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News and comment
January 4, 2008: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann enjoys big success and a little wisdom *This story originally appeared in the Kansas City Star, January 6, 2008.* NEW YORK -- When MSNBC moved a couple of months ago from its longtime home in New Jersey to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, Keith Olbermann got... June 30, 2007: Where world news really means world news When veteran network executive Garth Ancier — top jobs at NBC, Fox and the WB are all on his resumé — took over BBC America earlier this year, one of his first decisions was to expand its news footprint. Ancier... December 30, 2006: Then again, Ford ended a war Here's something you don't see every day. In fact, President Ford's may well be the first flag-draped coffin you have seen on TV all year. President Bush (41, that is) banned cameras from Dover Air Force Base during the Iraq... October 6, 2006: Fox News at 10: Nobody does it better. But they could. So here's the verdict on 10 years of the Fox News Channel. It passed up a complacent CNN and never looked back. It's the go-to channel when news is breaking. It is has a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde personality: great when... October 3, 2006: Meredith Vieira blows it with Ashcroft Admittedly, I haven't scrutinized a Matt Lauer interview in a long, long time. So bear that in mind while digesting this thought about his new counterpart, Meredith Vieira: That was one lame newsmaker interview she did this morning with John... September 28, 2006: Fox chief: We're the real chicken-noodle network Roger Ailes sure is making headlines this week. Besides gearing up for the 10th anniversary of Fox News Channel, which he took from obscurity to giant-killer in half that time, Ailes unmildly defended his "mild-mannered" reporter, Chris Wallace, over that... September 14, 2006: Damn you, Stamps.com! Yes, thanks to amazing new printing technology, anybody can put seemingly anything on the official tender of the United States Postal Service and send it out. Meaning that we, the recipients of said U.S. Mail, can look forward to the... September 11, 2006: The path to enlightenment on "The Path to 9/11" I have only watched a few minutes of "The Path to 9/11," the ABC docudrama that started Sunday night and concludes tonight. Clinton operatives have been howling for a week about it, claiming the depictions are inaccurate and unfair to... September 8, 2006: NBC plays "To Catch a Residual" with PJ Hey Kansas City, remember Perverted Justice? They were the all-volunteer group responsible for the most talked-about feature in the short but lurid history of the KCTV-5 investigations unit. They arranged for a sting operation that caught local men looking for... September 6, 2006: Mary Mapes is still fired This just in from HDNet, which has seen the need to put out a raging blog fire started by a careless smoker: “Contrary to several reports in online news outlets, former CBS News “60 Minutes” producer Mary Mapes is not... August 31, 2006: Retouching me, retouching you As soon as I heard that Katie Couric's image had been retouched in the CBS promotional magazine Watch!, I pulled out my copy ... but had trouble telling where the nips and tucks had taken place. Howard Mortman gives us... August 23, 2006: Fox News abductees on video Occasional reader Ed Reichert writes: If I recall, when Kimberly Dozier of CBS and Woodward of ABC (I forget his first name) were seriously wounded, you rightly took time on your blog to rip into the fact reporters are getting... August 14, 2006: Read this book? You'd rather not "Lone Star" was a pretty good John Sayles movie and an OK brand of beer, and it is now the title of what looks to be a not very good quickie book about Dan Rather by a former CBS News... August 12, 2006: C-SPAN to the rescue God-Bless-C-SPAN is airing the entire 90 minute exchange between Mike Wallace and Iranian President Whatsisname that will air in obviously abbreviated form Sunday on "60 Minutes." Hi, it's me. I'm back. July 31, 2006: Roger Ailes And Me (Or, Please Don't Feed the Hyenas) So, Parents TV Council chief/Satan lookalike Brent Bozell thinks the Television Critics Association owes Roger Ailes an apology for supposedly fleeing his session at TCA Press Tour last week en masse. You would think that if anyone knew when an... July 24, 2006: The poop behind the scoop Hilarious: Today's New York Post TV listings show "Tabloid Wars," the new Bravo docuseries filmed at the rival Daily News, as "Paid Programming." Actually, I highly recommend "Tabloid Wars," which starts tonight, even though it did not have the Post's... July 19, 2006: This just in Charlie Gibson, reporting from Cyprus, was just asked how his wardrobe needs stack up next to katie Couric's. (Updated accu-quote follows) "I have four ties and five suits, and whichever one is on the right in the closet, that's the... July 18, 2006: Post was broke, so I fixed it Fox is launching yet another live midday talk show. Because the press release cleverly disguised it as a "morning show," I guessed that Fox was trying to bigfoot its affiliates, much as it had done 12 years ago in late... July 14, 2006: In the news ... with the news You may have read at Romenesko that Katie Couric's "listening tour" is being held without any local news media opportunities. (Other than glimpses from insiders at CBS stations, such as longtime TV Barn reader Jason DeRusha's blog at WCCO-TV in... July 13, 2006: Eye Eye 1. I'm this week's "Outside Voices" commentator at the CBS News Public Eye website. I'll post a link when it goes up on Friday. (Re: Public Eye, Previously on TV Barn...) 2. Hey, old timers! Remember when I visited the... July 12, 2006: And two people to hold down his wig Winning the war on terror requires more than just grit, intelligence and high-tech weapons. You need good lighting, too. That’s