Results tagged “kimmel”

The TV Junkie is still on vacation but we've put together highlights of the week. The TV Junkie will be back next Monday. The big story this week is Conan O'Brien taking over "The Tonight Show" with a new set and hopefully a new take on the show as Jay Leno's tenure, while stable, seemed a little dated by the time he signed off last week.

Upfront Day News: This week is when the networks roll out the programs they are planning to release for the Fall - or, at least, its the programs they "say" they are going to roll out for the Fall. They might announce these programs but it doesn't mean they will be given budgets to adequately promote them; it doesn't mean that some of these programs aren't "filler" to be shifted around the schedule before they are ultimately canceled; it doesn't mean that some of these programs aren't feints to throw the other networks off.

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: "SoCal Connected", "Parks and Recreation", "The Office", "30 Rock", "Southland", Kimmel, Fallon.

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

The TV Junkie Plan: "Parks and Recreation", "The Office", "30 Rock", "Fine Cut: KCET's Festival of Student Film", "The Daily Show", Leno, Ferguson

The TV Junkie Plan: "Better Off Ted", "Lost", "South Park", "Reno 911!", Leno, Fallon

Unless you are a basketball or baseball fan, this weekend's options are kind of slim - feel free to sift through our picks - what are you going to watch? If it's not on our list, let us know and we'll talk about it.

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.

Last week NPR did a segment on tonight's "Nova" which even sounded cool - check out the photos, the video footage will be even more amazing, if not terrifying, as we have more proof of climate change (PBS @ 8pm).

Tonight marks the end of "Battlestar Galactica", for about 20 years until the geeks of the future resurrect it like they did the now-campy 1970s version. Some have complained that this final season swung the show onto a science-fiction track that was too science-fiction-y but the show had to return to its roots, its core, before wandering off into the cosmos.

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.

Tonight NBC is going to attempt to out-Gordon Ramsay FOX with Chef Marco Pierre White's new show, "Chopping Block". Our guess is that White will not have as foul a mouth as Ramsay but will have all his other TV-worthy qualities: intimidation, rage, and viciousness. May the most evil bastard chef win.

"American Idol" fans can now shell out $1.99 for an iPhone app that will provide them with a weekly update them on the vital statistics of the remaining contenders for the rest of this season. What isn't clear from the press release is if there will be geosynchronous Ryan Seacrest hair gel monitoring.

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.

Tonight marks a big debut in late night TV with the start of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon". While we were concerned with the departure of Conan O'Brien from "Late Night", we think he can be very successful in the earlier slot. Jimmy Fallon, at 34 years-old, will be bringing some youth to the time slot, although both Carson Daly and Conan O'Brien were younger when they started their stints on late night television.

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.

The spectacle that is the Academy Awards was wonderfully covered by LAist last night but the outcomes of the spectacle were very predictable. LAist was at the SAG awards last month and most of the big winners there, who were also nominated for Oscars, were winners last night.

Our friend Michael Ian Black and his fellow "The State" colleague, Michael Showalter, will finally again be gracing the airways on a new Comedy Central show this summer called "Michael and Michael Have Issues". The first of seven episodes will premiere in July and we can't wait for them [hint, get us screeners or even have us visit the set].

Today AMC launched the beginning of a series of webisodes for its excellent series, "Breaking Bad", in advance of its new season starting on March 8th.

Controversial contestant Joanna Pacitti has finally been pulled from "American Idol" after it was revealed that she had friendships with multiple executives with "Idol" co-producer 19 Entertainment. For fans of the show who couldn't believe that she had made the cut after performing poorly and fumbling lyrics to several songs during the Hollywood rounds of auditions, it will be assumed that she had moved ahead due to these personal relationships and not merit.

While we still don't believe that Joaquin Phoenix's schtick on Letterman last night isn't anything other than a stunt, it doesn't mean that show's like "Late Night" need to go along with it. Do the producers of his latest movie, we don't even remember what it's called, think that this has helped them? What's your take - is Phoenix faking or tripping?

So "American Idol" fans, round three of the Hollywood auditions start tonight - we haven't seen a lot of chatter about this season here at LAist and wondered what your thoughts were. Has the show jumped the shark yet? Because if you're not into the show we'd just as soon not list it here. Your comment is your vote.

One wonders why they would punish themselves by watching "Lost" and "Damages" back-to-back on Wednesday nights as the experience is thoroughly disorienting but that's probably the idea.

More post-Super Bowl hype: Nielsen says 95 million watched, NBC says 148 million watched, and Tuscon Comcast subscribers got 30 seconds of porn during the Super Bowl (that's so wrong in so many ways, if you're going to prank me with porn, you'd better provide more than 30 seconds of it).

Anyone else watch programming on ABC.com? Get ready for more commercials on that web property as their research has shown that they can pump a lot more commercials at viewers than they thought they could. You gotta love the attitude of one of the members of the National Association of Television Program Executives, a panel that is supportive of the research findings: "The key is what is that very fine line and balance before we push them (the audience) over the edge of being pissed."

Looks like the national executive director of the Screen Actors Guild, Doug Allen, has had to step down because of the strike, or lack thereof, and a deal with producers, or lack thereof.

This Sunday is the SAG awards and while we're excited that there (probably) won't be a strike any time soon we're even more excited to be covering the SAG awards from the red carpet to the winners. Follow our posts here on Sunday or this Twitter feed as we'll be taking photos and posting them from around 3:30pm Pacific until whenever the event wraps up.

For those of you that watched the 2-hour premiere of "Lost" last night, are you enjoying that old familiar feeling of not knowing what the hell is going on?

The Sundance Film Festival starts today which not only means cool movies being screened and attended by celebrities in their hippest Dumb & Dumber apres-skiwear but it means a lot more content for the Sundance Channel for the year. There will be live blogging of the festival's events at the Sundance Channel's (really cool!) website and head on over to iTunes to pick up a free short film from Sundance every day from now to January 25th.