Endemol USA
This was a very slow week for new TV series premieres with only two decades showing up with nine new shows. And of those nine only three lasted more than one season, but none went longer than two. In 2003, ABC gave us a show in which beautiful people battled it out to determine who was the most beautiful but ran afoul of Howard Stern for stealing his idea. 2013 also had a show about beauty, but the most memorable of the lot was a show about celebrating what most people would consider the opposite of beauty. Check out the short list of shows celebrating anniversaries this week and tell us if you remember any of them.
1953
- No new series debuted this week in 1953.
1963
- No new series debuted this week in 1963.
1973
- No new series debuted this week in 1973.
1983
- No new series debuted this week in 1983.
1993
- No new series debuted this week in 1993.
2003
BVS Entertainment
- February 13 – Are You Hot?: The Search for America’s Sexiest People (ABC, One season, 6 episodes)
- February 15 – Power Rangers Ninja Storm (ABC Family, One season, 38 episodes)
Howard Stern sued ABC accusing the network of lifting the idea for Are You Hot? from a segment of his radio show, The Evaluators, which wasn’t a stretch since former Stern producer Scott Einziger was a producer and exec on the show. ABC settled the suit since the TV series was a ratings failure.
Power Rangers Ninja Storm is the eleventh series in the Power Rangers franchise, based on the 26th Super Sentai series Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger. It was the first in the series to film in New Zealand, and the first to not be produced by MMPR Productions.
2013
Passable Entertainment
- February 12 – The Face (Oxygen, Two seasons, 18 episodes)
- February 14 – Immortalized (AMC, One season, 6 episodes)
- February 14 – Freakshow (AMC, Two seasons, 24 episodes)
- February 14 – Zero Hour (ABC, One season, 13 episodes)
- February 14 – Failosophy (MTV, One season, 12 episodes)
- February 16 – Wendell & Vinnie (Nickelodeon, One season, 20 episodes)
- February 18 – Inside Combat Rescue (National Geographic Channel, Two seasons, 9 episodes)
Immortalized was a competitive taxidemry competition series. Freakshow centered around Todd Ray and his Venice Beach Freakshow. The series might have continued beyond a second season but it, along with Small Town Security, fell victim to AMC moving out of the reality TV business to focus more on scripted series like The Walking Dead.
The pilot for Zero Hour was made available on Hulu on February 1, 2013 ahead of the network series premiere. The pre-release didn’t help and the series was cancelled after three episodes and immediately removed from the ABC schedule. The remaining ten episodes were burned off between June 15 and August 3, 2013. The series suffered the same fate when it aired on Canada’s Global Television Network, and it aired at 11:30 PM in Australia.
Wendell & Vinnie was originally announced as a Nick at Nite series, but the week before it premiered the network announced it would air on Nickelodeon instead. When Nick cancelled the series after the 14th episode was broadcast on June 13, the final six episodes did run on Nick at Nite from August 18 to September 22.
Footage for Inside Combat Rescue was captured by more than 50 cameras mounted on the inside and outside of the Air Force’s helicopters as well as the airmen’s helmets.
Share this post
