And Biden! And Cheney! And not quite Obama, but close! The nomination acceptance / unveiling of Sarah Palin drew an Alaska-sized 37.2 million viewers last night on the broadcast plus cable news networks, besting the tallies of Hillary Clinton (26 million) and Joe Biden (24 million) at the DNC, doubling night 3 of the 2004 [...]

Love the show now, but… seriously? / NBC Oooh, this should be a good way to blow off some work this afternoon. TV Guide has come up with its list of the 10 Best TV Pilots in the issue on newsstands now. Their list, my knee-jerk cavils and additions, and your invitation to play along, [...]

NBC appeals to the heartstrings of ER fans—and reminds the rest of us that the thing is still on the air—by announcing that it will bring back Anthony Edwards for one episode of the we-swear-this-is-the-last season: BURBANK – September 4, 2008 — NBC announced that Golden Globe winner and Emmy® nominee Anthony Edwards will reprise [...]

OK, I am already probably the last blogger on the planet to link to Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan’s hot-mike embarrassment, but it’s too good not to. They now have something in common with Jesse Jackson! 1. Note to cable-news guests: Until they unclip that mike from you, assume that it is on. 2. More [...]

A few more morning-after RNC thoughts: * The more I think about the Sarah Palin speech, the more I wish I were writing this column again today. Mind you, I’m not saying that Palin is a national figure because of the popularity of reality shows like Deadliest Catch, or that the popularity of these blue-collar [...]

Bravo Photo: Barbara Nitke Spoilers for last night’s Project Runway coming up after the jump:

Watching Sarah Palin’s speech, for a while you might have thought that Trig Palin was John McCain’s running mate. The governor of Alaska, of course, was the one being introduced to a curious nation, whose quips, attacks and asides would be parsed by the pundits, but before the speech began, and as it continued, the [...]

* The ’90s are back! While certain TV critics may have been underwhelmed with 90210, the teen-soap remake was The CW’s highest-rated debut ever (fine, that’s going back two years, but still). 4.9 million people watched, a small number by network-TV standards but roughly a gajillion by CW standards—important news since, The Hollywood Reporter says, [...]

Last night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart got “all up in [Brian Williams'] grill”—though Stewart disputed whether “the whitest man in America” could possess a grill—about the on-air feuding that broke out last week at NBC’s sister news channel, MSNBC. (Nutshell: Tim Russert is gone, everybody wants to be the new daddy, and it’s [...]

Yesterday it was a prediction. Today it’s a reality: 1. You start with a legitimate grievance. (The “What about the kids?” question would not, in fact, have been asked of a man.) 2. You argue that, by extension, any other criticism—about experience, about issues, etc.—must also be sexist. (The sum total of evidence for chauvinism [...]

Due, I assume, to unforeseen technical problems, millions of Americans inadvertently saw President George W. Bush endorse John McCain last night at the Republican National Convention. The President’s brief remarks had been slated in the 9:30 hour, which would have ended them before the major broadcast networks picked up coverage at 10 p.m. E.T. Instead, [...]

Expectations for Sarah Palin’s nomination speech before the media went nuts with the pregnancy story: How presidential is she? How well will she address [her foreign-policy experience, her real position on the Bridge to Nowhere, Troopergate...]? Expectations for Sarah Palin’s nomination speech after the media went nuts with the pregnancy story: How human is she? [...]

The Sarah Palin story/ies blew up while I was on vacation, and it’s so fascinating—from a media coverage angle as well as others—that I’ll try to resist the urge to overpost. (By which I mean not just the pregnancy but her whole candidacy and rollout.) I may not be able to keep that promise, though. [...]