February 27, 2009 12:05 PM
The many and varied characters who populate the business of television can be forgiven for feeling as if their lives lately have started to resemble those of characters in a really bad horror movie. Every day seems to bring another over-the-top plot twist or bloody execution, be it NBC’s decision to move Jay Leno to primetime or word that Peter Chernin is stepping down as president of News Corp. A dark cloud seems to hang over everything in Hollywood these…
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February 20, 2009 4:45 PM
Channeling Larry King once again… CNBC's Rick Santelli Rick Santelli, the CNBC blowhard who moronically lashed out at President Obama’s mortgage rescue plan last week in a much-publicized rant, certainly had every right to speak his mind as he did. And I have every right to never watch CNBC again until the network takes him off the air. … It’s not just that his arguments were idiotic (though they were). It’s not that he was loud and obnoxious (this is…
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American Idol,
Chuck,
Craig Ferguson,
Dollhouse,
DTV,
Fox,
Friday Night Lights,
Lost,
NBC,
Patric Verrone,
Print Edition,
Rick Santelli,
SAG
February 13, 2009 4:50 PM
If America’s headed for another Great Depression, somebody better tell Hollywood’s celebrity class. While millions suffer through unemployment—and the rest of us wonder if we’ll be next—more than a few residents of Hollywoodland apparently have decided that now would be a perfect time to act like complete and utter fools. Among the more notable recent examples of showbiz stupidity: —A gum-smacking Joaquin Phoenix mumbled his way through an appearance on “Late Show With David Letterman,” virtually daring Mr. Letterman to…
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ABC,
ER,
George Clooney,
Grey's Anatomy,
James Pickens Jr.,
Joaquin Phoenix,
Julianna Margulies,
Katherine Heigl,
Late Show With David Letterman,
Mike Fleiss,
Print Edition,
SAG,
T.R. Knight
February 6, 2009 10:43 AM
Larry King wasn’t always just another pretty face on television. I first got hooked on the King when he was a late-night radio host on the Mutual Radio Network during the 1980s. Growing up in Las Vegas, I dreamed of one day calling in to Larry’s show and defending Reaganomics. What can I say, I was a strange kid. Around the same time, Mr. King began a weekly newspaper column for USA Today. He’d just ramble along, shooting off various…
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January 23, 2009 12:05 PM
Sometimes it seems as if the death knell for syndication has been sounding since the days of “Donahue.” Hand-wringers have been writing off the genre for years, declaring that daytime is dead or that off-net half-hours are endangered due to the drought of hit sitcoms on the broadcast networks. The only time the naysayers take a break from their bashing, it seems, is to open up a line of attack on the viability of the broadcast networks. And yet, on…
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December 31, 2008 4:50 PM
I should know better. A year ago at this time, while working for Daily Variety, I joined my colleague Michael Schneider in coming up with a list of eight predictions for 2008. Among our in-print forecasts: The Olympics would be a pop-culture bust, fans of “Lost” would revolt over an absence of answers to their burning questions, a hosting change would rile “The View” and one of the network entertainment presidents would be fired or quit. Oops. I’d like to…
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Big Brother,
CBS,
Conan O'Brien,
DTV,
Friday Night Lights,
Guiding Light,
NBC,
Oprah Winfrey,
Print Edition,
Reality,
The CW,
Warner Bros.
