The Wall Street Journal reports that Netflix has struck a deal with CBS and Disney to distribute their content over the internet after their original air date. Do they really think that Netflix will do a better job at this than Hulu? C'mon, why can't we centralize the content a bit more instead of forcing us to deal with your different delivery methods and interfaces. "90210" haters will have more to hate as the revamped......

In the mind of the TV Junkie, last night's Emmy Awards were a vindication of the cutting edge programming happening on cable, both premium and basic. With the exception of reality programming and vague miniseries that nobody has heard of, the big networks came up mostly empty other than NBC's fantastic "30 Rock". Yes, Jeremy Piven (left), won an Emmy, but it was largely undeserved as there were better performances on other shows, and the......

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......

The Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) will finally offer video clips! The Amazon-owned site will be providing legally licensed clips from the likes of Sony, CBS, etc. It's about time. TechCruch gives the low-down. Tonight on TV: goodbye big brother, hello big losers, hello House, and hello porn on "The Shield". 8:00pm The Biggest Loser NBC - Season Premiere 8:00pm Lincoln Heights ABC Family - Season Premiere 8:00pm Wipeout ABC - Season Finale 8:00pm House......

Last night had some great TV. What'd you watch: "True Blood", "Mad Men", "Entourage", the VMAs? Any comments? Tonight features a great "Top Gear", "Sarah Connor" is back, and Michael Phelps is on Leno, if you haven't had enough of him. We're kinda waiting for tomorrow's "Shield" episode though. 8:00pm Top Gear BBC America - Auto, James and Richard spend their night driving people home in their own cars after they've had too much to......

It's a good week so far for basic cable programming. "Mad Men" was great, as was last night's season premiere of "The Shield", and tonight we have the series premiere of "Sons of Anarchy" on FX. Somehow the show is becoming a darling of the critics (not this one, because, hint hint, FX hasn't sent me any previews). What we _do_ know about is the "Cocaine Diaries" on BBC America at 9:00pm - a really......

It's Labor Day weekend and while the US Open Tennis Tournament starts tomorrow, we can't provide any other reasons to turn the TV on that day. Tonight, however, brings the return of Bill Maher to HBO, Sunday brings us "Mad Men" and Bill Burr's excellent special on Comedy Central, and Monday brings the premiere of Steven Bochco's "Raising the Bar" on TNT. Tonight 8:00pm The Grizzly Man Diaries Animal Planet - Series Premiere. 9:00pm Discovery......

What will get us out of our perchlorate-laced Olympics hangover? I don't think the season opener of "Deal or No Deal" is going to do it. NBC is getting some criticism for how poorly it monetized nbcolympics.com - essentially making only $0.004 per page served (of at least 1.2 billion pages), raking in a pissant $5.75 million, a tiny portion of the $1 billion it made from its Olympics rights. Obviously the web content was......

NPR's Monday Morning Edition broadcast had quite a profile on Bonnie Hammer, head of the USA network. Listen to it and it'll become pretty obvious how they come up with such predictable milquetoast programming - that's the secret to their success, American's just eat that crap up. Sick of the Olympics yet or just the parts that NBC limits you to watching? Evidently for most Americans, not yet: 83% of US households have watched......

NBC's primetime Olympic broadcast isn't as horrible as we thought it would be but it still suffers from the reasons we went over in last week's post. The live broadcasts have been good - thanks NBC for that and for some of the streaming online content. There's definitely TV worth watching in there, just not enough of it despite the hype. For those seeking something other than rehashed Olympic moments, you are somewhat SOL when......

So there's this thing called the Olympics on TV and it's as if TCM, HBO, and Showtime aren't even attempting to compete by showing some decent movies. If you're not into sports it seems as if no other network is stepping in to make an offer for your time, it's kind of pathetic. If you are into the Olympics and you stayed up to all hours last night, you got to watch the amazing Jason......

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year, you should know that the Olympics start this weekend. Tonight the enormous super-choreographed extravaganza known as the Opening Ceremonies will take hours of your life away from you. Over the next couple weeks, TV Junkie will show what's on Prime Time as well as any events that should be highlighted depending upon how the games go. Tonight 8:00pm The Olympic Summer Games NBC -......

According to The Hollywood Reporter, ABC is going to be releasing some pilots very soon, well not too soon as I don't imagine that they will attempt to compete with the Olympics and NBC. The only things that jumped out at me was the name of Portia de Rossi who will be in another sitcom, an untitled Victor Fresco ("My Name Is Earl", "Andy Richter", etc.) project, as well as a "large-cast Shakespearean drama" titled......

Networked DVRs? Yesterday a US Circuit Court made a decision in Cablevision's favor that would allow them to store programming on a networked DVR thus allowing customers who do not have DVRs in their houses, to access the programming at their convenience through their existing set top boxes. Does this mean that advertisers will get short shrift with more people being able to FFWD through commercials? They will probably just get tapped again to pay......

