Television
NBC played a snippet of the Friends theme song during the video preamble to their "upfront" presentation to advertisers on Monday, and one could imagine that the network missed the good old days. Robert Greenblatt, NBC's newly installed chairman of Entertainment, said during his opening speech: "In the past, nobody did it better than NBC. Today is the start of the road to... MORE >
NBC has released next season's schedule, one featuring six new series to debut in the fall (and six more for midseason). New shows are to include the Mad Men-alike The Playboy Club, a drama about Bunnies in the 1960s; Up All Night, a comedy about parenthood that is to feature the return of both Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph; and an American remake of the British crime serial Prime... MORE >
It takes a special talent to announce your departure from the air with more brashness--and less, you know, factual basis--than Glenn Beck. And yet here we are, Alec Baldwin!... MORE >
Anthony Weiner takes his case against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas to The Colbert Report. Later, when asked if he'll run for mayor, Weiner says, "perhaps." So coy that... MORE >
HBO's added another series to a very crowded and diverse development slate--married couple Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman's Hobgoblin, a drama about magicians battling Hitler.... MORE >
Faith Salie sounded exhilarated when we spoke to her around eight last night. The TV special she hosted, a television adaptation of New York magazine's highbrow/lowbrow "Approval Matrix" feature, had just finished taping: "It's hot off the presses--today's news." The thirty-minute special, titled The Approval Matrix as well, is to air tonight at 11p.m., following Top Chef. Salie, a contributor to CBS Sunday Morning and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!... MORE >
Congratulations to Andy Cohen, who's certainly perfected a formula. The Real Housewives of Miami, to debut February 22, seems like the platonic ideal of these shows -- noted location, athletes' wives, a vague and undefined "fashion journalist" in the Kelly Killoren Bensimon mold. Why are promos for this series only now airing? Isn't it late for today to be the first time you have heard of this... MORE >
This is one way to get press for an aging show: CBS sued a fan blogger who claims he revealed information obtained from a runner-up on two previous seasons, reports the Daily Beast. Russell "Bradley Manning" Hantz, known for his cutthroat and intimidating style of play, was outed by a member of the fan community "Survivor Sucks" as the leaker of information about his first two seasons on the show.... MORE >
Perhaps more significant than last night's news of the Beavis and Butt-Head reprise on MTV is the nature of the announcement itself.... MORE >
It would seem Chris Brown has redeemed himself -- at least in the eyes of NBC. The "Yeah 3x" singer is to appear on Saturday Night Live on February 12, on an episode hosted by Russell Brand. The decision seems a strange one because of the show's relationship with Chris Brown's ex-girlfriend, Rihanna. In 2009, Rihanna appeared as a guest and sang "Hard" and "Russian Roulette," songs inspired by her breakup with Brown; she... MORE >
Kristen Bell, the voice of Gossip Girl, is coming back to a medium she never really left. She's set to star in the pilot House of Lies, based on a tell-all about management consultants. Showtime's new entertainment president, David Nevins, has voiced a strong commitment to shaking up the cable network that has become known for a specific sort of show: suburban ladies with secrets, played by world-class... MORE >
Everyone's had to make sacrifices in These Economic Times. Jimmy Fallon's? He's not writing his own jokes. Boston's TVnext conference asked Fallon to submit to an interview about social media, a request Fallon parried by providing a YouTube video of his day "relative to social media," as his publicist's response to TVnext read.... MORE >
New York Times technology reporter David Pogue is not afraid to be a nerd on camera, as he's proved with many a cheesy video gadget review. He does voices. He'll put costumes on. He'll enthusiastically deliver the most painful puns. A Pogue gadget review is a production. Rember the iPhone music... MORE >
