The reality competition show "Dancing with the Stars" has proved that the format is still a viable form of entertainment. While the pure number of singing and dancing films may have faded to only a handful on the big screen, dance is enjoying steady ratings on television and robust ticket sales for live events.
It is in that vein that the National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin used dancing as the draw for its Spotlight on Life dinner that illuminated more than 2,000 children and adults waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in Wisconsin.
Representatives from Aurora-St. Luke’s, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert, Medical College of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin Organ & Tissue Donation (UWOTD) and UW-Hospital Transplant Center practice routines for weeks for the competition held last weekend.
The local celebrity judging panel and online voters selected Judy Kersten, MD, representing the Medical College of Wisconsin as the 2014 individual winner. UW Health Transplant Center was the 2014 Institutional Award winner.
Find out more about the event from the National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin website.
ANOTHER TOP 10: NBA Commissioner David Stern will present the Top Ten List on the "Late Show with David Letterman" Wednesday night on WDJT-TV CBS 58.
Stern will retire as NBA Commissioner on Feb. 1, exactly 30 years to the day that he took over the post on Feb. 1, 1984. This is not the first time Stern has presented a Top Ten List on the LATE SHOW – he read the "Top Ten New Slogans for the NBA" on Jan. 15, 1999.
Also visiting the "Late Show" are New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who also served as the starting quarterback for the winning "Team Rice" in Sunday’s Pro Bowl, actor B.J. Novak, who is promoting his new book, "One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories," and musical guests Against Me!
RAKE IN THE NUMBERS: Milwaukee was the top market in the nation for the new Fox TV series "Rake." The show, airing on WITI-TV Fox 6 immediately after "American Idol" on Thursday night, had an 8.2 rating.
The top performances by "Idol," "Rake" and the 9 p.m. newscast gave WITI the primetime sweep of top shows.
IN THE NEWS: It appears that Facebook wants to get into the news game beyond just gathering articles its users post.
Facebook had always stood by on using algorithms to deliver a personalized mix of status updates, stories and photos in the news feed. But soon, Facebook will add another approach to presenting stories by adding a new app where human editors working for Facebook will start choosing stories you may find interesting. Facebook is seeking contract editors to staff "Paper," the company's unreleased mobile app.
GRAMMYS: According to Media Bistro, Twitter was overly active during the Grammy Awards show, with appearances from Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Madonna, Stevie Wonder and others. Twitter had more than 15.2 million tweets during the CBS broadcast, peaking at 171,593 tweets per minute (TPM) during the Imagine Dragons and Kendrick Lamar performance.
"Lorde also got Twitter talking, with her performance (146,083 TPM) and win for Best Pop Solo Performance (152,688 TPM) the third and second-most talked about events of the night, more than enough to make her the Grammy’s most popular artist on Twitter, ahead of Beyoncé and Taylor Swift," Media Bistro reported.
Media is bombarding us everywhere.
Instead of sheltering his brain from the onslaught, Steve embraces the news stories, entertainment, billboards, blogs, talk shows and everything in between.
The former writer, editor and producer in TV, radio, Web and newspapers, will be talking about what media does in our community and how it shapes who we are and what we do.