Inside TV & Radio
'Don and Bo' ends first season in limbo
By TIM CUPRISIN of the Journal Sentinel staff
Tuesday, June 8, 2004
Milwaukee's worst locally produced TV program in memory, "The Don and Bo Show" wraps up its 10-week run this weekend.
Still, Jim Hall, general manager of Channels 58 and 41, says a second season is under discussion. He admits the show -- which aired on both channels -- didn't perform as well as he had hoped.
"We would have liked to see it do better," Hall says.
"The Don and Bo Show" averaged some 1,700 southeastern Wisconsin households in its 10 p.m. Saturday airings on Channel 41 (Channel 7 on Time Warner Cable) and 6,500 homes at 11:30 p.m. Sundays on Channel 58, according to Nielsen Media Research overnight ratings. This past weekend, 5,200 homes were tuned in on Sunday and fewer than 900 on Saturday.
This mess is hosted by Don Hoffman, a former Milwaukee Public Schools spokesman, and Bo Black, the former head of Summerfest. Some changes have been made since the weekly show debuted April 10.
But not nearly enough.
The hosts dropped their painful weekly personal revelations, which featured intimate secrets from the little-known Hoffman and little information from Black, one of Milwaukee's few celebrities.
Their on-camera performances continue to make the show unwatchable. Hoffman shouts and gesticulates wildly, while Black gushes.
The house band did a decent job. Packaged segments from a transvestite character known as "Ruthie" were the only bits that looked like any thought went into them, although they mostly featured mugging for the camera.
If "The Don and Bo Show" does return for another season, you can bet Hall, who deserves praise for taking a chance, will demand dramatic changes to make it airworthy.
CHANNEL SURFING: Another new "reality" show, TBS' new "All American Man," is having Milwaukee auditions. The show calling itself "the ultimate guys' challenge" is looking for 21-year-olds with either a girlfriend or a wife. Auditions are noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at McGillicuddy's, 1135 N. Water St. For information on the show, go to www.tbs.tv and click on "reality TV casting call." . . . Time Warner Cable has launched an interactive game channel for digital subscribers. Passtime Games, at Channel 1200, offers solitaire, blackjack and video poker that can be played with a remote.
THE REAGAN WATCH: Amid the live coverage of the final rites for former president Ronald Reagan on the news channels -- and even the broadcast networks, as Monday's Reagan Library ceremony showed -- there's plenty of other Reagan TV material to check out.
Turner Classic Movies will run 15 of his films starting at 7 a.m. Thursday with 1937's "Love Is on the Air," his first starring role. It ends at 5 a.m. Friday with 1939's "Hell's Kitchen."
Call Tim Cuprisin at (414) 224-2397. E-mail him at tcuprisin@journalsentinel.com.
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