The TV Junkie Plan: "Better Off Ted", "Lost" (maybe), "MythBusters" (if not "Lost"), "South Park", "Reno 911!", Letterman, Fallon. more ›

Ad spending in the US dropped by 2.6% in 2008, with only cable increasing ad revenue for the year. TV and cable still retained a leadership position as the preferred media, taking more than 60% of all ad dollars. more ›

Critics are being rather forgiving of Jimmy Fallon's (only slightly shaky IMHO) "Late Night" debut: they brought out DeNiro who is always a tough interview and Fallon kind of made it work, and Timberlake kind of saved the first show - not sure why they had Van Morrison on, are they trying to reclaim the age 55-and-up demographic? more ›

[The Junkie's been sick for a few days but we're back] LAist has some great coverage of the Project Runway finale tonight on BRAVO @ 10:00pm so I'm not even going to touch that. If you can't stand the fashion tension, you can always switch over to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors Meeting broadcast on KLCS and your tension will be released utterly. more ›

• To update our avalanche story from yesterday, 3 have now been confirmed dead after the snowy storm struck near the town of Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains. One missing person was located Saturday, after apparently walking out of the snow encrusted mountain. Another missing person was located Friday, but died on Saturday morning.
• Remember when Fred Thompson was running for president and NBC stopped showing re-runs of Law & Order featuring the ex-Senator because of fair election laws? Well, one blogger thinks that USA should stop running episodes of Walker Texas Ranger because of the exposure it gives to Mike Huckabee lover supporter Chuck Norris. He "has gone way beyond what other celebrities like Oprah, Sylvester Stallone or Jon Voight have done."
• Bert Parks never saw this coming, but the format of the Miss America pageant has been changed to reflect the sentiments of a younger generation used to shows like America's Next Top Model and American Idol. Miss America will now basically be a reality show in which organizers hope infuse some much needed life into the boring traditional pageant.
• There is nothing more terrible than losing a son. But finding out through the press that your son is dead, as Heath Ledger's dad did, must have stung like something awful.
• We already know that 9 USC students were arrested on suspicion of public drunkenness this morning, but you might not have heard that 9 men and women were arrested in Pomona today for allegedly advertising sex on the Internet. They were nabbed at a motel by undercover cops. God, when did illicit, dirty, immoral, solicited sex become illegal?
• Though rains pounded the southland into a wet submission the last couple of days, the five inches are just a drop in the bucket as far as our drought is concerned. Or, so says the state agency in charge of water, who fears that people will stop conserving water in the wake of the storm that is supposed to continue off and on through Monday.
• Even though 7 percent of you don't seem to care, 53 percent said Yes on Props 94-97, while 41 percent said No. A harbinger of things to come or an aberration? Ten days to find out.

I am not ashamed to admit that Wednesday nights at my house are sometimes known as "Top Model" night. (Code word: "You wanna be on top?" natch.) more ›

Hey, even though there might not be much newly written TV on tonight (that's worth watching) tomorrow you are cordially invited to see acclaimed TV show creator and writer David Milch (creator of Deadwood, NYPD Blue) host: "The Idea of the Writer: A Writing Discussion with David Milch" tomorrow from 2:15-4:00pm at the WGA Theater at 135 S. Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills. This event is FREE and all are welcome on a first come,... more ›

It’s a beautiful, wonderful day! Why, you ask? Have they pulled the troops from Iraq? Is America’s Next Top Model going to be syndicated twice a night, every night? Has the retail industry decided that Christmas should just be about spending time with family and loved ones, and yanked their holiday marketing bonanzas? No…it’s even better. For those of you who missed it this morning…Dunkin’ Donuts coffee will now be available for purchase in... more ›

Relatively speechless tonight because there's so little on TV and yesterday was pretty lame as well. The final schmaltzy segment of Tin Man aired to much disappointment, and Nip/Tuck started out great but fizzled about halfway through the episode. Tonight though, Tyler Perry actually returns to the show he created and that's a big deal so check TBS at 9:00pm. [Please note how I'm specifically not mentioning the Julia Roberts special on AMC as she... more ›

