The incredible Louis CK debuts his one hour special "Chewed Up" on Showtime Saturday night at 11pm. Yes, last weekend we told you to check out Chris Rock's special and this one is even better. Louis CK writes a lot of Rock's material, and has written for Letterman, Conan, "SNL", and created his own (critically acclaimed but short-lived) show on HBO "Lucky Louie". We were sent a screener of "Chewed Up", and our viewing party......

"Maude" in tights? According to The Hollywood Reporter, our good friend Norman Lear, creator of the aforementioned "Maude" (which is a damn good show, please bring it back TVLand!), "All in the Family", "The Jeffersons" and "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has teamed up with HBO for a series set in the world of 1970s pro wrestling. The show will be a drama (what a shame) entitled "Everybody Hurts" (funny!). Whatever the format, Lear is the......

This weekend it's all about the Emmies. Being the elitist anti-populists, we are hoping that critical faves win out over the dreck. For drama, it would be nice if Emmies went to "Mad Men", "Damages", "Breaking Bad" and "The Wire". For comedy, some of the following should be winning winged statues: "Flight of the Conchords", "The Office", "Weeds", "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia", and "30 Rock". This is the TV Junkie (weekend) plan: (Tonight) Bill......

We've been waiting for months and it's finally here, the season premiere of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" (FX 10:00pm). Yeah, the crew made it onto NPR yesterday and LAist might have been running some banner ads for the show but LAist interviewed co-creator Charlie Day back in the day, before the current round of promo. Other than the laughably pathetic final season of "ER", nothing will be funnier on Thursday nights at 10pm than......

So yesterday we mentioned that Amazon-owned IMDB is getting video clips and today Amazon tells us that they're launching a video-on-demand service providing access to over 500 TV shows and associated cast interviews and other content. This is an ad-free offering so one won't have to deal with the ad interruptions that one gets on NBC.com and other such sites. Some featured TV shows will have episodes available PRE air-date so Amazon users will be......

Les Moonves says that Katie Couric is not going anywhere. He intends to keep her in the anchor chair despite the Nielsen ratings and any other calls of common sense because he "is proud of her." Lots of premieres tonight but the show to watch is Letterman who will have Barack Obama as a guest. 9:00pm Til Death FOX - Season Premiere 9:00pm Project Runway Bravo - The designers team up to create a garment......

NBC networks will have ad placement from Google the Wall Street Journal reports. The deal will start on an experimental basis and will probably focus on local markets. The same online interface that gives Google AdWords advertisers to local print and radio media will now accommodate TV advertising. There's been a lot of resistance to allowing this access to Google so other networks will be watching this closely. The fear is that the auction system......

It was great to get some late night TV back yesterday, one wonders when the networks will run out of Olympians to showcase - Conan was particularly biting regarding the parade of Olympians and the relative importance they are playing on TV as of late. Tonight marks the debut of another show on BBC America, "Gavin & Stacey". It's a realistic comedy from the BBC but it's no "East Enders". The show starts out a......

After receiving an Emmy nomination for its first Star Wars episode (which was released to DVD yesterday), Seth Green's "Robot Chicken" is going full steam ahead on "Star Wars Episode II" - while I don't know if they can top their first time out, the players lined up to do voices this time include: Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Seth MacFarlane, Conan O'Brien, and Andy Richter. Oops, I somehow missed last night's Season Two premiere......

Looks like big media service companies aren't immune to the temptation of outsourcing their workforce - the most recent case is the media metrics leader, Nielsen Co. After taking millions of dollars in tax breaks for promising jobs at a Florida data center, Nielsen has outsourced the positions to an Indian-based offshore provider - makes one respect the numbers Nielsen spews out even less. 8:00pm Wipeout ABC - This is only listed here because you......

Tonight a double-travesty is occurring: the broadcast of both "Wipeout" and "I Survived A Japanese Game Show". Both of these shows take a good idea (for immature jerks like myself), Spike TV's "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" aka "MXE", and turn it into garbage. "MXE" is an overdubbed (by members of LA's comedy troupe the Groundlings) and hilarious replaying of episodes of Japanese gameshow, "Takeshi's Castle" while "Wipeout" and "I Survived A Japanese Gameshow" are......

As we reported yesterday, Jon Voight is going to be on "24" and now we learn from THR that William Hurt will be joining his The Big Chill co-star, Glenn Close, on FX's "Damages" this Fall. "Damages" was easily one of the top three programs of the year in 2007 and the addition of Hurt is beginning to solidify a picture of how the second season will function - Hurt will have regular role for......

Ladies, you're in luck, you have a chance to date TV hunk Brad Garrett, and who wouldn't want to? The question is, based on current trends in California, why is he limiting candidates to only females? If you desperately want to be a part of the new reality series, Dating Brad Garrett, video auditions are being accepted starting today. 6:00pm Lakers-Celtics Game 4(!)(not 3) ABC - A good chunk of LA will grind to a......

