'Buried Life' is No 'Jersey Shore' | Conan Costs Big; Scores Big!

While it may share a network with the hit reality series Jersey Shore, MTV’s latest offering The Buried Life couldn’t be further from the antics of housemates Snooki, Sammi, The Situation and JWoww.

In fact, its very nature would seem the antithesis of the Jersey-based Seaside Heights residents televised summer sojourn, who follow the same basic weekly routine; tan, swear, party, fight and boink!

Centred around Victoria area friends Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, and brothers Duncan and Jonnie Penn, The Buried Life is an inspirational concept that follows the foursome’s attempt to complete a list of 100 things they hope to achieve before they die; all the while helping aid their fellow man accomplish their own personal goals in the process.

While the concept may make for a solid viewing premise, the genesis of the list was never intended to hit the airwaves initially.

“We didn’t actually start this to make a television show,” Jonnie tells me. “We started this for a lot of other important reasons, but it’s become a television show over the years and it was about a year ago that we started to think that way, because, well, Number One – it’s one of the items on the list” - Number 53 in fact.

The four were approached to do a TV show some three years earlier when they first started to compile the list but didn’t feel old enough or savvy enough at that point to pursue it.

“We turned down those offers and kind of waited and continued on our own; funding the project by working extra jobs and looking out for sponsors and things,” says Jonnie.

“Eventually, we were gaining so much momentum, we thought that we had to do something with all these stories we were collecting and that’s really when we thought it was time to do a television show. Thankfully MTV was going through a transition and wanted to change their programming philosophy to match what they were seeing in our generation. They saw that this was an authentic concept and didn’t want to spoil it, so it made sense to work together.”

The one hundred item list includes challenges of varying degrees of difficulty and likelihood of accomplishment; ranging from taking in Burning Man Festival and falling in love, to kissing Rachel McAdams; landing themselves on the cover of Rolling Stone, all the way to playing ball with Barack Obama; a heady challenge to be sure.

“The list is more emblematic of the lifestyle for us,” he says. “It’s more about the question: what do you want to do before you die? All the things on the list are kind of communal things that the four of us want to do.” Just how successful the lads will be? Tune into MTV on Monday’s at 7pm PST.

Conan's Expensive Tonight Show Swan Song
With the Tonight Show fiasco now behind him, and a $45 million dollar settlement to help smooth the bruised ego he’s had to endure over a tumultuous few weeks, Conan O’Brien walked away the soul of propriety and decorum on Friday’s finale.

And while he offered a few kind words for his soon-to-be ex-employer NBC, Coco spared no expense when it came to music played during his final week.

When final guest Tom Hanks entered to the tune of The Beatles' ‘Lovely Rita’, that brief introduction bit of music may have cost the network half a million bucks alone!

Questlove – drummer for ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s’ house band, The Roots - should know. He caught the program and immediately tweeted, “…….I will have you know that walk-on song we just heard was half a mil. I know cause I got the list rate at NBC.”

He adds, “Anytime you use The Beatles on TV that will cost you dearly.”

The song was played in honour of Hanks’ wife, actress Rita Wilson, and wasn’t the only expenditure during O’Brien’s final week of splurging on the houses’ money.

On Wednesday evening’s show, the soon-to-be departing host rolled out a $1.5 million dollar Bugatti Veyron in mouse ears as The Rolling Stones' “Satisfaction’ played in the background.

The Stones catalogue is another extremely pricey one, thus, rarely heard on network television.

Not surprisingly though, Conan’s departure was a massive ratings hit for NBC.

The official numbers will be released later in the week but early estimates suggest well over 9 million people tuned in to see his farewell.

While that overnight rating was close to his January ‘Tonight Show’ debut, it remained 20% lower than Jay Leno’s final go at the venerable late night TV institution.

On the plus side, O’Brien registered 40% more viewers in the coveted 18 – 49 year-old demographic.

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