Once upon a time we had “The Birdman of Alcatraz.”
Now we have “The Pigman of Texas.”
Discovery is ready to launch a new reality show, “Boss Hog,” premiering Friday, April 11 (at 10 p.m.). It’s centered around Brian “Pigman” Quaca, a Texas-based wild-hog wrangler who’s built an empire on helping to manage the state’s wild-boar population — since the ravaging hogs cause an estimated $1.5 billion in agricultural damage each year.
Quaca’s Pigtime Enterprises (which includes stuffing and mounting trophy boars) has also partnered with a local barbecue joint, Wright’s BBQ; its menu includes the boars shot by Quaca/Pigtime, served to those who’ve accompanied Quaca on his boar hunts (they eat what they shoot, so there’s that).
TLC will also bring back its buzzy series, “Sex Sent Me to the ER,” on Tuesday, April 12.
Speaking of reality, Lindsay Lohan’s OWN reality show, “Lindsay,” started out with weak ratings — and took a tumble in its second go-round. The show averaged only 690,00 viewers in its March 9 debut, which fell to 527,000 viewers for the March 16 episode, a 24 percent decline in viewership. Week 2 was also down across-the-board in all demos.
Meanwhile, Sam Champion’s inaugural week hosting The Weather Channel’s “AMHQ” was a mixed bag last week regarding numbers. The three-hour live show (7-10 a.m.) premiered March 17 to 207,000 viewers, fell to 186,000 viewers on Tuesday, jumped to 257,00 viewers Wednesday and dropped to 225,000 viewers on Thursday. Numbers for last Friday’s show were not available Monday.
This week’s best fetes
It will be a busy week on the rubber-chicken circuit for local news personalities.
On Wednesday, Ch. 7 weekend sports anchor Laura Behnke will moderate “Power Play: Up Close with Women from The Big East Conference” at Dave and Busters in Times Square (8 a.m.). The allwomen panel, featuring Big East commissioner Val Ackerman, is presented by WISE NYC Metro Chapter.
Then on Thursday, there are two events: Ch. 5’s Rosanna Scotto emcees the 2nd annual Table 4 Writers Foundation awards dinner (at the New York Athletic Club) honoring, among others, Chazz Palmenteri and Richard Dreyfuss. And Q104’s Jim Kerr emcees HeartShare’s 100th anniversary spring gala, held at the Marriott Marquis. CUNY TV’s Donna Hanover will present an award with Kerr; Barbara Feldon, Linda Dano are expected.
And kudos to sports producer Todd Erlich (Ch. 2), who’s snared five local Emmy nominations (ceremony is Sunday at the Marriott Marquis).
Last, but not least…
Busy times for Steve Schirripa: He’ll be on JB Smoove’s “Four Courses” (Wednesday night/MSG), will play Big Julie at the “Guys and Dolls — One Night Only” benefit (April 3/Carnegie Hall) and Season 2 of his ID show, “Karma’s a B*tch.”