Tuned In+Television | 6 days ago

Upfronts Watch: The CW: More Beauties, More Beasts

By James Poniewozik

The last of the networks to present, on Thursday, revamped its schedule in a way that even more clearly focused on its specific specialties: soap, relationships and fantasy.

Tuned In
Tuned In+TV Networks | 7 days ago

Upfronts Watch: CBS: Eye on the Prize

By James Poniewozik
Lorey Sebastian/CBS

Getting a show on CBS is a bit like taking a job with an old-line Fortune 500 company instead of a startup; a little stodgy, maybe, but with a nice pension and good benefits, and hey, where are you going to find that anymore?

Tuned In
Tuned In+Television | 8 days ago

Upfronts Watch: ABC: Once More, With Feelings

By James Poniewozik

In its latest turn of branding, ABC is about feelings. Or as President Paul Lee put it in his address to advertisers at the network’s upfront, “Why just watch, when you can feel?” Right now, every president of a porn network is kicking himself for not having that slogan first.

+Video Television | 9 days ago

Today's Trailer (TV Edition): The Mindy Project

By Lily Rothman

A peek at Mindy Kaling’s new sitcom answers the burning question: which kind of doctor is the funniest?

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Tuned In+Television | 9 days ago

Upfronts Watch: Fox Tinkers, NBC Laughs Through Its Tears

By James Poniewozik
Nino Munoz/NBC

I was out of town yesterday as broadcast-network upfront season began, with NBC and Fox announcing their new fall schedules for advertisers. I’ll be attending and/or following the remaining announcements this week, and I’ll have some more thoughts on the new NBC and Fox shows later, when I’ve seen pilots, but here’s the quick-and-dirty on [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Tuned In | 14 days ago

Programming Note: Out of the Office, and Out at the Upfronts

By James Poniewozik

I’m going to be away with the Tuned In family for a long weekend through Monday night, so I’m going to miss the first day of Upfronts Week, in which the major networks (on Monday, NBC and Fox) announce their fall schedules for advertisers. Fortunately, NBC and Fox have obliged me by announcing many of [...]

+Music | 23 days ago

Music Video Website Vevo Wants to Tell You What to Listen To

By Lily Rothman
Photonica / Getty Images

Music fans can feel like they should be listening to all of the music, all the of the time. Thankfully, music platforms like Vevo are working to help cut through all that…you know, noise.

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 370 days ago

Upfronts 2011: What We Learned

By James Poniewozik

The major broadcast schedule presentations, or “upfronts,” ended yesterday. I’ve given some impressions of the 2011–12 shows we saw previewed this week, but it’s worth repeating that those are nothing more than impressions, based on trailers, which can give nothing more than a thumbnail idea of a show and often a misleading one. Over the [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 371 days ago

Upfronts 2011: Sarah Michelle Gellar Is Back, and Other Familiar Sights from The CW

By James Poniewozik

The CW is TV’s newest major (if you want to call it that) broadcast network, even if you count the predecessors it was formed from—The WB and UPN—which date back to the mid-’90s. But it’s old enough by now to have a history, and the new shows it announced today, rounding out the broadcast upfronts [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 371 days ago

Upfronts 2011: CBS Unveils New Shows, Erases Sheen and Couric

By James Poniewozik

The TV upfronts are a big fast car with no rear-view mirror. The shining vista of the future is extolled. The good times of the present are celebrated. And the flaming car wrecks of the past, littering the highway behind? Never happened! Moving forward! CBS, to be fair, is doing well enough not to need [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 372 days ago

Upfronts 2011: CBS Keeps It Simple

By James Poniewozik

Every spring, the daffodils bloom in April, kids start playing baseball again, and I get to type the sentence: “Emphasizing the stability of its lineup, CBS announced a fall schedule with just a handful of changes.” CBS is strong, and it is stable; it’s arguably the only TV network left able to put together a [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 372 days ago

Upfronts 2011: ABC Embraces the Fantasy

By James Poniewozik

When I interviewed Sopranos creator David Chase back in 2002—before the show’s first season since 9/11—he went on a tear about the theory, then popular among TV executives, that the terror attacks meant that people would want “comfort food” programming. “People are going to want less complexity, people are going to want more simpleminded, escapist [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 374 days ago

Upfronts 2011: NBC Hopes for Turnaround, Trump Not Running for President (UPDATED with Video)

By James Poniewozik

The headline first: At NBC’s upfront schdule presentation to advertisers today in New York, Donald Trump announced that he is not running for President. (As I told you in February.) The announcement, which may have stunned political reporters who forgot that Trump did the same thing in 1988 and 2000, was brief: “as much as [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | 374 days ago

Upfronts 2011: J. J. Abrams, Kiefer Sutherland Return On Fox's Schedule

By James Poniewozik

Fox, which previews its new series for advertisers this afternoon in Manhattan, released its 2011–12 schedule today, including four new comedies, three dramas and a new unscripted series. Among the highlights: Alcatraz, the much buzzed-about prison enigma from J. J. Abrams; The X-Factor, from Simon Cowell; the return of Kiefer Sutherland in a new drama [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 375 days ago

Upfronts 2011: A Dozen for NBC

By James Poniewozik

NBC announced its 2011–12 schedule today, the first of the big networks to show its hand for Upfronts Week. (Click here for clips of all the upcoming shows.) I’ll have some thoughts on the previews we see after the upfronts presentation tomorrow, but here are some highlights, followed by the schedule: * NBC launches six [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 376 days ago

Programming Note: Upfronts, Here We Come

By James Poniewozik

Monday through Thursday is “upfronts” week, when the major broadcast networks (plus some party-crashers like the Turner cable networks) present their schedules for next year to advertisers. (Cable has been holding its own upfronts piecemeal for the past couple of months.) From the business end of TV, it’s the beginning of a ritual designed to [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Tuned In | 378 days ago

Prime, Chuck: NBC's Pickup News for Next Year

By James Poniewozik

It wasn’t quite the dramatic blitz of announcements that Fox had for us the other day, but NBC‘s 2011–12 schedule is starting to take shape. Among the new series ordered for next season are Smash, a musical described as a kind of grown-up Glee (we’ll see if that’s a contradiction in terms) and the remake [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 379 days ago

Humans, Targeted: Fox Adds & Cuts for Fall

By James Poniewozik

The major-network “upfront” schedule announcements are next week, but as usual the programming news for next season is coming out earlier. Yesterday saw a major news dump from Fox, which announced several shows it would add and cut from its roster next year. Out: The Chicago Code, Traffic Light, Lie to Me, Breaking In and [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 735 days ago

The CW's Schedule: More Adding Than Subtracting

By James Poniewozik

The CW was the last broadcast network to announce its fall 2010 slate today, and while Melrose Place is no longer for this world, the news was more about additions: for the first time the network will air originals every night (of the five nights it programs), rather than using “encores” of shows like America’s [...]

Tuned In
Tuned In+Uncategorized | 735 days ago

CBS's Upfront: C, B and the S-Word

By James Poniewozik

CBS began its upfront presentation making the vigorous case to advertisers that there is nothing wrong with broadcast TV, with the broadcast TV model, or with the advertisers that support it. CBS chief exec Les Moonves told the assembled admen and -women that he felt “bullish” on the economy. CBS’s sales chief Jo Ann Ross [...]