The The economy is still a nightmare. The military situations in Afghanistan and Pakistan are perilous -- and getting worse. But for all the troubles swirling around the nation these days, America has rarely seemed to be in such steady and capable hands. 

That was the feeling that came across on TV Wednesday night watching President Barack Obama's 100-days press conference. Even on his best nights, John F. Kennedy did not seem as calm, confident and masterful as Obama did in an hour's worth of prime time give and take with the press.

As good as Obama has been in such settings before, Wednesday he seemed perfectly tuned to each shifting topic and tone.

The president was appropriately sober, moral and earnest in talking about waterboarding as torture -- without taking the bait and using the question to attack players in the previous administration for their excesses in prisoner abuse.

But he could also be teasing and playful as when a New York Times reporter asked him what he was most "surprised, troubled, enchanted and humbled" by in his first 100 days. By the time the questioner got to "enchanted," Obama was reaching in his suit coat pocket for a pen saying, "Wait, let me write this down." He made great theater out of getting all of the long question on paper -- especially the word "enchanted."

But then, Obama went on and gave thoughtful and eloquent answers to each of the four parts of the question.

As impressive as Obama was in that exchange, his best moment came in explaining to a questioner how Britain's Winston Churchill refused to allow the torture of Nazi prisoners during World War II even during the darkest hours of The Blitz when Britain was under a withering German air attack night after night.

Obama quoted Churchill as saying he would not allow torture because he feared behaving in such a manner would "corrode the character of the nation" -- in other words, the British people would be the ultimate victims of torturing their enemies. It was an inspired historical point of comparison that allowed the president to show how incredibly short-sighted and even ignorant George W. Bush and Richard Cheney were in their policies of torture without having to mention either man's name Wednesday night.

Outside of the Fox broadcast network, the cable channels and nets all had special programs planned for Wednesday in which analysts would assess Obama's performance in office for the first 100 days.

But the president stole their thunder with his press conference performance. It was as good or better than Ronald Reagan on his very best TV night. And outside of a few disingenuous remarks from Obama alleging that he does "not want to grow government," there was far more substance, coherence and sense of history to the president's performance than Reagan could ever imagine.

(Above: Associated Press photo of the president's press conference by Gerald Herbert)

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (49)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

Move over, Kate Gosselin, a bigger hot dog than you is coming to The Learning Channel Thursday night when Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin appears on American Chopper.

Is this a marriage made in reality TV heaven or what?

Thursday's episode featues Paul Teutul Sr., the father of the chopper building clan that stars in this series, journeying to Alaska to do research on a special bike that he and his posse are building to honor the 50th anniversary of the state.

And, of course, who better to be his new  best biker mama friend than that moose hunting sharpshooter, who blew up any chance the Republicans had to make it to the White House last fall with her divisive rhetoric and disastrous TV interviews. 

American Chooper airs at 9 Thursday night on TLC. Click on the jump for a clip of the show.

Posted by David Zurawik at 6:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (88)
Categories: Reality TV, TV and Politics
        

In years past, TV news has been criticized for not paying enough attention to the nation's national political life. But that has not been the case since Barack Obama came on the national scene as a candidate, and tonight will be no exception as the major cable channels and networks (except Fox and CW) cover the president's conference and offer their own specials on Obama's first 100 days in office.

Which network or channel will you be watching to see and hear Obama? Or, will you spend your night with Fox starting with the crime drama Lie to Me at 8 followed by American Idol at 9?

Or maybe, you will split the difference -- watching the president's press conference at 8 and then go to Fox for Idol at 9?

As was the case in primary and caucus nights, CNN is the channel that will be offering the most coverage of politics starting at 7 p.m. with Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, John King and Soledad O’Brien hosting an interactive program aimed at having TV viewers and online users grade Obama's first 100 days themselves. CNN is urging viewers to watch on TV with their computers at hand to join in rating the president's performance.

CNN also promises its "Magic Wall" technology will on display as it charts the president’s first 100 days at-a-glance with an electronic calendar.

As troubled as I was at first about Fox deciding to go its own way and ignore the president's press conference, I cannot wait to see how we, the people, respond tonight. It would be hard to imagine a time when there would be more interest in what the president has to say about trying to lead the nation out of the mess in which we are now mired.

Will we be able to put down our fun and games long enough to listen? Or, is that an unfair question?

Can we have it both ways with the technology available -- watching our entertainment shows on Fox, and then catching up on the news online or by watching a channel like CNN that is dedicated to news and information first?

A story on ABC's Web site quotes an unnamed source saying Fox could lose $2 to $3 million by carrying the press conference, but the report offers no confirmation for those figures, and they seem greatly overstated. In fact, it is ridiculous to be using an unnamed source to make such a claim. If you can't get it in the record, don't use it, because you are probably being used by the person providing that figure. ABC News should have higher standards for its online efforts.

Furthermore, while Wednesday is in the May sweeps ratings period, the networks have not been getting top advertising dollars for their prime time shows this month -- making the May sweeps issue essentially moot.

Believe me, no one is lining up to pay top dollar for Lie to Me, so Fox could have carried the press conference at 8 p.m., and still made a fortune off Idol at 9.

Here's a link to the story at abcnews.go.com -- for what it is worth:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/IndustryInfo/story?id=7451512&page=1

(Above: Associated Press photo of President Barack Obama Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden by Charles Dharapak)

Posted by David Zurawik at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

Does anyone on cable TV cover real breaking news like CNN?

Tuesday when Senator Arlen Specter dropped the bomb that he was switching to the Democratic side of the aisle, CNN was all over it. From Dana Bash (left) reporting the story on Capitol Hill to a team of reporters gathering instant reaction around Washington, while Ed Henry and Bill Schneider offered on-the-run political analysis, this is the way a major story should be covered.

A note to some of my colleagues: Let's stop blindly celebrating the ratings successes of the cymbal-clanging chimpanzees named Olbermann, Maddow, Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly on MSNBC and Fox, and pay some attention to the last real journalism being done on cable TV by the folks at CNN. They did some fast, sound and fine work again on a huge political story -- delivering the journalistic goods once again so that the sit-on-their-butt partisans on Fox and MSNBC will have something to actually talk about Tuesday night.

For the record, BloombergTV was first with the news of Specter's move at 11:57 a.m., but Bash was "first with the 'seismic' news on CNN at 12:02 p.m.," according to TV Newser.

CNN instantly went into high gear and took control of the story.

Posted by David Zurawik at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: CNN, Cable and Network News, Fox News, MSNBC, TV and Politics
        

Media folk are tripping over each other these days to tell their audiences how cool they think Twitter is and how deeply they are into Twitter culture.

Maybe so. But here's a fascinating fact from a new Nielsen survey: Three out of every five users who sign up for Twitter drop out by the second month. That is only a 40 percent retention rate -- much lower than that for Facebook and MySpace.

