Degrassi Love Games (Waiting For A Girl Like You/Somebody) is the only new Degrassi TeenNick gets this February.

So not much has been happening out in the open in the Degrassi world lately, but there’s quite a bit of random stuff happening beind the scenes:

*TeenNick watchers mark your calendar: ACESONLINE confirmed that Degrassi “Love Games” will air on Friday, February 5th at 9pm ET.  Apparently this is going to be the ONLY new episode of Degrassi airing in February, because no other episodes are listed in that month’s highlights. 

I have no earthly idea why that’s all we’re getting, so I’ll just blame it on the Winter Olympics (even though I can’t think of a reason why it’d have an impact on the network’s schedule).  Well at least I guess that means they have 9 episodes to stretch out through spring and early summer until the Degrassi movie.

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*Season 10 is being written as I type this.  After brainstorming sessions between writers and storyline pitches to TeenNick, Season 10 is officially a go.  One thing that’ll be interesting to see is the casting changes for Season 10….who’s staying, who’s going, and what new faces might appear.

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*It looks like Degrassi will now start airing in Australia!! It’s literally been YEARS since a “new” episode of Degrassi has aired down under.  I remember years ago them being stuck on Season 3 for the longest time, not realizing they had stopped airing the show altogether.  Well from the sound of Stefan Brogren’s tweets, it looks like they’ll pick up around Season 4.  So if you think TeenNick being five or six episodes behind CTV is bad, try being five or six SEASONS behind.

[WARNING: THIS DEGRASSI MINI REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]

I encourage you to go back and read my review of Searching for Sinder3lla Parts 1 and 2.

Now with that in mind, I’m here to say I’ve *almost* done a 180 on my opinion of this mini.  Part three is very predictable…they finally reveal that Holly J is “Sinder3lla.”  However, after watching all three parts at once, it’s really not that bad of a mini.  There’s only two major issues I had with it(which I’ll explain below).  But to be honest, I really like the fact that it’s basically a short prequel to Waiting For A Girl Like You/Somebody, aka the Degrassi Love games special coming to TeenNick in February.

As a matter of fact, it’s pretty similar to a certain mini that aired before the beginning of season six…

SEARCHING FOR SINDER3LLA FINAL GRADE: C

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Hold up…..

Above I mentioned there were two issues I had with the Searching for Sinder3lla mini:

1) Sav’s acting was horrid.
Sorry dude, but his comedy relief in this mini was awful…it got worse with each part.  In Part 3 there were several weird pauses that made me cringe.  Normally Sav’s awkwardness is at the very least humorous, but in this mini it felt like Ray Ablack was trying to hard to be goofy.

2) TeenNick’s segmentation of the mini.
If Degrassi Party Etiquette is an awesome example of a mini being broken up into parts, then Searching For Sinder3lla is the exact opposite.  TeenNick’s decision break up this 7 minute mini episode into three parts and air it over the course of three weeks was awful…just as awful as it was of them to pull that crap with the Ghost of Degrassi Past mini as well.

No “Part” of Searching for Sinder3lla is strong enough to stand on its own under any circumstance, and that’s why my initial review of Parts 1 and 2 was so incredibly harsh.  It would’ve been so much better if they had just held onto the mini, then aired it as a whole the week before Degrassi Love Games.  Stefan Brogren went to dinner with some people from TeenNick yesterday…God I wish I had been there to tell them to stop acting so dumb sometimes when it comes to Degrassi!

Liberty's gone, and apparently so is Degrassi's syndication run on CW Stations.

I was checking out CableTVTalk and Kyle posted a short, but disturbing message:

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Effective this Monday (January 18, 2010), most (if not all) stations will be replacing Degrassi with the CBC series Edgemont that aired on Encore WAM a few years ago in the USA. I’m still waiting for word if Program Partners discontinued distribution of Degrassi entirely or are still making it available in the other strip that some stations use.
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It might seem like sudden news, but upon doing some research I found an article written in December from Broadcasting & Cable about how the CW was picking up Edgemont for it’s E/I programming.  Of course it doesn’t mention anything about the fate of Degrassi, but I’m assuming they’re done with TNG.  It’s kinda weird though seeing as how in 2008 the CW renewed their deal and decided to syndicate Degrassi through 2011…I wonder what made them change their minds.

