Let's end the day on a high note. Crazed pro-gun nut Ted Nugent will NOT be returning to the Discovery Channel.

Ted Nugent with one of his less attractive groupies.

Courtesy of Raw Story:

In addition to cancelling its popular “American Guns” reality show, The Discovery Channel confirmed to Raw Story on Tuesday that firearms enthusiast Ted Nugent will also not be returning to the channel in any form or fashion. 

Speaking to Raw Story in remarks specified as “not for attribution,” a spokesperson admitted that “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country” didn’t do very well when it aired in October, even with fellow firearms fashionistas. Nielsen Ratings placed the viewership at about 864,000 people in all. But the network’s decision is not just about the numbers. 

After Friday’s devastating massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, the spokesperson said that Nugent would definitely not be returning to the Discovery Channel. 

“‘American Guns’ concluded earlier this year,” the network’s prepared statement explains. “Discovery Channel chose not to renew the series and has no plans to air repeats of the show.” 

Although the Discovery Channel’s statement did not directly link the cancellation of “American Guns” to Friday’s massacre, the channel’s spokesperson did say the tragedy “has really started something,” but didn’t specify what that something may be. 

Nugent’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. 

You know sometimes it is really hard to remain a skeptic when the karmic justice smells this sweet.

Here are some of the advertisements that Defenders of Wildlife will strategically place outside of Discovery headquarters to protest the program "Sarah Palin's Alaska".

These are amazing!

I don't know about you guys, but if I had a televison station that advertised itself as being a friend of wildlife, I would have a heart attack if I saw these posters around my place of business.

Half a million people say "Sit down, and shut up" to Sarah Palin's Alaska.

From Examiner.com:

CREDO, a publication of Working Assets, announced this week that they have collected over 215,000 signatures in opposition to the planned Discovery channel show: "Sarah Palin's Alaska." That's more signatures than they've ever collected on one action. Combined with our other wildlife enthusiast organizations, most notably, Defenders of Wildlife, the number of people who've asked Discovery to cancel the show includes over half a million disgruntled Discovery watchers.. Those numbers are bound to give any television exec pause.

Next week, Discovery Communications will hold a shareholder meeting in Washington, DC. In advance of the meeting. CREDO states "it's important that we bring as much pressure to bear as possible. Let's show the Discovery shareholders that it hurts their brand and their bottom line to get into bed with anti-environment extremists like Sarah Palin."

CREDO is working to rally additional 25,000 signatures by next Wednesday. when the annual shareholder meeting is scheduled. Those offended by this choice continue to make their voice of opposition heard . Those who wish to add their voice to those offended by Sara Palin as a wildlife spokesperson are invited to read and sign the petition.

I have to believe that a number of those signatures came from many of you who visit this blog.

If true, thank you very much for standing up for Alaska and challenging the intelligence of Discovery to choose such an unfit spokesperson to represent our state and it's wildlife.

If not please take a moment to sign the petition and perhaps ask friends and family to do the same.

Remember the way to have an impact on Sarah Palin is to cost her money. And losing this show will definitely cost her money.

Defenders of Wildlife are asking for our help.

More than 190,000 caring people have already urged Discovery to cancel Palin’s scheduled TLC show, and now we’re going to make sure that we let Discovery’s executives know that conservation-minded people like us mean business.

As Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin…

• Fought vital, life-saving protections for threatened polar bears and rare Cook Inlet beluga whales;
• Championed cruel and unscientific aerial wolf-killing programs, proposing a $150 bounty for the left forelimb of wolves; and
•  Argued aggressively for destructive drilling in key habitat for polar bears, walruses and other Arctic wildlife.

Please donate now to help blanket the local subway station used by Discovery’s shareholders, employees, management, and advertisers with powerful ads, compel Discovery to pull the plug on Palin’s show and secure a better future for wolves, polar bears and other imperiled wildlife

If you want to send a message to the people at Discovery please click here and provide a donation to help them advertise to the world why Sarah Palin is the worst possible choice to host a program like this.

Advertisers "rolling their eyes and laughing" during presentation for "Sarah Palin's Alaska".

Cenk Uygur from the Young Turks has this breaking story.



I don't believe anybody with half of a brain had any doubts this thing would be stinker.

I am just amazed that even TLC would fall for the hype.

A little sneak peek at "Sarah Palin's Alaska".

Yes that is indeed Palin's voice you hear. I am guessing it was taken from the audio version of her "Going Rogue" book. To be clear, those are Sarah's words, every one of them. And THIS is the woman that TLC has chosen to host a show about Alaska's wilderness.

I believe that most of the viewing public will have a response similar to the one expressed in this science writer's open letter to Discover over Palin's show.

