Because I am just that big a guy, I had to let you know that the competition, Newsweek, has an issue guest-edited by Stephen Colbert on newsstands next Monday. As this New York Observer article notes, guest-edited magazine issues have a mixed history (see the Roseanne issue of the New Yorker), but Colbert’s an incredibly smart guy, and …
David Ireland: 1930-2009
Over the weekend the San Francisco-based artist David Ireland died. Though his work is in the collections of many major museums, Ireland was not, to put it mildly, a career-driven kind of artist. He made a lot of his art out of refuse and he sometimes made work that involved very minor interventions on his part, like tossing a ball of …
Just Call Him Barack O'Brien
The clip wasn’t available earlier, but also on last night’s Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, NBC managed to leverage its Inside the White House Special into a presidential plug for Conan:
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When this clip first started rolling, I figured there must be some kind of sleight-of-hand going on. …
Conan's Second Night—Your Thoughts?
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While working on my column for this week—it is probably no trade secret to reveal that it has to do with late-night TV—I just watched Conan O’Brien’s second Tonight Show. A solid outing, I thought: Andy Richter fit into the show better, Tom Hanks was a good guest, and the taped bit …
The Morning After: The First Couple, and the Last
I’m turning around a last-minute column this morning, so talk amongst yourselves for a while.
About, for instance: last night, our two-night-long national nightmare ended as Speidi finally quit I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! For now. But not before Spencer Pratt declared himself and wife Heidi “the biggest celebrities in the …
Corporate Press Release Theater: Jay Sets a Date
Maybe the welter of mostly positive attention to Conan O’Brien’s Tonight Show debut made the perfect setting to start building hype for NBC’s biggest fall debut. Maybe NBC simply can’t let Conan have 24 freaking hours in the spotlight before stepping on him with Leno news. Either way, the network announced a premiere date for The Jay …
Devalue of Fame
Last night was one of those nights when TV critics earn their paychecks. No, I don’t mean staying up until the wee hours to review Conan O’Brien’s first Tonight Show. I mean watching two hours of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! on NBC.
Now, this franchise has been running on UK TV for some time, and ABC did an …
The Morning After: Jon & Kate, Divided
Last week, 9.8 million people watched the season 5 premiere of Jon & Kate Plus 8—the first since the family of multiples went through a circus of adultery charges—and judging by the comments at Tuned In and elsewhere, every single one of them vowed never to watch the show again.
We’ll see when the ratings come in whether that held …
I Have Seen the Future and It’s….Smaller
In New York on Monday I stopped by the annual press preview of the Metropolitan Museum, where the Met’s new director Thomas Campbell gave a power point summary of the shows the museum has planned for the next year or so. For me the main takeaway was that, as predicted, with the New Austerity upon us, museums will be doing fewer big …
Top 10 Skanky Reality Shows
Sometimes, reality shows make us feel bad about (a) America (b) ourselves and (c) humanity. Here are the worst.
Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show Debut: In the Year 2009…
Conan O’Brien’s first Tonight Show guest, Will Ferrell, welcomed the new host last night in fitting, if exaggerated, fashion. “No one thought you could do it! No one!” Ferrell gushed. “It’s Conan O’Brien. What? What? That guy? Literally, no one thought you could do it! No one! Not one person, and you’re here!”
Even a Conan …
How to Pay for Journalism? Morning Joe Brews a Lucrative Solution
I cursed my parents when I first heard about the product-placement deal MSNBC’s Morning Joe had secured with Starbucks. The news-talk show, on which Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski regularly trade barbs over their choice of caffeinated beverage, is being paid upward of eight figures, according to the New York Times, to officially …
All Eyes on Conan—Including Yours?
Today, Conan O’Brien finally assumes the chair of The Tonight Show and begins a glorious three-month reign as NBC’s chief nightly talk-show host. Already the speculation is running hot as to whether can retain Jay Leno’s audience, as Jay himself gets ready to settle into the timeslot an hour and a half ahead of Conan in the fall.
Most …