As the SAG/AFTRA/AMPTP drama continues, advertisers are still ponying up the big bucks for TV advertising: $9.2 billion in pre-booked ads for the 2008-2009 season. This broad sale of advertising combined with targeted ad sales technology now offered by Canoe Ventures (you got a dog? say "hello" to even more Purina commercials) makes it seem like things are hunky-dory in TV land but they might not be. Some folks are perceiving these as just defensive......

Last week we noted that the Dish Network has slowed with regards to new subscribers and now Dish has inked a deal with NBC Universal to present interactive ads to viewers. This could potentially bring them a bit more revenue to make up for the slackening subscribership by increasing the value of ads sold. You may have seen these ads if you have a Tivo - these enhanced ads prompt the viewer to click a......

Just 3 finales tonight but it will be all about "Dancing With the Stars" (pictured right). There's a lot going on around 9pm but I recommend checking out the movie on TCM. For late night TV, Harrison Ford will be on Letterman which is always a good time and tonight's "DWTS" winner will be on Kimmel. 8:00p. NCIS CBS - Season Finale 9:00pm Dancing With the Stars ABC - Season Finale. My guess is that......

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. Another slow night tonight but late night TV looks good - Jungle Jack Hanna on Letterman will be a blast as......

Looks like the SAG and studios have dropped negotiations without reaching a deal so look for a bunch more DVD reviews from me in the next few weeks because it's time to stock up for the summer. It's still springtime and finally my young-man's fancy is turning to love just in time to check out "The Love Boat" reruns on Joost - I can't get enough soft-focus of B and C list celebrities from 25......

It looks like Time Warner Inc. will be spinning off Time Warner Cable and announcing that sometime today. No word yet on how that might affect subscribers (like yours truly) of the TV, phone, and web services that the cable entity offers. 9:00pm MI-5 BBCA - This show kicks butt over any similar US show: "CSI", "NUMB3RS", etc. 9:15pm Brief Encounter TCM - (1945) Hey romantics, this tale of unrequited love directed by David Lean......

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......

If you saw my SNL post yesterday, you know I'm all high on live TV (always have been), and lookie, lo-and-behold, we're going to start getting live ads on TV: the Hollywood Reporter says that Jimmy Kimmel (featured below tonight) will start running at least one live ad per episode starting in May. Garmin ran a live ad on Leno a year ago and the "effectiveness and awareness" levels exceeded standard (dead?) ads enough for......

Comedy Central has started to establish some control over Wednesday nights. What's funny is that I started to go back to them on Wednesdays because of Lewis Black's excellent show "Root Of All Evil" (anyone catch him on Conan last week? He was great) and now I'm finding myself re-engaging with "South Park" but I'm sure that program directors at Comedy Central were planning for the flow to happen the other way. Whatever, it's working......

Thursdays have returned to boring-ness what with "Lost" on hiatus. Tonight we have the return of Earl which does look funny. Other than a couple season finales the evening is relatively empty. Supposedly MTV is celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Yo! MTV Raps" with all kind of reruns etc. but I can't find the goddam things in the online schedule in between all the reality programming. If you are looking for more music TV, I......

Is Fox TV above the law? The Washington Post reports that Fox is challenging a $91,000 fine levied against them by the FCC for a broadcast of "Married by America" back in 2003 that featured reality show cast members licking whipped cream off of strippers' "digitally obscured" body parts. Since the FCC is controlled by an administration that is full of Fox fans will the network get away with it? It should be noted that......

Is HBO really in trouble? (Speaking of HBO, check out this great movie from 1983 about the creation of the HBO Theater opening sequence). Business Week asks if the premium channel is in trouble now that "The Sopranos" are gone (also "The Wire", "deadwood", "Rome", etc.) with nothing on the horizon to step up. The fact is that Showtime, FX, and even AMC are coming up with more compelling shows as of this last year......

So can fans really make a difference? Word has it that enough fans got through to NBC for them to keep the high school football-romance-drama "Friday Night Lights" on the air through a partnership with DirecTV. This gives one hope that a group of people can make a difference but then disappointment that truly great shows like "Arrested Development" couldn't make the cut. Speaking of which, Will Arnett is on Jimmy Kimmel tonight - Arnett......

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On Monday the NY Times reported that ABC and Cox Communications are collaborating on a video-on-demand service with disabled fast-forward, meaning, yeah, that you can't skip the commercials. This isn't that new an idea as Time Warner Cable has been doing the equivalent with two features called "Start Over" and "Look Back" (after using them IMHO they stink). This is another example of old media protectionist attitudes that think the strategy is to avoid being......

Do you think this is part of the Reno 911! marketing campaign? / Photo by Bernard Mickey Wrangle via flickr. COMEDY* Paging Reno 911! fans: Robert Ben Garant, who plays Deputy Travis Junior, hosts The Armando Show tonight. (It’s an hour-long improvised comedy show inspired by an audience suggestion). He’ll be joined by a few other Reno castmates: Carlos Alazraqui, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash, Kerri Kenney and Cedric Yarbrough. 8 pm // iO West......

Enough with the Oscar talk -- Kimmel's long-awaited response to "I'm Fuckin' Matt Damon" is here and it's chock-full of hilarity:......