had supporting roles in films Don't Stop Now and Fraternity Row. Davidson was also the host of game show The Price is Right in 1994.

The Young and the Restless premiered on US television in 1973. It has consistently been the number one rating daytime drama there since 1988 and has notched up more than 50 Daytime Emmy® Awards.

The show premiered in Australia on the Nine Network in 1975 and was a staple of its daytime line-up until February 23 this year. FOXTEL’s W. Channel is now the show’s exclusive home on Australian television.

The Young and the Restless revolves around the powerful Abbott and Newman families in Genoa City and, apart from Davidson, its long-standing cast members include: Peter Bergman (‘Jack Abbott’), Eric Braeden (‘Victor Newman’), Melody Thomas Scott (‘Nikki Reed Newman’) and Don Diamont (‘Brad Carlton’). Read more...

First Review: Primeval

Here we go again.

It's CGI dinosaur time when Primeval premieres soon on Nine.

Last year Nine did very nicely, thankyou with Prehistoric Park, a very silly mish-mash of drama and natural history. Watching a palaeontologist deliver David Attenborough history lessons was one thing, but trying to structure it in a fantasy drama was a stretch of light years proportions.

Primeval is thankfully clearer in its genre. This is an unabashed family adventure stuff. Nobody is trying to pass this off as a nature series, and nor should they.

The central characters of this latest UK foray are a wide-eyed teenage boy, a British zoologist and his attractive female assistant. When the boy finds a supposedly extinct lizard in a forest, the team set-up solving what is presumably a great mystery. I'm sure it's greater if you are actually there than when you're watching on the box, unless of course you are a kid at heart.

Primeval doesn't pitch itself very high. There's more emphasis on the adventure than character, most of whom I expect will be fairly extinct themselves soon enough. Broadly delivered, it doesn't aim for any of the attitude of a fantasy like Doctor Who.

The explanation for the appearance of the weekly dinosaurs in the forest is a "rip in time." Funny how the rip in time didn't emerge at the local 7-11, but so be it.

As the latest of Nine's 2007 pre-promoted series to be unveiled it's a bit of a disappointment, really. But at least the network isn't trying to pass this off as anything more than family fun. Programmed on a Saturday night is indicative that this is fare for a younger crowd.

The CGI breakthrough of Walking with Dinosaurs is yet to prove it has any other dramatic use than in documentary form. Several years on, I'm still waiting for intelligent life.

Primeval premieres 7:30pm Saturday April 28 on Nine. Read more...

First Review: Curtin

If you are fan of William McInnes' work you won't want to miss Curtin coming up on the ABC.

This telemovie depicts the Aussie PM who took office from Menzies just as the Japanese started to move southward during World War II. It was a fragile and nervous time for Australia, which struggled to defend itself against the enemy.

Against all odds, Curtin stood up to Churchill and demanded our troops leave battlefields in North Africa to return and protect our northern shores.

William McInnes again proves himself an outstanding actor in the title role. He puts in a mighty performance, roaring like a defiant Labor leader. With sparkling dialogue from writer Alison Niselle, he captures a period vernacular that transports the viewer to a bygone era.

The drama revels in numerous scenes that are more talk than action, as key players debate the theatre of war. In this sense the film has a tele-play feel to it.

In other roles are Love my Way's Dan Wyllie, Asher Keddie plus Geoff Morell and actress Noni Hazelhurst (who again plays McInnes on screen partner, as she did in Stepfather of the Bride.) I couldn't help but think there wasn't a lot of age difference between McInnes, Hazelhurst and "daughter" Keddie.

There is also an unusual directorial choice of allowing characters to address camera, breaking the fourth wall. It's distracting without necessarily adding a lot.

But these moot points aside, Curtin is solid stuff. The production design, filled with dull browns and wartime khaki is also excellent.

If you are a fan of political drama, don't miss watching one of our better actors chew up the scenery.

Curtin premieres 8:30pm Sunday April 22 on ABC TV. Read more...

9 closes in on Perth acquisition

PBL Media has edged closer to purchasing Channel Nine Perth after Sunraysia TV announced it would recommend to shareholders to reject an offer from WIN Television.

According to newspaper reports, the WIN offer could leave Sunraysia open to a "significant damages deal."

PBL had previously made an offer of $136.4m, but was topped by WIN's $146.2m offer.

PBL needs to gain control of Nine Perth to address a ratings leak which sees the station drag down its national figure.

Sunraysia has claimed that accepting WIN's offer would open up additional costs which made the higher bid less attractive.

But WIN is not about to go lightly, and has already begun to demonstrate that it has an array of tactics to show its might, including the dropping of The Catch-Up to regional broadcasters.

Full story in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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