Am I upset by this? No, not really…my local CW (actually it airs on MyTV here) channel airs Degrassi during the weekdays at 7am.  Sorry Season 3…I love you, but I’m not getting up that early to watch you.  Plus if you’re one of those people who complain about TeenNick editing episodes?? The CW version of the episodes are virtually hacked to pieces…it’s almost a shame.

uhhh...lol

Ok so enough people have asked me this to where I can answer it in a blog post: Kary, do you hate Mia and Peter?  I’ll answer it the long way by saying what I think of each character, then what I think of them as a couple.
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Mia

I don’t really hate Mia, but she sure does a good job of pissing me off.  This is partly her fault, as well as the fault of the writers.  The frustration all comes from how her daughter Isabella is dealt with.  Mia is obviously more concerned with being popular and “living like a teenager” instead of taking care of her daughter.  Sorry, but you gave up your right to be a teen and have fun all the time when you gave it up to Lucas.

And of course when the writing team wants to do something cool with Mia (something like give her a fancy sendoff) they can completely disregard Izzy’s existence altogether.  Or just work it so that Mia’s mom is the one taking care of things.  Why even bother making Mia a teen mom in the first place?

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Peter

I used to hate Peter.  That was a BIG used to.  I hated him mainly during season 5 and part of season 6, where it felt like they really didn’t know what direction they wanted to go with him.  Was he supposed to be a bad guy? Or were we supposed to feel sorry for him?

I’ll get straight to the point: Darcy is the reason I started liking him.  She was the best thing to ever happen to him.  Even though Darcy is gone, I think I like him more now than I did back then.  He’s just been a really humble character since his drug usage made him lose almost everything.

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Mia and Peter

They are the most contrived couple in history.  Mia and Peter were blantly thrown together as a couple way too fast, and even as a couple they didn’t really do anything.  While Peter was still communicating with Darcy while she was in Africa, and even after he stopped it was too hard for me to believe that Peter’s heart was really in it with Mia.

I feel like the writers put them together because Mia and Peter were two of the main characters of the show at that time.  The main clique of Season 8? Peter, Mia, Sav, Anya and Danny (the guys were best friends and the girls were BFFs too, but I don’t count Leia because she never really made it “in” with the group that season).  Mia and Peter were a couple of convenience.

Degrassi writers discussing potential storylines for Season 10.

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I <3 Stefan Brogren.

Today is a busy day at the Degrassi headquarters, but Stefan took time out of the day to tweet us some behind the scenes pics.  The writers have already started on Season 10, and today they’re having more brainstorming sessions.  Stefan tweeted that Degrassi’s gonna “get wild” next season, and I surely hope so! They really haven’t had a super GO THERE moment in quite a while.

Stefan tweeting just before taking a phone call from TeenNick...GET EM SNAKE!!

Someone on twitter asked Stefan when Season 10 will start airing and Stefan’s exact words were “Let’s saaaaay…early summer for season 10.”  Now that’s not confirmed by any means, but if CTV’s really going to premiere Season 10 during the SUMMER? I don’t know if I like the sound of that.  I mean it could be good because there generally isn’t much competition in the summer…only a few new shows/season premieres occur during that time, but there’s also not as many viewers as their are in the FALL.

We shall see.  Also, I want you to check out the photo below.  It’s a picture of Brendan Yorke (he’s not only written episodes, he’s also written some of the Degrassi songs and directed episodes), but more importantly check out the wall behind him.  Possibly a hint of who’s going to be in Season 10?

Okay, hopefully you got to enjoy at least some of the Degrassi Marathon on TeenNick this past weekend!!! Sadly, there’s going to be no more 20+ hours of Degrassi everyday….but the marathon will still continue the rest of this week (as well as through the weekend) with the daily airing schedule being much shorter.

