NBC's executive panel at this morning's TCA press tour started off tensely with the requisite Silverman departure question. When NBCU's President of Primetime Entertainment Angela Bromstad explained his sudden exit by saying, "I think that this has always been Ben's plan, to transition back to his entrepreneurial roots," the packed ballroom erupted in a symphony of snickers. Bromstad, puzzled, continued, "I didn't mean to elicit laughter."
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No one is safe from the vampire craze, not even the buttoned-up, middle-aged critics gathered in Pasadena at today's CW leg of the TCA press tour. During the Vampire Diaries panel, the executive producers and actors discussed how they will differentiate themselves from one specific Kristen Stewart vampire flick and Williamson's most famous creekside series.
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The usually underwhelming Emmy Awards telecast Q & A ran a strong anchor leg for CBS at the TCA press tour on Monday. In addition to a typically (and winningly) glib Neil Patrick Harris via satellite, Executive Producer Don Mischer and ATAS President John Schaffner discussed in detail their plan to make a few nips and tucks to the somewhat bloated awards by "time-shifting" eight of the acceptance speeches. Rereading through the transcript today, the phrase "time-shifting" was uttered so many times that the more tired critics in the audience (or those who hadn't hit the sundae bar) must have thought CBS was updating Quantum Leap for the new generation (Scott Bakula is available). The nominees in the shortened categories definitely have a gripe, but is losing 10 minutes and 25 seconds from the broadcast and showing clips from popular but unnominated programs going to cause an uptick in viewership? Doubtful. But not for the reasons the media is focusing on.
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Jeremy Piven is a very famous man for both his role on Entourage and his classic, Broadway-ditching invention of the "sushi excuse." However, both of these things might be foreign to the audiences Paramount is pitching his new film The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard to. How to reach those red staters that don't watch Piven every Sunday on the Hibbo? Simple: book an appearance on WWE Raw!
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Summer is the time for dating shows, and if we have to cringe through one about desperate plus-size people who are convinced that this humiliating reality show is their last chance at true happiness, so be it. What's the alternative -- leave the house and socialize with good friends? Exactly. Now hunker down: It's time to get your lonely fat on.
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CBS announced today that Wayne Brady will host a new revival of Let's Make a Deal. The hour-long game show will replace Guiding Light, the latest scripted program to be taken to the TV shed in favor of cheaper fare. The network's decision to appoint Wayne Brady as the newest of a string of Let's Make a Deal faces (most popularly Monty Hall and most recently Billy Bush) seems as though CBS was trying its own hand at the game: They chose the Don't Forget the Lyrics alum and opted out of seeing who was behind the hidden door, fearing it might be someone edgy like Rosie O'Donnell.
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Pity the life of the True Blood recapsicist, where analyzing sexless field orgies is just part of the job. We begin where we left off last week, at the massive Beau Temps field orgy, with a baffled Detective Andy stumbling upon the proceedings. Here's a couple observations, off-hand, about this orgy:
1. No one is actually engaged in sex. They're just sort of moaning, undulating, and holding each other at arm's length.
2. This one scene has more glimpses of penis in it than in an entire season of Hung. I counted four separate penises in it, and pushed my DVR's technical capabilities to the very limits in doing so.
3. As for the ladies, I couldn't help but noticing that the Landing Strip isn't just a coastal thing -- it's a popular feminine grooming style in deep Louisiana, as well!
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Craig Ferguson weasled his way into the cold, barren hearts of television critics by sending free pizza to the TCA hotel Saturday night with the jovial note: "I wanted to send you fish and chips -- but that comes wrapped in newspaper -- and you can't find that stuff anymore so enjoy this pizza instead." The food foreplay worked well, warming up the otherwise joyless group for the most intimate panel thus far at the TCA press tour.
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Here's a recap of everything that happened on last night's Entourage, the fourth installment of a twelve-episode season that will ultimately be jam-packed with the same amount of plot as a typical CSI cold open : Vince's Ferrari movie is pushed back three months, causing him to become amazingly bored. Roll end credits.
Six seasons into a show that hasn't been overly concerned about having "things happen" in about four years, there's really little point in complaining that Vince, E, and the gang don't do much besides lunch on the Ivy patio and needle each other about all the ass/how little ass they're pulling; if we're still watching (and we are, for some reason!), we're getting what we deserve. But given the news that HBO, happy to ensure that another two dozen or so struggling actresses earn their SAG cards for putting in their obligatory time as a Chase sexual conquest, is bankrolling another round of bottle service for the boys for next summer. Rather than being just another voice whining about a once-beloved show's frustrating stagnation, Movieline has some helpful suggestions that would provide Entourage's seventh go-around (and probably last, right? This has got to end eventually, doesn't it?) with the kind of water-cooler moments it's been pathologically avoiding since Aquaman shattered the box office record.
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It may not be a massive Emmy snub, but we thought Kevin Nealon might get a little love in the Supporting Actor category this year. Although his portrayal of Doug won't win any shiny things next month, the warmth of his pot-loving, child-corrupting, telling-it-like-it-is-ing character continutes to make the B-plot of every Weeds episode the highlight of each week. Get it, highlight?
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After gorging themselves on a complimentary breakfast buffet, television critics herded into the Langham Huntington Hotel Ballroom for CBS Day at the TCA Press Tour. President of CBS Entertainment, Nina Tassler, kicked off the network's panels by joking that her allotted time window had been shortened since she "can respond to questions in 140 characters or less," before commenting on the new Emmys format, The Jay Leno Show and the network's GLAAD ratings.
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As envisioned by Movieline's state-of-the-art awards-simulator technology, the Emmys' decision to distribute 8 of the show's 28 awards before the actual telecast could lead to the corralling of nominated miniseries and drama series writers into a Nokia Theatre men's lavoratory, where they'll be forced to compete with the sounds of flushing toilets and XLerator hand dryers as they deliver their humble acceptance speeches.
That prospect has angered TV writers, who justifiably assert that TV is the quintessential writer's medium (as opposed to literature, which, let's face it, has belonged to dust jacket designers for years), thereby making this form of kudosfest apartheid particularly egregious. THR reports that over 100 of their ranks have signed a letter protesting their pre-taped Emmy ghettoization, including top showrunners like John Wells, Ron Moore, Carol Mendelsohn, Doug Ellin, Seth MacFarlane, Shonda Rhimes, and Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse.
The text of the letter is after the jump, followed by an equally censorious reproach from the Writers Guild of America, issued on Friday.
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If it's true that network logos die in threes, somebody had better send a night nurse over to check on MTV, as Nickelodeon has just joined Sci-Fi in the rebranding roller derby. The kid channel's iconic splat logo (which began in 1984 and survived for twenty-five years) has perished.
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Tweeted at TCA: "First question to [CBS Entertainment President] Nina Tassler: 'Nancy...' Tassler: 'NINA!' Critic: 'Whatever your name is.' Monday morning, ladies and gentlemen!" [@KateAurthur, @TVMoJoe]
The 25th Annual Television Critics Association Awards were handed out Saturday night at an event emceed by Chelsea Handler. Battlestar Galactica was named Program of the Year and Movieline's own crush-object, Betty White, was given the career achievement award. The Big Bang Theory shut out 30 Rock in all comedy categories, proving once and for all which network gifts the best swag. The complete list of TCA winners is after the jump.
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