TV Junkie is still recovering from Discovery's Shark Week but here we are gearing up for the Olympics which start this weekend. Last night's "Generation Kill" was fantastic and gritty as usual, AMC's "Mad Men" looked fantastic as usual and at least more events transpired. Whoa - check out all the TV on tonight: VH1 is attempting to underwhelm us with a bunch of reality show premieres and there's several finales on other networks as......

Shark Week winds down - I'm almost all sharked out anyways, plus the TV Junkie will be heading for a week's vacation at the beach so he was getting a little freaked out. Sunday's dilemma of "Generation Kill" vs. "Mad Men" continues. If you can Tivo one at a later time then that's a solution to get your dose of what is probably the best original programming of the week. Speaking of Tivo, some stats......

Variety reports that last night Fox dominated the ratings with "So You Think You Can Dance". It's not that this is an achievement for Fox, considering what a copycat and sub-par program "So You Think You Can Dance" is - just look at what it's up against: "Baby Borrowers" and reruns. A halfway decent idea on several nights of the week would trounce the dreck that is dished up on network TV. TV is losing......

Shark Week continues and as LAist has already reported, "American Idol" man-bimbo Ryan Seacrest was bitten by a shark (non-fatally unfortunately). What other dubious celebrities could we send to appropriately infested waters? Word has it that since NBC's summer offerings have not done so well, NBC co-chairman of Entertainment (sounds like a position on a Caribbean cruise ship), Ben Silverman, might be out of a job this fall. Evidently the summer lineup, heavy with cheap......

While it's understood that "Mad Men" isn't an action/adventure series, last night's season premiere could have used a bit more oomph. While highly dramatic and exceptionally written there was too much seed planting vs. movement. OK, so Draper's wife, Betty, can flirt with a tow truck driver? We don't really expect her to go beyond that red herring - this isn't "Nip/Tuck" after all. What we can expect is Draper to get together with Betty's......

G4's "Attack of the Show" crew is broadcasting live from Comic Con for the next couple days (see the listings below). Coinciding with Comic Con: The BBC announces that the newest iteration of "Doctor Who" has been released to iTunes. Also, BBC AMERICA will have a booth on the exhibition floor plus a host of creators and stars from: "Doctor Who", "Torchwood", "Primeval" and "Spaced". Comic Con related DVD releases that the TV Junkie has......

Some of the funniest TV ever is finally coming to DVD - we're talking about Comedy Central's "TV Funhouse" which was _finally_ released today. I've sent Comedy Central a few emails over the past 7 years begging them to revive the series or at release it on DVD, and even though it seemed like my messages sent through their "Contact Us" page seemingly disappeared down a black hole they have evidently been listening to me......

Jimmy Fallon will be introduced online as Conan O'Brien's replacement this fall according to the NYT. Fallon will not be doing an entire hour-long show, but rather, 10 minute mini-shows that might or might not feature guests and skits. NBC is attempting to get a jump start on the changes that will be made in late night TV next year on NBC with Jay Leno leaving and Conan O'Brien taking over the "Tonight Show". Fallon......

The Emmy nominations are out today and finally it seems like they're getting on the right track with nominations for AMC's "Mad Men", FX's "Damages", and Showtime's "Dexter". In comedy NBC is duking it out with itself between "30 Rock" and "The Office". If any of those previously-mentioned shows wins this will be a good year for the Emmys. In particular the AMC and FX nominations are groundbreaking for basic cable to receive such critical......

Huffington Post reports that Michelle Obama will be guest host of "The View" on June 18th. Am not sure if being associated with that gaggle of harpies is a good thing or not but the Obama campaign is trying to achieve some parity with the McCains, both John and Cindy have been on the show repeatedly. We are in total agreement with Jason Kottke that the new ads on TBS have got to stop -......

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......

Advertising Age is reporting on the possible end of the nightly network newscast as another 1.2 million viewers in the US stopped tuning in last year. The article points out that the reason why people aren't tuning in at 6pm is because.... they are still at work. Hey networks, instead of constantly going off on red herrings like Terri Schiavo and WMD in Iraq, how about creating a frenzy over the fact that Americans work......

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? 7:00pm High Plains Drifter TCM - (1973) This is Clint Eastwood at his cowboy best in a non-spaghetti Western. It might......

I dunno what's up but the 10:00pm and late night slots seem to have a lot going on. Lewis Black has a new show with a new format on Comedy Central tonight and he's on Letterman as well, kudos to Lewis! 8:00pm Big Brother: 'Til Death Do You Part CBS - For you Tony. Guess what? A guest is sent home. 10:00pm South Park COMEDYCENTRAL - Season Premiere. 10:00pm Head Case STARZ - Season Finale.......

We seemed to have missed Santa Monica based Krandon as a Wednesday night resident at Molly Malone's. The lightly meditative and chill alternative indie band's name comes from an abandoned James Joyce play written in collaboration with physicist Neils Bohr according to the band's MySpace page. If that's a little too esoteric for you, our Wednesday night pick this month is a little more down home folk style, but with a loud presence -- Brian......