It makes you wonder how satisfying users are really finding Twitter. Or, maybe the question is: How short are the attention spans of some of these users?

Here's a link to the Nielsen study along with a nice graphic of the steep decline in second-month use:

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/twitter-quitters-post-roadblock-to-long-term-growth

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)
Categories: New media
        

Tuesday's ruling grows out of an appeal by the major networks challenging the FCC's authority for imposing fines for one-time utterances of profanity -- often referred to as "feeling expletive."

"It suffices the new policy is permissible under the statute, there are good reasons for it..." Justice Antonin Scalia said, writing for the conservative majority responsible for the 5-4 ruling Tuesday. 

The court declined to decide whether the FCC policy violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. That's a major distinction.  The justices Tuesday called for the free-speech aspect to be reviewed again by a federal appeals court. But, of course, the free speech of the broadcasters will already be altered by the ruling.

ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are the four networks involved in the case. A federal appeals court had previously ruled in favor of their appeal of the FCC policy, labeling the FCC's policy "arbitrary and capricious."

The FCC then took the case to the Supreme Court, seeking to reclaim what it saw as its inherent ability to fine the networks airing "indecent" speech, even if an "indecent" word is broadcast only one time.

Fines leveled in the wake of utterances by Bono, Cher and Nicole Richie at televised awards shows in 2002 and 2003, as well as dialogue in the defunct ABC cop drama, NYPD Blue, led to the controversy.

(AFP/Getty Images file photo of the Supreme Court building in Washington by Shawn Thew)

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

As our TV and computer screens fill with more and more images of people wearing masks and commentators looking gravely concerned, it is not too soon to start asking what kind of job the media are doing of covering the swine flu story. Are they responsibly alerting people to dangers and precautions that can be taken, or are they unduly alarming the audience?

Monday night at 10 right after 24, a series that has told its own share of stories about biological warfare and threatened pandemics, area viewers of WBFF's newscast were told that the disease has not yet spread to Maryland, "but experts say it is coming." Viewers were further told that every day "there is more and more to fear" in connection with the spread of the disease.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the CNN and CBS medical correspondent, was reporting from outside a hospital in Mexico City using such terms as "ground zero" and "chaos" to describe the situation.

Tuesday morning, on NBC's top-rated Today show, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, the show's health expert, was reporting "a couple of unconfirmed cases in New Jersey."

It is too early to render an overall judgment on coverage, but I wonder how readers of this blog are reacting to what they are seeing on their TV and computer screens.

I can't imagine why Snyderman and Today were reporting unconfirmed cases. That seems to me one of the worst things a journalistic enterprise -- and Today is produced by NBC News -- should be doing. Wait for confirmation when reporting such data.

But Snyderman did close her segment by saying viewers should be "concerned...but not afraid." That seems like an excellent tone to take as of Tuesday morning.

Even though Gupta is primarily known as the lead medical correspondent on CNN, he also works for CBS News, and I saw him Monday night on The CBS News with Katie Couric standing in front of a Mexico City hospital. He had his own mask -- down about his throat. Overly dramatic? Maybe.

I hated Gupta describing his location as "sort of ground zero" and reporting what he described as a lack of basic supplies for medical workers at the Mexican hospital as "sort of the chaos here," but he was the reporter on the ground. I just wish the language he used would have been prudent and less sensational.

In terms of his work on CNN, you have to realize CNN is the only cable channel with a global mission that it takes seriously. Unlike Fox or MSNBC, CNN matters in Mexico and elsewhere in the world on a story like this, and the channel should be sending its top medical reporters to the source of the story and putting them on in prime time. On the other hand, they should not overstate and hot dog the story. Gupta is the only correspondent I saw wearing a medical mask -- though I suspect there were others.

As for WBFF, reporting that experts believe the disease will hit Maryland and Baltimore is exactly what the station should be telling viewers -- assuming that is what experts have told reporters at WBFF. As to saying there is "more and more to fear," I think all the stations need to be cautious about such generalizations and the use of language that could generate fear.

These were scary enough times without the threat of a flu pandemic. The media can make a huge difference in how citizens react to such challenging times. Let's hope for a media on their best behavior during this health crisis.

(Above: Associated Press photo of commuters riding the Mexico City subway by Rodrigo Abd)

Posted by David Zurawik at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Cable and Network News
        

What in the world ever happened to Heroes? Where did its TV magic and cultural mojo go?

As  I watched a screener of Monday night's season finale, I couldn't help but think back two years ago at this time when Heroes was the absolute buzz of the TV world. It seemed like I was writing a different trend story every week with Heroes at the center of it. Heroes as the new model for network drama with all its digital platforms. Heroes driving all the other networks to embrace serialized storytelling. Heroes finale viewing parties being set up on campuses from College Park to UCLA. Hiro (Masi Oka) as a template for the new global TV hero.

Not much of that this year, is there. Can you hear the fizzle?

Out of respect for long-time viewers, I will not offer up spoilers on Monday night's finale. Believe me, it's not worth it. The plot turns are not that exciting.

But I do need to say this. As much as I loathe the way the producers of 24 have cheapened their once-great show this season by having Tony Almeida go from bad agent to good and back again whenever they can't think of a legitimate way to shock the viewer, so does creator Tim Kring overwork the concept of shape shifting in the finale. Ten minutes into the finale, you want to scream, "Enough already with the shifting. Write one scene that requires real TV storytelling talent -- not a comic book trick done over and over and over again. You are better than this. I know, because I remember back to a time when this series soared."

Speaking of two years ago again, by the way, another big story on this beat was the showdown between 24 and Heroes and the seeming madness of NBC and Fox to pit two such culturally-charged ratings winners against each other.

Not much of that this year either, is there? Last month, the season finale of The Learning Channels' Jon & Kate Plus 8, an inexpensive, basic cable reality TV show about a bickering couple with a lot of kids, drew more young female viewers (18 to 34 years of age) than either of these network series.

I think the biggest loss I felt in watching Monday's finale involved the way in which Heroes no longer felt epic. During the first season, I had moments watching Heroes that made me feel like I was 13 year old and reading The Iliad for the first time. After seeing the pilot, I found myself talking a lot about Star Wars. Heroes sent out those kind of mythic vibes.

This year, in the finale, Hiro gets a nosebleed. I hope telling you that doesn't constitute a spoiler. In any case, it made me think more of a soap opera than The Odyssey -- kind of like Jack Bauer's health issues over on 24.

(Above: NBC photo of Masi Oka as Hiro by Trae Patton)

Posted by David Zurawik at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: TV Review
        

So many ways to see more TV, but so few new shows worth seeing.

That's what I was thinking this weekend when NBC and MTV announced a "groundbreaking" and "innovative" partnership starting June 1.

