television

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Time Warner, Viacom Reach Zero-Hour Deal

Cable provider keeps grip on Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV

(Newser) - The countdown to the New Year was a frantic one for Viacom and Time Warner. The companies had set a midnight deadline in their tense negotiations to keep Viacom’s networks—which include MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon—on the massive cable provider. As the ball dropped, Viacom granted a...

Sobbing SpongeBob Joins Viacom Fee Dispute

Ads aimed at winning support in Time Warner feud feature a sobbing Spongebob

(Newser) - Viacom is enlisting some of its best-known kid cartoon characters in a contract renewal battle with Time Warner, the Wall Street Journal reports. Viacom wants higher fees from the cable carrier for its channels, which could disappear from Time Warner's service at midnight tonight if no new deal is reached....

UK Dad Who Dropped TV on Girl Cleared in Her Death

Tragedy a 'parent's worst nightmare'

(Newser) - A father accidentally dropped a television on his 4-year-old daughter's head in a horrific Christmas tragedy, reports the Daily Telegraph. The North Wales father was carrying an old television to another room to make way for a new Christmas set when he tripped over his daughter, who was playing at...

Brit, Aussie Actors Find US Success

(Newser) - British and Australian actors are flocking to the US in search of work and finding great success in roles that challenge their mimicry skills, the Chicago Tribune reports. Whether it’s Hugh Laurie on House, Anna Friel on Pushing Daisies, or Simon Baker on The Mentalist, the thespians have found...

Thanks for the Memories, Bob, 'Cuz 2008 TV Stunk

The golden age of TV may have died this year

(Newser) - Today's golden age of TV lost a little shine this year, Heather Havrilesky writes on Salon. Twelve quick months gobbled up all of the momentum and promise from years past, leaving “a haze of crappy, unoriginal new programming, lackluster sophomore shows, flaccid sitcoms and pointless cable comedies.” Old...

Shield Guns Down The Wire
 Shield Guns Down The Wire 
OPINION

Shield Guns Down The Wire

In crime drama face-off, Mackey has the edge on sheer depravity

(Newser) - When it comes to gritty portrayals of life on the unforgiving streets of an American city, no show is better than The Wire—except The Shield, Chris Petit declares in the Guardian. The crime dramas, with their shaky lens style and foul-mouth approach, shuck romance and expose the oft-forgotten American...

Sopranos' Johnny Cakes Commits Suicide

Actor Costelloe played a gay mobster's lover

(Newser) - The actor who played Johnny Cakes on The Sopranos is dead, the New York Post reports. John Costelloe, 47, shot himself in the head in Brooklyn last week, police and friends said. The former firefighter served a brief but pivotal role as the gay lover of a closeted mobster in...

Fey Is AP's Entertainer of the Year

30 Rock star and Palin impersonator beats out Downey, Ledger

(Newser) - Tina Fey is the entertainer of the year? You betcha. Fey was voted the AP's Entertainer of the Year, an annual honor chosen by newspaper editors and broadcast producers across the country. Fey was selected by AP members as the performer who had the greatest impact on culture and entertainment...

SAG Postpones Strike Vote
 SAG Postpones Strike Vote  

SAG Postpones Strike Vote

Union schedules meeting to iron out division

(Newser) - Facing dissent in the rank-and-file, the Screen Actors Guild is delaying a member vote to authorize a strike, the Los Angeles Times reports. The union’s board will push back balloting slated to begin January 2 to “address the unfortunate division and restore consensus” at a special meeting January...

Star Wars' Secret Shame: The Holiday Special

1978 TV show included singing, dancing, and Wookiees

(Newser) - It sounded like a good idea at the time. In 1978, Star Wars was huge, but a sequel was 2 years away. So why not make a TV special? Why not a holiday special? Centered on Wookiees? "The only sound they make is like fat people having an orgasm,...

