There’s a little less truthiness and a bit fewer moments of Zen on YouTube today, as Comedy Central has aggressively leaned on the viral-video-sharing site to take down segments of its shows, including The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. Interesting move, that: a cable channel whose existence depends on getting the attention of multimedia-savvy [...]

In the cuneiform-engraved, buy-it-and-hold-it-in-your-hands print version of Time magazine this week, an edition of my "Culture Complex" column, expanding on my post last week about the Michael J. Fox affair. While episodes like the Sen. George Allen "macaca" incident have spread hype about "The YouTube election," the Fox ad — which became YouTube’s hottest video [...]

Tonight at 10 p.m. E.T., NBC gives what may turn out to be one last, best chance for the best new drama of the season, one that viewers have ignored despite its intelligence, heart and emotional resonance. No, I haven’t changed my mind about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, nor have I been drinking. [...]

You would have thought that Alex P. Keaton and conservative radio god Rush Limbaugh would be pretty simpatico. But you would have thought wrong. After actor Michael J. Fox shot a TV ad for Missouri Senate candidate Claire McCaskill, criticizing her Republican opponent Jim Talent for opposing expanding stem-cell research, Limbaugh accused Fox of exaggerating [...]

I’m going to dispense with the usual Spoiler Alert on this post, because damned if I can think of any information in last night’s Lost that would qualify. We learned that, if you screw with people’s heads–Benry Gale conning Sawyer, Jack exploiting Juliet’s resentment of Benry–you gain power over them. Very meta, that. That’s pretty [...]

When Madonna went on Oprah Winfrey today to "set the record straight" about her controversial adoption of a Malawian child, the subject of most immediate interest was not her new baby. It was her new accent. The singer’s speaking style had long ago morphed into a strange, inexplicable Britmericanese. But there was something different today, [...]

In the print edition of Time this week–and now just a tantalyzing click away–Five TV Food Shows to Sink Your Teeth Into. Because TV and food go together like sedentary lifestyles and morbid obesity. And yes, I have already seen this week’s Top Chef. Mwahahahahaha!

The drawback with not watching sports, I’ve written before, is that, if you’re a TiVo-using ad-skipper like me, you never find out what commercials are on the air now. So it was not until I watched the World Series that I discovered that, in American culture, we are now apparently cool with using disaster and [...]

This fall has proved that the big three networks have two big problems. As NBC admitted in announcing massive cuts yesterday, their primetime schedules are losing viewers while the cost of dramas and sitcoms is greater than ever. Meanwhile, amid the fizzled hype around Katie Couric, their evening newscasts keep sliding into irrelevance, because fewer [...]

To borrow the terminology of its sitcom The Office, NBC announced today that it is merging the Scranton and Stamford branches. In a massive cost-cutting and head-chopping initiative, the beleaguered NBC Universal, weighed down by a languishing primetime schedule, will restructure in an effort to save as much as $750 million. About 700 people will [...]

OK, so I know that it’s odd to spend much time theorizing about Jericho, especially when it airs on the same night as the far superior Lost: compared with ABC’s show, Jericho is the store-brand cola of mystery serials. But I’ll admit having been sucked into its nuclear intrigue, for all the show’s mediocrity and [...]

SPOILER ALERT: The following post does not give away anything too crucial about last night’s episode of Lost. But I just might slip and say who won Project Runway. They’re cruel and generous, the gods of Lost: they kill you, and then they give you work. Thus we saw the return of Ian Somerhalder as [...]

I’m sure you’ve all come to check Tuned In this morning for our report on the, um, controversial departure of Sara Evans from Dancing With the Stars, ABC’s dance competition / full-employment program for East European hoofers. But first, give me a moment. Grunt… strain… must… force… self… to care… ungh! There. Evans, a country [...]

I generally steer clear of controversies about TV and its health effects–purported or otherwise–on kids. To paraphrase Bones McCoy, I’m a critic, not a doctor, and I can vouchsafe the healthiness or danger of the shows I review no more than a restaurant reviewer can tell you what foie gras will do to your arteries. [...]

OK, it would be unseemly of me to keep picking on Studio 60 week after week. But this time I’m not just picking on Studio 60, I swear. NBC has taken pains to swear up and down that, even though they are on the same network, Studio 60 and the other NBC inside-late-night-comedy show 30 [...]

We’re all about service here at Tuned In, so we continue to help you avoid the scourge of magazine-subscription blow-in cards by referring you to the online versions of Tuned In’s work in the print version of TIME. This week, an essay on why Americans are suddenly so interested in the end of the world [...]

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read this edition of Lostwatch until you’ve seen the 2004 World Series. So apparently this is what Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof meant by "the context of time."  Part of me wished there was a more complicated, twisty answer to the question of what "the present time" meant in connection with [...]

It is the actors or the script? It’s the eternal question that comes up when deciding whom to credit or blame for a TV series, play or movie, and while each is obviously a collaborative medium, it’s an interesting game to determine whether a bad script can defeat good actors, or vice versa, or vice [...]

Charles Gibson was not exactly the most revolutionary choice as ABC’s evening news anchor. But he has a revolutionary idea to draw more young viewers to the 6:30 broadcast: Put on more ads for things young people buy. ""I’d rather have car ads," he tells Gail Shister of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "When you put on [...]