High On Voltage

“We know our demographic for the early morning hours are young and have a lot to say,” said XTV spokesperson Tim Tottle. “They feel under represented in the television media but with our new offering ‘Dueling Stools’, we think that target audience will find common ground with a show that honestly captures the imagination of young people across the USA.”

The network selected relative unknown Michael “Buddo” Holleran to host the show, largely on the strength of the 21 year old’s big numbers on his MySpace page, famous for it’s tagline “Shut Yer Face!”

“We’ve seen how young people respond to Buddo’s approach and there are thousands and thousands of postings on his site to back that up,” continued Tottle. “We’re confident that will translate to huge numbers once we get the show on the air in September.”

Critics have already sight unseen skewered XTV’s initiative as one that clearly hasn’t been thought through and aren’t giving the new network much credit on the idea.

“Let’s face it, Holleran’s credentials are pretty thin and I can’t see how anyone can put a happy face on this one,” said Gary Shoe, editor of media watchdog site what?.com.

“How can you build a network TV show around a guy who, on his MySpace page, just plays clips of celebrity interviews interspersed with closeups of him shouting ’shut yer face!’? It’s baffling and indicative of XTV’s lack of focus more than any other single thing I can put my finger on.”

But there’s no shortage of sponsors as youth-oriented companies have lined up to buy advertising time for a time slot that generally doesn’t return a profit and in XTV board room, that fact alone has reportedly swept the concept of “Dueling Stools” from concept to reality in less than two weeks.

With a guest line-up that is rumored to include such celebrities as Jessica Simpson, Brad Pitt and possibly even both presidential candidates, feeling is running high at XTV is that “Dueling Stools” could turn a little-known operation into a major success story overnight.