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with Brad Oswald

Ellen on Idol — nothing to dance about, yet

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Ellen Degeneres (FOX)

All the pre-show hype surrounding Ellen DeGeneres's arrival on the American Idol judging panel proved to be much ado about not much on Tuesday night, as the first of Idol's Hollywood-round episodes focused mostly on the performances and personalities of the contestants and very little on Ellen's interaction with Simon, Randy and Kara.

View Full Post | 10/02/2010 10:58 AM | 1
LOST? Yes, that begins to describe it

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Beach goers are seen at the Lost Premiere on Waikiki Beach, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010 in Honolulu. Lost, which is filmed in Hawaii, returns to television for its sixth and final season Tuesday. (MARCO GARCIA / AP PHOTO)

Well, THAT certainly cleared things up, didn’t it?

View Full Post | 3/02/2010 11:04 AM | 2
Some truly wonderful, absolutely Horrible news

Is the world safe from the evils of Dr. Horrible, or do we still have tuneful reasons to fear his return?

View Full Post | 19/01/2010 11:13 AM | 2
Press tour's OVER! (Well, almost...)

The official network-organized portion of the semi-annual TV press tour is done -- the stars, producers and execs got themselves out of Pasadena just in time for dense clouds and days upon days of predicted rain to settle in here in no-longer-sunny L.A.

View Full Post | 18/01/2010 10:25 AM | 1
Press-tour party's most popular guest: a complete dummy

The stars of the science/nature/reality/lifestyle-TV universe were out in full force the other night here in Pasadena, at an elaborate outdoor party celebrating Discovery Communications' (which includes Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Planet Green and others) 25th anniversary.

View Full Post | 17/01/2010 11:32 AM | 0
New TV-poker math: three pair beats two of a kind

On the first day of the cable networks' portion of the semi-annual TV press tour, here's one duo that added nothing to my day:

View Full Post | 15/01/2010 7:37 AM | 0
An unexpected Hollywood-party curveball
Here's yet another bit of evidence that Winnipeg is the Kevin Bacon of cities -- no more than six degrees of separation from anyone, anywhere:
View Full Post | 12/01/2010 11:51 PM | 0
Music to Gleeks' ears
Fans of Fox's freshman hit Glee got some good news during Fox's portion of the TV press tour when network execs announced that the series has been renewed for a second season.
View Full Post | 11/01/2010 8:23 PM | 0
In Search of the Castaways? Here they ALL are!

Saturday night was Survivor geek heaven here in sunny L.A., as CBS's portion of the semi-annual TV press tour ended with a full-on reunion of the castaway class to celebrate the reality-TV institution's 10th anniversary. The event, held at CBS's Television City studios, took place in a massive soundstage decorated in full tiki-torch-kitsch Survivor trappings. In attendance were more than 200 current and former contestants from the show, most of whom had paid their own way to L.A. to take part in the get-back-together (CBS paid for hotels and ground transportation), including the couple of dozen whose names and faces are memorable from the show (Richard, Rupert, Rudy, Russell and a bunch whose names don't start with "R"), and scores upon scores of erstwhile islanders who clearly made no lasting impression whatsoever.

View Full Post | 10/01/2010 2:34 PM | 0
Warming up to the idea of another TV press tour

If you find yourself in one of those situations where you're going to have to work right through the weekend, here's pretty much the best way to get it started: with a toward-the-positive temperature swing of about 75 degrees.

View Full Post | 10/01/2010 1:30 PM | 0
TV drama writer/producers pound the Peacock
During a panel Friday featuring the top writer/producers of several FX (cable) network series -- including Rescue Me, The Shield, Damages, Sons of Anarchy and a next-season entry, Lawman -- it became very evident, very quickly, that many folks who make their living writing and creating hour-long scripted series are NOT thrilled by NBC's decision to hand five full hours of its prime-time real estate over to The Jay Leno Show this fall.
View Full Post | 8/08/2009 11:21 AM | 0
The REAL heroes of the TV press tour
As outlined here in varying degrees of detail here over the past couple of weeks, this TV-press-tour thingie is pretty much a two-week-long parade of actors, producers and network executives, all passing through in a promotionally inclined (and, in the case of the onscreen talent, contractually obligated) effort to get the assembled TV-critical mass to pay attention to their shows.
View Full Post | 8/08/2009 11:19 AM | 0
So You Think You Know Who Should Win

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Jeanine Mason waves after being announced Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" winner in Los Angeles. Viewers said Mason can dance best as they crowned her the winner of the Fox network dance competition show. (MATHIEU YOUNG / AP PHOTO)

