Results tagged “pbs”

We're in the midst of a pretty dead week TV-wise and we're about to start a pretty dead month TV-wise. There is virtually no new programming this week and late night is in rerun mode. We guess this is why warm weather was invented. If you have some suggestions for programs to watch this week, please let us know. | SNL alum, Chris Kattan is getting his first series as a regular: the WB's "The Middle" which will air this Fall.

Congrats to Bravo for it's best April ever in terms of viewership. Strange to us that "The Real Housewives of New York City", "The Millionaire Matchmaker" , and "Make Me A Supermodel" can fuel that kind of growth during these times but evidently a lot of people we know are watching these shows without copping to it.

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.

Weekend EditionLast night the TV Junkie was very fortunate to be invited to the taping of "The Soup" which will air on E! tonight at 10pm. It was a fantastic experience made all the more special by a great special guest and some hilarious shenanigans. Charming and kind host Joel McHale and executive producers KP Anderson and Edward Boyd (very fun men in their own right) gave us a few minutes for a video piece that will be posted later tonight. "The Soup" has always been a weekly gem and to see it being put together before one's eyes was an amazing experience. We're so fortunate to have this team at E! process and present a week's worth of TV and pop culture for us with just the right perspective of smart and biting humor. Watch it tonight, it's even better than usual.

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: "Deadliest Catch", "Out of the Wild", "Modern Toss", Letterman, Fallon.

The Discovery Channel has put together a ton of programming it has dubbed "Alaska Week" and it begins tonight at 9pm with "Arctic Roughnecks". Tomorrow will feature the season premiere of "Deadliest Catch" and we will have an interview with Captain Keith of the Wizard for you!

Weekend Edition

Jon Hamm aka Don Draper aka Dr. Drew Baird is available for a date ......for charity. Paul Rudd, Kevin Smith, Nathan Fillion, Patrick Duffy, David Schwimmer, Julianna Margulies and others are also available for dates so take your checkbook to the Adrienne Shelley Foundation website who is auctioning off these wonderful people on eBay.

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.

Tonight is all about the final episode of "ER" and/or how to avoid it. NBC is pretty much devoting all of its prime time programming to "ER", what with retrospectives, and the two-hour finale. We admit that we used to watch "ER" about 10 years ago because we had a girlfriend that was an "ER" addict, kind of like the way one becomes a vegetarian because one's significant other is a vegetarian. At some point though, the show jumped the shark - was it the multiple helicopter crashes? The myriad of fatal diseases stalking their way through the staff? The constant replenishment of characters so that the "young" part of a "young doctors in love" soap opera could still fit the definition?

We love comedians Jim Gaffigan and Jamie Kaler so therefore we just kind of have to like TBS' "My Boys" which has its season premiere tonight. While the show isn't any less funny than any of the big network shows, Jim Gaffigan's bits are the highlight of every episode - we wish TBS would build a show around him as the lead, c'mon already.

The Internet is abuzz today with promotion of HBO's "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" to air this Sunday. Some writer's are pointing out that the show doesn't address any of the problems going on in Africa these days (AIDS, war, famine, rape, pillaging of natural resource) - instead it depicts a laid-back and idyllic place with only quaint soap opera-esque concerns.

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).

The big news for TV and for LA is that President Barack Obama will be a guest tonight on "The Tonight Show" - we know what we'll be watching at 11:35pm (sorry Colbert).

Today NBC launched a 24-hour cable channel in New York called "New York Non-Stop", replete with expanded news coverage, on-location stories, and interactive elements. When can LA expect the same investment?

Sunday @ 10pm features the return of AMC's incredible series, "Breaking Bad", with Bryan Cranston (pictured, right) as Walt White, the terminally-ill high school science teacher-turned meth cooker. We've been eagerly waiting for this show to resume and AMC has done a great job whetting our appetite with their sneak webisodes and other promos. Since the other stuff we like to watch on Sunday's @ 10pm are available on-demand, this is one of our prime picks of the weekend.

Jerry Seinfeld will be returning to TV as the producer and creator of "The Marriage Ref", a new series for NBC. No premiere date or time slot has been selected.

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?

Last week we went to a sneak preview of Demetri Martin's new show on Comedy Central, "Important Things With Demetri Martin", which premiere's tonight at 10:30pm. The show has been in the works since last Spring so we are happy to see it make it on air.

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.

Did any of you watch the Grammys? Did you enjoy it? OK, so you might actually like pop music but tell us what you specifically like about it. To us, the performances seem somewhat off and the staging heavy-handed. There was a 17% increase in viewership of the Grammys this year over last year with most folks watching during the 8:30-9:30pm hour.