When Apple announced their new iPods yesterday the big winner was LAist. Why? Because the new iPods have been equipped to work with WiFi so that people can access Apple's extremely profitable iTunes store. And in the iTunes store, for free, will be all of the LAist radio shows that we are doing on NowLive.com. And, in fact you can subscribe to all of the LAist shows as we record them. Ah, technology. Last... more ›

One of our favorite summer tv shows is CBS's "Big Brother", a reality show where they put a bunch of people together in a house and make them live together in the valley and vote each other out until there's just one winner. Cameras are everywhere, and almost every move is documented 24/7 and broadcast via the Internet. CBS broadcasts edited versions of the progress twice a week, and Showtime airs live footage from... more ›

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A Word or 52: TV icon Bob Barker is retiring and is getting a big sendoff from CBS. Lost will be killing us by not giving us any additional info about Locke. Idol will knock another one off. There are no decent movies on TCM or IFC to go take refuge from regular broadcast TV tonight. Tonight - Wednesday - May 9, 2007 Angels @ Mariners (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) Cardinals @ Dodgers (PRIME,... more ›

A Word or 34: Lots of new TV tonight, too bad that most of it is garbage. Potentially entertaining late night talk show guests include: Jane Fonda, Salman Rushdie, Antonio Banderas, Evangeline Lilly, Joe Rogan, and Steven Wright. Tonight - Wednesday - May 9, 2007 Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) Revel in the debauchery. Indians @ Angels (Fox Sports, 7:00 p.m.) Dodgers @ Marlins (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Jericho/Criminal Minds/CSI: NY... more ›

A Word or 4 dozen : Somehow I totally missed posting that the Shield was on last night and again it was good. I think one would be hard-pressed to find more raw and compelling performances on any other show available on the networks or basic cable. Being a former SF resident, I haven't been able to get enough of Conan's broadcast from the Orpheum theater on Market Street- too bad that's still bum-junkie... more ›

A Word or 50: It's premiere TV newsman Edward R. Murrow's birthday today. Doubtless he would be ashamed and aghast at how pathetic the mainstream press has performed with respect to questioning the powers that be over these last six years. To look more fully into this, check out PBS tonight at 9 p.m. Tonight - Wednesday - April 25th, 2007 Humphrey Bogart Marathon (TCM, 5-?? p.m.) Learn it all from Bogey: The Big... more ›

A Word or 47: Full disclosure - tonight I might watch the cultural trainwreck that is Idol and then it's on to Lost and then an evening culminating with LCD Soundsystem on Letterman, they will kick ass! And then, if I can find some Cialis, a bit of Tina Fey on Conan. Tonight - Wednesday - April 11th, 2007 Jericho/Criminal Minds/CSI: NY (CBS, 8-11:00 p.m.) From post-apocalypse to a dead New Yorker in medieval... more ›

A Word or 52: Some people hated last week's "useless" Lost because it didn't further the storyline but I thought it was a humorously macabre and welcome break that reminded me of some of the better tangential X-Files episodes from 10+ years ago. If looks like we're going back to that story line tonight, oh well. Jericho (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Roger goes off the deep end, and who can blame him Friday Night Lights/Crossing... more ›

A Word or 73: Was sad to learn of the death of Larry "Bud" Melman aka Calvert DeForest who spent over 20 years as a regular on David Letterman's shows - always able to suffer indignities and deal with situations that exceeded Punk'd and Jackass in terms of humor and sophistication by decades. Fox lostsome couple slots in the top 5 last week: American Idol got 1&2, followed by GRey's Anatomy, Deal or No... more ›

A Word Or 28: Fox did it again last week. The top 5 most watched programs were a combination of American Idol, Are You As Smart As a 5th Grader?, and House. Tonight - Wednesday - March 14th, 2007 Dick Tracy Marathon (TCM, 5:00 p.m.) The classic from the '40s Clippers @ Rockets (KTLA, 5:30 p.m.) Suns @ Mavericks (ESPN, 6:00 p.m.) Blue Jackets @ Ducks (PRIME, 7:00p.m.) Jericho (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) The Marines... more ›

A Word Or 45 (or so): Fox has got it down, the top 5 most viewed programs on TV were on Fox, 3 were episodes of American Idol and the other 2 were Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? Someone at Fox is smart enough to know that most American adult's aren't. Tonight - Wednesday - March 7th, 2007 Lakers @ Bucks (KCAL, 5:00 p.m.) Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (TCM, 5:00... more ›

