Ryan Seacrest

z100’s Jingle Ball 2014- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Last night z100’s, New York’s #1 hit music station, held their 2014 Jingle Ball right in the heart of New York City at the famed Madison Square Garden. In conjunction with I Heart Radio, the concert was broadcast all over the internet with an air date on the CW to happen later on this month. Naturally the show was sold out as it was packed with some of today’s biggest and brightest stars, all huddled under one roof to give everyone a great show and for us to have an awesome night. Whereas there were a ton of great moments that happened throughout the night, there were some things that happened that made me puzzled, confused and wondering if it was really ok putting them there in the first place. Take a look at what went right, and what went wrong at Jingle Ball.

The Standouts-

Taylor Swift-

Of course, Taylor was the headliner at Jingle Ballso she was the last to come out which happened around 11:45 PM, nearly four hours into the show itself. It also happened to be Tay tay’s birthday today, so all of us got to celebrate with her on her 25th which was pretty awesome. Honestly, Taylor is at the stage in her career where being at the top isn’t even the top, she’s further than that. So the mini concert itself was really just a spectacle to watch and the audience craved every minute of it. She has such great stage presence and really enjoys the interaction she has with her audience. Only thing I was a bit confused by was why she performed two songs off of “Red” and not all five of her songs from “1989”. I get you wanna perform the hits, but you have enough adoring fans that know “1989” already that they would’ve been excited to hear something new as opposed to something we’ve heard for years (I was hoping she would’ve performed, “Style”. Nope). Otherwise, great set to end the night.

Shawn Mendes-

Maybe this is just my age as I am transitioning from the top 40 phase of my life to the WALK 97.5 stage, but Shawn Mendes was the only person on the Jingle Ball lineup that I had no clue who he actually was. He apparently has some big song out right now that he performed last night called “Life Of The Party”, which for a guy just playing with a guitar and nothing else did a pretty good job. The highlight was his own version of the first verse of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” which he did in a very stripped down way, and that to me was awesome. It is good to know that someone of his tender age of 16 can research music from a different time period and take a song which is so deep and heavy and turn it into something much more light and in a way refreshing. Hope he has a very successful career ahead.

Sam Smith-

Love him and I think he is the best thing that happened in 2014 by far. Such a simple guy with this amazing voice that commands such a presence. He is such a unique throwback to the yesteryears of Elton John and Billy Joel, and did such a fantastic performance of his hits “I’m Not The Only One” and “Stay With Me”. Just like Shawn, I see a bright future for him and hope his success continues beyond this amazing year he had.

Pharrell-

Surprisingly Pharrell was the one who kicked off the night, which in past years is usually reserved for some of the smaller acts. Pharrell spent most of his set performing hits that he was featured on such as “Blurred Lines” and “Get Lucky” but the latter two songs were his best. Why? The surprise announcement of his fellow “Voice” judge Gwen Stefani coming out to perform their new song “Spark The Fire”, which was freaking awesome. Growing up Gwen was a huge music influence for me and seeing her and him perform together again was amazing. Of course, he finished his set with “Happy” and invited a bunch of PSL’s on the stage to dance/take selfies with him. Honestly, if I was on stage with Pharrell I would put my phone in my pocket and enjoy the experience and not do what these stupid girls did, but it’s a generational thing, so whatever.

5 Seconds of Summer/Maroon 5-

The only two “Rock” acts at Jingle Ball, and both did a pretty decent job. Maroon 5 was great, maybe phoned it in a bit with “Animal” and “One More Night”, but I felt like they were super rushed because Jingle Ball itself had such a large lineup that many of the acts only had 10-15 minutes. Nevertheless they were great. 5 Seconds of Summer, or 5SOS, were quite fantastic and did a great rendition of “What I Like About You”. My hope is that they can get past the screaming girl phase and really be seen as a great band as opposed to a flash in the pan that pop seems to take in and spit out every year.