what we TV critics learned Wednesday from newsman Ted Koppel during his satellite transmission from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. “Sometimes even... July 5, 2006: Lay, Kenny Lay.... CNN PR: "President George W. Bush and Laura Bush Appear on Larry King Live Thursday." Hardly the "get" it once was ... but I've been thinking all morning how the president would answer the Ken Lay question. Sometimes a hardball... June 30, 2006: Non-shockers TNT renewed "The Closer." Next season, 15 episodes. Kathy Najimy's family is smarter than Brande Roderick's family. The two sides squared off to determine the winner of CBS's kicky "Gameshow Marathon," with the Najimy clan taking the Ricki Lake-hosted "Family... June 29, 2006: Tucker Carlson is the new Dan Abrams Changes announced at MSNBC today. Good news for Rita Cosby and one-hour longform. Bad news for Tucker. June 29, 2006: Making a big fat deal of a kiss Someone claims to have incontrovertible evidence of Rush Limbaugh having a thing with Mary Lynn Rajskub of "24." Actually, all the Rush-man was doing was moderating a panel on the show and the Hollywood fight against terror at the Heritage... June 26, 2006: One correction, and super-size it! This item ran at the end of Tom Shales's column in TelevisionWeek this week: Apologies: Last week's column included a reference to "Good Morning America" producer Ben Sherwood having allegedly been forced out of his job. Reliable sources at ABC... June 21, 2006: Dan Rather leaving? I thought he was gone already "Dan deserves better," says Max Robins in this week's Broadcasting & Cable about the bum's rush being afforded the now-formally-ousted CBS anchor. Frazier Moore hit it more on the head, I thought, when he argued that you knew, given Rather's... June 15, 2006: Royalty talks to royalty Exclusive: CNN’s Anderson Cooper Interviews Angelina Jolie Make it stop.... June 15, 2006: Olbermann goes Oedipal Have you been following the e-mail drama between Keith Olbermann and his online baiters? He told one to do something to his mama: Link: Olbermann Watch: TVNewser to Rescue as KO Shows Who's "stupider, wronger, or dumber". I hear Joe... June 15, 2006: How many journalists can make this claim? Katie Couric has officially covered her first year's salary at CBS. Ad sales were up $15 million for the "Evening News" during the upfront. Link: Advertising Age. June 15, 2006: Democracy for idiots I know that brain-dead cable news polls are an old story ... but really, could a comedy writer have dreamed up a better parody of a question? In actual Headline News news, Time Warner Cable has begun carrying the Comcast-produced... June 12, 2006: Weird news not reported by Chuck Shepherd NBC News legal correspondent Dan Abrams has been named the new executive in charge of MSNBC. Notice I did not say "former NBC News legal correspondent." They're letting him keep his network job. Which tells you something about what a... June 8, 2006: CNN out to lunch (again) A West Coast reader saw the bulletin on ABC late Wednesday about U.S. forces taking out an Iraqi insurgent leader. After the ABC report aired, he switched to CNN for the live breaking news coverage. Instead what he got was... May 31, 2006: Musical chairs - the music stops Charlie Gibson is in at "World News." Katie Couric is out at "Today." Link: TheWorldNewser. Funny scene of the morning: Watching the end of the farewell to Couric on the "Today Show," followed immediately by a promo for the next... May 30, 2006: Brothers in harm's way The CBS sound man killed this weekend in Iraq was once embedded with injured ABC newsman Bob Woodruff. He seemed to love danger and travel - he recently shared an Edward R. Murrow award for coverage of the Pakistani earthquake.... May 9, 2006: I'm not Christopher Glenn In the news ... a new anchor for the CBS Radio "World News Roundup." That reminds me -- I'll be on KNX tomorrow at 5:45 a.m. local time, talking about the bird-flu freakout film airing tonight on ABC. May 9, 2006: British invasion, cont'd. For those of you watching God-Bless-C-SPAN, House reps will now be identified on-screen by the major cities and towns in the districts they represent. In a statement, the network said the change came about because viewers noticed the home districts... April 27, 2006: Wiki's worst person in the world Matthew Sheffield (he of the now-retired RatherBiased.com) calls attention to the dustup over Keith Olbermann's entry on Wikipedia that resulted, briefly, in Robert Cox of OlbermannWatch being banned from posting to the site. On the jump, my take. By the... April 5, 2006: Katrina, Vic Mackey win Peabodys WWL-TV may have lost a transmitter but it gained a worldwide audience, when its coverage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath was streamed to the whole world. Today WWL was one of four broadcasters honored with Peabody Awards. Among the many other... April 4, 2006: It's Katie For a story couched in "mays" and "coulds," there is almost nothing ambiguous in Bill Carter's story today: Link: A CBS Deal With Katie Couric May Be Near - New York Times. She's going. Bob Schieffer will have a nice... April 3, 2006: The hottest show we can't see Every week, I receive from CBS publicity the latest breathless release about the ratings for "Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer." Apparently, Bob's doing gangbusters in Washington as well as New York. I'll never know, though -- KCTV-5, our local... March 29, 2006: "Commander" in Hell ABC is returning "Commander in Chief" to the schedule five days sooner than the previously announced April 18 date. So the good news is that the second turnover in showrunners this season did not doom the show after all. The... March 28, 2006: Al Jazeera under fire Christopher Hitchens writes in an apparently offline column for Vanity Fair (April 2006) that on April 16, 2004, President George Bush proposed bombing the Al Jazeera network headquarters, in