Tonight- Wednesday - February 28th, 2007 Sonics @ Clippers (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Jericho/Criminal Minds/CSI: NY (CBS, 8-11:00 p.m.) The town tries to fix their renewable energy resource/New Orleans serial killer/Illusionist murderer Friday Night Lights (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) It's all about family, the football family. America's Next Top Model (the CW, 8:00 p.m.) Season premiere George Lopez/The Knights of Prosperity/According To Jim/In Case of Emergency (ABC, 8-10:00 p.m.) A kind of endless sitcom hell. Larry... more ›

Tonight - Wednesday more ›

Wednesday - Tonight Lakers @ Mavericks (ESPN, 6:30 p.m.) Jazz @ Clippers (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) "King of Queens" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Double whammy - 2 new episodes. "The Next Top Model: British Invasion" (the CW, 8:00 p.m.) 2 Hour debut(!) "The Biggest Loser" (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) Season finale in mondo 2 hr. episode. "The Lost Room" (SciFi, 9:00 p.m.) Final episode of the miniseries. "One Punk Under God" (Sundance, 9:00 p.m.) If you pay... more ›

Tonight - Wednesday "Funny Face" (TCM, 6:00 p.m.) Audrey Hepburn stars in this '57 musical comedy that features the dance sequence that the Gap has been using in their recent commercials "NHL Hockey" (PRIME, 7:00 p.m.) Predators @ Ducks "NBA Basketball" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Hornets @ Lakers "America's Next Top Model" (the CW, 8:00 p.m.) Season finale "The King of Queens" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) Season premiere - back to back episodes "The Biggest... more ›

Tonight - Wednesday If I could do it all or if you could convince me otherwise: "College Basketball" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Kansas State @ California "NBA Basketball" (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Grizzlies @ Clippers "Woman On Top" (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) The best position and Penelope Cruz's career establishing flick. "Great Performances: A Tribute to James Taylor" (PBS, 8:00 p.m.) Just as corny all these years later. "Jericho" (CBS, 8 p.m.) Last episode until Feb.... more ›

Wednesday - Tonight "NHL Hockey" (KDOC, 6:00 p.m.) Ducks @ Avalanche "NHL Hockey" (Fox Sports, 7:30 p.m.) Kings @ Sharks "NBA Basketball" (PRIME, 7:30 p.m.) Sonics @ Clippers "Everyone Says I Love You" (IFC, 6:00 p.m.) An evening of Woody Allen movies on IFC "Jericho/Criminal Minds/CSI: NY" (CBS, 8:00 - 11:00 p.m.) New episodes. "Madonna: The Confessions Tour - Live From London" (NBC, 8 p.m.) Except, it's not really live I don't think, and... more ›

"NBA Basketball" (KCAL, 7:00 p.m.) Lakers @ Trailblazers "Jericho" (CBS, 8:00 p.m.) The Mayor, who went wandering around the nuclear wilderness, gets sick - who'da thunk? "The War" (PBS, 8:00 p.m.) Ken Burns has a new mini-series about WWII, the "War to End All Wars". Expect the FCC to fine all PBS stations who air the 7-parter due to adult language. "The Biggest Loser" (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) "They're Back" - nuff said "America's Next... more ›

by Kevin McCollister It's unlikely you'll hear about it on the evening (network-controlled) news, but an estimated 800 people attended a rally this morning at the Pan Pacific Park to protest low wages and lack of health benefits for the writers of television's lucrative reality shows. Organized by the Writers Guild of America in support of the striking writers of "America's Next Top Model", the rally also fired up the WGA writers, whose contract... more ›

One supernatural event. Two realities. Three Crimes. Wednesday, Sept. 20 8 pm Jericho (CBS) 8 pm America's Next Top Model (CW) 8 pm The Biggest Loser (NBC) [Added] 9 pm Criminal Minds (CBS) 10 pm Kidnapped (NBC) 10 pm CSI: NY (CBS) · And now, here is your complete list of Fall 2006 premiere dates [TV Squad]... more ›