The Lowlights-

Jessie J/Meghan Trainor/Rita Ora/Nick Jonas/Charli XCX/Rixton-

I honestly felt bad for all of them, they legit got 2.5 seconds on stage and then went bye bye. Nick and Rita I’m not shocked at. Rita doesn’t even have a huge song here in our country, and Nick only has one song “Jealous” which he did pretty decently. Jessie did one song “Burning Up” but came back later on in the night to perform “Bang Bang” with Ariana Grande, and Charli XCX came back after her set to do “Fancy” of course. I just felt that all six of these artists are quite talented and had a good amount of buzz about them that they could’ve given them a little bit more stage time. Especially Meghan Trainor, who legit rushed through quite possibly the biggest song of this year, “All About That Base”. I get that they have to stay on schedule but I just thought it was a bit unfair to give them that little amount of time when they are all talented in their own right.

Calvin Harris-

You have had massive hits over the years with some of the biggest names in the business, and you even sing on some of your own songs. So you got paid last night to stand on stage, press play, and yell at the audience and you weren’t even mixing. Seriously? Bye.

Ariana Grande-

Oh lord, where to begin. First off, I’m begging this girl to stop wearing that stupid ponytail as she consistently looks like a 6th grader. Want to be taken seriously? Dress a little bit older than you have been. Her shout out to her awful brother Frankie was another thing. Zero connection with her audience, she giggled about tripping during her one part, and just seems very unprofessional. Also, it seemed as if The Weeknd was supposed to perform with her on “Love Me Harder” but conspicuously wasn’t there. I attest it to the fact that she wanted all the stage time, which further proves her diva like behavior that she has been accused of over the past year. There is a huge difference between what she and Taylor is putting out there. Just saying.

Iggy Azalea-

Sort of surprised that she was the second to last to perform over people I deem to be bigger and more talented than her. Ugh. What kills me is that she needs to figure out if she wants to be a pop artist or stay strictly rap, because her performance last night lingered both ways. She was super bubbly and pop on “Fancy” then went the other direction on one of her better songs “Work”. I can’t believe she didn’t censor the “Blow Job” line in that song, but to each his own. I just read novelty all over her and hope that she figures out a game plan because the amount of respect she has in the industry as a whole is quite low for someone who had such highs this year.

Go to z100’s site for more information.

For The First Time New Year’s Eve Seems Like A Wide Open Affair

by Michael Tyminski

A lot of people probably don’t think of New Year’s eve as much of a television day. However, quite to the contrary, it’s subtly one of the bigger TV days of the year – with big-ticket sporting events running during the day (it’s the number two college bowl day of the year for example), marathons of favorite shows around the dial (I would be surprised if USA didn’t run 24+ hours of Modern Family or NCIS on New Year’s Eve) and of course, the ubiquitous New Year’s Eve specials that have been a staple of TV since the dawn of the medium.

One notable thing about the New Year’s special however, is that it’s been a fairly monolithic entity, with often one dominant show that the country rang in the new year at-large with. In the early days of television, this was the role of big band leader Guy Lombardo. Lombardo, a New York City native had a show that capped off with “Auld Lang Syne” popularizing the tradition that the Scottish folk song ring in the New Year across the United States.

In the 1970’s however, American Bandstand and Pyramid host Dick Clark had a revolutionary idea. What if in lieu of the stuffy old galas that were the core of the Lombardo scene at the time there was a show targeting the younger more rock and roll oriented scene? This would lead to the creation of Rockin’ New Years Eve in 1972 from Times Square, a staple of New Year’s since then (I defy you to find me a New Year’s Eve Party that doesn’t come to a screeching halt at 11:55 to find the nearest TV and watch the ball drop). Clark’s show would go on to dominate the landscape for the next four decades until his death in 2012.

It would be in the last few years that other networks would slowly start to build up competition to Rockin’ New Year’s Eve much as Clark did to Lombardo. NBC and FOX would also have musically oriented shows emanating from Times Square. Late night cable network [adult swim] would also get in on the experience having specials featuring casts from shows as diverse as long running animated show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, to newcomer anti-talk show The Eric Andre Show. Even Jamie Kennedy got in on the action with a disastrous special that aired on KTLA.