Qatar, and was talked out of it only by Tony Blair.... March 27, 2006: Hearst-Argyle ups ante The owner of Kansas City's ABC affiliate and soon to own its CW affiliate ... as well as two dozen other stations nationwide ... is going to do 10 minutes a day minimum of political news, or double its 2004... March 27, 2006: Buck Owens, RIP The death this weekend of Buck Owens was one I took special note of. I've been listening to him a lot lately. I hadn't thought about Owens for years, until I saw "Capturing the Friedmans" a second time. The first... March 25, 2006: ABC FAQs For those of you still wondering about "Alias" and "Commander in Chief," the latest schedules from our ABC affiliate confirms they are returning the week of April 17. March 24, 2006: Damn. I should've figured "In Justice's" goose was cooked. But this news confirms it. America is still waiting the blockbuster TV show about exonerating the not guilty. Or should I just as well wait for a show about all the jet... March 23, 2006: "60" online: It's about time Finally someone at CBS has gotten the bright idea of pairing "60 Minutes" content with a high-volume Internet news site. You know, maybe the reason younger viewers aren't watching the news is because it's not anywhere on their radar. Yahoo!... March 21, 2006: Schieff within 600,000 of ABC The gap is closing. Remember, the host of "Face the Nation" has done this once before, taken a show from third to second. March 21, 2006: "60" in Nielsen's Top 10 In light of Sunday's assertion by author David Blum that (a) Mike Wallace was forced out by CBS because he's too old, and (b) that if the audience for "60 Minutes" doesn't get younger, Les Moonves will yank the show... March 20, 2006: Other than killing him in every episode Now I can see why Comedy Central yanked an episode of "South Park" (that had aired once already) in order to keep Isaac Hayes from leaving. How could they promote a "Chef's Back!" episode when the headlines said, "Chef's Outta... March 20, 2006: 'King of the Hill' renewed For one year, "The Simpsons" for two (why Fox even bothers going through the motions with "The Simpsons" is a mystery). March 19, 2006: Bill Beutel, RIP The original eyewitness newsman is dead. March 14, 2006: I'm Mike Wallace, signing off It's a testimony to the editors at "60 Minutes," I suppose, that we saw few signs of the physical decline that Mike Wallace says has led him to step down completely (he was working only part-time as it was) from... March 8, 2006: Gordon Parks tribute One of the Starz channels will pay tribute to the renaissance man from Kansas on Friday. (Also read down for the item, "Gordon Parks, RIP.") March 8, 2006: 'Galactica' renewed The question I get asked these days more than any other is, "When is The Shield/Monk/The Closer coming back?" The next most frequently asked question: "Did they cancel The Shield/Monk/The Closer?" The irony is that these are cable shows. Cable... March 8, 2006: Gordon Parks, RIP The charter school in our neighborhood is called Gordon Parks Elementary. It doesn't serve the upper-middle-class children fleeing Kansas City's public schools. It serves at-risk kids, and serves them well. We're delighted they're here, and so was Gordon Parks. Lisa... March 6, 2006: CBS reloads As it has done in previous years, the CBS network issued early and practically perfunctory renewal orders to 14 of its prime time shows. Update: According to the trades, the network has already cancelled five shows, too: "King of Queens,"... March 3, 2006: Yep, he's gone Link: Entertainment Weekly's EW.com Sure enough, Bochco's gone (two items down for more). March 2, 2006: A presidency even more troubled than W's Link: Bochco Could Be Exiting Commander. Sources say the producer of "NYPD Blue," "LA Law," "Hill Street Blues," "Cop Rock," and "Over There" may be a "bad fit" for a show with a woman lead in which nobody fires a... March 2, 2006: Colorless Opry special An upcoming episode of "Grand Ole Opry" on GAC (pronounced, "Gack") is going to air in black and white and feature Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris. Counting the Roy Orbison tribute film from the 1980s, that makes two Elvis Costello... March 1, 2006: West Wing victory lap Rob Lowe has decided to play ball, after all. He'll join a line of "West Wing" alumni in making return appearances between now and the show's finale May 14. February 28, 2006: It's Hers-Been week on ABC "Alias" returns the day after "Commander in Chief" returns, not long after Salman Rushdie's wife appears in a dreadful "Ten Commandments" remake. And it's all yours on A-B-C. February 27, 2006: Dennis Weaver, RIP Of the three former TV leads who passed away in the last 72 hours, only Dennis Weaver was still working in television: All of us at ABC Family are saddened to learn of the death of Dennis Weaver. It was... February 22, 2006: More like 'My Patchwork TV' Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a network out of my hat! Link: News Corporation. I fully expect to turn on my TV a year from now and see Joe Millionaire starring in a telenovela. February 14, 2006: Right over here, Mr. Russert Here's an interesting back-and-forth exchange between Tim Russert's producer and the watchdog group Media Matters for America (headed by rightie-turned-leftie David Brock) called, "If It's Sunday It Must Be Conservative." She takes issue with the report's conclusion that you're much... February 13, 2006: Here's Johnny! And here's Obi-Wan! And here's ... As some of you know, the world's largest archive of film and TV content is kept in underground salt mines in Hutchinson, Kansas. Our Kevin Murphy reports from there: If the Smithsonian Institution is the nation’s attic, this could pass... February 10, 2006: The man who built NBC News Further reflections on Reuven Frank, who died this week, using some of the material from the earlier post. Link: Kansas City Star | 02/11/2006 | Reuven Frank, the man who built NBC News. And on the jump, Mike Chapman writes,... February 9, 2006: No love for "Monkey" It's a goner. Program advisory on the jump. January 30, 2006: "The Outsourcing Report" Now here's a great idea for a TV show from a noncommercial outlet: a half hour all about trends in outsourcing. It's from The Working Group, whose work I've raved about in the past, including its series about labor, "Livelyhood."