What specificaly are you saying is false?

It is false that he brought in more viewers for any ABC program since April (Wipeout is ABC's leader, debuting at 10 million).... http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/06/abcs-wipeout--.html

"I Survived a Japanese Game Show" had 8.8 million and "Celebrity Family Fued" had 8 million...both of these shows were on ABC

He also did not get 2nd in his time slot. And according to the ratings, the show was not that popular.

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/09/ ... in+ratings

Sorry they were the most watch since April in that time slot. I was right about the fact that he was in second. http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/09/25/we ... -spin/5310

I stand corrected.

Now that I have had a chance to watch the entire special I can say that it was top notch but it's hard to look past the botched stunt finale. I feel badly for him that it went so poorly, although I believe he may have felt backed into a corner. Originally he was going to do the sleep deprivation stunt but I would think he found out that medically it would be foolish to try. He had commited to ABC to have a special in September and felt like he had to do something even if it was rushed and not perfected. I really hope that he sees that his real forte is his close up "street magic" and goes back to that exclusively. I really liked the cell phone picture to dollar bill trick that was excellent and the reactions were perfect..

just look at how many people are trying to find the tricks vs angel.

And people are breaking down number and cost for each effect that should tell you who is more reespected and liked

That is because Angel does little or no commercial magic, so there is none to "break down." He does camera "crap."

Different sources saydifferent things. Don't worry about it. You weren't an a$$ about it or anything so it's not a problem.

Thanks. That's exactly what it was, because I went back and looked at the source I found, and compared it to the source you provided. It DID say different things. I'll admit when I'm wrong.

I saw some of it; but not most of it. Unfortunately, it came on when I was on vacation and visiting my brother-in-law. One of his kids was flipping channels and I yelled, "STOP!! That's David Blaine! I wanna see that!"

There was a teenage girl, two boys under 11, my wife, her parents, my BIL, his wife, my BIL's yappy dog and me in the room. We'd just finished dinner and everyone was talking but me. I couldn't hear anything that was going on and the whole time, my BIL kept asking me if I knew what he was doing, how he was doing it and commenting on how he, (with NO magic knowledge at all), thinks it was most likely accomplished. UGH.

I finally told my wife we had to leave. Problem is, the drive back to her parents' house was nearly 20 minutes; so I missed 20 minutes mid-show for the trip. Then, when we got there, it was more quiet, but my mother-in-law, being a nurse, kept proclaiming how impossible it was that he was upside-down for 60 hours. Over and over and over...UGH again.

Then, with the botched ending, I had to listen to my wife and my MIL complain about why he would hang upside down, how that is related to magic and why they would build-up such a lousy ending that made no sense. UGH.

All that said, what I saw was okay. Not fantastic; but okay. A lot of it was typical David Blaine. But what I'm thinking is that this is the second televised failure he's had in a row. If I were a television executive, I'd be less inclined to back him for any future televised events. Anyone have any thoughts on that? I think the show, as a whole, was okay, (what I saw/heard of it). But everyone in my family and at work is talking about the stupid ending and his last failure and not any of the magic effects presented throughout the rest of the show. The failures of the big, hyped things is what sticks in everyone's minds. If anyone watches another David Blaine special, it will be to see what stunt he fails at next.

See my first two posts in this thread.

I did. And while I see your point; the general, television-watching public apparently does not. They're not remembering the bullet catch. They're not watching or remembering Oprah. They're not remembering the MAGIC that was on the show. What they are remembering is the failure at the end of "Drowned Alive" and the failure and/or stupid ending on "Dive Of Death."

David Blaine's sleight of hand talents and some very cool effects are getting forgotten or missed entirely. Chris Rock once made an observation about how stupid people are for "falling for a trickless magician!" David Blaine is NOT a trickless magician; but the general public is generally missing the magic when his stunts fail. Ultimately, I think it will hurt his opportunities going forward.

...Just my two cents worth. (It looks like more because it's two cents and a shell! )

exactly why he should stick to street magic

That seems kind of on the slow side to me. How big was the gyroscope anyways? If you take a look at old-school flat rides at amusement parks like the Gravitron or the Orbiter or even Tilt-A-Whirl they're getting upwards of 30rpm and so far I hold the current record at my amusement park for longest time on those rides I spent 10 hours on the Orbiter here's what I was doing for 10 hours http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzZ68jC-qXw and this is an onride video it's a lot longer than most of the other ones because the rideop always gives me a nice long ride http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lqZdAVhMLg try not to get too dizzy on that last one. And no I'm not dissing David because I think he's a great illusionist I just wish he would go back to his roots and just do his magic rather than these stunts that's what made him famous but I didn't mind his special and seeing some new illusions was always a good thing.

It's like you're saying Criss is the first person to use camera editing to achieve magic it's not like he's doing anything wrong or making his ILLUSIONS worse by using camera editing who really cares? it's not making the ILLUSIONS bad for laypeople or the general public so why don't you just stop flaming Criss he's just a guy that wants to entertain people.