Results tagged “cw”

The AP has an interesting story today on local newscasters trimming their staff despite reports stating that local news is becoming a ratings leader compared to national news broadcasts. Having technology that allows only 1 or 2 people to go to a location shoot should mean more coverage, because that's what people want, not the same amount of coverage with less people.

The TV Junkie Plan: "Better Off Ted", "Lost" (maybe), "MythBusters" (if not "Lost"), "South Park", "Reno 911!", Letterman, Fallon.

The TV Junkie Plan: "Deadliest Catch", "Out of the Wild", "Modern Toss", Letterman, Fallon.

We know it's a couple days away but we couldn't help talk up this Thursday night's NBC lineup: "The Office" will be back with 2 brand new episodes at 8pm and 9pm with the series premiere of Amy Poehler's highly anticipated "Parks and Recreation" sandwiched in between the two at 8:30pm. Check out the website of Pawnee, Indiana, the location of "Parks and Recreation" and of course the video snippets.

Our friends over at BBC America's "Top Gear" have really done it - they have achieved unprecedented success with "Project Sipster": the creation of a car that gets 84mpg , goes from 0-60mph in 7 seconds, and whose cost was to be $7000 or less. You can see more in this video. Suck it Tesla and watch "Top Gear" on BBC America tonight at 8pm.

Nielsen says that President Obama's latest press conference slipped in the ratings and that the CW series, "Reaper", gained (the implication is that Obama is suffering from overexposure). I'm not sure how many teens would be that in economics, much less everyday Americans. I guess former President Bush avoided these kind of comparisons by not doing press conferences and by spending more time on vacation than any other president.

According to the LA Times, about 1 in 4 TVs were tuned to "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" when President Barack Obama made an appearance last week. Leno has had higher ratings only 3 other times in the past, but the media space is a lot more crowded than it was even 4 years ago, so it was a stellar night for NBC.

Ad spending in the US dropped by 2.6% in 2008, with only cable increasing ad revenue for the year. TV and cable still retained a leadership position as the preferred media, taking more than 60% of all ad dollars.

AMC's "Breaking Bad" is so good that we can't stop thinking about last night's episode. Both macabre and humorous, it was the best thing we saw on TV last night. The show starts with Walter White already out of the frying pan and in the fire and it ends with him seemingly consumed by the flames - we don't know how they're going to keep it up.

Critics are being rather forgiving of Jimmy Fallon's (only slightly shaky IMHO) "Late Night" debut: they brought out DeNiro who is always a tough interview and Fallon kind of made it work, and Timberlake kind of saved the first show - not sure why they had Van Morrison on, are they trying to reclaim the age 55-and-up demographic?

Who watched the new "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" last night? How did you like it? It's on our Tivo and we will watch it later but let us know.. We'll update you with the Nielsen numbers later this week - should be interesting.

We have a host of finales tonight but the ones to keep an eye on are Timothy Hutton's "Leverage" (10pm on TNT, pictured right) and John Lehr's "10 Items or Less" (11pm on USA). Of local note, KNBC will be doing a special at 9pm on their historical 60 years of broadcasting in Los Angeles. KNBC helped define the medium of television and is due many accolades for it's services to the community over these 6 decades.

NBC's "30 Rock" and HBO's "John Adams" won every Golden Globe award they were nominated for last night. AMC's "Mad Men" won it's category last night as well and there were no surprise winner's in television but we were very please to see Anna Paquin from "True Blood" walk away with a Golden Globe. Was there anyone who didn't win a GG that you thought should have?

The TV Junkie says "welcome back" to you all, to a new year and a new "Winter Season" of TV. Premieres we are looking forward to this month are "Nip/Tuck" (FX 1/6), "Damages" (FX 1/7), "24" (Fox 1/11), "Battlestar Galactica" (SciFi 1/16), "Big Love" (HBO 1/18), and "Lost" (ABC 1/21).

With less than a week to go before the election, Barack Obama is taking the time to appear on Comedy Central's "Daily Show" tomorrow (Wednesday) night. Is this the official referendum that the so-called fake news show is in fact a leading source of news with an intelligent and politically aware viewership? We're talking about ourselves here, of course, and it's always necessary to stroke the ego.

