animalplanet

Forget the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts, this Sunday's Super Bowl is all about puppies! Well, that's what Animal Planet wants you to believe, as their Puppy Bowl VI airs Sunday afternoon before the actual football game commences.

The starting line-up for the sixth annual event showcases a fiercely cute bunch of, you guessed it, puppies. Make sure to keep your eyes on the 10-week-old Bandit, a Border Collie Mix; and the clearly menacing, 16-week-old Fava (He just started teething!), a Cattle Dog Mix. The bunny-cheerleaders should be pretty darn cute, as well.

Sure the National Football League might have the money, the talent and the millions of dollars in hotly contested advertising revenue, but they don't have puppies.

That's why Animal Planet is returning their annual festival of cute that is the Puppy Bowl for their sixth year, set to air from 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern on Feb. 7.

This year's showdown will include old favorite such as shots from the world-famous "bowl cam" and some new twists such as a new blimp-cam and bunnies dressed as cheerleaders. Warning: it's bound to be so cute that Discovery Networks will not be held responsible for broken TV due to excessive hugging.

Conan O'Brien explored his late-night career options during a 'Deal or No Deal' parody with Howie Mandel on last night's 'Tonight Show.'

O'Brien worked his way through a range of steel briefcases in a lightening round of the game show, revealing potential new careers as a "rare albino werewolf' in 'Twilight' and as an Animal Planet host eating bugs off Andy Richter's stomach.

Watch the video after the jump.

If you ask the average zoologist what makes mysterious creatures like Bigfoot or El Chupacabra so impossible today when once scientifically-dismissed species like the Mountain Gorilla or Giant Squid are now common enough concepts, they'll probably say, "The difference is the gorilla and the squid are real, and Bigfoot isn't."

The scientific dismissal isn't keeping Animal Planet from releasing a new DVD featuring stories of cryptozoological oddities.

Announced this week and set for release this fall (October 6), Lost Tapes operates under the thesis that, while thousands of new species are discovered and classified each year, there are some creatures that science still refuses to recognize.

Since the reality television boom isn't going to end anytime soon, this could be a lucrative career path for the up-and-coming toddler who likes to ham it up with a microphone. After all, in this time of economic woes, what could be a better goal than glam, glitz, red carpets, and Emmy awards?

The reality show genre encompasses the gamut from talent contests to living in the jungle to living in a house with insufferable drones and drama queens and beyond. As a result, the hosts for these shows are going to be a varied lot, as well. Who are these people? How did they get where they are? And, more importantly ... what do I think of them? Read on.

Animal Planet has once again slated the Puppy Bowl (this one is number 5) to take place on February 1st, the same day as the Super Bowl. The National Anthem will be sung by a parrot and there will be a half-time show involving kitties. Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up.

I was informed that there was some excitement last year when one of the puppies knocked down a dalmatian who was carrying the ball and was penalized as a result and taken out of the game. I don't know exactly how that works, but it sounds exciting.

It's a cute gimmick that the Animal Planet has developed. You can't get much cheaper and cuter than filming puppies playing in a faux football stadium and people that watch puppies are definitely a different niche than those that watch football.

Still, there is some room for improvement. Why not throw a few bunnies and hamsters in there to liven things up? How would you improve the Puppy Bowl?

I attended the TCA Cable Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton yesterday where I learned about the following shows:

Whale Wars on Animal Planet
Secrets of the Dinosaur Mummy on Discovery
Ashley Paige: Bikini or Bust on TLC
Ricky Gervais Comedy Special on HBO
Little Britain, USA on HBO
Generation Kill on HBO

And there's more. Believe me, there's more.

Okay, you've got whale pirates, mummies, bikinis, Ricky Gervais, vampires, and Marines. Unfortunately, none of those shows combine all six of those things / people. After the jump, find out about these new shows and the people who make them...

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Growing up as a child of the television generation, I was always mesmerized by any shows having to do with nature or animals. I'd glue myself to the set as Marlin Perkins and Jacques Cousteau took me on fantastic adventures far removed from my own life of domesticated animals.

But I always loved the domestic animals as well. Dogs and cats have always been a part of my life and I'm enriched by their presence in our world. What I didn't have when I was growing up was an Animal Planet exploring the world of animals from pets to deadly predators. From sentimental to educational to outright odd and scary, Animal Planet explores both the worlds of the wilds and the inner cities -- as long as there are animals involved. And, it's not just for kids.

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Would you play a Meerkat Manor video game? I sure would--I would love to play as Flower leading her massive group of offspring around. I'm sure the fight scenes would be good too. Those meerkats have some pretty sweet moves.