Here's the plan: On weeknights during the summer, NBC will air episodes of the reality TV show I'm a Celebrity... Get me Out of Here. Then on weekends, MTV will air a marathon of those episodes along with interviews with the stars and outtakes from the show. 

Good idea in terms of distribution. MTV gets inexpensive weekend programming, and NBC gets its programs introduced to a younger audience.

Except what are they getting to see? Get Me Out of Here is a collection of D-level celebrities in a Survivor-like setting. This is the show that planned to feature former disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich until a judge refused to let Blagojevich leave the country until the 19 corruption counts against him are resolved.  

Here's the cast without Blagojevich: Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt (of MTV's The Hills), former NBA player John Salley, model and TV show host Janice Dickinson (The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency), 2007 American Idol contestant Sanjaya Malakar, actor Stephen Baldwin and professional wrestler Torrie Wilson. 

Sometimes more is not necessarily better. It's just TV programmers trying to make nothing look like something "groundbreaking" on two channels instead of one.

(Above: NBC Photo of Sanjaya Malakar by Chris Haston)

Posted by David Zurawik at 1:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Coming Soon to TV
        

For the most part, audiences continued tuning out network programming as the May sweeps started this week with one of the poorest opening nights in years.

Network programming was down across the board year to year, and both veteran and rookie series drew their smallest audiences ever.

ABC's Grey's Anatomy won the night, but with the lowest ratings for an episode in the series' history. NBC's widely-publicized new cop drama, Southland, continued its slide, while CBS's Survivor scored its lowest numbers ever for an original episode.

A bad month of May is going to mean worse months of June, July, August and September for the networks -- and there is simply nothing on the programming horizon for May to alter that equation.

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Network TV, Ratings
        

One of the founding goals of this blog last September was to chart the point on the media landscape where TV and politics meet. Monday night, one of the people who knows that territory as well as anyone in the country will be in Baltimore to speak at Goucher College, and I will be there. The event is free and open to the public.

David Plouffe, President Barack Obama's chief campaign manager, will be appearing as part of Goucher President Sandy Ungar's speakers forum. The title of his speech: "The Obama Phenomenon: What's Next?"

Plouffe will also be taking questions from the audience, and what a great chance to ask one of the key campaign architects about the use of new and old media by Team Obama -- including its effort this week to shape perception of the president's first 100 days in office.

I have written here extensively about Obama as the last great TV president, a bookend to John Kennedy in that respect, and I am interested in seeing what Plouffe thinks makes Obama so effective on screens -- both old and new, big and small.

Plouffe's event begins at 8 p.m. Monday in Kraushaar Auditorium. It is free and open to members of the Goucher community and the larger public, but you must reserve tickets by calling 410-337-6333 or e-mailing boxoffice@goucher.edu.

Full disclosure: I teach part-time at Goucher. 

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

From the deepest jungles of Pasadena, comes Heidi Montag, Spencer Pratt and Rod Blogojevich.

As part of a promotional shoot for Get me Out of Here...I'm a Celebrity, Montag and Pratt, who will be part of the show's cast this summer, posed with Blogojevich who won't.

The former governor of Illinois was denied permission to leave the states to film in the jungles of Costa Rica this summer, so the clever folks at NBC invited him out to Pasadena for a press event Friday and posed him in the wilds of that most upscale California community.

Click to see more of the intrepid crew

Posted by David Zurawik at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Reality TV
        

The Open Society Institute of Baltimore is launching a yearlong dicussion about race in America, and TV is at the heart of that conversation in two upcoming events.

Tuesday, the series offers a showing of the HBO documentary The Black List: Volume Two, and a question and answer session afterward with the filmmakers, photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and former New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell.

The Black List is a series of interviews featuring persons of color talking about their lives, careers, achievements and challenges. The mix ranges from filmmaker Tyler Perry to physician Valerie Montgomery-Rice. The screening starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Brown Center at the Maryland Institute College of Art at 1300 Mount Royal Ave. in Baltimore.

On June 4th, the series continues with a conversation featuring TV journalist Gwen Ifill of the PBS public affairs shows, Washington Week and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and Baltimore civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn A. Ifill.

The event starts at 7 p.m. and will be held in the Wheeler Auditorium of the Enoch Pratt Free Library at 400 Cathedral St. in Baltimore.
 

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: TV and race
        

There is still no word yet from NBC on what led Jay Leno to check himself into a hospital Thursday and cancel tapings of his Tonight Show for Thursday and Friday.

NBC has put out statements suggesting it is a minor matter, saying that Leno will be back at the Tonight Show desk Monday night, the eve of his 59th birthday.

The network has a lot riding on the veteran performer. He is leaving his long-time late night job to take over a prime-time talk show airing weeknights at 10 p.m.

Prior to Thursday, Leno had never missed a taping.

(Right: NBC Photo of Jay Leno)

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Talk Shows
        

Stephen Baldwin has quite a career going these days. Unfortunately, it is as a D-level reality TV star rather than an actor.

Baldwin is expected today to officially be announced as the replacement for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich on the reality TV show Get me Out of Here...I'm a Celebrity to be taped this summer in Costa Rica.

Blagojevich, who is indicted on 19 counts of corruption from his time in office, was this week denied permission by the court hearing the case to travel to Costa Rica. The disgraced Illinois politician still might have a role with the show, however, and is expected Friday at a promotional event for the series in Pasadena, according to the trade publication TV Week.

Baldwin's resume also includes apperances on NBC's The Celebrity Apprentice last season and ABC's Celebrity Mole in 2002 and 2004.

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: NBC, Reality TV, TV and Politics
        

In case you have noticed, the economic misery is hitting everyone in the media -- commercial and public broadcasters, local and network operations, cable and Internet.

The latest victims are at WHYY TV and radio in Philadelphia where 16 full-time employees were laid off Thursday, after months of reassurance that the stations were in sound fiscal shape and no such actions were imminent, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. WHYY radio is the home of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

The layoffs were necessary to "keep our fiscal house in order," WHYY president and CEO William J. Marrazzo wrote in an e-mail to the staff that was cited by the Inquirer.

While some might think public TV and radio would be less vulnerable to an economic downturn, when things get as bad as they are now, everyone suffers -- nonprofits included. Many underwriters are the same people who advertise on commercial stations. And the core underwriters. like academic and medical institutions, also cut back as they try to keep their own institutions economically viable.

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Radio
        

President Barack Obama wants some more prime-time real estate from the networks Wednesday night, and he doesn't care if it is May Sweeps. Wednesday marks the end of his first 100 days in office, and he's not going to let the TV pundits have the field all to themselves in judging his performance.

