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A new episode of ABC's "Modern Family" airs at 9pm. Titled: "Moon Landing", it guest stars Minnie Driver
Sunday's Super Bowl looms in the minds of many who are already planning how many beer and snack runs they will have to make between now and gametime to be adequately provisioned. Also looming is the broadcast of the "Focus on the Family" anti-abortion ad during the game, featuring Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother. Huffington Post reveals that, while Focus on the Family had to lay off almost 300 people, they somehow managed to come up with the $2.5+ million to run the anti-abortion ad (not including production costs). On the flip side, CBS won't take any amount of money to run progressive pro-choice ads or gay-rights advocacy.Several advocacy groups have taken CBS to task for this, including Working Assets' CREDO, who have petitions with about 150,000 signees and other actions for people to take. What confuses us is how CBS feels that it can editorialize this way (and by blocking ads that is what it's doing) when it doesn't enforce any kind of sexual responsibility policy in its programming.
From sitcoms to dramas, CBS programming features plenty of casual sex encounters where pregnancy and STD transmission prevention is virtually unaddressed - a kind of fantasy world where anything goes without repercussions, other than, perhaps a hangover and/or a plot twist to help set up another joke for Charlie Sheen. CBS also feels that it can exploit gay characters in its programming but not provide equal access to airtime to advocate issues that affect real-life gay people. Dear CBS, look at the calendar - what century is this?. [Here's Comedy.com's version of Tim Tebow's ad]
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Tonight we're excited for the new episode of ABC's "Modern Family" at 9pm with guest star Minnie Driver. At the SAG awards a couple weeks ago, we managed to grab a few words with brilliant cast members Ty Burrell aka Phil Dunphy, Rico Rodriguez aka Manny Delgado, and Eric Stonestreet aka Cameron Tucker - please check out the video at the end of this post.
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Nielsen numbers are out for last week and the lowest common denominator award goes to "The Grammys" on CBS, followed closely by Fox's "American Idol". Fox scored highest among the Big Four networks, with NBC a distant 4th.
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The TV Junkie Plan: "Attack of the Show", "Human Target", "Modern Family", "Cougar Town", "Nip/Tuck", Letterman (Sarah Silverman & Jeremy Renner), Fallon (Jessica Alba)
7:00pm Attack of the Show G4 - Game break; MMA news; de-evolution.
8:00pm Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials 2010 CBS - Special Presentation. Is this really necessary?
8:00pm Mercy NBC - Veronica locks horns with Dr. Joe Briggs (James Van Der Beek), the arrogant new head of the ICU
8:00pm Human Target FOX - Chance must find and protect a reformed thief from vengeful former accomplices.
9:00pm Modern Family ABC - A visit from an old friend (Minnie Driver) leaves Claire feeling inadequate; Mitchell tries to help Gloria with some legal issues.
9:00pm Man vs. Wild Discovery - Bear uses his wilderness survival skills to stay alive in a city post-disaster.
9:00pm American Idol FOX - The final auditions before the Hollywood round.
9:00pm Launch My Line Bravo - Season Finale
9:00pm Man v. Food: Live Travel Channel - Special Presentation. 2 Hours Live!
9:30pm Cougar Town ABC - An attractive tennis instructor gets between Ellie and Jules; Laurie turns to Travis to be her conscience
10:00pm Nip/Tuck FX - The teenage daughter of Escobar Gallardo seeks out answers about her late father; a seemingly common cosmetic procedure for a struggling actress leads to chaos.
10:00pm Psych USA - Shawn and Gus join Shawn's girlfriend on a rafting trip; Shawn suspects foul play when a member of the group goes overboard.
10:00pm Ugly Betty ABC - Wilhelmina discovers she has a drag queen impersonator; Betty's blog wins an award
10:00pm Solving History With Olly Steeds Discovery - Steeds investigates the fabled lost city of Atlantis and what may have caused its demise.
10:30pm Tosh.0 Comedy Central - The web, snarkified
10:00pm Shear Genius Bravo - Season Premiere
10:00pm Steven Seagal: Lawman A&E - Season Finale
11:00pm Lopez Tonight TBS - Actor Billy Zane; actor Brandon T. Johnson; performance by Fabolous.
11:00pm Chelsea Lately E! - Entertainer Shorty Rossi.
11:35pm Late Show With David Letterman CBS - Comic Sarah Silverman; actor Jeremy Renner; Paris Hilton presents the Top Ten list; Nneka performs.
12:05am Jimmy Kimmel Live ABC - TV host Phil McGraw; musician Nick Jonas; comic Demetri Martin.
12:35am Late Night With Jimmy Fallon NBC - Actress Jessica Alba; editor Josh Topolsky; Harper Simon performs.