The marathon will now continue everyday from 5pm to midnight (EST).  Here’s the daily schedule below:
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Monday 1/4/10

Season 4
5pm: Moonlight Desires
5:30pm: West End Girls
6pm: Goin Down The Road Pt 1
6:30pm: Goin Down The Road Pt 2

Season 5
7pm: Venus Pt 1
7:30pm: Venus Pt 2
8pm: Death of a Disco Dancer
8:30pm: Foolin’
9pm: Weddings, Parties, Anything
9:30pm: Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
10pm: Turned Out Pt 1
10:30pm: Turned Out Pt 2
11pm: Tell It To My Heart
11:30pm: Redemption Song

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Tuesday 1/5/10

Season 5
5pm: The Lexicon of Love Pt 1
5:30pm: The Lexicon of Love Pt 2
6pm: Together Forever
6:30pm: I Against I 
7pm: Our Lips Are Sealed Pt 1
7:30pm: Our Lips Are Sealed Pt 2
8pm: Total Eclipse of the Heart
8:30pm: High Fidelity Pt 1
9pm: High Fidelity Pt 2

Season 6
9:30pm: Here Comes Your Man Pt 1
10pm: Here Comes Your Man Pt 2
10:30pm: True Colours
11pm: Can’t Hardly Wait
11:30pm: Eyes WIthout A Face Pt 1

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Wednesday 1/6/10

Season 6
5pm: Eyes Without A Face Pt 2
5:30pm: Working for the Weekend
6pm: Crazy Little Thing Called Love
6:30pm: What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost Pt 1
7pm: What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost Pt 2
7:30pm: Rock This Town
8pm: The Bitterest Pill
8:30pm: If You Leave
9pm: Free Fallin’ Pt 1
9:30pm: Free Fallin’ Pt 2
10pm: Love My Way
10:30pm: Sunglasses At Night
11pm: Don’t You Want Me Pt 1
11:30pm: Don’t You Want Me Pt 2

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Thursday 1/7/10

Season 7
5pm: Standing in the Dark Pt 1
5:30pm: Standing in the Dark Pt 2
6pm: Love is a Battlefield
6:30pm: It’s Tricky
7pm: Death or Glory Pt 1
7:30pm: Death or Glory Pt 2
8pm: We Got The Beat
8:30pm: Jessie’s Girl
9pm: Hungry Eyes
9:30pm: Pass The Dutchie
10pm: Owner of a Lonely Heart
10:30pm: Live to Tell
11pm: Bust A Move Pt 1
11:30pm: Bust A Move Pt 2

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Friday 1/8/10

Season 7
5pm: Got My Mind Set On You
5:30pm: Sweet Child O Mine
6pm: Talking In Your Sleep
6:30pm: Another Brick In The Wall
7pm: Broken Wings
7:30pm: Ladies Night
8pm: Everything She Wants
8:30pm: Don’t Stop Believin’
9pm: If This Is It
9:30pm: We Built This City

Season 8
10pm: Uptown Girl Pt 1 
10:30pm: Uptown Girl Pt 2
11pm: Fight The Power
11:30pm: Didn’t We Almost Have It All

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Saturday 1/9/10

Season 8
5pm: Man With Two Hearts
5:30pm: With or Without You
6pm: Money for Nothing
6:30pm: Love in Love Pt 1
7pm: Lost in Love Pt 2
7:30pm: Bad Medicine
8pm: Causing a Commotion
8:30pm: Heath of the Moment
9pm: Jane Says Pt 1
9:30pm: Jane Says Pt 2
10pm: Touch of Grey
10:30pm: Heart of Glass
11pm: Up Where We Belong
11:30pm: Danger Zone

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Sunday 1/10/10

Season 8
5pm: Up Where We Belong
5:30pm: Danger Zone
6pm -8pm: DEGRASSI GOES HOLLYWOOD

Season 9
8pm: Just Can’t Get Enough Pt 1
8:30pm: Just Can’t Get Enough Pt 2
9pm: Shoot to Thrill
9:30pm: Close to Me
10pm: You Be Illin’
10:30pm: You Wanna Be Startin’ Something
11pm: Beat It Pt 1
11:30pm: Beat It Pt 2

HOLY MOLY BREAKING NEWS!!!! I was in the middle of playing an awesome round of L4D2 and had to stop to post this!!

Stephen Stohn just posted on his twitter the first episode titles of Season 10!!!! He mentioned that they are, of course, subject to change.  It’s about time we got some good S10 NEWS!!!!!

