Daily Archives: April 11, 2014

Comedy Centrals Late-Night: From Minor Leagues To Major Player & Innovator With Deep Bench Of Talent Competitors Vie …

Posted: April 11, 2014 at 6:42 am

For years in the 1990s, Comedy Central was considered nothing more than an incubator for late-night talent. Its first notable weeknight late-night show, Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher, originated there and ran for three years from 1993-96 before ABC snatched it to get into the late-night talk-show game. Mahers successor at ABC, Jimmy Kimmel, also is a Comedy Central discovery, having gotten his start as host on the networks Win Ben Stein Money and then The Man Show. Before Politically Incorrect left Comedy Central, it helped launch The Daily Show, which premiered behind PI at 11:30 PM before moving to the tentpole 11 PM slot. Back then, the Daily Show had Craig Kilborn as a host. In 1998, he was poached by CBS as a host of the Late Late Show. Sixteen years later, CBS once again is reaching out to Comedy Centrals Daily Show franchise to replenish its late-night ranks, this time drafting the former Daily Show regular and current host of spinoff The Colbert Report to succeed David Letterman on the Late Show.

Related:Stephen Colbert Named New Late Show Host

A lot has changed over those 16 years. Since Jon Stewart replaced Kilborn at the helm of The Daily Show in January 1999, the show has risen to become a late-night leader. It became a top late-night choice for younger viewers and, with the addition of spinoff The Colbert Report in 2005 to form a 11 PM-midnight block, Comedy Central evolved from a late-night poaching ground to a force to be reckoned with. The two shows became pop culture phenomenons and strengthened their hold on the younger crowds by embracing the Internet and social media before most of their late-night competitors. They have enjoyed buzz as well as critical acclaim, with their Emmy dominance nothing short of staggering. The Daily Show won the best variety series category for a record 10 consecutive times before its streak was ended last year by The Colbert Report to give Comedy Central 11 consecutive victories. (Its worth mentioning that it was the man Colbert is replacing, David Letterman, who ruled the top variety category before Comedy Centrals dynamic duo kicked off their dominant run with five consecutive trophies.) In the variety series writing category, The Daily Show and Colbert Report have won 10 of the past 11 years.

Related:CBS Late-Night Drama Not Over Despite Practically Perfect Stephen Colbert Hire

Whats more, Comedy Central now boasts the only late-night lineup of three hit shows with the addition of @midnight last fall. The social media-themed show has been a rising star, constantly growing in the ratings. It hit another set of series highs just last week, it only trails The Daily Show and The Tonight Show in young men and has the youngest median age in all of late-night, by far, at 32 years old. That gives Comedy Central a hot show ready to move into the 11:30 PM slot after Colbert leaves at the end of the year with only a title change needed. (The network is not committing to a succession plan just yet and plans to explore various ideas in the next eight months, with @midnight said to be in the mix.) Comedy Centrals deep late-night bench was probably a reason for the network to lose Daily Show veteran John Oliver who, after a well received turn as a fill-in for Stewart on The Daily Show last summer, was ready for his own talker and, with space at Comedy Central crowded, landed at HBO where he will share the late-night perch with another Comedy Central transplant, Maher. Outside of NBC, which has its own late-night breeding ground in Saturday Night Live, all major late-night franchises on CBS, ABC and HBO can be traced back to Comedy Central.

What has set Comedy Centrals late-night apart and maybe helped its success is that it didnt go for clones of the traditional late-night talk shows. The Daily Show is a faux news telecast and political satire. The Colbert Report took that a step further, with Colbert playing a character. The show being essentially a performance art piece probably contributed to its shorter lifespan than The Daily Show, for instance. Comedy series, even the best ones, rarely last more than a decade, with actors tiring from playing the same characters for so long. Still, Colbert may not have ended his run as Colbert Nation leader after nine years if it was not for an opportunity he had dreamed about for decades, replacing idol Letterman. @midnight too is far from a traditional late-night show, with insiders speculating that Comedy Central will likely go for another out-of-the-box format as a late-night addition.

As deep as Comedy Central bench is, it is imperative for the network to try and keep Stewart beyond his current contract, which ends in September 2015. He has more ownership than Colbert through his company, which also produces Colbert Report, and is unlikely to pursue another late-night gig. But he has other interests, including movies, coming off directing his first feature. Unlike Colbert Report, which is tied to the Colbert persona, The Daily Show is a franchise show like The Tonight Show and Late Show and will likely continue after Stewart leaves. Comedy Central brass probably hope they dont have to cross that bridge so soon.

TV Editor Nellie Andreeva - tip her here.

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Comedy Centrals Late-Night: From Minor Leagues To Major Player & Innovator With Deep Bench Of Talent Competitors Vie ...

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South Park: The Stick of Truth! Episode 5 – Censorship – Video

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South Park: The Stick of Truth! Episode 5 - Censorship
South Park: The Stick of Truth! Leave a like to support the series! Enjoy! Also a subscribe would be much appreciated! Follow me on twitter: https://twitter....

