TVSquad

I was one of those thousands of geeks who lined up for a shiny new iPhone 3G last month. But I had a good reason! My boss told me to get it before I went on a trip, so I could test it out. Man, what a slave driver.

Anyway, if you yourself have an iPhone or iPod Touch, all of the blogs in our network have been given an iPhone-friendly look, via a specific URL: http://i.tvsquad.com/. As you can see from the image to the right, it's got that familiar iPhone-styled look for diving down into articles to read. Proceed on, and you can also read and leave comments.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

Our Monday morning roundup of a half dozen things TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week.

1. Mad Men season two premiere. More smoking, more drinking, more advertising. (Sunday at 10pm on AMC.)

2. Comic-Con. We'll be there this week, handing out DVDs and trying not to look geeky. Follow us again on twitter for what's happening and where to meet up with us.

3. It's X-Files Week here. Just in time for the new big screen movie that opens Friday. The truth is in here, if you want to believe.

4. Jingles. A new reality competition show where ordinary people try to come up with commercial jingles. Find out who's bologna has a first name Sunday at 8pm on CBS. (Update: looks like this has been delayed until at least late summer. Stay tuned...)

5. The 2008 World Series of Poker. People still watch poker on television, right? (Starts Tuesday at 8pm on ESPN.)

6. High School Musical: Get In The Picture. High School Musical + a reality competition = ratings. (Started last night; another new episode airs tonight at 8pm on ABC.)

Since the early days of TV Squad, we've covered realty programming in some capacity; we published news, episode reviews and commentary on whatever had viewers talking. I think back then we were covering Survivor, American Idol and perhaps The Amazing Race. We had a decent balance of reality and non-reality posts, and everyone seemed happy.

As the years went on, that balance shifted. The reality shows we were covering were only increasing in popularity, and more shows came in to ride the wave. As we sat back and watched some of the newer shows break onto the scene with little posting from us, the readers demanded our take. The monstrosity of Reality TV was something we couldn't ignore, so we provided.

Then we reached the breaking point.

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for is here -- we're now ready to announce the winners of the first annual TV Squad Awards!

During our call for nominations we received hundreds of comments for potential nominees, all of which were discussed among the TV Squad team before reaching our final list for each award. Once the nominees were announced, the votes poured in for the Readers' Choice award in each category -- thousands of votes when all totaled.

We hope you enjoyed these awards as much as we have. Being as this is only the first year for these awards, there may be tweaks to be made with the categories, so don't be surprised to see some additions or subtractions next year. Let us know what you liked or didn't like. And now, without further ado, follow below for each award's winner announcement page.

The "big" shows are over, and now the typically low-key summer TV schedule begins. Oh sure, there are some real gems in there that are still airing or will start soon, but overall the excitement is nothing like the September-through-May period. Maybe people are ... gasp ... going outside to enjoy the sun?

It's been two years since we first delved into the world of Retro Squad, so we're back now with what we believe is a better format. Rather than pick a few shows and only review one season from each throughout the summer, we're doing theme/show weeks. These weeks will not only have standout episode reviews from any past season, but we'll have themed lists, Vs., interviews and videos. There are only so many weeks in the summer, so we can't cover all of your favorites, but I think there's something for just about everyone here. Check out the schedule below, after the jump.

Can you believe that there are only two more hours of Lost left this season? Things have been set in motion for the Oceanic Six to leave the island, but we still don't know how they escape or what happens to those left behind.

TV Squad is hosting a live chat during the 9pm ET airing of "There's No Place Like Home, Part Two." The chat will begin shortly before the episode starts. Check the TV Squad front page later tonight for the chat link; it will be available on the episode recap post. We've had some fun chats this season, and tonight's chat is the perfect time to join the discussion. Share your opinions and questions with other Lost fans and react to each shocking revelation.

Tonight's episode should give us the truth behind the "official" Oceanic 815 story and shed light on Locke's plan to move the island. Can't wait to chat with all of you later tonight!

We here at the TV Squad offices have been mulling this idea over for years now, and it's finally time we took action. Now that the network upfronts are over and we now know for certain (or, to give some a sliver of hope, near-certain) what shows aren't returning next season, we can start the process of submitting nominations - and then winners - of the TV Squad Awards (or as we sometimes call them internally, The Squaddies).