The White House Thursday announced an 8 p.m. press conference for Wednesday, and it would be a surprise if the networks and major cable channels did not cover it in some fashion. So far, none has made their plans known, but how could ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or Fox News not be there no matter how much it might cost the networks in May sweeps ad dollars. (Sweeps are the months in which audiences are measured and used to set future advertising rates.).

Obama, whose skillful use of the medium led me to describe him as having the potential to be the last great TV president, has not been shy about asking for airtime so that he could use it to try and end run the news divisions of the networks and cable channels in taking his case directly to the people. Here he comes again -- gangway.

Posted by David Zurawik at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Cable and Network News, TV and Politics
        

Last week in writing about the tight ratings race on Sunday mornings, I used the term "hard-charging" to describe George Stephanopoulos and his ABC show This Week. The charge continues this week with the one-time senior aide to Bill Clinton scoring an interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Stephanopoulos raced off to Tehran when the call came through that Ahmadinejad would be willing to talk -- showing exactly the kind of hustle I believe the healthy competition among the top Sunday morning public affairs shows is generating.

Stephanopoulos also delivered an engaging blog post about the interview and his trip. I wonder how the other Sunday shows will compete with this. This is one ratings race that so far, at least, seems good for journalism.

Stephanopolous says Sunday's interview  "includes some spirited exchanges, as you might imagine, on nuclear talks, the Holocaust, and who's really to blame for the breakdown in U.S. - Iran relations."

Here's a bite from the blog:

The president --who's facing his own re-election challenge on June 12 --seems of two minds. He's both caught between his desire for a new relationship with the United States, and his determination not to back down on any issue of importance.

We, of course, also talked about imprisoned American journalist Roxana Saberi. I asked the president, as a goodwill gesture, if he would accept President Obama's word that she's not a spy, and also asked to go see her myself. Fine with him, he said, but it's not his decision. "Let's see if our judiciary allows for that, sure. But if they do not allow for that,  no. I am afraid not," Ahmadinejad told me.

He sent me to the judiciary department. We made the request by phone right away and even went to the offices to make the request in person but we couldn't get beyond the gates. Instead, I drove out to northern Tehran to Roxana's apartment, where her father, Reza Saberi, a philosopher, poet and professor, and mother, Akiko Saberi, a pathologist from Japan, have been staying since Roxana's arrest in February.

(Above: Associated Press photo of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by Salvatore Di Nolfi)

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: ABC, Cable and Network News, TV and Politics
        

Last Sunday, I wrote about the producers of American Idol trying to use the judges to generate some ratings energy down the home stretch of a less than inspired season. The high visibility of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul in newspaper and network interviews this week talking about their contracts makes me all the more certain the producers are worried about the ratings.

And why shouldn't they be? On Tuesday, Idol won the night. But it did so with its smallest Tuesday night audience in almost seven years. With 23.2 million viewers, Tuesday's telecast was down 6 percent from the previous week -- and down 12 percent from its comparable night last year. It was the lowest-rated Tuesday performance telecast since August 2002.

And why shouldn't ratings be down with telecasts like the one we saw Wednesday? Out of respect to the 1970s and the classic song, Band of Gold, I am not going to characterize Freda Payne's performance, but I literally had to leave the room I was so embarrassed for her. But it was only a prelude to Harry Wayne Casey, aka KC of KC and the Sunshine Band, stumbling through Get Down Tonight.

"Do a little dance," as the lyrics say, was more than Casey could manage. He looked like a guy dressing up on Halloween and thinking he looked like Tony Soprano. He moved like someone who had both knees broken by Tony's boys.

I know it was disco night, but couldn't the producers have gotten two performers from the era who were still breathing rather than him and Payne? And I am not even going to discuss Thelma Houston begging Simon to satisfy "that desire within" her as she "sang" her number.

Seriously, there is a fine line between us finding genuine joy in seeing new talent rewarded, and feeling like the TV hucksters are exploiting us with such cheap, third-rate talent as Payne and Casey so they can up the already huge margin of profit they make on the show.

The producers of Idol are pushing it these days with the sudden contract issues involving Cowell and Abdul and wretched telecasts like the one they offered Wednesday. Up until Wednesday night, I believed the ratings would bounce back at least to last year's levels as we got near the end of the season. Now, I'm thinking maybe not --ever.

(Above: Fox photo of Anoop Desai and Lil Rounds by Ray Mickshaw)

Posted by David Zurawik at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Reality TV
        

MSNBC show host Rachel Maddow has suffered some steep audience erosion in recent months, down more than 40 percent in viewership from her peak last fall during the election.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Maddow's audience has gone from a high of 1.9 million viewers in the fall to just over 1.1 million in March. That's a big drop.

Readers of this blog know I am just as troubled by Maddow's brand of ideologically driven partisan propaganda as I am by that of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity on Fox. Maddow was at her worst last week, falsely minimizing the tea parties held across the country as "the fizzle in the drizzle" and mocking the participants.

You could hardly have a better example as to how an ideologue distorts an event or facts to fit her or his worldview -- the opposite of journalism. 

Maddow was not much better than Hannity, whom I criticized here, for his rabble-rousing on behalf of the tea-bag protesters in Atlanta, whom he was supposed to be covering.

"I think Rachel is a rock star," Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC, told the Times.

That's one of the problems with MSNBC: It's looking for "rock stars" instead of journalists or analysts to host its shows. If a rock star's CD sales dropped by 44 percent, believe me, the record company would be worried.

(Above: MSNBC Photo of Rachel Maddow by Ali Goldstein)

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (126)
Categories: Cable and Network News
        

Trouble the Water, an Oscar-nominated 2008 documentary that tells the story of Hurricane Katrina from within the eye of the storm, has been shown at festivals and in theaters during the last year. But it gets its TV premiere Thursday night at 8:30 on HBO, and it will likely reach more viewers in one night on the premium pay channel than it did in all previous festival and theatrical showings.

And that's a good thing, because this is a great story told with passion not just about an epic storm, but about a country and a government that didn't have hardly any compassion for many of its victims.

It's inevitable that any documentary about Katrina is going to be compared to Spike Lee's towering 2005 film, When the Levees Broke, so let me quickly say Trouble the Waters does not have its elegiac lyricism or sense of poetry that Lee's does. But it does have something that Lee's film doesn't have -- eyewitness, home-movie footage of the storm arriving and a family fighting for its life -- and that is what makes the film such a special social document.

The home movie footage -- shot by an aspiring rap artist, Kimberly Rivers Roberts, who lived with her husband, Scott, in the lower ninth ward -- is astonishing. Shot the days before, during and immediately after the storm hit, it takes up only about 15 minutes of the overall documentary directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. But it includes images you will never forget.

Capturing a story like this from such a central vantage point is the ideal of citizen journalism. Lessin and Deal then contextualize it in such a way as to make it citizen-history.

Either way, it is gut grabbing stuff.