Other than the Sarah Palin edition of "SNL" last weekend, there weren't too many bright spots for NBC in terms of viewership. FOX and ABC didn't fare much better and of all the big networks only CBS had more viewers last week than the week before. Those waves of pilots and new programming haven't paid off at all, perhaps because everyone is in the movie theater watching "Beverly Hills Chihuahua".

The hugely overhyped premiere of "90210" happens tonight - when NPR covers it, you know that the saturation level has been reached.

The AP reports that the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) have cut a 3-year deal with the studios so now the pressure is really on the SAG. AFTRA runs a distant second in terms of size (70,000 vs 120,000+) compared to the SAG but if that organization could find enough terms to their liking in the offer from the studios, the SAG is going to have a hard time pushing away from the table before the end of their contract in late June.

As promised on Saturday, the SNL finale lived up to the hype by delivering a great performance from Steve Carell and an even more newsworthy pair of performances from Senator John McCain. When SNL clips make it onto NPR then they had to have done something right.

Clear Channel is going private according to the NYTimes - what does it mean? Well who knows, but as a private company Clear Channel will not have to be as transparent about their investments and strategy and that could mean trouble for media markets that they target resulting in (even) less choice for consumers.

Fans of "Project Runway" might want to know more details about its move/death to the Lifetime Networks as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Some fans might say, "Oh no, 'Runway' is going to totally make it on Lifetime - I'm still going to have viewing parties at my house, etc." Be aware that the producers that created the show, Weinstein Co., are not moving with the show to Lifetime - can one safely assume that the show will be just as good without the producers that created it?

Late night TV is looking really good this week, with at least one good guest per show per night (with the exception of the deplorable "Last Call With Carson Daly").

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Viacom, MGM, and Lion's Gate are teaming up to place (yet) another premium channel in your cable lineup - supposedly there are movies and programming that HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, etc. are not covering. Is the logo going to be a lion with a Viacom dog collar?

So while TV is still recovering from the writers' strike another strike looms on the horizon. According to Variety, the Screen Actors' Guild signed a pact with producers of indie films that will ensure that an indie film in production will be completed in the event that SAG goes on strike. This sounds like a good thing but it's being interpreted as a move to put pressure on major producers to get inline with SAG demands but per the experience of the WGA strike a few months ago, it's unlikely that the producers will just roll with the punch. While this may appear to be fantasy the reality is that all major productions currently in the works are all scheduled to be completed by June 30th, the date that the SAG contract expires - not a coincidence. Gird your loins my friends,it could be a long summer.

[The Junkie's been sick for a few days but we're back] LAist has some great coverage of the Project Runway finale tonight on BRAVO @ 10:00pm so I'm not even going to touch that. If you can't stand the fashion tension, you can always switch over to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors Meeting broadcast on KLCS and your tension will be released utterly.

It's National Cold Cuts Day. That term has always brought to mind those not very fresh, tasteless sandwich fillers served at large functions that you eat because you don't want to eat only macaroni salad. With the beef recall, dashing to your local butcher for some cold cuts sounds less appetizing than ever. However, the term "cold cuts" can include cheese and that's where you can freely celebrate.

There's a good chance that the WGA strike will end tomorrow. What implications does this have for the rest of the year? Will we really not see any effects on TV until the late fall sometime, or will we get some reason to turn the TV on over the summer?

I am not ashamed to admit that Wednesday nights at my house are sometimes known as "Top Model" night. (Code word: "You wanna be on top?" natch.)

Joel McHale hosts The Soup, a celebration of the most embarrassing moments in pop culture every Friday night on E! From Tila Tequila to Yo Gabba Gabba you can count on The Soup to gather all the "best of" moments into one big pot of funny. LAist headed to the E! studios for a backstage tour, taping of the show, and one on one with the man who is not afraid to say Oprah's Va-Jay-Jay on national television. When we arrived Joel was in the makeup chair prepping for the show.

Hey, even though there might not be much newly written TV on tonight (that's worth watching) tomorrow you are cordially invited to see acclaimed TV show creator and writer David Milch (creator of Deadwood, NYPD Blue) host: "The Idea of the Writer: A Writing Discussion with David Milch" tomorrow from 2:15-4:00pm at the WGA Theater at 135 S. Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills. This event is FREE and all are welcome on a first come,...