This is a woman who would destroy the very "nature" that the series you're paying her $1.2 million an episode is supposed to showcase! Did you forget about her terrible environmental record? Did you forget that she campaigned to no only allow the aerial hunting of wolves, but pay people for it? Fought tooth and nail to remove protections animals like Beluga Whales and Polar Bears? That she openly and unabashedly desires to tear apart the wilderness of Alaska to fill it with oil platforms? This is a women who flaunts her disbelief of scientific consensuses like evolution and climate change! She is the picture of everything that you are supposed to be in the fight against.


I repeat - how could you?!

Laughing at Sarah is always cathartic but we must also remember that she is a vessel for putting forth some very dangerous ideas to make them more palatable to the public at large.  With that sing songy voice of hers Sarah can deliver lies and misinformation in a way that seems completely lacking in malice, when in fact it is packed with venom.  Just ask Barack Obama, Levi Johnston, or the Alaska bloggers.

Sarah Palin is NOT being paid a million dollars per episode for her Alaska unreality show!

I have been hearing this rumor for over a week now, and I always thought it sounded wrong, but EVERYBODY kept repeating that Palin would receive a million dollars for each episode of her show on TLC so I remained confused on the topic.

Finally the Daily Beast has received some clarification:

Contrary to popular opinion, cable network TLC thinks audiences can learn something from Sarah Palin, and the company is willing to pay her roughly $250,000 per episode, or $2 million in total, to educate them.

That’s the ballpark amount the woman formerly known as the governor of Alaska will pocket from the sale of an eight-episode documentary series to the Discovery-owned network, sources familiar with the project told The Daily Beast.
 
I still believe that Palin is being substantially overpaid for this program, but now at least we can put to bed that ridiculous rumor about a million dollars per episode.  TLC is going to lose enough money as it is.

Will TLC have trouble finding advertisers for Sarah Paliin's reality show?

Advertising Age reports that TLC's usual advertisers may shy away from a show hosted by Sarah Palin:

Ad buyers are already suggesting that the show may not attract advertising from big marketers that need to appeal to the broadest possible audience. Smaller players, on the other hand, may see opportunity.

(Sarah Palin demonstrates how she will help the Discovery Channel get the Alaska wildlife to stay still for the cameras)

"Conservative companies don't want to ruffle any feathers," said Ira Berger, director-national broadcast, at Dallas independent Richards Group -- referring to risk-averse major marketers, not political persuasion. "But if you're the number-seven brand in a six-company category, then why not shake it up and take a chance?"

Flare-ups over politically tinged remarks in news programming have also made some marketers more cautious. The brouhaha over Glenn Beck at Fox News last year -- as well as the hot-button debates that run on NBC Universal's MSNBC -- prompted Clorox Co. to say last August that it would no longer run ads on any programming in the genre.

Advertisers may also have to be convinced whether the new program fits with TLC, a cable channel that is usually centered on family, parenting, home projects, cooking, weddings and fashion, not polarizing political personae or hikes under the Northern Lights. TLC saw 2009 ad revenue fall 1% to about $296.3 million from about $299.4 million, according to WPP's Kantar Media, a tracker of ad spending.

Will having a reality show finally force Sarah Palin to face "reality"? Yeah, that'll be the day!

It looks like despite the fact that it is one of the stupidest ideas ever, Sarah "There's plenty of room for Alaska's animals, right next to the mashed potatoes" Palin will in fact have a "reality show" on the Discovery Channel where Sarah will stand in front of fake backdrops, while a wind machine ruffles her wig ever so natural like, and she describes the wildlife that she is seeing for the first time in her life.

"Well that right there...wait let me check my palm...is a snowshoe hare.  Wow he is a cute little fella!  I usually only see their hind ends as they frantically run away as I am firing wildly in all directions trying to murder them.  Gosh it is so adorable we should skin it later and make mittens for Piper!"

The Discovery Channel may have won the booby prize!

I read a lot of versions of this story, but THIS one was my favorite. 

The Hollywood Reporter says Discovery Channel has won the Sarah Palin reality show sweepstakes. Considering the broadcast networks all passed and there was only one other cable channel in the running, we're not sure what exactly they won. According to THR, the cost to the cable channel may be more than $1 million per episode which, uh, sounds insane. Wanna bet on whether this thing gets on the air, much less lasts a whole season? Not that we're keeping score, but THR originally reported that Discovery Channel was not interested in the show, but that its sister network TLC was. We'll wait for an official release from Discovery before we start the official mocking of them.

If the Discovery channel still employs scientists to help with research you would think they might have noticed that EVERYTHING Palin touches is either badly damaged or completely destroyed. Even hiding in a shark cage will not protect them from the shrapnel created when this thing blows up in their face.