Catholic Priests Will Make Oscar Predictions During Special Episode of Their Movie Review Show on CatholicTV

During the week beginning February 21^st, two Catholic priests, Fr. Bill Kelly and Fr. “Chip” Hines, co-hosts of the CatholicTV movie review show “Spotlight”, will share their opinions of Oscar winners and will offer commentary in preparation for the upcoming 83nd Annual Academy Awards on February 27th, 2011.

Fr. Bill and Fr. Chip will predict winners for best picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actor, and supporting actress during this episode of Spotlight. The idea of the Spotlight show originated when a fellow priest overheard Fr. Chip and Fr. Bill arguing about who deserved the award for Best Supporting Actress in 2008. The priest who overheard them said, “you two should have your own show”.

Since its introduction in 2009, the show has gained national attention and the two priests were invited to make a monthly appearance on Wendy Wiese’s ON CALL Relevant Radio show.

This special Oscars episode of Spotlight will air at CatholicTV.com and on CatholicTV during the week of February 21^st at the following times (Eastern): Monday 6 p.m. Tuesday 8 p.m. Wednesday 4 a.m. Friday 4:30 p.m. Saturday 12:30 and 10 p.m.

This full episode will also be viewable anytime in the CatholicTV.com archives starting the evening of February 21^st. Archived episodes of Spotlight are available at http://www.CatholicTV.com/catholic-movies

CatholicTV Game Show Wins 2 Telly Awards

The CatholicTV game show “WOW: The CatholicTV Challenge” (WOW) has been awarded 2 Telly Awards.

WOW was awarded a Silver Telly (silver is the highest) for educational programming and a bronze for religious/spiritual programming.

The Telly Awards is a New York-based organization which was founded in 1978. More information about the Telly Awards can be found at http://www.tellyawards.com/

Approximately 100 students squeeze into a television studio for each episode. The studio is full of computer-controlled lights, a starlit background, and music playing in the background during each episode.

During production of an episode of WOW on April 28, 2010, Fr. Robert Reed, Director of CatholicTV and host of the game show told the students, “the most important thing about the show is to help the people who watch the show grow in their faith. The most important thing about the show is not who wins, so let’s have fun!”

Not only does the show require help by nearly every employee of CatholicTV, but 100 different students come into the CatholicTV studios for every day of production. Each new group of students require a bit of “training” in order to produce the show.

Wow: The CatholicTV Challenge (WOW) is a children’s game show that teaches viewers the Catholic faith. The show resembles the show Jeopardy!, yet has young contestants just like the show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” WOW is hosted by Father Robert Reed, a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston. Contestants are 3rd graders and are asked open-ended questions. Father Reed gives a brief explanation of the answer and occasional commentary. The show erupts with laughter and shouts of “Wow!” when contestants answer questions correctly. Each show has a Catholic theme such as “The Sacraments” or “The 10 Commandments”.

Fr. Robert Reed is the developer, Executive Producer, and host of WOW.

More information and full episodes of WOW are available at http://www.CatholicTV.com/catholic-kids.aspx