TV Guide: Oct. 17-23

On the cover of this new large format TV Guide is Ty Pennington with a sledge hammer under the title, TV Guide’s Extreme Makeover. On page one we have Ian Birch, Editor-in-Chief, delivering a message to the readers. He basically says since we have mostly one-hour shows and thousands of channels they must focus on what’s hip instead of what’s on your TV. The cover story is about how TV Guide teamed up with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s two-hour special on 10/16. They offered up 10,000 TV Guide for a secret project on the show. In case you don’t watch the show the project was a wallpaper of TV Guides for a kids’ camp.

Good and new things inside this issue:

• A HOTList, 21 shows in 7 days, 3 per day, recommendation such as Lost and Charmed.
• BREAKING News, Bruce Willis on That ‘70s Show, Vaughn is back on Alias, the FCC on Family Guy, we meet basement guy on Desperate Housewives, Ron Livingston on House, and The 4400 is back next summer.
• There not recasting Walt on Lost because he didn’t grow much. CSI is the most watched show.
• Kevin James and his Filipina-supermodel wife had a child Sept.30.
• Lost questions & answers: The Dharma film was spliced by a previous resident and the missing scenes lead to something. Walt said “Push the button. Don’t push the button, bad.”. Although that encounter was a dream it means something for the 108 countdown. Desmond will be back. Time is never mentioned on the show, THEY NEVER SAID THE PLANE CRASHED IN 2004, NO ELECTIONS OR HISTORY IS EVER MENTIONED. In November we find out how all the Rutherfords are related. The two Helens of Locke are explained.
• Matt Roush likes My Name Is Earl.
• Veronica Cartwright’s history as a scream queen.
• Alfre Woodard interview.
• An A-Z guide to Desperate Housewives.
• Photo Booth: cool pics and cool trivia for each person.
• Radar a shopping guide for the crap on TV shows.
• Tyler James Williams interview.
• Kari Wuhrer was fired from General Hospital and Passions is going anime.
• The grid and listings section is replaced with This Week featuring recaps of top shows, a movie guide with only four or three star movies. A daytime guide, a prime time guide and highlights for each day and then a late night guide all in 39 glossy pages.
• They added the game SUDUKO to the crossword puzzle in the back.

Finally Judgment: The format is okay, I never used the grid since I got TiVo so no big loss, the per day highlights may become useful. The focus on only popular shows is somewhat disconcerting. The articles are better and long enough to be interesting. Also I didn’t lose this issue as I usually do with the small versions. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.