1001: What A Girl Wants Pt 1
1002: What A Girl Wants Pt 2
1003: Breakaway Pt 1
1004: Breakaway Pt 2

I’ve gone ahead and created the official Degrassi Season 10 News page here.  That’s where I’ll keep a list of Season 10 info…the tab is at the top of the blog, next to the Season 9 News page.

[WARNING: THIS MINI REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...ALSO, This is my first review of the mini.  CLICK HERE to see my RE-REVIEW of Searching for Sinder3lla.]

I’m starting to see a disturbing pattern when it comes to Degrassi minis…they’re becoming lame.  What is the deal? Is Stefan not producing them anymore? I refuse to believe he’s in charge of such mediocrity.

Searching for Sinder3lla’s problems are twofold: first, the story isn’t engaging.  Declan sits down at a computer and realizes by reading what’s on the screen, the person who sat there last (their username is Sinder3lla) is the girl of his dreams.  So he and Sav are now on a mission to figure out who Sinder3lla is.

Secondly, TeenNick has decided to break this mini up into multiple parts.  I’m reviewing Part 1 and 2 now, and there’s definitely at least one part (probably two) left to go.  I seriously don’t understand why they’re segmented, when the parts give me no reason to care what happens next to begin with.

Searching for Sinder3lla Part 1

Sinder3lla....NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Declan and Trish are in the M.I. lab finishing up a conversation, when she kisses him and leaves (if this mini were to fit into Degrassi’s continuity, it would’ve happened sometime before episode 909 “Waiting for a Girl Like You”).  Declan sits next to Sav, who jabbers on about something, while Declan stares at the screen in front of him.  Reading the content on the screen, Declan declares the girl who used the computer before him the “girl of his dreams,” and wants to find out who she is.

They know her username is Sinder3lla, but they can’t find out who she is because her login session times out.  At that point, Clare, Connor and Dave walk into the lab and Sav tells Declan they should get the genius niners to help.

The dialogue between Declan and Sav just isn’t interesting, and on Sav’s end he comes off as being a guy that’s trying too hard to be the “funny sidekick.”  Basically, Part 1 doesn’t make me say “OH MAN, I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!”  I don’t even care if I find out who Sinder3lla is.

SEARCHING FOR SINDER3LLA PART 1 GRADE: F

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Searching for Sinder3lla Part 2

Dave (in the middle) looks bored...that basically sums up this mini so far.

Part 2 basically consists of Clare and Connor searching all over the internet for possible clues to Sinder3lla’s identity.  The only thing they can come up with is that Sinder3lla has an assortment of user accounts on various websites, but keeps all information on the web about herself private…so they still don’t know who she is.  Then Dave suggests that Declan and Sav ask gossip guru extraordianare Chantay for help (she happens to be standing outside in the hallway chatting).

Once again, it’s just a flat, uninteresting two minutes.  This didn’t warrant being a “part” of its own.  It wouldn’t have been any better, but Parts 1 and 2 should’ve been merged together that way I wouldn’t have a reason to yell at TeenNick’s stupidity.  First they wasted everyone’s time because they felt the need to air Ghost of Degrassi Past over a span of two weeks (STUPID), and now this…someone PLEEEASE tell them to use their heads.

SEARCHING FOR SINDER3LLA PART 2 GRADE: F

Below is the the schedule for TeenNick’s Degrassi marathon for TODAY, Friday 1/1/10 through EARLY Monday morning, 1/4/10.  I figured I’d post it in case you’re waiting to watch a specific episode and wanna know when it airs.

TeenNick goes back to a semi-normal schedule at 6am on Monday, but the Degrassi Marathon will continue during the weekday (Mon-Thur) from 5pm – 1am (EST).

The schedule below begins with every episode airing starting today at 3pm. NOTE: All of the times are Eastern Standard Time.  And I’ll also be randomly tweeting about Degrassi throughout the weekend over at the official Degrassi Blog Twitter.  My tweets are also showing up in the column on the right side of this blog.

