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BSG Watch: Lead Them to Their End

  Spoilers for Friday’s episode of Battlestar Galactica coming up after the break: 

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Office and 30 Rock Watch: Who's the Boss?

Two-for-one spoilers for The Office and 30 Rock coming up after the jump:

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The Morning After: Clooney Tunes

I have to be honest about this: I simply can’t fake interest in the Important Television Milestone that is the passing of ER. I was simply never much of a fan. It debuted in 1994, before I was a TV critic, and while I watched it early on to see what all the fuss was [...]

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Stewart/Cramer: Who's This Song About?

So did Stewart get Cramer? Did he get him good? Did he stick it to him? As I posted yesterday, there’s a big temptation to frame last night’s head-to-head between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer as a battle between two guys. But as Stewart told Cramer, to his credit, “This song isn’t about you.” (Indeed, [...]

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Dead Tree Alert: Kings Review

  A proclamation! We have reviewed Kings! Heralds—sound the royal fanfare!   Is it better for a TV show to be consistent or surprising? Is it worse for it to be ridiculous or boring? NBC’s unorthodox new drama Kings (Sunday, 8 p.m. E.T.) comes down solidly on the latter side of those questions. Some viewers will [...]

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Ricky Gervais and Elmo: Who's Funnier? Who's Softer?

Someone has probably already sent you this link, but it’s late in the day and it’s still funny: 

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Corporate Press Release Theater: NBC's Summer O' Scripts

NBC, which upended broadcast network tradition by clearing the 10 p.m. E.T. hour of scripted series and giving it to Jay Leno, has now upended (recent) broadcast network tradition by scheduling three new scripted series in the summer: The Philanthropist, The Listener and Merlin (yes, about that Merlin). (As planned, it will also launch Conan O’Brien’s [...]

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Dead Tree Alert: CNBC Sticks Up for the Big Guy

My CNBC column is posted at time.com. (The Huffington Post knew it was up before I did.) I only wish it had come out a week earlier, but those are the perils of a biweekly column, and Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer have done me the courtesy of keeping the network in the headlines for [...]

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Is South Park the Most Moral Show On TV?

OK, that may be a bit of an odd question to ask after a season-premiere episode that included a filthy-mouthed Mickey Mouse, references to girls “gineys tickling,” and the line ”You like taking the Jonas Brothers’ hot foam in your faces, girls?” But besides being funnier than anything (unless there was a standout I’m forgetting) from [...]

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Feudalism

In the grand spirit of further milking a public controversy to draw traffic to my blog, I was going to make the argument today that all the attention to the throwdown between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer was misplaced. I would have said that it’s a classic example of how the media are more comfortable [...]

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The Morning After: Can't Stand the Heat

  I never got around to reviewing last night’s debut of NBC’s The Chopping Block, the cooking competition hosted by bad-boy-chef (a burgeoning category, and somehow it’s always a boy) Marco Pierre White. I did watch it, though, and I decided that if it couldn’t remotely hold my interest—I was a food-TV junkie long before [...]

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Idol Watch: Jesus, Saves?

  Brief spoilers about last night’s American Idol double elimination, and longer complaints about “the new rule,” after the jump:

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Big Love Re-Offends Mormons. Do They Have a Point?

Big Love, which spurred a lot of pre-emptive worry in the Mormon church before it premiered, is now being criticized for a scene in Sunday’s episode that depicts a certain sacred church ritual, apparently for the first time on TV. HBO, in response, has issued one of those I’m-sorry-if-you-feel-that-way apologies but will air the episode [...]

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Idol Followup: Your Predictions, and Predictions About Predictions

The format of the fancy-schmancy American Idol review gallery doesn’t really lend itself well to writing a wrap-up of the show, so I thought I’d put up a separate post for your (and my) predictions for tonight’s dual elimination. But first: what are your predictions for the promised world-shattering twist? Ryan and Simon said that [...]

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Mad Money Vs. Mad Funny

At what point are Viacom and General Electric going to sit down with someone from The Daily Show and CNBC, respectively, and ask them to stop giving the competition such awesome cross-promotion? You probably know the chronology: first Jon Stewart aired a scathing takedown of bad financial advice from CNBC, in response to Rick Santelli’s [...]

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Judging American Idol: The Final 13

Click on the photos below for my reviews. (And yes, I know the pix are from previous performances; the time.com wizards have  to prepare the photo gallery quick, and Fox often doesn’t send out official approved pictures until the next day.)

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Programming Note: Lucky 13

The American Idol finals start tonight, which means from tonight through May I’ll be reviewing each finalist’s performance for time.com. The wizards of time.com have also assured me that, thanks to some arcane prestidigitation that surely cometh from the Devil, my reviews will be simultaneously posted here at Tuned In, so you can check in, [...]

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Three Cheers for the Death of Broadcast TV, Part 2: The FNL Factor

Tuned In stalwart Chaddogg alerts me to what could be a great bit of news: EW’s Michael Ausiello reports that NBC and DirecTV are nearing a deal to keep Friday Night Lights on the air for two, count ‘em two, more seasons. This would be service enough in the valiant field of Coming Up With [...]