... January 29, 2006: Woodruff seriously injured in Iraq Eight days ago David Westin, the head of ABC news, told TV critics that the new "World News Tonight" would have a different look besides the faces of its two new co-anchors: We wanted to make sure we got back... January 27, 2006: Nan A., hey hey, goodbye Did anybody else notice that it was a website (thesmokinggun.com) owned by a cable TV network (Court TV) that exposed a so-called memoirist as an unrepentant liar (James Frey)? And that it was a TV personality (Oprah Winfrey) who finally... January 26, 2006: Oprah backpedals Today she told James Frey she regretted defending his book and its million little lies. (Link: My Way News.) Also on the jump: Friday's "Oprah After the Show" continues the smackdown. January 25, 2006: A million extra viewers Oprah Winfrey, who's been defending author James Frey against all evidence that he fabricated the most dramatic part of his so-called life story, "A Million Little Pieces," will have him on her show Thursday. January 25, 2006: A South Beach show you'll watch HBO's looking for black filmmakers to tell their stories. Top prize is 20G. January 24, 2006: Pax and Fox are merging to form Pox I can only guess what this is about. January 18, 2006: Meanwhile in Park City.... The Sundance Channel is still about Sundance ... for now, anyway. Here's the on-air rundown of film festival coverage. January 16, 2006: 'Arrested' developments TelevisionWeek (from which I also stole the headline) is reporting that both ABC and Showtime have offered the producers of "Arrested Development" deals to continue the series on their networks. And it's all above board because when Fox reduced this... January 13, 2006: 'A.D.' sails off into sunset "Arrested Development" will have a two-hour sendoff Feb. 10. That's in sweeps. Exciting, eh? Wonder what it's up against. Oh, that's right -- the Olympics. January 12, 2006: Rooney: Schieffer "is embarrassing the hell out of CBS" Larry King had a few minutes with Andy Rooney and came away with some gems. KING: OK. Who is going to replace Schieffer? ROONEY: Well, maybe Schieffer, you know, he's embarrassing the hell out of CBS. KING: He's doing good.... January 6, 2006: Extreme Makeover: Product Placement Edition Funniest story of the day, thanks to our friends at MediaPost: A new study found that NBC's "The Contender" led all series last year in terms of product placement. Probably no surprise, given producer Mark Burnett's fondness for selling the... January 6, 2006: TV 2.0, brought to you by Google Robert Cringely, the PBS technowonk, doesn't think that Google wants to get into the PC business (as has been rumored). He thinks it wants to get into the TV business -- by making TV commercial placement more intelligent: Link: PBS... January 5, 2006: Nothing wrong with that Former E! host Steve Kmetko began work this week as news anchor of Q Television Network, a channel aimed at gay America. And in a completely unrelated development, Ryan Seacrest signed a deal to host and produce the network's awards... January 4, 2006: Say you're sorry, CNN Is CNN being repentant enough? Is it missing a golden opportunity by not being repentant enough? If you watched CNN's wall-to-wall coverage last night of Anderson Cooper et al. celebrating the rescue of the miners -- and then saw its... January 4, 2006: Time to call the CYA Well, that was quite the street theater on David Letterman's show last night -- and why Bill O'Reilly agreed to do it, I haven't a clue. But did O'Reilly really refer to the British intelligence agency as "Em One Six"?... January 4, 2006: Julie Chen more likable than Katie I've always thought those reports about CBS network chief -- I'm sorry, CBS Corporation chief Les Moonves -- wooing Katie Couric over from NBC were a tad overheated. Now, in the form of a Women's Wear Daily article, comes some... January 3, 2006: Get me rewrite! NBC is announcing that a hip-hop group will be doing a video for its coverage of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Unless it's the two "SNL" pranksters who did that hilarious "Chronicles of Narnia" music video this weekend, I'm not interested. January 3, 2006: On broadcasterly courage Thanks to Keith Olbermann and the "Countdown," I have now seen clips from "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve" and witnessed what Paul Harris and others were talking about yesterday: Clark's struggle to broadcast on the air through the effects... January 1, 2006: Trio is dead. Long live Trio. We knew this was coming. Actually, we knew it was coming this day, because NBC Universal was kind enough to inform the 14 members of the press who had ever seen the Trio channel -- and the six of us... December 29, 2005: And if Wolf Blitzer were his own network, he'd get a 0.2 Fourth quarter ratings are in for the major cable networks. Here's a sampling: P2+ P18-49 P18-34 4Q 2005 4Q 2005 4Q 2005 Network Cvg Rtg 000 Network Cvg Rtg 000 Network Cvg Rtg 000 NICK 0.9 2102 NAN 0.6 628... December 29, 2005: Advice to my media colleagues for dealing with press releases from the American Family Association or Parents Television Council denouncing [network show here] as [synonym for "immoral" or "anti-Christian" here] Just ignore them. They won't go away, but you'll feel better. Oh, and parents: Know what your kids are watching, and talk with them about it. Harder than it sounds, I know ... December 28, 2005: Kennedy Center Honors beaten by telenovela Univision's "Alborada" topped CBS in the national overnights among viewers ages 