TV is continuing to suck. As a television historian and and associate professor of media studies at a well-known ivy-league school, I have to say that TV is maybe heading to places from whence it may not return.

Numbers are down in practically everything thanks to a recession and that means things change as corporations try to scramble and think of ways to stay in business to weather the storm. One of the models a lot of entities are going with is increased advertising sales and innovative "new" ways to sell shit.

Saturday Night Live will be presented by one sponsor this weekend for the first time in its 35-year run. That means all the ads will be for Bud Light and there's even a segment called "Backstage with Bud Light Golden Wheat." I'm sure we'll have a healthy does of self-referential jokes about selling out, as if calling attention to it makes it okay. Well, it doesn't.

And it's not just SNL. Jay Leno is also selling out in-show with an incessant segment brought to you by Bing, Microsoft's new retarded stab at eating into Google's search engine dominance. It's couched as an amazing way to search for images using Bing and he says the word 'Bing' about a billion times, and they've got the logo up there and it's just disgusting. Of course, Jay is no stranger to hocking products, we know this, but IN THE SHOW?

All this coming apparently after FOX announced a deal that will make Microsoft the sole sponsor of an upcoming Family Guy episode, a show I actually enjoy very much. It looks as though nothing is sacred, not even those who mock the system are not immune to its green allures.

All the more reason to go see good film and art and fuckin' rock and roll this weekend. Stay very far away from SNL and most certainly from the Jay Leno show, although you won't have to work too hard to avoid that very soon as it is on it's way out.

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