Interactive Programming Round-Up: Current TV Punks Italian Newspaper, "1 vs. 100" Returns to Xbox

Current Media--the company founded by former vice president, Al Gore, and his business partner, Joel Hyatt, that operates Current TV, an interactive TV channel devoted to short-form informational programs, dubbed "pods," around 30% of which are contributed by viewers via its Web site (note: the channel, whose distribution partners include Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Dish Network, Verizon, AT&T, BSkyB, Virgin Media, and Sky Italia, also invites viewers to help determine its programming schedule by voting for video submissions on its site)--has launched an interactive, scripted Web drama series in Italy, Nick Vivarelli reports in Variety.

According to Vivarelli's report, the series--entitled "Frammenti" ("Fragments") and developed by Italian content company, Shado, in collaboration with online games company, LOG607 (note: the series represents Current TV's entry into scripted content)--centers on an investigative journalist who is slipped a memory-loss drug and accused of a murder he did not commit. "Viewers, both on TV and the Web, try to rescue Lorenzo Soare, the intrepid protag, becoming investigators themselves and an integral part of the show," Vivarelli writes, adding that "as part of the "Frammenti" promotional campaign, Current ran TV spots for the fictional memory-sedating drug, called Letenox, that's featured in the show (and is supported by a Letenox Web site, which actually a part of the show's interactivity)." Apparently, an Italian newspaper, Il Fatto Quotidiano, believed that the site was real and published an article denouncing the drug. Vivarelli's article also describes how Current TV is using Italy as a "laboratory" for new programming ideas, and how it is enjoying success in that country by tackling issues that are too controversial for the country's mainstream media.

In other interactive programming news:

• UK-based charity, Oxfam, has teamed with UK newspaper, The Guardian, to produce a Web-based interactive documentary that traces the impact of May's Cyclone Aila on the small Bangladeshi community of Gabura. According to The Guardian, the documentary--entitled "Gabura: From Daily Life to Disaster" and directed by Sandhya Suri--"allows the audience to chose its own journey through lives of the Gabura villagers, illustrating the harsh reality of climate change on some of the world's poorest people" and also gives viewers the chance to help the cyclone's victims by clicking a "take action" button. "We hope that by using a more interactive format we'll reach a new audience and that word of mouth will help to spread the message," Oxfam's head of digital communications, Joseph Sivell, said in a prepared statement. "We want that pass-on to be a key factor in our promotion. The personal stories are what are so important in this piece, so it's people's personal reactions that are key to its success." The documentary can be viewed here.
• Microsoft said Monday that the second season of "1 vs. 100 Live," the avatar-driven interactive TV version of the Endemol-developed "1 vs. 100" game show format which it beta-launched on its Xbox Live service in the spring, will kick off on November 19th at 5:00PM Pacific and last 14 weeks. (Note: Like a regular linear-TV game show, "1 vs. 100 Live" has real hosts--albeit represented via avatars, airs in regularly scheduled timeslots, has seasons, includes commercial breaks, and allows participants to win prizes, including Microsoft Points, which can be redeemed for Xbox Live content downloads. The "1 vs. 100" format features a single contestant--the "one"--competing against 100 other contestants--the "mob"--to correctly answer multiple-choice trivia questions: each question is first posed to the "mob" outside of the "one's" hearing, so that they can lock in their answers, and is then posed to the "one." If the "one" answers the question correctly, all the members of the "mob" who answered it incorrectly are eliminated. In the Xbox Live version of the format, the "one" wins Microsoft Points for each correct answer and, if he or she succeeds in eliminating all the members of the mob, he or she can win up to 10,000 Microsoft Points. Individual members of the "mob," meanwhile, can win prizes, including Microsoft Points and Xbox Live arcade games, for answering questions correctly, outlasting the majority of their fellow "mob" members, and outlasting the "one." Xbox Live subscribers who want to participate in one of the show's live episodes are selected to play as the "one," as members of the "mob," or as mere audience members, based on how frequently and how well they play the live and practice versions of the show.) According to promotional materials from Microsoft, the game show's practice mode, "1 vs. 100 Extended Play," will this season feature "brand new themed trivia every weeknight, including 'Finish the Lyrics' (are you a Karaoke champ? What's the next line in this song?), '80's' (how well do you know the 80's?), and 'Vampires' (you love 'Twilight' and 'True Blood.' How much do you really know about vampires?). Microsoft claims that during the show's first (beta) season, it was played by an average of over half a million unique contestants each week; up to 114,000 people in the US and Canada and 79,000 people in the UK and Ireland competed simultaneously in "1 vs. 100 Live" shows; nearly 2 million Microsoft points were awarded as prizes; and "1 vs. 100" was downloaded nearly 3 million times, making it one of the top-10 most downloaded pieces of content on Xbox Live to date.
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Lionsgate are offering iPhone-powered services to enhance the upcoming Blu-ray releases of "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Gamer" respectively, according to a report by Susanne Ault in the home video trade publication, Video Business (note: Fox's iPhone service will also be available in conjunction with the DVD release of "Night at the Museum"). Fox's service, dubbed FoxPop and powered by Spot411, also works on PC's and Macs. Once it is downloaded (it is available free of charge), it provides typical two-screen enhancements such as background information on "Night at the Museum's" characters, photos, and trivia quizzes, and also allows users to update their Twitter and Facebook accounts in real time. Fox plans to offer it in conjunction with other Blu-ray/DVD releases, including "(500) Days of Summer" (where it will also allow users to purchase songs from the movie via iTunes) and "Jennifer's Body" (where it will provide bonus video of the movie's star, Megan Fox). Lionsgate's service, meanwhile, which is powered by BluFocus's BDTouch technology, will provide users with extra content and, according to Ault's report, "will include the application MetaMenu, which will turn iPhones into remote controls to send screen shots of the film back and forth with friends and to enable people to interact with Facebook and Twitter accounts."