7% Not Ready for Digital TV Switch

With switch due Feb. 17, estimated 7% aren't prepared; feds' coupon program shaky

(Newser) - With US television’s transition from analog to digital broadcasting less than two months away, officials are worried that consumers still don’t have the signal-converter box, the Wall Street Journal reports. An estimated 7% aren’t prepared, and Congress, which authorized $1.34 billion for coupons to help consumers...

Tinseltown Not Run by Jews? I'm Insulted

(Newser) - Just 22% of Americans say Jews run Hollywood, and one Jew is insulted: "It just shows how dumb America has gotten," Joel Stein writes in the Los Angeles Times. "Jews totally run Hollywood." Looking through the trades, he could find only eight Gentiles holding powerful positions...

Actor Sam Bottoms Dead at 53

Appeared in Apocalypse Now , Outlaw Josey Wales

(Newser) - Actor Sam Bottoms, who appeared in Apocalypse Now and some 30 other films, died at his LA home this week of brain cancer at age 53, the Los Angeles Times reports. Bottoms began his film career at age 15 in The Last Picture Show and was cast as surfer Lance...

Star Gazing: 9 to Watch in '09
 Star Gazing: 9 to Watch in '09 

Star Gazing: 9 to Watch in '09

Entertainment Weekly picks next year's breakout performers

(Newser) - With next year's big-name film and TV projects (including a new Star Trek and a fresh Tom Hanks movie) featuring some unknowns, Entertainment Weekly lists the rising stars of 2009:
  • Kara DioGuardi, American Idol: The songwriting force behind hits by Pink and Ashlee Simpson will sit at the show's judging
...

Disney Channel Coming to Russian TV
Disney Channel Coming to Russian TV

Disney Channel Coming to Russian TV

Mickey and pals get first Western foothold in massive market

(Newser) - Disney has become the first Western company to crack the potentially lucrative Russian TV market, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company and a Russian broadcaster are finalizing plans to introduce Disney programming on 30 stations nationwide. Disney will have a 49% ownership stake in the deal with Russia's Media-One...

Oprah Seals Production Deal With HBO

Talk-show host's production company will do films, miniseries on cable mainstay

(Newser) - Oprah Winfrey has a production deal with HBO, ending a long-lived partnership with ABC, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The exclusive, 3-year arrangement will allow Oprah’s Harpo Films more flexibility than before. “Being on a cable channel like HBO offers us a tremendous amount of creative freedom not seen...

Murder of Most Wanted Host's Son Solved

Convicted pedophile who died in jail was behind brutal 1981 kidnap/torture case

(Newser) - The man who kidnapped and beheaded America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh’s son in 1981 has been identified, CNN reports. “Ottis Toole was the abductor and murderer of Adam Walsh,” Florida police said today. Toole, long suspected of the crime, died in prison in 1996. “...

Jack Black Lands Office Gig
 Jack Black Lands Office Gig 

Jack Black Lands Office Gig

Comedian will star as himself

(Newser) - Not only did The Office score the sought-after post-Super Bowl slot, it will also feature Jack Black as a guest star. The comedian will play himself in a bootlegged movie the Dunder Mifflin workers try to watch, Entertainment Weekly reports. Black, who rarely appears in guest spots, is not the...

Bus Tour Too Much Sex , Too Little City
 Bus Tour Too Much 
 Sex, Too Little City 
GLOSSIES

Bus Tour Too Much Sex, Too Little City

Trip down memory lane is one Vanity Fair scribe would like to forget

(Newser) - Carrie & Co. wouldn’t be caught dead on a bus tour of Manhattan, but the half-day trek to various locations used for Sex and the City—a sex shop, the Meatpacking District, the Magnolia Bakery—has become the guilty secret of misguided fans looking to relive scenes from the...

Why Oprah's Weight Matters to Millions

We're sharing in her long health struggle

(Newser) - Why do we follow Oprah’s battle with her weight so avidly? Because so many of us share the same battle, and identify so strongly with its ups and downs, writes Robin Givhan in the Washington Post. Oprah “may sell a million books, hand out scholarships and cars, build...

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