Watching Roberts, her husband, and others sitting among the rafters in the attic of their home as the waters rise is harrowing. Listening to their matter-of-fact discussion of life-and-death issues is amazing.

"What are we going to do about the dogs?" one of them asks of their two dogs up there is the attic with them.

The other says the dogs' deaths seem inevitable.

Roberts is an indomitable spirit, and that is what ultimately carries and uplifts the film. But be prepared to be angry all over again about George W. Bush and his friend, former FEMA director Michael ("Good job, Brownie") Brown, and all the public trust that was betrayed in the wake of that horrible storm.

(Above: A Zeitgeist Films photo of Kim Rivers Roberts and Scott Roberts)

Posted by David Zurawik at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Documentaries
        

Lifetime Television announced that Project Runway will make its debut on the cable channel at 10 p.m. Aug. 20, followed by a companion series, Models of the Runway, that will take viewers backstage at the reality TV series.

Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn and judges Michael Kors (fashion designer) and Nina Garcia (fashion director of Marie Claire magazine), will guide 16 contestants as they demonstrate their design skills this season.

Models of the Runway will air at 11 p.m. beginning Aug. 20, following Project Runway. According to Lifetime: "Each 30-minute episode will give fans a behind-the-scenes look at the reality competition – from the models’ perspective."

(Above: Associated Press photo of Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum at last year's finale by Richard Drew)

Posted by David Zurawik at 1:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Coming Soon to TV, Reality TV
        

It looks like disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is going to have another dubious distinction on his resume: the shortest reality TV show career in history.

A federal judge in Chicago Tuesday denied Blagojevich, who faces 19 corruption counts from his time in office, permission to go to Costa Rica to film segments of I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here at $800,000 an episode.

"I don't think this defendant in all honesty ... fully understands the position he finds himself in," the Chicago Sun-Times reported U.S. District Judge James Zagel saying as he made the ruling. 

"I have to do it for my kids," Blagojevich said before his court hearing, explaining to reporters why he needs the money from the NBC reality show that features D-list celebrities in a Survivor-like setting.

(Left: Chicago Tribune photo of Blagojevich being swarmed by reporters last week by Antonio Perez)

Posted by David Zurawik at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: NBC, Reality TV
        

Several readers have written in recent days about announced changes in the analog and expanded HD reception of Maryland Public Television via Comcast cable.

The most recent comes from Molly Glassman who wrote: "...We're very upset that Comcast has moved MPT to a digital station that we can't get on our analog TV. We thought as long as we had cable, we wouldn't have to get a converter box...."

Comcast is providing converter boxes, and it looks like there is no way around getting one if you want to see MPT on Comcast in the future in the greater Washington area that includes suburban Maryland. Several readers have said they feel this sort of move is part of a larger attempt by the TV industry to force everyone to upgrade to HD TV. I don't think that is the case. Every business in America wants consumers to upgrade to a more expensive product. But in this case, broadcasters, at least, don't have much choice given that the government has forced the digital conversion. And digital does not necessarily mean HD TV.

Furthermore, MPT is not a commercial broadcaster. It's nonprofit. And, overall, it looks like an expansion of MPT programming in terms of HD and the Washington area to me. And that would be a good thing, wouldn't it?

Here is the press release on the change from MPT dated April 14. It includes quotes from both MPT and Comcast and tells you how to get a converter box from Comcast. Has this affected your viewing for better or worse?

Beginning today, Comcast will offer additional Maryland Public Television (MPT) programming and High-Definition (HD) PBS programming to its digital cable customers in Greater Washington, D.C., which includes the District of Columbia, suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia.

By opting to deliver PBS programming digitally, MPT and Comcast are able to provide digital customers with MPT in HD, MPT-2 and a Spanish language network from MPT called V-me. Analog customers will need a digital box from Comcast in order to receive the new channels and to continue receiving MPT.

Comcast will provide a free digital box for at least 12 months for any customer who does not currently have one. Customers can call 1-800-COMCAST to learn more and can pick up a box at a local service center or have one shipped directly to their homes...

“This is an important day for Comcast subscribers in the Capitol region,” said MPT President & CEO Robert J. Shuman. “Working together with MPT, Comcast is providing an expanded menu of public television to this area—including MPT-HD; our new digital channel, MPT-2; and V-me, the all-Spanish public television service. We like to say that MPT is television worth watching. Thanks to Comcast, more viewers in this area will find out why.”

“We are proud to partner with MPT to deliver its dynamic programming in HD and to provide our customers more quality PBS viewing choices with the launch of V-me and MPT-2,” said Michael Ortman, vice president of programming for Comcast Cable’s Eastern Division. “In addition, we are pleased to announce that through a national partnership, national PBS programming in HD is now available to local residents through our signature ON DEMAND service, allowing local digital cable customers to watch more PBS programming whenever and however is most convenient for their schedules.”

Throughout Greater Washington, D.C. viewers can watch MPT in HD on Channel 219. MPT-2 will be available on Channel 268 and V-me, MPT’s 24-hour Spanish-language network will be available on Channel 269.

Here is a link to the press release at MPT:

http://www.mpt.org/pressroom/pr/prdisplay.cfm?pruid=09041402

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (28)
Categories: Baltimore Television
        

There will be spoilers, so if you have not yet seen Monday night's 24 stop reading.

But, I have to say, there isn't much left in 24 to spoil, is there?

If you are still watching 24 regularly, you might also want to stop reading, because what I am going to say is not going to make you happy. And while I do not want to upset the very nice fans of 24 who commented here last week on my coverage of the WBFF "technical difficulties," I have to ask sincerely: Why are you still watching this show? Isn't your intelligence insulted by what it has become and the way it tries to exploit your feelings?

I vowed I would write this denunciation Monday night at 9:58:17 when Jack Bauer was ludicrously flopping around on the ground in the throes of a supposed seizure. My one thought: "Kiefer Sutherland, you used to be a pretty good actor. Aren't you ashamed of yourself doing this kind of hambone junk? Money really does corrupt, doesn't it?"

I am no longer talking about 24 losing its cultural mojo as society changed and moved away from terrorists as the bogey men of the American night. That happened last year, and was the point of the Sunday Z on TV column I wrote ripping the prequel to this season.

But since the ridiculous story line last year with Bauer's brother and father being the bad guys, this show has become an embarrassment. I tuned back in last week and Monday because friends and readers, who I consider to be smart people and savvy TV consumers, told me they are still regular viewers of 24.

So, I do not want to disrespect you, but tell me why. Educate me. Because all I saw the last two weeks was a once great show reduced beyond a shadow of itself to a parody.

This show should have been put out of its misery before last year's Jack's-family-is-evil story line. That narrative was merely pathetic.

