'Yahoo! Buzz' Tries Taking 'Diggnation' Style to TV

Just for fun, imagine this intro as narrated by Don LaFontaine.“In a world (pause) where television companies are desperately trying to exert their influence on the Internet (pause) ONE company is trying to take the Internet (pause) back to TV.”

And yet, that’s exactly what’s happening. Yahoo! Buzz is the search engine giant’s answer to Digg—essentially, a social bookmarking service run from Yahoo’s portal that opened for business early last year. Part of Digg’s appeal was its associated weekly web series, Diggnation, which had former The Screen Savers hosts Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht review beer, act like fools, and present the top ten news items of the week with plenty of, ah, additional color. So, naturally, Yahoo wants to do a hot-web-topics show of its own, aptly titled Yahoo! Buzz, and with industry giant 20th Television‘s help they’re aiming to get it on the air.

From the looks of it, this seems to suit Revision3, the web studio behind Diggnation, just fine. Broadcasting and Cable quoted Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback as saying, “Television would destroy [Diggnation] in many ways. If we were on a network, there are a lot of f-bombs that would have to be dropped.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times reported last month that the show is aiming to start syndication Fall 2009, and apparently Ananda Lewis of MTV fame has been tapped as a potential co-host. Call me crazy, but I think I’d like to hear her report on choice news tidbits like “Kate Winslet’s 8-Year-Old Daughter Hated Her Dress”  and “Beware Circuit City Closeout Deals: No Refunds On Broken Gear.”