Fox TV's So You Think You Can Dance crowned its latest winner on Thursday night, handing the title of America's Favourite Dancer to Jeanine Mason, the 18-year-old Floridian who edged out fellow finalists Brandon, Evan and Kayla in a finale that drew more than 21.6 million votes from cut-a-rug-inclined North American viewers.
View Full Post | 7/08/2009 7:35 AM | 0
Fox's Paula-less Idol Plans
As expected, Fox Broadcasting's program executives faced a tidal wave of Paula-Abdul-themed questions when they met the press here on Thursday morning.
View Full Post | 6/08/2009 1:43 PM | 0
Hurry. Hard. Homer.
Fox Broadcasting started its press-tour day with a breakfast-mingle meet-up with The Simpsons, who celebrate their 20th season in prime time this fall.
View Full Post | 6/08/2009 1:41 PM | 0
How to stay sane during press-tour madness
5:38 a.m. First tee, Brookside Golf Club. As soon as the sun pierces the pre-dawn darkness, hit the ball. Find it, and hit it again.
View Full Post | 6/08/2009 1:39 PM | 0
NBC's garden-party
First of all, sorry for the temporary loss of blogging momentum -- I think I hit the mid-tour wall, and had a day or two when writing for the printed Freep thingie was all I could manage (yeah, I know, tough gig, suck it up, CouchBoy....).
View Full Post | 6/08/2009 1:36 PM | 0
The stars come out for CBS
There hasn’t been much to report BPHP-wise, on this summer press tour so far; after AMC’s tour-opening Mad Men/Breaking Bad cocktail-a-thon last week, things got pretty quiet, probably a reflection of tough economic times and pared-down network publicity budgets. Sure, there was a fancy-schmancy Food Network evening at a palatial private residence here in Pasadena — the food, naturally, was great, prepared as it was by contestants from the new season of Iron Chef — but even it didn’t have much to offer in the way of out-and-out star power.
View Full Post | 4/08/2009 1:17 PM | 0
A coupla slices of sort-of humbling pie

For reasons that remain a bit murky, it has become something of a tradition here on the old' TV press tour for late-night talk-show host Craig Ferguson to send a greeting to the assembled critickal mass at the semi-annual TCA business meeting in the form of a whole bunch of extra-big thick-crust pizzas from a locally renowned pie-a-torium.

View Full Post | 2/08/2009 9:10 AM | 0
Lamas Life? How 'bout Lame-Ass Life?

There's a lot of goofy, loopy, silly stuff that takes place here on the ol' TCA press tour, but most of what's pointless and insubstantial is at least somehow amusing.

View Full Post | 1/08/2009 5:38 PM | 0
Canucks count in ESPN's big anniversary series

U.S. cable's pre-eminent sports network, ESPN, is marking its 30th anniversary later this year with an ambitious and fascinating documentary series, 30 for 30, that will see a very interesting and unusual collection of directors -- some Academy-Award winners, some first-time film-makers -- contributing docs that explore some of the most important (but, in some cases, unexpected) sports stories of the past three decades.

View Full Post | 1/08/2009 5:34 PM | 0
Where do TV critics come from?

PASADENA — It's an interesting question — at least, down hereabouts — and probably one about which you'd never expect to know (or care about) the answer.

View Full Post | 30/07/2009 9:01 AM | 0
An almost-obscene wealth of TCA comedy

PASADENA — It was a raucous Wednesday morning during cable-TV's portion of the U.S. networks' semi-annual press tour here in Los Angeles (well, specifically, lovely and lavish and decidedly old-money-L.A. Pasadena), highlighted by appearances by a couple of top-level standup-comedy personalities — one from the past, and one from the very-successful present.

View Full Post | 30/07/2009 8:54 AM | 0
Cranston's coif: hair today, gone tomorrow

PASADENA — Tuesday's schedule at the TV press tour here in Pasadena ended with this summer's first crack at the BPHP (Big Phony Hollywood Party) thing, in the form of a cocktail reception hosted by U.S. cable's AMC network — home of all those old movies and, more recently, pretty top-notch original series like Mad Men and Breaking Bad. Actually, it probably couldn't be fairly described as a full-out BPHP, as it was a fairly modest affair (outdoor-patio setting here at the Langham Huntington Hotel, open bar, a modest smattering of foodie items), but what it WAS well stocked was talent from the aforementioned AMC shows, and more.

View Full Post | 29/07/2009 9:51 AM | 1
A view on The View

Early candidate for favourite quote of this press tour:

View Full Post | 28/07/2009 6:05 PM | 0