The Jack-is-dying-and-only-his-daughter-can-save-him story line is debasing. Watching Sutherland mimic the sudden waves of pain, the need for an injection, the loss of memory and tendency to repeat himself Monday gave me new respect for the actors on daytime soap operas. Their performances in many ways are far more honest than Sutherland's.

And it was all building Monday night to the great Jack-flopping-on-the-ground scene -- a victim of Tony Almeida, who has flipped and counter-flipped only 2,000 times. And through all those flips, Carlos Bernard has not learned to act a lick or change his facial expression from that of a scowl.

So, please, please, please, tell me why you are still watching. All I see is a great series gone bad.

(Above: Fox photo of Christina Chang as Dr. Macer and Kiefer Sutherland as Jack Bauer by Kelsey McNeal)

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (72)
Categories: Scripted Series
        

I would love to know the real story on this one, but no TV organization is as secretive as Oprah Winfrey's.

Maybe she just wanted to remind her staff who runs the daily TV show, but Monday Winfrey did something that is almost never done on daily talk show television: She pulled the plug on an episode of her show on the same day that it was supposed to air.

The episode was supposed to be a 10-year remembrance of the school shooting at Columbine High School, but after viewing the episode, Winfrey thought it focused too much on the two killers and canceled it on the spot. Instead, Monday's show will feature a woman who tries to rebuild her life after being released from prison. Lisa Ling reported the substitute piece.

Here is how AP reported the Oprah story Monday:

Oprah Winfrey has canceled an episode of her talk show that was to mark the 10th anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre, saying it focused too much on the killers.

The episode titled “10 Years Later: The Truth about Columbine” was to air Monday, the anniversary of the massacre in Littleton, Colo., that killed 12 students and a teacher.

Winfrey posted a message Monday morning on her Facebook page, saying that after she reviewed the taped show she decided to pull it because of its focus on the two gunmen.

She urged viewers to keep the Columbine community in their thoughts. 
Winfrey said she would air a program about a mother released from prison in place of the Columbine piece. Her company Harpo Productions confirmed the announcement.

 

Posted by David Zurawik at 1:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Talk Shows
        

There is more local news on TV than ever before. And while that should be good news for viewers, it's not so terrific for people working in the industry as 1,200 jobs were lost last year and salaries declined by 4.4 percent in 2008.

Half of all the TV stations in America made a profit with their newscasts, and as the economy tightened, managers expanded the airtime for local TV news.

Those are among the findings of the 2009 Radio-Television News Directors Association/Hofstra University annual study released Sunday at the group's convention.

"It's clear that stations are banking on local news to carry them into the future," Bob Papper, director of the survey and professor and chair of the department of journalism at Hofstra University said in a release. "Television is clearly suffering from the same stress as the entire economy, but stations are by no means giving up on local news."

Here is the rest of the release:

Papper said he expects jobs and salaries to continue to decline in 2009, but looks for improvement in 2010.

Among the survey highlights:

Television news shed 1,200 jobs in 2008. The 4.3 percent decline was greater than the 3.8 percent drop in overall U.S. employment. U.S. newspapers reported cutting newsroom staff by 5,900 jobs or 11.3 percent in 2008.

Almost four times as many stations reported cutting jobs as adding jobs. Hardest hit by salary cuts were news reporters (-13.3 percent), news anchors (-11.5), weather casters (-9.1) and sports anchors (-8.9).

The typical station added a half-hour of local news per weekday in 2008, setting a new record for the amount of news -- 4.6 hours per weekday. Weekends stayed the same.

The number of stations running news in 2008 dropped from 774 to 770. So far in 2009, three stations have stopped originating news, but three stations have started or announced plans to start local news, keeping the total at 770.

Of the four stations that stopped originating news in 2008, two are running news from another station. In 2009, two of the three stations that stopped originating news are running news from another station.

Radio staffing stayed the same with the same percentage reporting cuts as those reporting hires, typically of one person. Radio salaries declined 1.8 percent and the amount of news dropped slightly.

(Sun file photo of WBFF's newscast studio by Kim Hairston)

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Local TV News
        

I started out looking for a story about a Sunday-morning, public affairs ratings race between NBC's longtime leader, Meet The Press, and ABC's hard-charging This Week with George Stephanopoulos. And there is a good ratings battle going on.

But after several weeks of digging into the Sunday morning lineup, I stumbled on what I believe is a larger insight: We are living in a golden age of some exceptionally fine Sunday morning, public affairs, TV programs. And, as much as some critics say an emphasis on ratings often comes at the expense of good journalism, I think this ratings competition is making each of the two top programs better. That and new competition since the start of the year from John King with State of the Union Sundays on CNN.

"When they're going my way, I don't mind talking about ratings at all, " Stephanopoulos said jokingly last week when the subject of Nielsen numbers was raised during a telephone interview.

"But here's why they're important and why I'm not apologetic about paying attention to them: Because what we do, I think, does matter," he added. "And to the extent that it's easier to do that because we see that there's an audience for this kind of journalism, for this kind of serious approach to the issues, is incredibly gratifying. And it makes me optimistic not only about the show, but the future of this niche of journalism."

Betsy Fischer, the executive producer of Meet The Press, said she doesn't mind talking about ratings either: "Ratings are the measurement we're kind of stuck with. So, I accept that. But I don't see them as the be all and end all of public affairs television."

For the record, here is what's happening in the ratings battle between the two: As of April 5, This Week narrowed the gap until there was only about a 200,000 viewer difference -- 3.34 million for Meet the Press to 3.14 million for This Week. The ABC News show has cut the gap by 480,000 viewers in the last year. That's a 12 percent gain year to year vs. a 4 percent decline for NBC's Meet the Press.

On April 12, though, the see-saw went the other way with This Week falling 360,000 viewers behind Meet The Press. While that's a relatively narrow lead and reflects a strong surge by This Week, understand that no one -- even the folks at ABC News -- is predicting that This Week is going to unseat Meet The Press as the top dog on Sunday mornings -- a post it has held for a remarkable 61 straight quarters.

But there is a much more exciting Sunday morning vista to be seen when you look at that two-horse race within the context of all the major programs. King, for example, has brought a hard-nosed toughness and energy to CNN, particularly with his commitment to getting out of Washington and into the country each week. With four hours, he's getting the first and last words -- and the pace of the show never lets it feel long.

Last week, I was critical of NBC's David Gregory for what I saw as a lack of energy and passion on Meet the Press on April 12. That could be a fatal flaw given that energy and passion were two of the hallmarks of the late Tim Russert.

But Gregory bounced back last Sunday practically coming out of his seat as he pressed Lawrence Summers, White House Economic Council director, on what the administration was going to do for the people on Main Street now that it has bailed out Wall Street with billions upon billions. And Gregory got some news for his efforts: Summers saying the president was going to back efforts to stop banks from gouging their credit card customers.