18-49, according to Nielsen. How much longer do you suppose CBS will allow this grand tradition of airing "The Kennedy Center Honors" to continue before they say, "Screw it,... December 23, 2005: Something else we can blame on John Gibson While watching "The O.C." last night, I was struck, lightning-bolt-like, by a realization that has been completely obscured by the "War Against Christmas" distraction: This is the perfect Chrismukkah! Christmas and Hanukkah on the same date! Link: Chrismukkah Cards for... December 21, 2005: TV en fuego Thanks to the power of corporate synergy, the WPIX Christmas Eve Yule Log will burn brightly again this year from coast to coast. The longtime New York television tradition will be carried on WGN Superstation as well. Watch carefully and... December 21, 2005: Virgin spanks monkey According to this press release (on the jump), DVD sales of The 40-Year-Old Virgin exceeded $66 million last week, assuming that those 3.7 million customers each paid $18. According to Craig Ferguson's very funny Monday routine, the movie "King Kong"... December 21, 2005: Revolting sights today on CBS.com James Van Praagh is doing a "cybercast seance" today on CBS.com. Details on the jump. You have been warned. And this just in: Dave Letterman is getting the sutures taken out of his hand live at 4:30, and you can... December 21, 2005: Because guys don't buy Tide So I'm listening in on a teleconference call this morning with Nielsen Media Research, which is announcing that it will begin tracking DVR ratings next week, and VOD ratings next spring. Well, OK, so Nielsen is crawling into the 21st... December 19, 2005: So that's why I couldn't find one on eBay I have to agree that this item regarding Teri Hatcher's "passion wagon" is possibly the best correction I've ever read: Link: Slate - Ben Wasserstein. December 19, 2005: Another one rides the bus The bus departing with "Nightline" old-timers, that is. This time, it's Robert Krulwich, the irresistibly listenable reporter who specialized in making science, technology and -- above all -- economics sound interesting. He's going back to NPR, where no doubt they're... December 19, 2005: Big award for tiny TV You may recall that earlier this year the Television Academy took a tentative step into the world of broadband when it announced there would be a single Sports Emmy category for video produced for the Web. Since then, like a... December 15, 2005: Bye, bye, "Airline" "Airline" was a great reality-show concept for A&E, not to mention a wonderful advertisement for Southwest Airlines, whose dedicated employees were depicted week after week coolly and professionally dealing with out-of-control passengers. Then a Southwest jet skidded off the runway... December 13, 2005: Urge to purge MTV and Microsoft just announced a new "digital music service" called URGE that promises to unlock an "immersive music experience" ... just as soon as you agree to download and use the forthcoming proprietary new Windows Media Player. Question: If... December 5, 2005: Chappelle's Gilbert Stuart We should've seen this coming ... Comedy Central will air the "Chappelle's Show" sketches that Dave Chappelle was working on before he walked away from his $50 mil deal. They'll sneak peek them during this weekend's "Last Laugh '05" special. November 30, 2005: So long, Dave Marash I've been remiss in not linking to this tribute, one that every TV critic in the country should have written, saluting the true hero of ABC's "Nightline" -- Dave Marash, a guy who could report every conceivable type of story... November 17, 2005: Less painful than the other re-branding We learned on Wednesday that Ralph Edwards had died at 92. Ralph was a young man when he created, for radio, two programs that would later migrate to TV and become huge successes for him: "This Is Your Life" and... November 15, 2005: I can't give it away on 7th Avenue Probably the least impressive of all the on-demand announcements to come down the pike in the past month was this one from AOL announcing it is launching six broadband channels for streaming 300 TV shows owned by Time Warner. The... November 14, 2005: Indecency complaints 99-44/100ths impure Link: Broadcasting & Cable: The Business of Television. Wherein we learn that the huge spike in indecency complaints lodged at the FCC in third quarter 2005 came as a result of one organization: yep, the Parents Television Council. The PTC... November 10, 2005: No thanks, 'Yes, Dear' Broadcasting & Cable delivered a nice pat on the head this week to "Yes, Dear," the much-maligned CBS comedy that has been the butt of many critics' columns over the years: Link: Broadcasting & Cable: The Business of Television. Much... November 9, 2005: Forecast tonight: Dark I love it: Lewis Black, called “America’s foremost commentator on everything,” will take issue with all things weather when he appears on The Weather Channel. The cable network will welcome the popular author and comedian, offering Black the opportunity to... November 8, 2005: Why Andy Heyward (finally) quit I could never understand how CBS News chief Andrew Heyward was allowed to keep his post for more than a year after the Memogate scandal tarnished the organization over which he was ostensibly the head. Heads gotta roll, you know... November 4, 2005: Kenny, you're doin' a heckuva job! Ken Tomlinson, the loose cannon who was first put in charge of America's overseas broadcasts, then appointed to head the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, resigned his CPB post last night as the CPB's Inspector General prepared to release a report... November 3, 2005: And in a shocker, this guy wins LA Weekly's Nikki Finke -- whom you would never suspect of being one of the most pleasant and engaging journalists covering entertainment, but is -- previews the upcoming live "West Wing" debate, and has some terrific observations about how Dubya,... November 2, 2005: Speaking of