UPN News Round-up

Whether it be a controversial new reality series or the future of the Star Trek franchise, UPN is never far from the headlines. Here's a round-up of the latest news regarding the Enterprise network:

• UPN has picked up a gong for its Enterprise promotional campaign. Eric Jacobson won the On-Air Promotion (Radio or Television) category at the Writers Guild of America Awards on Saturday night for the network's Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Enterprise ads, Zap2it reported.

• Over at TV Guide, media commentator Matt Roush has responded to readers' feedback to his column on the future of Enterprise. In his answer to one question, Roush talked about the long-term future of the franchise on commerical television:

  This season has been an improvement, and proves to me that there is still going to be room and an appetite for adventurous Trek stories. If this season were to go out on a creative high (regardless of ratings or its soon-to-be-perilous new time period), I don't think it will necessarily be perceived as a failure. Besides, the words UPN and failure are almost redundant, aren't they? And now that they're all part of the same family, what's to keep CBS from giving a future Trek show a shot? A network that strong should be afford to take a few risks — and it would be nice if one of the big-three networks embraced the genre again.

  Roush's complete analysis of the situation can be found at TV Guide.

• The network's proposed Amish reality series has sparked intense criticism from several quarters. Over fifty members of Congress signed a petition protesting against the show, which would follow five teenagers experiencing "normal life" before they decided whether to commit to the Amish lifestyle. "The mentality reminds me of the old sideshows in the circus," congressman Joe Pitts told E! Online. "And it is wrong to do this to a minority group like the Amish."

  The Centre for Rural Studies has set up an online petition at their web site. The petition states: "The reality is that the Amish are a pacifist community who are unlikely to fight against UPN's excesses. But that doesn't make it right. Isn't it time that network television stopped ridiculing hard-working rural people and religious minorities just to line their own pockets?" Full coverage is available via Yahoo! News.

• Enrico Colantoni, who played Mathesar in the Star Trek spoof Galaxy Quest, has joined the cast of UPN's Veronica Mars, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The proposed drama series centres around a private detective, played by Colantoni and his teenage daughter.

• The network has also cast the lead roles in its other private eye drama, Nikki & Nora. Liz Vassey (Push, Nevada) and Christina Cox (F/X: The Series) will play the titular lesbian detectives. Read more in this article.

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