Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Candy Crush comes to TV as summer time filler
Have you ever played the computer/mobile game Candy Crush? I’ve avoided the temptation despite about a million irritating “invitations” from friends on Facebook.
For the record, I’m an Angry Birds devotee when I want to waste time. Something about flinging birds and smashing things appeals to me.
Candy Crush is hugely popular and probably kills about a billion work hours by those who sneak in games while at the office. There are an estimated 50 million monthly users.
The object is to connect three or more similar pieces of candy horizontally or vertically to remove them from the board. It gets more difficult as the levels increase.
Now, there’s a TV version of the game in the never-ending quest to provide mental pablum to fritter away the summer hours until real programming returns in the fall.
Candy Crush debuts at 8 p.m. today on CBS with Mario Lopez as host. The live-action game show will feature a giant wall where teams of two match candies in combinations of three or more to win points, defeat obstacles and progress through the levels.
In addition, it will take plenty of physical agility to scale the large, interactive boards to win the game, be crowned champions and take home the prizes.
As extra incentive to tune in, fan favorites from Survivor and Big Brother are set to extend their 15 minutes of reality fame by joining forces as contestants on the first episode.
They are former castaways Kelley Wentworth (Survivor: San Juan Del Sur, Survivor Cambodia) and Joe Anglim (Survivor: Worlds Apart, Survivor: Cambodia), and Big Brother 16 houseguests Caleb Reynolds (also a double Survivor castaway) and Frankie Grande (Ariana’s brother) along with Big Brother 18 alumni Paul Abrahamian (the bearded one) and Da’Vonne Rogers (the sassy one).
If you want to completely and totally waste your evening, Candy Crush follows a new episode of Big Brother at 7 p.m.
■ The Defiant Ones, 8 p.m. today, HBO. Here’s something different. The four-part documentary series tells the stories of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre and their “unlikely partnership and roles they played in a series of events that transformed contemporary culture.”
The series comes from director Allen Hughes (Menace II Society) and takes place “in recording studios, in humble homes and massive mansions, in criminal courts and in the highest corridors of corporate power.”
Iovine, the son of a Brooklyn longshoreman, is a record and film producer best known as the co-founder of Interscope Records and chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M.
Dr. Dre (real name Andre Romelle Young) is a rapper, record producer and entrepreneur who was the co-owner of Death Row Records.
Together, the duo founded Beats Electronics, a company that produces audio products and operated a music streaming service. The company was bought by Apple for $3 billion in May 2014.
The documentary features a number of familiar artists and music industry names, including Bono, David Geffen, Eminem, Nas, Ice Cube, Gwen Stefani, Jon Landau, Tom Petty, Trent Reznor, Snoop Dogg, Bruce Springsteen and will.i.am.
The series also features footage from a number of recording and composing sessions with Eazy-E, J.J. Fad, Stevie Nicks, N.W.A., Petty, Springsteen and U2, among others.
■ Penn & Teller: Fool Us, 8 p.m., Monday, The CW. It’s Season 4 for the magic competition designed to fool magician/comics Penn Jillette and the exceedingly taciturn (usually mum) Teller (birth name Raymond Teller). Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother) returns as host. ■ Will, 9 p.m., Monday, TNT. The Will in the title is William Shakespeare and the drama deals with his (fictional) life in his early 20s. There will be 10 episodes with newcomer Laurie Davidson starring as the young playwright.
TNT labels the series “provocative” and says it will be “a contemporary version of Shakespeare’s life, played to a modern soundtrack that exposes all his recklessness, lustful temptations and brilliance.”
Uh-oh. English majors have been warned.
Reminder: Make your plans. Game of Thrones storms back in one short week. The first half of Season 7 kicks off at 8 p.m. July 16 on HBO. Winter is here. I mean, winter has been coming for such a long time, but now it’s actually here and things are about to get really, really nasty.