Speaking only for his own show, Stephanopoulos explained its intensity and sense of engagement in part as a reaction to the extraordinary times in which the nation now finds itself.

"I think it's the combination of a historic campaign and a brand-new president for starters," he said. "Transitions are always exciting, but here it's expecially exciting because of the barriers that have been broken. And then, on top of that, there's the scale of the challenges that the new administration and the Congress are addressing. We just haven't seen anything like this in our lifetime."

How could serious journalists not try to perform at the top of their games when faced with covering the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression and two wars with American soldiers still in harm's way, Stephanopoulos suggests.

"The combination of a once in a century -- at the worst, half-century -- economic crisis combined with two wars where American troops are engaged on the groud -- one unwinding, we hope, while one intensifies -- is something we haven't seen. ... Even Roosevelt when he came in to confront the Depression didn't have to deal with two wars."

I haven't mentioned Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation and Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday but both hosts and their shows are must-viewing for me every week, and they have turned in consistently solid work in the weeks while I have been developing this piece.

Forget the question mark in the headline. What other era of Sunday morning public affairs programming could possible compare?

Maybe the late 1960s and early 1970s with all the cultural tumult. But the range of panelists, guests and conversation was so much narrower then, with primarily white men as on-camera experts.

No thanks. It's hard to see from inside the era, but what I see on Sunday mornings today is a golden era of public affairs journalism -- even as so much of the rest of the press comes undone. 

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Cable and Network News
        

There are some fine performers on display in a couple of made-for-TV movies Sunday night. And then, there's Kate Gosselin in the Jon & Kate Plus 8 Go Green special on TLC.

Some of the very best work you can see Sunday is that done by Anna Paquin (pictured) in The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie airing at 9 on CBS.

It is easy to take the Hallmark Hall of Fame franchise for granted. After all, this is the 236th presentation. But few TV franchises have presented such consistently fine and socially-conscious movies over the the years. The Courageous Heart is no exception in its harrowing and sensitive look at a young Polish social worker (Paquin) who defied the Nazi authorities to smuggle Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto during World War II.

Paquin's first starring role in a fully adult role would be enough to recommend it, but once again, Hallmark has brought together a top-flight supporting cast including Marcia Gay Harden as Sendler's mother.

Be warned: The subject matter is intense, but there is no other way to tell this story.

Tracy Pollan returns to prime time tonight as Beth Holloway, the mother of Natalee Holloway, the teenager who went missing while on a high school graduation trip to Aruba. Unfortunately, Lifetime chose not to make the screener of Natalee Holloway, which airs at 8 p.m. Sunday, available. Amy Gumenick plays the teen.

And then, there's Jon & Kate Plus 8 Go Green at 9 tonight on TLC. Kate is kvetching from beginning to end as workmen try to make her big home environmentally friendly -- for free. Read my full preview here.

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Coming Soon to TV
        

On Thursday, I did a post on Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer with the huge voice, whose YouTube video of her tryout on Britain's Got Talent became a global phenomenon. I had lots of video of her singing, of her being interviewed, and a nice little feature CBS News did of the village in which she lives.

And that post about this super talented but very modest performer did very well in page views and the number of comments it received.

But then yesterday, I posted a preview of Sunday night's TLC special, Jon & Kate Plus 8 Go Green, which focused on Kate Gosselin and her kvetching, and it drew more response than Boyle -- without video.

Here's my question: Could people really be more interested in Kate Gosselin than Susan Boyle?

I know both of these women -- at least what we see of them onscreen -- are tapping into deeper currents in national and world life. Kate is doing it as "super mom" with eight kids, while Susan is doing it with her lovely voice defying expectations some had of her based on appearance.

In a cynical and very dark time, Boyle is a ray of light. Listening to her being interviewed Thursday by Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith on The Early Show on CBS, I was struck by how her modesty and sense of being centered highlighted what patronizing, phony, empty-vessel types we have playing hosts on American network TV these days.

I know Kate serves as a lightning rod for gender and marital issues in the lives of people who watch. But Kate is neither modest not centered, and yet more people wanted to read and talk about her on this blog.

Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe readers feel they have to "set the record straight" and make sure people understand that they do NOT like Kate -- whereas all of the comments about Boyle were positive.

But I wonder if in these angry times we would rather read and talk about what makes us angry instead of what inspires us.

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (43)
Categories: Reality TV
        

This might be getting a little old for some viewers, but it is nevertheless remarkable that NBC has so little pride in its CNBC brand that it keeps letting Mad Money host Jim Cramer flip out on air.

Here is the latest with Cramer bursting on the set of another show to scream at a guest who questioned the cable channel's "In Cramer We Trust" catchphrase.

Posted by David Zurawik at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Cable and Network News, NBC
        

Fans and foes of the hit TLC series Jon & Kate Plus 8 will be happy to know that Kate Gosselin is in fine form on the Jon & Kate Plus 8 Go Green special airing at 9 p.m. Sunday.

The Gosselins and the eight kids have this fabulous house, and now comes Steve Thomas, of Renovation Nation, to do everything from install solar panels on the roof to making a picnic table out of reclaimed wood, at no cost to her, and what is Kate doing? She's kvetching.

Not big-time kvetching at first. Kate always starts low key and then builds. But she hasn't got even a hint of a smile on her face from the moment the workmen arrive.

 "I don't like projects still. I don't like dishevelment. And Steve Thomas," she says, giving a twist to her voice to mock the name, "wants me to get all excited... I mean, I was excited about this going green or whatever."

Thomas quickly gets the drift of the Kate-led household, and when the solar panels don't arrive on time during the day of installation, he asks Jon, "Is you wife going to beat you up about this?"

And Jon, revealing his survival strategy, says, "We just won't tell her."

There is some green learning to be done in this special, but mainly it is an hour intended to keep the big audience for this show happy until the new season starts May 25 -- and to remind fans and foes of what a warm and friendly person Kate can be.

I give it three and half stars for Kate's uncanny ability to instantly put a whole household and all the workmen on edge with the cranky tone of her voice and sour look on her face.

(Above: Getty Images photo of Kate Gosselin by David Livingston)

Posted by David Zurawik at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (86)
Categories: Reality TV
        

Here's a developing business deal that bears watching -- YouTube looks like it's about to get into the business of showing TV network series and major studio films without violating copyright restrictions. The key is that advertising revenues will be shared with content providers. Could a viable business plan for old-media content providers be in the making?

Here's what AP is reporting Thursday night:

YouTube says it is partnering with major studios to stream full-length movies and TV shows on its site for free. The Web site owned by Google Inc. says it is partnering on the initiative with Sony Pictures, CBS, MGM, Lionsgate, Starz and the BBC.

Advertising revenue will be shared with the content providers.    YouTube also says it will more broadly use video ads that play mid-stream in breaks on longer content.