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South Park: The Stick of Truth! Episode 5 - Censorship - Video

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Rocio_Fernando Ruiz Vergara, 1980_Revision of the author after censorship – Video

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Rocio_Fernando Ruiz Vergara, 1980_Revision of the author after censorship
"Roco" (Fernando Ruiz Vergara, 1980), censored version cuts after the court judgment (1984). The author, Fernando Ruiz Vergara, inserted some black brackets with texts concerning censorship...

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Censorship so wrong 1 – Video

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Censorship so wrong 1
How censorship can change the meaning of anything, the challenger way.

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DSP Tries It Encouraging Censorship(Reupload from KWO) – Video

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DSP Tries It Encouraging Censorship(Reupload from KWO)
Unfortunately Kojima Wold Order has been hacked and has had his channel shutdown again, due to my staunch defenders, not understanding the point and trying t...

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DSP Tries It Encouraging Censorship(Reupload from KWO) - Video

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The All Seeing Eye Origin of the symbol, Censorship and Indoctrination – Video

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The All Seeing Eye Origin of the symbol, Censorship and Indoctrination
I thought this video, would be a little shorter but it turned out just as long as the last. I speak on the origins of the symbol, censorship and indoctrination and when talking about the number...

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The All Seeing Eye Origin of the symbol, Censorship and Indoctrination - Video

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Mysterious spate of official suicides in China sparks debate, censorship

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BEIJING A series of mysterious apparent suicides by Chinese officials in the past three weeks, including of two senior figures, has sparked debate and questions among ordinary people here, as well as a fresh round of online censorship.

Was President Xi Jinpings anti-corruption drive putting so much pressure on his ruling Communist Party that some members were being driven to take their own lives? Was it all just a coincidence? Or does a life of deceit and hypocrisy eventually take its toll?

Chinese media reported Thursday that 58-year-old Xu Yean, a deputy director in the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, was found hanged in his office earlier in the week.

Xus department handles the petitions and complaints of ordinary citizens against local government officials. Although Xu had not been publicly linked with any corruption investigation, a senior colleague was fired and placed under investigation last November for a severe violation of party discipline.

Yu Jianrong, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), was quoted as saying on social media at that time that the department had become one of the most corrupt sectors of the government, often using its power to extract bribes from local officials to silence complaints.

He Gaobo, a local official responsible for building safety in the city of Fenghua in the eastern province of Zhejiang, was found dead in another suspected suicide Wednesday, five days after an apartment building collapsed in the city.

Local media reported the building had been declared unsafe months before, but no action had been taken to repair it. Three people involved in the buildings construction have been arrested in connection with that case, media reported.

Last Friday, senior policeman Zhou Yu was found hanged in a hotel room in the central Chinese city of Chongqing. Zhou had been a major figure in a crackdown on organized crime in the city under the leadership of Bo Xilai, a senior Communist Party leader who was imprisoned for corruption. He was reported to be depressed about health issues related to diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver.

A senior official at state-owned power generation company Datang was also reported to have died in suspicious circumstances March 29, after being physically unwell and depressed, although the company denied it was suicide.

But perhaps the most sensational death of all was that of Li Wufeng, a 56-year-old known as Chinas top Internet cop, who was reportedly involved in maintaining a system of online censorship known as the Great Firewall of China. He was said to have jumped to his death from the sixth floor of his office building March 24 after constantly being in a bad mood, local media reported.

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Instances of censorship on the rise: The Hoot

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Censorship across the country is on the rise with as many as 52 instances being recorded in the first quarter of 2014. Releasing data on censorship for the first three months of this year, media watch group, The Hoot, said this averaged a little less than one a day.

The agents against free expression were not just the state or fringe groups. The list is fairly long and includes courts, student organisations, State governments, publishing houses, the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the Central Board of Film Certification, a lawyers association, Hindu groups including the Shiv Sena, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Hindu Jan Jagruti Samiti the Information & Broadcasting Ministry, Tamil groups and individual industrialists.

Under attack were books, newspapers, films, Facebook posts, telecasts, staging of plays and the exhibition of films. As per The Hoots Free Speech Hub Tracker, the most newsworthy blackout was by the Lok Sabha Secretariat of the discussion on the contentious Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill.

The Hoot also flags the invocation of the colonial vintage sedition law against 67 Kashmiri students of a Meerut-based university for allegedly raising pro-Pakistan slogans during an India-Pakistan cricket match. Another highlight of the list is the withdrawal of American Indologist Wendy Donigers books by two publishers Penguin and Aleph after a Delhi-based group, the Shiksha Bachao Andolan (SBA), objected to them on the ground that they included derogatory references about Hinduism.

While Penguin withdrew Ms. Donigers book The Hindus: An Alternate History from India after pursuing the case filed by the SBA for a couple of years, the Aleph Book Company agreed to do the same with her book, On Hinduism, after it was threatened with legal action.

