Tuned InUncategorized
For today’s Morning After, a look at the night in reality TV:
1. I’m saving Top Chef Masters to watch tonight. But because it was on, and because it featured Neil Patrick Harris—who will host the Emmys and should be on all television shows—feel free to discuss in the comments.
Tuned InUncategorized
The irony is, this I would have paid 75 cents for:
[vodpod …
Tuned InRemembrance
Oscar Mayer, the purveyor of meats who shared a name with the company he chaired, died Monday at age 95. It’s a little odd to feel nostalgia for the passing of a man who, I would guess, most of us did not know except for the name attached to his products. But Mayer’s company, and his name (actually his family name; he joined the family …
Tuned In
Tuned In’s design has changed, as you may have inferred from the fact that you are looking at it. Look around, kick the tires, and tell me what you think in the shiny new comments section. Loudly!
Among the new features (I’m still discovering new ones myself):
Tuned InTV Ratings
According to Nielsen, via The Live Feed, about 31 million people watched Michael Jackson’s memorial service on U.S. television. That compares with 35.1 million for Ronald Reagan in 2004 and 33.3 million for Princess Diana in 1997—but it’s also in an era of smaller audiences overall, not to mention Internet video, which presumably added …
Tuned InUncategorized
On Late Show, David Letterman interviewed Sacha Baron Cohen, star of Brüno. What’s significant here is that he interviewed Baron Cohen, and not Brüno. In the past, as when he was promoting Borat and Da Ali G Show, Baron Cohen has preferred to be interviewed as his character.
Some journalists don’t have a problem with that. I do. I …
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If you follow the careers of celebrity chefs, or just like to gamble, you know that one of the surest steps in a successful career is opening a satellite restaurant in Las Vegas. So it’s only fitting that the next installment of Top Chef will take place in Sin City, and today Bravo announced a premiere date, August 26. Excerpts from the …
An interesting piece by Michael Kimmelman in the New York Times today. The single most important ancient work to be returned to Italy by the Metropolitan Museum during the Great War over looted antiquities was the Euphronios krater, a 6th century B.C. terra cotta vessel painted by Euphronios, for which the Met paid $1 million in 1972, …
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A lot of critics like myself have had our fun with Sci Fi channel’s changing its name to (the more trademark-defensible) Syfy, which kicked in yesterday. But in the long run, it doesn’t really matter. We’ll get used to it. We have a channel named Spike, for God’s sake. And do I really have a place pointing fingers at funny names? …
Tuned InMusic
The coverage of Michael Jackson’s memorial began early on cable news this morning, with nonstop helicopter video footage from a “private” ceremony for Jackson’s family, while commentators vamped for time and guessed at what was going on behind closed doors.
It was symbolically fitting: Jackson, after all, spent most of his life in the …
Tuned InNews Media
Is the news media overcovering Michael Jackson’s continuing death at the expense of news that matters? In the New York Daily News, David Hinckley argues that the media is “just responding to Michael Jackson’s fans demands,” with coverage that audiences have ratified with ratings.
I agree with him to an extent. It would be silly to …
Let’s continue that conversation with the British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare, whose retrospective just opened at the Brooklyn Museum.
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It was Monday night, and you know what that means: time for another roller-coaster episode with John & Kate. Yes, the spelling is intentional. TLC’s Jon & Kate are on hiatus as they journey to splitsville, but on HGTV, My First Place featured John [sic] & Kate, a Phoenix couple looking for their first home. And like their namesakes, the …