With Clark gone and the year of retrospection out of the way, it seems like now more than ever that there could be stratification and parity on New Year’s eve. Will people stick with Rockin’ New Year’s Eve? They might from familiarity, but Ryan Seacrest is no Dick Clark no matter how hard he tries. Will they go someplace else, whether to Daly or to cable? Will the ball drop remain the center of New Year’s Eve parties? We will know the answers to these questions in the years to come.

Happy New Year and have a Happy Healthy 2014 from myself and everyone here at Manhattan Digest!

Million Second Quiz Ratchets Up the Intensity

by Michael Tyminski

Million Second Quiz: 8p.m. Eastern this and next week on NBC

Since 1999, when Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? made it’s way across the pond to America, we have seen a fundamental shift in the way that the game show has been presented over the airwaves. Once built to be cheap staples of daytime (often morning) television, the genre often is now home to seven-digit grand prizes, prime-time specials, and typically treated closer to sporting events with cutaway interviews. No network has leaned harder on the genre since its’ revival than NBC, which has had considerable success with Deal or No Deal, 1 vs. 100, and The Weakest Link. It is with those three shows in mind that they launch their new big money quizzer: Million Second Quiz

Million Second Quiz is a test of both general knowledge and endurance. One lucky contestant is placed in the money chair inside a giant hourglass set in Manhattan’s Rockerfeller Center. Here, the contestant earns $10 for every second they survive in the chair while being bombarded by questions and challenges from across the country. Once unseated from they money chair, they spend time in winner’s row, hoping that their winnings will hold out. Once the clock hits zero (estimated to be sometime next Friday afternoon), the top four will battle it out for the top cash prize. Hosting the proceedings is veteran emcee Ryan Seacrest (Click, Wild Animal Games, Mid-days on Z-100, he also did some show on Fox for a few years but I don’t think anyone’s ever heard of it).

The quiz battles are interesting, mixing elements of the ABC show Duel, the dare mechanics from Double Dare (though sadly not the physical challenges), and the speed round mechanics of just about hard quizzer ever (albeit with increasing point values as the battle goes on). Seacrest does a surprisingly strong job handling the question reader side of the show, nimbly adapting between asking questions, kicking to a video screen for video questions, and dealing with the Doubler (which admittedly was not explained before the first bout) and even managing to interrupt a battle for commercials (right before the big final third).

In between these bouts, we get to look in on the various larger aspects of the Million Second Quiz, including meeting the “line jumper” a strong performing online player whom is flown in to play for the money chair. We also check in on Winner’s Row, where the four top performing players try to survive long enough to make it to the final battle for the big prize. We also learn about “the winner’s defense”, where the winner’s circle send of their own in a risk to add to their total. If the Winner fails however, they are out of the game.

If there is one glaring issue with the show, it’s the relentless cross promotion that occurs during the course of the episode. Our winner’s row is sponsored by Subway. Our line jumper gets an interview on NBC’s Today Show. We get guest appearances by Blake Shelton of The Voice and Heidi Klum of America’s Got Talent. Multiple questions referenced NBC’s two football games over the past week. While I get that promotion has long been a part of the show, it feels very blunt and inelegant on Million Second Quiz.

The Final Verdict: It’s a large expansive game with it’s tentacles everywhere, and I think I can safely say that Million Second Quiz is the next evolution of one of television’s oldest formats, mixing truly interactive at home play seamlessly with the on-air show. Seacrest has the chops to host, the format is both very simple and strategically deep, and the format allows for the tension to mount over the course of the game. Watch it, it’s a solid event show and a great way to spend the 8 p.m. hour before the fall season kicks into full gear.

Chatty Talk with Elise

by Elise Pentz

Well, this has been a sad weekend in celebrity news! I’m sad to announce Julianne Hough & Ryan Seacrest have called it quits! They had been dating for nearly 3 years & I thought they were really going to make it work & go the distance!! So sad, let’s hope for a short break, before rekindling their love!!

Lindsey Vonn & Tiger Woods have decided to finally go public with their not so well kept secret! They may have been able to keep it a secret, had Lindsey not been seen boarding Tigers private jet! Have to be super sneaky to keep anything secret around here guys!

Ryan Seacrest

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