Also, according to The Hoot, the first quarter saw several films contesting bans on screening, three of them at the behest of right wing or pro-Hindutva groups. In one instance, in which RSS workers stopped the screening of the Kashmiri documentary film, Ocean of Tears, in Thrissur, Kerala, the police removed the protesters from the theatre hall. But in the same district, a Dalit musician was barred from performing at the famous Guruvayoor Temple. In Mumbai, Shiv Sainiks stopped a press conference by a Pakistani Sufi music group.

The list also includes an attack on the Caravan magazines offices for publishing an interview with Samjhauta Express blast accused Aseemanand, besides industrialist Shiv Nadar and Union Minister Praful Patel who succeeded in stopping the publication of uncomfortable biographies.

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Doctors Can Now Grow Engineered Vaginas in Women

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S

After decades of work, a team of doctors say they've successfully engineered vaginas that have been implanted and grown in women. The vaginas were grown in a lab from the female patients' own cells and later transferred to their bodies, where they formed into normal vaginas. The breakthrough bears some huge implications, too.

It sounds confusing at first, but the process was fairly simple. Anthony Atala from the Wake Forest School of Medicine led the research using a technique developed in the 1990s. The patients were all women born without functioning vaginas due to a rare but severe condition known as Mayer-Rokitansky-Kster-Hauser Syndrome. While they all had vulvas, the external part of the female sex organs, they didn't have a vaginal cavity, meaning they couldn't menstruate or have sex. There were also, obviously, psychological effects.

Using a technique first developed on rabbitswhere, funnily enough, the first solid organ grown was a penisAtala's team took samples from the women's vulvas and grew them on a degradable scaffold made of collagen in a lab. Once they'd reached the right level of maturity, the doctors inserted the engineered vagina into a cavity they'd formed in the patients' abdomens. The scaffold was attached to the uterus and a stent was used to hold it in place for the first six weeks. After just six months, the vagina was fully developed. Depending on the patient, Atala waited between four and eight years before publishing his findings to ensure there were no complications. There weren't.

"After the operation they were able to function normally. They had normal levels of desire, arousal, satisfaction and orgasm," Atala told the press. When asked whether the women could give birth, he sounded optimistic. "They haven't tried," he said, "but they can ovulate, so there is no reason to suspect that they cannot."

While this specific procedure stands to improve the lives of many women, the implications of growing an organ inside a patients' body is huge. Gizmodo interviewed Atala a few years ago, and he spoke of a future where all body parts could be grown in a lab and transplanted into a patient. It makes you wonder, if this is what immortality looks like. "I don't know how long it will take, but I do foresee a future when organs will be available off-the-shelf, ready to 'plug in' and replace injured or diseased organs," Atala said at the time. With today's news, we're that much closer to this future. [The Lancet via New Scientist]

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Grief-stricken memorialize loved ones on 'R.I.P. T-shirts'

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MIAMI They come to put their dead relatives and friends on a T-shirt.

A young woman clutches a photo of her murdered 16-year-old brother. He grins at the camera, his right hand clutching a gun. Three young men line up to pay homage to one of their friends, a "street soldier," with his Facebook profile picture.

Here at Studio X, inside the U.S.A. Flea Market, miles away from South Beach in a gritty pocket of Liberty City, is where black Miami's killed are memorialized. Pictures of the deceased are stamped onto plaques and necklace charms, but a majority of customers come to put a picture on a T-shirt.

For the bereaved who robe themselves in these memorial shirts, the act is a public expression of their loss. It is a ritual they turn to in their time of grief. It is a testimony of a life prematurely taken by violence in neighborhoods where these killings don't always make the news cycle.

The Studio X booth, with its purpose emblazoned on a sign out front - "Home of the R.I.P. T-shirts" - is often the first stop before funeral arrangements. And long after the funeral is over, the grief-stricken return. They come on their lost loved one's birthday and on the anniversary of the killing for more T-shirts to proclaim their sadness. Here, love is a memorial worn close to the heart and out in the street.

Ayleen Lopez, the soft-spoken graphic designer on duty, gently directs customers to a menu of images beneath plexiglass to use as a background for the photo of their loved ones.

"People do it because it's their way of remembering someone they loved," she said. "Not everyone understands it. In Miami, in the 'hood, this is how you show this person means something to me."

Menu item CR-14 depicts a cross topped with a crown of thorns. CR-17 is a pair of hands clasped in prayer. G-13 is Miami's skyline bordered by what looks like two AK-47 assault rifles on top and, along the bottom, a row of bullets.

Studio X is one of the better-known memorial shirt-printing enterprises locally, but similar businesses dot strip malls and flea markets throughout South Florida. They are part of the urban background of inner cities across the country.

"It should be once in a blue moon, but every week it's another body," said Leonard Brown, who designed memorial shirts for 12 years at StudioX.

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Grief-stricken memorialize loved ones on 'R.I.P. T-shirts'

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