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The revamped, re-judgified 10th season of American Idol begins tonight, with a lot of questions swirling about how the show will survive the loss of Simon Cowell, how well Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez will do, and whether the show will ever find a really big star again. Tonight’s episode will… tell us pretty much nothing about that.
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There used to be an unspoken deal between the British and Americans regarding television. Their part of the deal was that they would be allowed on our programs either as reality-show villains or if they adopted unrecognizable mid-Atlantic accents like Hugh Laurie.
Our part of the deal was, there was no our part of the deal. We’re …
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CNN’s new primetime show Piers Morgan Tonight immediately improved on Larry King Live’s ratings its first night out, getting over two million viewers for its inaugural interview with Oprah Winfrey. Time will tell how much of that is due to Morgan and how much to the guest; as last …
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Comcast has federal approval to combine with NBC, after the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department both approved the deal this afternoon. Besides providing clarity for 30 Rock storylines going forward, the decision makes possible the first acquisition of a major broadcast …
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Spoilers for last night’s How I Met Your Mother coming up:
When the last episode of How I Met Your Mother ended with Marshall getting the news of his father’s sudden death, I gave the show credit for, unlike many sitcoms, being willing to engage real emotions and not-so-funny passages in life. It’s one thing, though, to end a funny …
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Regis Philbin, morning-show host, game-show phenom and the man who, according to Guinness, has been on television for more hours than any other human, announced on today’s Live with Regis and Kelly that he will be stepping down from the show, some time around the end of the summer.
Philbin is a master of what is, when you think about …
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Oprah Winfrey was a puzzling, or maybe perfect, choice of first guest for Piers Morgan Tonight. There is probably nothing more you want to know about Oprah. Or, sure, there is—but nothing that she’s going to tell you. But she was an attention-getting big “get” (even if she’s been …
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes — the least reputable and most avidly watched pre-Oscar awards show — validated critical opinion last night by handing out prizes to the perceived leaders in many Academy …
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Say what you like about David E. Kelley’s body of work—and I’ve said enough over the years—I have to at least give him credit for basing a career on trying to upend our expectations of TV. But his new NBC drama, Harry’s Law, forces the question: when the way a particular writer “subverts” our expectations becomes the expectation …
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Brief spoilers for last night’s season premiere of Big Love coming up:
It was fitting that the season opened with the Henricksons, literally, in the wilderness. Over four seasons of Big Love, Bill has cast himself as the family’s guide as they seek a Promised Land separate from the abuses of Juniper Creek and the shame of a secret …
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The Golden Globes are most entertaining when watched in the company of someone who knows that the awards and the awarders are best not taken too seriously. Last night, that person was host Ricky Gervais, who—hilariously and to Hollywood’s apparent discomfort—didn’t so much host the awards as he conducted a three-hour roast of …
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In its fourth season Big Love, HBO’s drama about plural marriage, had problems with plural storylines. As befits a show about big families, Big Love was never afraid to be expansive, developing a large cast and piling on story developments, but the torrent of can-you-top-this plot developments became almost comical. To his big-box …
Michel Gondry, director of The Green Hornet, cut his teeth helming music videos. He’s the not the only one to take that leap: TIME takes a look at other filmmakers who have made the move from music to movies