namesakes.... Unless I am not reading this correctly, it is the end of the line for CNN's Aaron Brown: November 1, 2005: It's all over for "Over There" "I'm deeply proud of Over There, which was beautifully produced, acted, written and directed. The series was arguably the most critically acclaimed new television show of the year, a fact which made the decision not to renew it all the... October 28, 2005: A Valerie Plame-free blog posting Reader Kathie Schlegel wrote me earlier this month asking: Today's article mentioned the show "Beautiful People." It was a short and enjoyable series on ABC Family. I was surprised to see the show finale happen so soon. Would you know... October 26, 2005: Jim McKay's kid makes good Sean McManus, who began working at ABC Sports in 1977 for Roone Arledge just before Arledge added the title of president, ABC News, can now say he is following in his mentor's footsteps, print by print. On Wednesday McManus, already... October 25, 2005: Kill the Mup-pet, kill the Mup-pet, kill the Muuuuuu.... ABC has ordered a script and five script outlines for "America's Next Muppet," a reality TV parody in which viewers may actually get a chance to pick Kermit and Miss Piggy's latest colleague.... No! Stop it now! The Muppets are... October 24, 2005: Justin Guarini will join the cast as a Yippie The Stargate franchise continues to rule the television universe. SCI FI Channel has ordered new seasons of its hit original series, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. Production on both 20-episode seasons is slated to begin in early 2006 for summer... October 20, 2005: 'Ghost Whisperer' cancelled! (for one night) Hurricane Wilma has caused an NFL schedule change to this Sunday’s scheduled Chiefs vs. Dolphins game. The game will now be played on Friday, October 21, 2005 starting at 6:00 pm central time live from Dolphins Stadium in southern Florida.... October 19, 2005: Baseball's new math So it's official: the two teams that qualified for this year's League Championship Series with the lowest payrolls are in the World Series. Houston ($76,779,000), which ranked 12th in team payrolls at the start of the 2005 season, beat the... October 19, 2005: Local nerd makes good The fickle finger of fate has once again touched America's heartland. If you were watching "Late Show with David Letterman" Monday night, you may have seen the fake ad for 'The Fog": Announcer: "'The Fog' is the number one film... October 19, 2005: Shear pleasure The Judith Owen-Harry Shearer cavalcade was supposed to come through Kansas City last fall, but at the last minute the singer-songwriter and her husband of a thousand voices realized they had to choose between us and Duluth and, well ...... October 18, 2005: ViPod: For those PO'd at VOD Link: Paul Harris Show: Aaron Barnhart, TV Barn Radio. In today's TV Barn Radio segment of my KMOX show, Aaron Barnhart and I talk about the potential impact of the video iPod on TV programming and video on demand, and... October 17, 2005: Hey, what's Ken Duberstein doing these days? Link: Gmail - Madeleine Albright on "Gilmore Girls". Continuing its tradition of spotlighting unusual guest stars, The WB's acclaimed comedy, GILMORE GIRLS, will feature an appearance by former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in an episode airing Tuesday,... October 17, 2005: Good night and good luck Martin Bashir, Cynthia McFadden and Terry Moran have been named co-anchors of “Nightline,” ABC News President David Westin announced today. The three will assume anchor duties Monday, November 28, 2005, with Mr. Moran in Washington and Ms. McFadden and Mr.... October 14, 2005: There's somebody satisfied with winning NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" once again breaks format to bring in the biggest names in music, welcoming Neil Young as musical guest for the entire week of shows November 1-4 (12:35 am- 1:35 am, ET). "I wanted two... October 14, 2005: Televisa Obscura Turns out, there are cable channels even more obscure than Current TV, as I discovered while sifting through unread emails this morning: Princeton, New Jersey – October 11, 2005 - The Martial Arts Channel (MAC) announced today that it has... October 10, 2005: And still no television tax to pay Great news: BBC AMERICA today announced the kick-off of a continuous three-hour live news feed from BBC World News in London, each weekday morning. The three-hour BBC World News block premieres Monday, October 10, 6:00 a.m. ET/3:00 a.m. PT. Close(r)... October 5, 2005: Would it have killed them to cast Omarosa as a Sorelli sister? Link: Kansas City Star | 10/05/2005 | Can’t relate to WB’s ‘Related’. OK, I admit I'm not in the target demo for this WB show about the four fictional Sorelli sisters. But still -- you don't have to be a... October 3, 2005: FAIR calls for defunding CPB and replacing with cockamamie scheme that will fail. Link: Time to Unplug the CPB. I think talking about changing the current structure of public broadcasting is a discussion that's long overdue. But the left-wing media watchdog isn't going to get anything started with this critique because it commits... September 30, 2005: Also, Martha will ride her bike five miles to work Just got a press packet touting the Fox Reality Channel, announcing that it is available in 18 million homes (and every single one of them, I bet, gets DirecTV). On the accompanying DVD, showing "highlights" of the Fox Reality Channel,... September 30, 2005: Doing well by doing good That old axiom of business is still holding true, for now at least, in the local television business. As I report in today's Kansas City Star, two television stations have merged and another two are poised to merge: Link: Kansas... September 29, 2005: The VP of sales will eat something even worse. I post this only because everyone's favorite TV publicist, Cindy Ronzoni, sends it along: GSN President and CEO Rich Cronin bet OLN President Gavin Harvey that his