It took months, but Grey’s Anatomy cast members have finally come out and said what previously you were only allowed to kinda-sorta suggest and imply: that Isaiah Washington did, in fact, use the word "faggot" in an on-set argument with Patrick Dempsey. Since reports of the altercation–and the subsequent outing of gay costar T. R. [...]

People* have been wondering if I want to add any more to my current column–which argues that 24 is not the right-wing tool some critics say it is–in the light of last night’s episode, where a suitcase nuke blew up in suburban L.A. Some detractors–or at least those that ABC News coaxed knee-jerk reactions from–say [...]

I opened my mail this morning and found a DVD of the first episode of Lost after its hiatus, which tells me–actually, let’s linger on that point a minute. I have the new Lost. I have the new Lost. I got the new Lo-o-o-ost, and you ain’t got none, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah… [...]

American Idol returns tonight, and last night’s Golden Globes could not have been a better promotion for it had the awards been held on Fox. The Globe for best supporting actress in a film went to Idol also-ran Jennifer Hudson for her work in Dreamgirls. And not to take anything away from Hudson’s acting, but [...]

Before I went to the HBO panel on new series John from Cincinnati, I didn’t know much about it. Having seen a reel of clips, and having heard creator David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood) hold forth on it for a half-hour, I know even less. As best as I can summarize: It’s about several generations [...]

Last summer at the TV critics’ tour, there was a minor brouhaha when a reporter charged that many of the TV journalists left a conference room before the presentation by Roger Ailes of Fox News–the implication being that liberal TV critics were staging a walkout against the conservative Ailes. Conservatives who were offended at the [...]

Today is HBO day at the cable press tour. It would be impolite to say so, since today also featured presentations by AMC, GSN, Sundance and sundry other abbreviations and nouns. But charmed as we were to see the world’s greatest cat at the GSN luncheon–to promote the network’s airing of the Cat-Minster cat competition, [...]

Television is the most influential and widely enjoyed entertainment medium in the world. Except, apparently, among the people who make and work in television. If you cover TV for any length of time, you learn that people in the TV biz watch, or at least say they watch, incredibly little TV. Especially their direct competition. [...]

I would have posted this earlier, but the dirty little secret is that even some of us who work at TIME have a hard time remembering it now comes out on Fridays. (Run to the newsstands, people! Run like the wind!) In the print issue, my Culture Complex column looks at the new season of [...]

There’s nothing a man likes better than sitting down in an easy chair with a cold brewski and spending a night with the Lifetime network. That, at least, was the message, slightly exaggerated, from that channel’s presentation at the TCA tour this afternoon. Producer Mark Gordon, fielding a question from my colleague Aaron Barnhart, disputed [...]

ESPN’s presentations–the funny promotional ads, the energy, the explosive graphics–are almost enough to make me wish I actually cared about sports. Even the opening panel in ESPN’s morning, about NASCAR–which I should have identified with having survived the slog up the 110 to Pasadena list night–didn’t quite do the trick for me, however. Broadcasting legend [...]

PASADENA — Oooh! I love bylines! Makes me feel all reporter-y! People who say that being a TV critic involves nothing more than sitting on your can and pretending to care about TV shows don’t know what they’re talking about. Sometimes it involves sitting on your can and pretending to care about the people in [...]

I’m traveling today to California on vitally important TV-critic business. That means I’ve been spending time on research, such as studying up on the new Transportation Security Administration rules to see if they allow me to bring an In-N-Out burger on a plane as a carry-on for the return trip. Don’t you judge me. So [...]

The Apple announcement of its iPhone came today, and was characteristically heralded by TV news with the fanfare reserved for terror alerts and cellphone video of dead dictators or live celebrities. (I’ll leave it to my pal Lev Grossman to explain the details, but apparently you can speak to people on it, even if they [...]

Last night on How I Met Your Mother, the five main characters reminisced about how they each lost their virginity. The capper was a fake reminiscence by Barney (Neal Patrick Harris) that lifted the details from the movie Dirty Dancing, which the show cleverly depicted by replaying the "Love Is Strange" scene from the movie, [...]

Pity the poor white person. Held back to a mere 99% of Senate seats and claiming only three of five American Idol crowns, nowhere are we more oppressed than in the hip-hop world, where we must be content with the occasional token like Vanilla Ice or Eminem, occasionally leavened by the self-effacing white minstrelsy of [...]

The brilliant-for-a-while teen soap The O.C. is officially departing after four seasons in February. I’m sad that the show, better than Beverly Hills 90210 or Dawson’s Creek, didn’t manage to last as long as either. I’m also glad, as the show proved the rule that no high-school drama should last longer than it takes to [...]

A funny thing happened to my pick for best new fall show of 2006. It, uh, didn’t air in fall 2006. The suits at ABC decided to hold The Knights of Prosperity until January. The network said it held the show to give a promising series a launch time amid less new competition, but you [...]