Well, if you love Meerkat Manor and you love video games, you're in luck because Activision (the same people who brought you the immensely-popular Guitar Hero 3) has teamed up with Discovery Communications. The two companies are in talks to produce a series of video games based on cable network's shows.

They decided on Meerkat Manor for the first game (it is Animal Planet's highest-rated show) and more titles will be released in early 2008. I wonder what other shows they will turn into video games? Discovery Communications has several cable networks so they have a wide array of shows to serve as the basis for a multi-media project (i.e. Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Travel Channel). I have a few suggestions: Man vs. Wild (or Survivorman if you like him better), Orangutan Island and Deadliest Catch.

Breathtaking vistas? Wild animals? Vibrant culture? Life Is Wild, the new fish-out-of-water drama on the CW promises all these things, and yet, doesn't quite deliver. It's more of a "Life Is Mild" -- a generic family drama set in a lush South African locale -- that strips all the color out of the scenery by weighing down its story with bland characters played by nondescript actors stuck in unoriginal situations.

For real excitement and back-stabbing familial drama in the South African wild, check out the spectacular Meerkat Manor on Animal Planet. My family may be late to the game (Meerkat Manor is now in its third season), but those meerkats have us absolutely riveted. And maybe that's why I had a hard time getting excited by Life Is Wild. There's no real sense of danger. Unfortunately, this fictionalized African drama just can't compete with the real life-and-death struggles of those photogenic meerkats.

Animal Planet host Jeff Corwin was tossed by an elephant while filming a segment with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Corwin is a regular correspondent for Cooper's show, Anderson Cooper 360, for a segment called "Planet in Peril". The duo was in Cambodia at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center when one elephant put Corwin's arm in his mouth and shook him. On his blog, Cooper describes what happened to Corwin as being "tossed like a ragdoll". Corwin also posted on the blog, and describes the incident in very little detail and a non-alarmist way. It's apparent from his post that he's more concerned with the plight of the Cambodian elephants than with what happened.

The video is on Cooper's blog (and on YouTube) right now, and once you watch it, you'll be amazed to know that Corwin was generally okay. His arm wasn't even broken, just badly twisted and bruised. After the incident, Corwin continued filming with Cooper and then went to get checked out by a doctor, who put him in a sling. He may have some ligament damage, but will have to wait to know for sure when he returns to the U.S. I was actually very impressed with Cooper's reporting because he didn't let the incident overshadow the real reason for being with the elephants.

Video after the jump (the attack happens at 2:40 into the video):

[Thanks, Tim UF!]

If you, like me, are a sucker for interesting Animal Planet, Discovery, or National Geographic specials, you'll want to keep an eye out for this one. Using a combination of 4-D ultrasound, CGI, and tiny cameras, a team has been taking pictures of various animals as they develop in the womb. The results are pretty amazing, and will be the focus of a two hour documentary on the National Geographic channel called In The Womb: Animals.

Adam, wrote about the special a couple weeks ago, and linked to the videos. Now, The Daily Mail has more on the special, including a gallery that shows some new pictures with an elephant, dolphin, and dog. The special is scheduled to air Dec. 10. on National Geographic, and sometime in 2007 on Channel 4 in the UK.

[ via boingboing ]

The partnership between Animal Planet (owned by Discovery Communications Inc.) and the late Steve Irwin can be traced to the network's inception in 1996. Back then, Irwin's series The Crocodile Hunter was one of the initial offerings of the fledgling network. The pairing of the two resulted in Irwin becoming an international star and Animal Planet reaching 160 countries across the globe. That's why it's no surprise that Animal Planet channels around the globe will honor Irwin on Sunday, September 10th with an all-day marathon of Best of the Croc Hunter programming.

Later this month, Animal Planet is debuting a two-hour program about famous rock stars and their horses. Not pets, just horses. It's called Trail Mix. One of the biggest names on the show is Sheryl Crow, who will talk about her relationship with her four horses, and how they inspire her songwriting. Other singers on the program include Aerosmith's Joe Perry, LeeAnn Rhimes, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Irish tenor Ronan Tyan. The show also features former Matchbox 20 frontman Rob Thomas and his horse(s), which is sort-of surprising to me, because he just doesn't strike me as the horseback-riding type. I'm not really sure what the horseback-riding type is, but the other singers featured on the show seem like, yeah, they'd own horses. Two hours is an awful long time to talk about someone else's horses, but if you're a fan of horses (or of those singers), I guess it could be interesting.

Trail Mix premieres on Animal Planet on January 29th from 8-10 pm (ET).