Jason's DOSE – Your fix of movie, advertising, technology & pop culture news

Epix (premium TV joint venture of Viacom, MGM and Lionsgate) has announced that they will be releasing an app for authenticated (meaning people who pay for their stuff) Xbox Live users to have access to over 3,000 movies and TV shows on their consoles. (see previous story for more info on the Xbox software update that this was rolled into)

Awesome… but does anyone have Epix? any of you readers? If so, comment or drop me a note and let me know how it is.

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/epix-ceo-xbox-live-app-269542

Remember that terribly overdramatic pile of steaming poo on VH1 last year starring Stacey Dash (for all my fellow children of the 90’s… she’s the “technical virgin” Dionne from Clueless) that Queen Latifah produced? Probably not… but us advertiser should because we had to sit through a fatty clip of it during VH1’s upfront presentation.

Well, that show MUST have been cancelled, right? NOPE! Not only is it not cancelled, VH1 went through the trouble to replace Stacey Dash (who quit or was fired for being an ass…whatev) for a second season. The lead role of the show will now be played by All My Children alum Denise Vasi. Whew… glad VH1 jumped on that search. That would’ve been a TERRIBLE loss.

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2011/12/all-my-children-alumna-denise-vasi-lands-lead-on-vh1-comedy-series-single-ladies/#more-200889

POTENTIAL SPOILER: Series creator, Matthew Weiner, has revealed how he intends on ending Mad Men somewhere around 2014. He thinks it would be an interesting end to show where Don Draper ends up in PRESENT TIME. So we’ll be seeing (unless he changes his mind) and 80-something Draper cruising around the world of the 2000’s.

Keeping my fingers crossed they somehow avoid the typically shitty old man makeup (see Entertainment Weekly article here ) and don’t have him work in advertising in present day… people think my job is cool… let’s not ruin that misdirected vision.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/mad-men-will-end-in-prese_n_1094473.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

This morning, The Walt Disney Company reported Q4 earnings will exceed analyst expectations with a quarterly income of $1.1 billion. That’s +30% over last year!

That makes me happy… the reason that makes me happy is because the theme park division is responsible for a good chunk of that… and I love me some Disneyland. The Happiest Places on Earth are up 9% in revenue over last year… AND, that’s with over half of frickin’ California Adventure being closed for new stuff being built. Not too shabby.

The other division putting in a major helping hand to boost the earnings numbers is the TV division. Despite missing some major tentpoles in news and sports this year, Disney’s cable and ABC ad revenue and operating revenue were up a ton. And Disney is (at least pretending that) they aren’t afraid of the NBA lockout affecting ESPN revenue… they’re assuming NBA ad dollars and audience will just shift to other ESPN properties.

While Disney is kind of the Devil… they are a devil that makes Toy Story and gives me churros… so yah, they are my friend.

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2011/11/disney-beats-fiscal-4q-estimates-with-strong-results-at-espn-and-theme-parks/

Showtime announced Weeds will be coming back for an 8^th season. I have a strong concentration of drug users in my readership… so I thought I’d share.

Source: http://www.thewrap.com/tv/article/weeds-renewed-eighth-season-32698

Lately, Hyundai has let me use their money to live out my nerd dreams (and promote the new Gen Y friendly car, Veloster). A couple weeks ago, a huge show of their faith in my nerd cred happened in NYC. Working with the fine folks over at Future US, we were able to organize a Q&A with the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman, and host of The Talking Dead, Chris Hardwick, at a 5 day event my team put together called RE:MIX LAB.

RE:MIX LAB is coming to LA next month, with some pretty damn special names from the worlds of film and music. Hit me up if you want to come.

Check out highlights of the Q&A and an aftershow interview with Revolver.

This is old news, but should act as a gentle reminder that YOU NEED TO BE WATCHING THIS DAMN SHOW!!! Does anyone else remember meeting with FX when they were still pitching the concept of this show to advertisers? I seem to recall them mentioning that the structure Ryan Murphy set up is for there to be a new family coming into the house each season. Anyone else remember that or am I crazy?

Source: http://www.deadline.com/2011/10/fx-renews-american-horror-story-for-second-season/

http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/08/26/tlc-confirms-the-final-season-of-little-people-big-world/20100826tlc01/

Let me start by patting myself on the back for that completely misleading title.

TLC has announced that the upcoming second half of the 6th season of Little People, Big World will be the final episodes of the show. The dad is about ready to die, the mom is annoying and the twins aren’t entertaining anymore because they’re 20… so yah, I agree… let’s move on. (but I do want to visit their pumpkin farm)

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2010/07/20/eastbound-down-bored-to-death-return-sept-26-to-hbo/

On Sunday 9/26 at 10p, HBO will kick off sophomore seasons for Jason Schwartzman’s Bored to Death and the Danny McBride comedy Eastbound & Down. Bored will kick-off the night at 10p with Eastbound following after.

I guess you can’t run True Blood all year round

http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2010/07/21/caprica-returns-to-syfy-in-january-2011/20100721syfy01/

Syfy has announced that the second half of the freshman season of Caprica will kick off in January of 2011. A special trailer previewing quite possibly the nerdiest of nerdy shows will be premiered at Syfy’s Caprica panel on Friday at Comic Con.