network’s THE AMAZING RACE would outperform OLN’s SURVIVOR in total viewers for the... September 28, 2005: Hating Geraldo means never having to say you're sorry Link: Chicago Tribune | Times' `grudging' budge on nudge riles Rivera. Nice column by Phil Rosenthal on how the New York Times bungled what would have been, at any other newspaper, a quick and painless mop-up operation after its chief... September 27, 2005: It's all Fox's fault Link: Trust in News Media Rebounds Somewhat This Year. New Gallup poll has found that most people think more highly of the MSM than they did a year ago. Of course, the MSM now includes Fox News Channel in addition... September 26, 2005: Or maybe that's Alexis. The rehabilitation of Martha Stewart is complete -- she's now appearing on the cover of her own magazine again! We kid because we can. And because we just compared the ratings for Wednesday's "Apprentice: Martha Stewart Style" with the ratings... September 19, 2005: Latest sale rumor.... Link: Broadcasting & Cable: The Business of Television. John Higgins has a story this week reporting that News Corp., owner of Fox and a boatload of Fox affiliates, is thinking of unloading some of the mid-market stations (including WDAF-TV in... September 8, 2005: No relation to Keith (we think) Perhaps of interest only to our Boston and Kansas City readers, but WDAF, the Fox-owned Fox affiliate here, has been without a 10 o'clock co-anchor for Phil Witt since ... well, it's been a while. But now... Shelli Lockhart will... September 7, 2005: Best "American Dad" Ever! OK, that's not much of a claim for a show that's only been on since May. But Seth MacFarlane and co. have a doozy of a season premiere scheduled for "American Dad" when it returns on Sunday. I've just viewed... September 6, 2005: And for the big finish, Les Moonves sings "My Way" This CBS press release announces a new twist to the 57th Emmy Awards, airing Sept. 18: Throughout the show, in an "American Idol"-esque contest entitled "Emmy Idol," today's top television and music personalities will trigger fans' memories of some of... September 6, 2005: 6 feet of water in the streets of Evangeline What better sign that Fox News Channel has arrived than the fact that Shepard Smith was the guest on "Late Show with David Letterman" last night? True, Shep is stepping into a vacuum -- CBS does not currently have a... September 2, 2005: How to trivialize a disaster Scott Fybush, editor of the trade publication NorthEast Radio Watch, wrote me last night after seeing some of the stunning pictures being delivered from New Orleans by cameramen for NBC and ABC: The photojournalists on the scene are doing yeoman... September 2, 2005: Not-so-quiet desperation Ted Koppel did a fine job on "Nightline" last night grilling Mike Brown, the head of FEMA (which Soledad O'Brien then aped this morning on CNN). Brown apologized profusely for being distant, aloof, slow with help and out of touch,... September 2, 2005: This week, we are all haunted by waters I wasn't the only one pouring out my thoughts in helpless frustration at being unable to do much about the suffering I was seeing on TV on Thursday (see below, “Where is the outrage?”). I received this from my friend... September 1, 2005: Where is the coverage? Is it just me, or are the major broadcasters not paying nearly the mind to Katrina's aftermath as they would if, say, the hurricane had devastated New York City? Or Chicago? If not for President Bush deciding to hold another... August 31, 2005: It's telethon time Link: NBC UNIVERSAL ANNOUNCES “A CONCERT FOR HURRICANE RELIEF” - BENEFIT TELETHON TO AID VICTIMS OF HURRICANE KATRINA. Well, of course. Television is very good at this. However, I'm now interested in what lessons we can learn from the deluge... August 31, 2005: The best of timing, the worst of timing ABC publicist Jeff Fordis confirmed just now that I am not the only one wondering: In light of the devastation along the Gulf Coast, does the network go ahead with "Invasion"? That's the series, scheduled to air Sept. 21, that... August 31, 2005: They're trying to wash us away Surfing the critics: With New Orleans teetering on the verge of complete collapse, my friend and colleague, Dave Walker, TV critic at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, has evacuated with a half-million other locals. From near Baton Rouge, he's observing what... August 30, 2005: What did ever happen to RuPaul? Click - click - click: Why do we even bother with TV ratings? This weekend OLN assigned a "TV-G" rating to the Kansas City installment of its "All-Star BBQ Showdown," even though a member of one team blurted out the... August 29, 2005: River rose all day the river rose all night Forget the peppy-dramatic theme music being used by the hopeless shills at The Weather Channel. This morning, I've got Randy Newman's "Louisiana 1927" on the brain. In case you haven't been reading John Higgins' weekly columns in Broadcasting & Cable,... August 26, 2005: Well, it beats "Crystal Meth Rush" Click click click: Troy N. Diggs writes, I'm probably the only one in the Metro who cares, but -- why on Earth did VH1 change the title of its overnight video block from "Insomniac Music Theater" to "Nocturnal State"? (It's... August 25, 2005: Funny, I mistook him for the voice of Willie Click click click: Ellen Gray has the amusing story behind Felicity Huffman's upcoming guest appearance on the "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson." Ferguson met Huffman at a party and got her to agree to appear on his show --... August 24, 2005: Coming up: Rory goes to college. But first: Hugo's going to hell Pat Robertson's latest bit of harmless joshing around -- you know, ordering a hit on Hugo Chavez of Venezuela on international TV -- once again brought attention to the bizarre arrangement by which ABC Family, home of the "Gilmore Girls"... August 23, 2005: Tonight, light this one In a genre filled with idiosyncratic