Over the next few days we'll have posts calling for nominee considerations for each of the twelve award categories. These posts are where you, the readers, should state your case for who or what should be nominated and why. Then, next week we'll post the nominees as chosen by the TV Squad team, along with a poll for the readers. Finally, in two weeks we'll submit the winners as chosen by TV Squad, along with the reader's choice award for each, based on the polls.

The list of awards categories after the jump.

Upfront week is that time of year when all of the networks get together for an ice cream social and announce which new shows they'll have in the fall, which old shows are returning, and which shows have been, well, sent to TV heaven. That week is this week! Some networks have toned down their presentations and parties this year.

NBC had their official upfront last month, but today they'll be making more announcements about their fall schedule (I'll have a post up about it later today). ABC and The CW will hold their upfronts on Tuesday. On Wednesday, CBS will hold their upfront, and on Friday Thursday FOX will have theirs.

TV Squad will have full coverage all week, so check back (you're checking back every single day anyway, right?).

After a five-week hiatus, Lost returns tonight with the season's final five episodes. TV Squad is hosting a a live chat during the 10pm ET airing of "The Shape of Things to Come." Share your thoughts on the show's first post-strike episode, and read other fans' opinions.

The chat will start 15 minutes before the episode airs. Check TV Squad's front page later tonight for the recap post; the chat link will be posted there. From the looks of ABC's promos, "The Shape of Things to Come" is going to be action-packed. A lot of ground needs to be covered by the season's end. The first eight episodes introduced a lot of questions about the fate of the 815ers.

There's no getting around it -- there's a crapload of reality shows on TV. The writers' strike wreaked havoc on television programming as we knew it this year, so not only did returning reality monsters like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars come back, but we were blindsided with new ones; this is a TV website, so we're not going to ignore this enormous elephant in the room.

We've gotten some requests for a "reality-free" page, where you won't see any posts related to reality television as posted here on TV Squad. Behold, the Reality-Free page! Like other categories, you can subscribe to that category's RSS feed as well. We've just started using it today, but it will continued to feature any non-reality TV posts from now on.

Yesterday we revealed the TV Squad bloggers page, complete with profile pictures of everyone. However, one person had a fake profile picture. The guesses were all over the place, with a majority of folks going with the red herring, Brett Love (yes, that is really Brett's awesome beard). Lots of folks picked me for having the fake picture (yes I'm wearing a goofy hat), or Wil Wheaton (yes, he really is a pimp). The answers from there were all over the place.

The real profile picture we replaced with a fake one is to the right. Read on to see who it is.

It's been a while since we updated with a roster page of everyone on the TV Squad team, and what better day to do it than today? In case you haven't noticed, over to the right there is a new banner: Meet the TV Squad. Click through there and you'll see the whole lot of us. Click through each image to see our profile pages, links to our posts here on TV Squad, and a place to leave a comment for any one of us.

OK, OK ... Yes, there is a joke in here, which we're turning into a contest. One of the team member pictures is not really that person's picture. For the entire day we'll let everyone comment to this post with their guesses as to who they think has the fake. Everyone who makes a guess will be entered into a random drawing to win one of several DVD sets (we'll send the list you can choose from). Read on below for the rules.

We thought it was time again to point out a few features of TV Squad that have been around for quite some time now, since we have new readers coming to the site every day.

First up, RSS feeds. Most blog readers know what these are and how to subscribe to them, so I'm not going to get into the basics of that now. What you may not know, though, is how many different RSS feeds we actually have here. Sure, you can subscribe to the main feed with all of the posts, but maybe you want to zone in or posts in certain categories?

I know a good amount of you are wondering why Brigitte's TV Squad Daily has stopped updating. I wasn't able to say anything or update because of behind-the-scenes contractual talk, which is why this post seems so late.

In a nutshell, Brigitte's TV Squad Daily won't be a feature here anymore. While I'm saddened that something couldn't be worked out, I wish her the best in wherever she takes her talents.

You may now proceed in commenting the hell out of this post to tell us how stupid we are to let her leave, yadda yadda.

The wait is over! The newest chapter in the Lost story begins tonight. To celebrate, we're hosting a live chat during the Lost season four premiere (9pm ET). It's a great opportunity to discuss the episode with fans and share your opinions with other TV Squad readers.

The chat will begin shortly before the show starts. A link to the chat will be provided in the recap post, so check the front page later tonight to join the conversation.

Take it from someone who has seen the premiere in advance--you don't want to miss this episode. It is just as exciting as the season three finale, and you'll want to talk about it with your fellow Lost fans in real time as the drama occurs. See you tonight!