Ox Notes: January 29, 2008

Mark Burnett is having a good week. Not only has Survivor been picked up for two more seasons, but NBC moved up the premiere date of another Burnett-produced show, My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad, to February 18. Dad is hosted by Dan Cortese, who looks like he's had some work done based on his picture in Variety's article about the show.

Trying to milk the success of the new American Gladiators for all it's worth, NBC is offering all 39 episodes of Gladiators 2000 for syndication. G2K was a teen competition series based on American Gladiators that taped in the mid-'90s, hosted by a then 19-year-old Ryan Seacrest.

The producers of Deal or No Deal have developed a game show called Buzzed to run exclusively online. Each episode of Buzzed features bar patrons answering questions for money, and contestants are able to "drunk dial" friends to ask for help with answers. Charming.

With Hollywood writers still on strike, CBS has teamed with a Canadian production house to write a cop show called Flashpoint. CBS plans to run the show in the U.S. and Canada concurrently, possibly this summer.

The WGA, meanwhile, has given its members the okay to write for the Grammy Awards on February 10.

John Cleese talked with TV Guide about why The Life of Brian is his favorite Monty Python movie. One of Cleese's fellow Pythons, Michael Palin, had a new show debut on the Travel Channel last night. Michael Palin's New Europe doesn't have an official show page at the Travel Channel's website, but the schedule includes brief descriptions of each episode.

Director Sam Raimi has plans to return to syndicated TV by adapting Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series. The show will be called Wizard's First Rule, the title of the first book in the series.

I get excited for all of Sam Raimi's projects because he always finds a way to work his good buddy, Bruce Campbell, into everything he does. And I'm pretty sure that Sam's brother, Ted, will show up in a few episodes as well.