Friday 1/1/10

Season1
3pm: Parent’s Day
3:30pm: The Mating Game
4pm: Basketball Diaries
4:30pm: Secrets & Lies
5pm: Coming of Age
5:30pm: Rumors & Reputation
6pm: Friday Night
6:30pm: Wannabe
7pm: Cabaret
7:30pm: Under Pressure
8pm: Jagged Little Pill

Season 2
8:30pm: When Doves Cry Pt 1
9pm: When Doves Cry Pt 2
9:30pm: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
10pm: Karma Chameleon
10:30pm: Weird Science
11pm: Drive
11:30pm: Shout Pt 1

Saturday 1/2/10

12am: Shout Pt 2
12:30am: Mirror in the Bathroom
1am: Take My Breath Away
1:30am: Don’t Believe the Hype
2am: White Wedding Pt 1
2:30am: White Wedding Pt 2
3am: Careless Whisper
3:30am: Hot for Teacher
4am: Message in a Bottle
4:30am: Relax
5am: Dressed in Black
5:30am: Fight for Your Right
6am: How Soon Is Now?
6:30am: Tears Are Not Enough Pt 1
7am: Tears Are Not Enought Pt 2

NOTE: THEY REPLAY SEASON 2 STARTING AT 7:30am

7:30am: When Doves Cry Pt 1
8am: When Doves Cry Pt 2
8:30am: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
9am: Karma Chameleon
9:30am: Weird Science
10am: Drive
10:30am: Shout Pt 1
11am: Shout Pt 2
11:30am: Mirror in the Bathroom
12pm: Take My Breath Away
12:30pm: Don’t Believe the Hype
1pm: White Wedding Pt 1
1:30pm: White Wedding Pt 2
2pm: Careless Whisper
2:30pm: Hot for Teacher
3pm: Message in a Bottle
3:30pm: Relax
4pm: Dressed in Black
4:30pm: Fight for Your Right
5pm: How Soon Is Now?
5:30pm: Tears Are Not Enough Pt 1
6pm: Tears Are Not Enought Pt 2

Season 3
6:30pm: Father Figure Pt 1
7pm: Father Figure Pt 2
7:30pm: U Got The Look
8pm: Pride Pt 1
8:30pm: Pride Pt 2
9pm: Gangsta, Gangsta
9:30pm: Should I Stay or Should I Go
10pm: Whisper to a Scream
10:30pm: Against All Odds
11pm: Never Gonna Give You Up
11:30pm: Holiday Pt 1

Sunday 1/3/10

12am: Holiday Pt 2
12:30am: This Charming Man
1am: Accidents Will Happen Pt 1
1:30am: Accidents Will Happen Pt 2

2am – 4am (NO EPISODES)

4am: Take On Me
4:30am: Dont Dream Its Over
5am: Rock and Roll High School
5:30am: Its Raining Men
6am: I Want Candy
6:30am: Our House
7am: Power of Love

NOTE: THEY REPLAY SEASON 3 BEGINNING AT 7:30am
7:30am: Father Figure Pt 1
8am: Father Figure Pt 2
8:30am: U Got The Look
9am: Pride Pt 1
9:30am: Pride Pt 2
10am: Gangsta, Gangsta
10:30am: Should I Stay or Should I Go
11am: Whisper to a Scream
11:30am: Against All Odds
12pm: Never Gonna Give You Up
12:30pm: Holiday Pt 1
1pm: Holiday Pt 2
1:30pm: This Charming Man
2pm: Accidents Will Happen Pt 1
2:30pm: Accidents Will Happen Pt 2
3pm: Take On Me
3:30pm: Dont Dream It’s Over
4pm: Rock and Roll High School
4:30pm: Its Raining Men
5pm: I Want Candy
5:30pm: Our House
6pm: Power of Love

Season 4
6:30pm: Ghost in the Machine Pt 1
7pm: Ghost in the Machine Pt 2
7:30pm: King of Pain
8pm: Mercy Street
8:30pm: Anywhere I Lay My Head
9pm: Islands In The Stream
9:30pm: Time Stands Still Pt 1
10pm: Time Stands Still Pt 2
10:30pm: Back In Black
11pm: Neutron Dance
11:30pm: Voices Carry Pt 1

Monday 1/4/10

12am: Voices Carry Pt 2
12:30am: Bark at the Moon
1am: Secret Pt 1
1:30am: Secret Pt 2

2am – 4am (NO EPISODES)

4am: Eye of the Tiger
4:30am: Queen of Hearts
5am: Modern Love
5:30am: Moonlight Desires