Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 700 days ago

Steve Lillywhite Wants to Be Your Next American Idol (Judge)

By James Poniewozik

Word is out that Howard Stern—who was never, ever, not in a million years going to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol—is not going to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol. You know who else is never, ever, not in a million years going to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol? Perez Hilton, but it [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 700 days ago

Survivor Watch: With Heroes Like These…

By James Poniewozik

Brief spoilers for last night’s Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains coming up after the jump:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 700 days ago

The Morning After: Did the Olympics Land Its Final Jumps?

By James Poniewozik

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in on the Winter Olympics, and various screener-watching and writing duties are going to keep me from catching up for a while. So as the Games wrap up, here’s a general discussion post: what have you loved and hated about the Games on TV? And has anyone been [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 700 days ago

Idol Watch: The First Cut

By James Poniewozik

Brief spoilers for last night’s American Idol elimination after the jump:

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 701 days ago

Moving Past Politics on Health Care? Not on Cable

By James Poniewozik

Here’s a crazy idea. The President of the United States and Congressional leaders are holding a forum on whether and how to reform the health-care system, a matter that affects pretty much everyone’s lives and is worth trillions to the economy. Wouldn’t it be wild if the TV networks airing the summit covered it mainly [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+701 days ago

Dead Tree Alert: Family Guy Defeats Palin

By James Poniewozik

My Tuned In column in this week’s print issue of TIME looks at Sarah Palin’s Family Guy feud and its irony: Palin had her own favorite rhetorical device turned aganst her. Palin’s strength as a politician has been to use identity politics, drawing her authority from her biography (military mom, special-needs mom, small-town native, etc.) [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 701 days ago

BREAKING: Conan O'Brien Has Tweeted a Tweet!

By James Poniewozik

When Conan O’Brien was being defenestrated by NBC in the Jaypocalypse, Twitter came loudly to his defense. And now Conan O’Brien—of Twitter Tracker fame—has come to Twitter! Yesterday, O’Brien debuted a Twitter account with a single (as of this writing) tweet: Today I interviewed a squirrel in my backyard and then threw to commercial. Somebody [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 701 days ago

Idol Watch: Good News for the Girls

By James Poniewozik

The men of American Idol made their live debut last night, and it was powerful—a powerful argument for not mandating that six guys and six girls make the finals. One way or another, folks, there is no stopping a half dozen of these guys from being around in three weeks. If the women Tuesday night [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+702 days ago

Lost Discussion Group: What's the Objective?

By James Poniewozik

Earlier today on my Twitter feed I posted a question that occurred to me after I put up Lostwatch for last night: What, now, is the objective [of Lost]? What, exactly, are we rooting for Jack et al to do? It may be a stupid question, but it’s a serious one. Let me elaborate a [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 702 days ago

Pardon the Suspension: Should ESPN Have Benched Kornheiser?

By James Poniewozik

ESPN has suspended its Pardon the Interruption host Tony Kornheiser for remarks he made, on his radio show, about the clothing choices of his ESPN colleague Hannah Storm. Here’s the rundown on his comments from The Big Lead, which broke word of the suspension: Hannah Storm in a horrifying, horrifying outfit today. She’s got on [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 702 days ago

MTV: I Am Too Old & Cynical to Like Jersey Shore

By James Poniewozik

Several months ago, I wrote a post about how MTV claimed it was changing its programming to reflect the idealism and optimism of a new generation and of the Obama era. A few months later, I wrote about how that might not exactly square with the fact that its biggest new hit was about drunken [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 702 days ago

Idol Watch: Girls Just A-ight, Ellen a Little Too De Generous

By James Poniewozik

American Idol moved into its live phase last night, with a performance set from the twelve semifinalist women. (The semifinal contestants will be singing music “from the Billboard Hot 100″: i.e., popular songs from pretty much any time, ever.) And it was a bit of a letdown for two heretofore heavily praised entities: the girls [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 702 days ago

Lostwatch: With Friends Like These…

By James Poniewozik

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, turn your TV 108 degrees and watch last night’s episode of Lost.

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 703 days ago

CBS Down to One and a Half Men as Charlie Sheen Heads to Rehab

By James Poniewozik

And he seemed so stable! A publicist for Charlie Sheen released a statement today that the actor would be taking a leave of absence from Two and a Half Men while he checks into rehab for undisclosed reasons. Where, why and for how long are all up in the air. In December, Sheen was arrested [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+703 days ago

Palin Family Discovers Acceptable Television Program

By James Poniewozik

Fresh off her mother’s battles with David Letterman and Family Guy, Bristol Palin will make her TV-drama debut in season 3 of ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager next summer. The show, now in its second season, follows a single teen mom who got pregnant in a regrettable fling at band camp. [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 703 days ago

The Morning After: Men Coming of Age

By James Poniewozik

TNT’s Men of a Certain Age finished up its first season last night, having emerged as one of this TV season’s unexpected pleasures. It’s a talky, deliberately paced basset hound of a show—”Low-key” somehow sounds too overdramatic to describe its laid-back sensibility. But it used its comedy-drama explorations of small moments to big effect, with [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 703 days ago

NBC's Olympic Coverage: Gold, Silver or Lead?

By James Poniewozik

The New York Times’ Richard Sandomir takes exception to the way NBC covered the upset U.S. victory over Canada in hockey Sunday night. Which is to say: it hardly covered it at all, breaking briefly into coverage for the end of the game, which played in full on cable channel MSNBC. (Where it drew over [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 704 days ago

Leno Announces Guests for First Weeks of Jaysurrection

By James Poniewozik

Next Monday, the corpse of The Jay Leno Show will get a jolt of electricity and shamble, moaning, back to life as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. NBC and Jay have nodded to that restoration–and, perhaps, to the generational skew of Jay’s audience–with promos set to The Beatles’ “Get Back.” And with whom will [...]