December 19, 2008 4:58 PM
Is it over yet? Queen Elizabeth famously described 1992 as her “annus horribilis.” For the rest of us, including much of the TV industry, 2008 no doubt will merit a similar epitaph. The year began with the Writers Guild of America still on strike, and lots of bad reality shows filling in for much better scripted shows. By the time 2008 reached its end, networks and studios were slashing budgets and payrolls, everybody’s ratings were in a slump and all…
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CBS,
HBO,
Heroes,
How I Met Your Mother,
Katie Couric,
NBC,
Print Edition,
Pushing Daisies,
Rachel Maddow,
Reality TV,
Showtime,
Stike,
The Jay Leno Show,
WGA
December 12, 2008 4:50 PM
Tis the season for year-end columns—and all the cliches that come with them. Including, apparently, lead sentences that begin with “‘tis the season.” Lists, of course, are always a staple of columns this time of year. Coming up with New Year’s resolutions for public figures also is popular with scribes, since it allows us to impose our value systems on others. I reserve the right to resort to those hackneyed devices in the future. For my final column of 2008,…
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ABC,
Alan Rosenberg,
Ben Silverman,
Carlton Cuse,
CBS,
Craig Zadan,
Damon Lindelof,
Fox,
Jeff Zucker,
Kevin Reilly,
NBC,
Neil Meron,
Nina Tassler,
Peter Liguori,
Print Edition,
Steve Capus,
Steve McPherson,
The CW
November 28, 2008 7:00 AM
For anyone who loves television, Nov. 20 may go down in the industry history books as Black Thursday. On that date, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson was forced to call the producers of three outstanding young drama series and tell them that the network was giving up. He may have never said the words “You’re canceled,” but all parties involved knew what was happening: “Pushing Daisies,” “Dirty Sexy Money” and “Eli Stone” were dead. It was a stunning single-day slaughter,…
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November 21, 2008 4:55 PM
She’s a polarizing figure beloved by some and loathed by nearly as many. And the decision to put her in charge of a difficult assignment has predictably polarized opinion. CRACKLIN' ROSIE Ms. O’Donnell posts frequent video essays on her Web site, Rosie.com. Sorry, Hillary haters, I’m not talking about your gal. Go back to lurking in the comments section of National Review Online’s The Corner. Actually, wait: Far-right types might want to stick around. Because this column is about another…
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November 14, 2008 6:00 PM
These are challenging times for the folks who run the reality TV departments at the broadcast networks. Your Market Research Here The existing hits—think “Survivor,” “American Idol,” “The Biggest Loser”—are still doing fine. And over the summer, ABC generated buzz and ratings with its stunt-driven confection “Wipeout.” But for the most part, network TV has quietly slipped into a reality recession. Not counting pure game shows, the last big unscripted series to truly shake up the TV landscape was “Dancing…
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September 28, 2008 8:45 PM
The night before the Emmys, I was talking to an industry insider who’s had first-hand experience dealing with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. We were discussing our low expectations for this year’s show when he blurted out an explanation for why the Emmys never get better that was more spot-on than any I had heard. “They’re like the old Soviet Politburo,” this person said of the folks who oversee the show. “Everything is crumbling around them, and they…
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September 21, 2008 8:06 PM
After a glacially paced first hour, Campaign 2008 intruded into Sunday night's 60th annual Emmy Awards—and not a moment too soon. Ricky Gervais. A few well-timed political jokes and barbs—plus star turns by Ricky Gervais and Don Rickles—were all that stood between this year's Emmys and complete social irrelevance. Between the amorphous collection of reality personalities blandly hosting the show, and the early list of ho-hum winners, things got off to a rocky start. But then came the mini-flood of…
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September 21, 2008 7:01 PM
The new fall TV season starts this week. Can you feel the excitement? Probably not. I know, I know: It’s become almost cliche to whine about what a weird fall launch this has been. But cliches are cliches because, well, they’re true. And the fact is, there are fewer new shows than usual, networks haven’t sent out several major shows for screening, and the buzz on what has been sent out so far has been far from stellar. As if…
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September 14, 2008 8:43 PM
Leave Oprah alone! OK, so I’m no Chris Crocker. And Oprah Winfrey is nowhere near the besieged basket case that Britney Spears appeared to be last year. But the recent media madness regarding the Queen of Talk’s alleged snub of the Queen of Wasilla was a journalistic jaw-dropper on just about every level. It might have represented a low point for campaign coverage—had reporters not quickly followed up by spending at least two full days dissecting an even less consequential…
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September 7, 2008 8:45 PM
Clearing out the notebook as the summer ends and a new TV season dawns… Ben Silverman has been at NBC for barely a year. His first development season was interrupted by a 100-day writers strike. Not a single show developed by Mr. Silverman for a fall season at the network has premiered. Naturally, the Hollywood rumor mill is already predicting his departure. NBC's Ben Silverman, left, and Teri Weinberg Mr. Silverman doesn’t need anyone to defend his talent or his…
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September 2, 2008 11:23 PM
What do "90210" and Sarah Palin have in common? Both seem poised to score surprise victories in the media expectations game. By having so much "dirt" emerge before her Wednesday acceptance speech, the GOP vice presidential pick may only need to show she's semi-smart and not some sort of right-wing wacko in order to emerge successfully from her first big test in front of a mass audience. It's a point Time magazine's TV guru makes much better here. Likewise, the…
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