auteurs, I've seen few documentary filmmakers who bring their force of personality to bear so strongly on their work as Ross McElwee. Tonight, you're in for a treat as his celebrated film "Bright Leaves"... August 22, 2005: FX to the "Rescue" I haven't seen a lot written about INHD and INHD2, which offer 24-hour high-definition TV programming, but I watch more HDTV on those two channels than any other service on my high-def tier. INHD is offered exclusively to cable companies... August 19, 2005: Jon Stewart IS Chickenman He's everywhere, he's everywhere! Not sure what the hook of this Wired magazine interview with Stewart and his right arm, Ben Karlin, is. Wired already established, in an earlier issue, the fact that the clip of Stewart eviscerating the two... August 19, 2005: On second thought (cha-cha-cha)... ABC has met our demands: In the spirit of good-natured competition, champion Kelly Monaco and her professional dance partner, Alec Mazo, will meet runner-up John O'Hurley and his professional partner Charlotte Jorgensen, once again on the dance floor. "Dancing with... August 18, 2005: No wonder it smells lemony fresh around here This just in: That NARAL ad attacking the judicial record of Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. was notable not only because it was decried even by the abortion-rights group's own allies, forcing them to withdraw the 30-second spot.... August 18, 2005: She'll go Farr This just in: The lovely Diane Farr, who's really coming into her own on FX's "Rescue Me," will now have steady employment on CBS's "Numb3rs." Diane Farr portrays Special Agent Megan Reeves, who studied at Quantico in the Behavioral Science... August 17, 2005: Plus, it's redundant. This just in: The lore of Comcast customer service stories continues to grow. The Chicago Tribune has a story about a Chicago woman who complained 40 times in one month about her new digital cable box, apparently to no avail.... August 17, 2005: Back in the saddle again Oy vey, you should've stayed up last night! An audience member ordered the "kosher show" (photo). This just in: In the ongoing saga of the incredible shrinking reality shows, "The Contender" -- Mark Burnett's boxing series which flopped on NBC... August 16, 2005: Welcome to the sunny side, Dave When I heard the scuttlebutt around the second floor (that's where the newsroom is) that we were thinking of hiring former KCTV-5 reporter-anchor Dave Helling to lead our multimedia efforts, I couldn't believe our good fortune. Today the hire was... August 16, 2005: A promotional army of zero This just in: "The U.S. Army has reissued request for proposals for its ad contract, estimated at $200 million." (Media Daily News) This is the second time the Army has tried to change advertisers. Which likely means the shop that... August 15, 2005: This just in ABC has just announced that its nightly newscast will now be titled simply "ABC World News Tonight." Because "Without Peter Jennings" would've been, you know, a bit much. *** Christopher Walken is running for president. This is not, as far... August 15, 2005: Welcome New around here? Then click on "About the new site" (I'd link it, but it's good practice for you to find the "Spotlight Posts"). And don't forget you can get the best of the blog, plus all the talk show... August 15, 2005: A face in the crowd Is Jon Stewart becoming the most powerful man in cable TV? Consider. His rant last year on CNN whipped its way around the Web and became known as "the 13 minutes that killed Crossfire." No one can prove that Stewart... August 15, 2005: What They Should've Said! The only way I can bring myself to watch cable news programs (other than Keith Olbermann's admirable "Countdown") is to talk back to them, pretty much continuously. Sit with me while watching CNN or MSNBC and my side of the... August 12, 2005: The verdict on Paula Fox admits, in effect, that a judge on "American Idol" excessively fraternized with a contestant, but that's okay because she stopped short of fornication (My Way News). Which is not exactly vindication for Ms. Abdul. In fact, had Corey Clark... August 12, 2005: No good deed ... TV station managers have been passing around this story. It's about an FCC fine that was handed down to two Florida stations for failing to put crawls on the screen that repeated the information given out over the air by... August 12, 2005: Ellen again She should host the Emmys every year, but she's definitely hosting them this year. "You know me, any excuse to put on a dress," DeGeneres said through a joke writer. August 12, 2005: Steal this post! My copy of the Family Guy direct-to-DVD film, "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story," arrived today, encased in plastic and abject corporate paranoia. This cover letter (click to enlarge) set the tone, advising me to "Please take care of your DVD... August 12, 2005: But don't call it Season 7 Phil Rosenthal's analysis of HBO's announcement that "Sopranos" creator David Chase has agreed to extend the show's sixth and final season by eight episodes -- which won't air until 2007 -- is worth reading right to the payoff line at... August 12, 2005: I think we've turned a corner... I'm happy to report that "Over There," the almost-no-holds-barred war drama, is finding its audience. Last week, viewership dropped by 37 percent from week one. Of course, week one was promoted more heavily than the actual war. Anyway, FX publicity... August 11, 2005: Finally! Dave in high def I had this scoop last night, but got all sleepy plotting my brilliant future on TV Barn. Sure enough, by the time I thought of posting it today, B&C already had the news. When Letterman starts his 13th season on... August 11, 2005: About the new site Welcome to the new and — I think you'll soon agree — improved TV Barn. It was at least four years ago, maybe five, that Dinn Mann and I first had discussions about bringing my Web site in-house and making... |