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Scripted Series
        

I have criticized CBS The Early Show for some of its "octomom" moments in recent weeks, but the last-place network morning show showed some hustle and smarts in bringing YouTube singing star Susan Boyle to American viewers this morning.

Boyle is the middle-aged woman seen auditioning for Simon Cowell's Britain's Got Talent show on a YouTube post -- and knocking the judges and viewers out. More than 11 million have already seen the performance. But for those who haven't, I promise you that you will get choked up when you hear her sing. The moment captures everything that is good about shows like American Idol -- with an unknown person, who many might dismiss, stepping onstage and singing the lights out.

Outside of a few silly, breathless questions from the hosts, CBS News did a great job in presenting Boyle this morning. It included bringing on Patti LuPone, who first sang I Dreamed a Dream (the song Boyle sings on the YouTube post).

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)
Categories: Reality TV
        

While cable TV news seems to be built on blurring lines and transgressing boundaries these days, I still have to say that I am alarmed by what I saw on the Fox News channel Wednesday night with Sean Hannity's Tea Party in Atlanta.

Fox and Hannity promoted the event endlessly claiming that Hannity was going to Atlanta to cover a news story of anti-tax and anti-government-spending protest.

What I saw Wednesday night had nothing to do with news coverage and everything to do with political rallies and propaganda. It was angry anti-Obama rhetoric and constant rabble-rousing of the crowd in the Atlanta streets as Hannity emotionally invoked the narrative of the nation's children having their futures stolen from them by Washington politicians. This had more to do with torch-light political rallies in Europe in the dark days of the 1930s Depression era than it does coverage by an American cable channel that claims its devotion to "fair and balanced" reporting in 2009.

Typical of the "coverage" was Hannity bringing Joe the Plumber (Joe Wurzelbacher) on camera and then praising the Ohio man, who has yet to actually earn a plumber's license, extensively for taking on President Barack Obama during the campaign.

Hannity praised Wurzelbacher for getting Obama "off the TelePrompters" for "one second" so that Americans could hear what the candidate was really up to with his "spread the wealth around" remark made to Wurzelbacher during a campaign stop in Ohio.

Before I get carried away and write the longest blog post in history, let me just say two things.

One, it is all right, in fact, it is a good thing that those whose politics and ideologies were repudiated by American voters at the polls in November can have a day as they did Wednesday during which they can rally and state their views in front of God, country, each other and the TV news cameras. That is the way democracy works.

But it is a bad thing when one of the leading journalistic institutions in the country lets one of its most charismatic and ideologically-charged personalities help stage one of those rallies and then serve as chief rally master rather than offering coverage of the event as was promised.

And I am especially alarmed at how many of my colleagues in TV and media criticism are giving Fox News a free pass these days on actions that are so patently dangerous to democracy and the role of a free press that was established more than two centuries ago.

Yes, Fox has the best ratings in prime time. But that doesn't mean we have to be cowed about how they are getting those ratings -- or how they react when anyone dares criticize them for it. We should not abrogate our responsibility to call propaganda by its proper name when we see it whether its Sean Hannity on the right or Keith Olbermann on the left.

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

WBFF (Channel 45) has set a time for the replays of the Monday night episodes of House and 24 that were disrupted by problems in transmission.

House will air Saturday at 1 p.m. followed by 24 at 2 p.m., according to Bill Fanshawe, general manager of the station. The House replay is a bit of a victory, because normally episodes are delayed eight days even online. Fanshawe had to get permission from Fox and the Writers Guild of America for the Saturday replays.

"Again, we apologize to viewers," Fanshawe said Wednesday in an interview. "And we are grateful and excited that Fox and the Writers Guild are allowing us to air the shows Saturday."

(Right: Fox photo of Hugh Laurie as House by Nigel Parry)

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Baltimore Television, Fox, Scripted Series
        

Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. is going to be doing some national TV hosting on April 25 in what seems like a match made in baseball and television heaven.

Ripken will serve as host on AMC for a showing of the 2002 film, The Rookie, starring Dennis Quaid. As host, Ripken will "talk candidly about the film, his love of baseball and his record-breaking career" in segments that were taped at the Cal Ripken Baseball Complex in Aberdeen, according to the movie channel.

In the film, Quaid plays Jim Morris, a former pitcher whose career was ended by injury, now trying to resurrect his major league dream.

The Rookie premieres at 8 p.m. April 25.

(Above: Sun photo of Cal Ripken Jr. filming his segment by Amy Davis)

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore Television, Coming Soon to TV
        

Isn't reality TV great? Fox is going to make a show out of people getting fired in the recession. Spike TV is going to "hunt" pirates with the U.S. Navy. And now comes disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich hoping to join the D-list cast of I'm a Celebrity...Get me Out of Here.

Blagojevich has reached tentative agreement with the producers of the reality show to be a contestant in episodes that would air starting June 1.

Because the show is scheduled to be filmed in Costa Rica, Blagojevich, who is under indictment, on 19 counts of corruption, needs permission to travel. His lawyers sought that permission in court Tuesday  where Blagojevich pleaded not guilty to the corruption counts as well as seeking permission to go to Costa Rica, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The new Get me Out of Here series is scheduled to air on NBC.

ABC previously carried a version of the UK-created series that features over-the-hill and out-of-favor celebrities put in Survivor-like situations. The idea in the new NBC version would be to have Blagojevich and others placed in the jungle of Costa Rica and forced to cope.

(Above: Associated Press photo of Rod Blagojevich in Chicago yesterday by Paul Beaty)

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Coming Soon to TV, NBC, Reality TV, TV and Politics
        

WBFF, Baltimore's Fox affiliate, offered an explanation and apology to fans of House and 24 who had their Monday night viewing interrupted.

Bill Fanshawe, general manager of the station, Tuesday morning said he is in the process of asking the Fox network for permission to re-air the two episodes.

Furthermore, Fanshawe said he is seeking clearance from Fox for permission to put  House online immediately so that viewers can see the Monday episode without the normal eight-day delay. Fanshaw said he would have a link at his station's Web site by 1 p.m. Tuesday offering viewers a chance to go online and see Monday's full episode of 24. 

Here's the statement from Fanshawe followed by further details from our interview as to what happened Monday night to cause viewers to miss 15 minutes of House and 24 minutes of of 24. The statement is also followed by details as to how CW fans can see the Monday night episodes of Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill, which were also affected.

Here's the statement in its entirety:

Due to an unpredictable equipment malfunction in our Master Control
operations Monday evening, Both WBFF and WNUV experienced technical
issues that resulted in some viewers not being able to view our standard
definition signal and therefore missed some of the programming.

Fortunately, viewers receiving our high definition broadcast were not
affected. 

We deeply regret this unforeseen circumstance and apologize
to the extremely dedicated and passionate collection of fans that both
FOX45 and The CW Baltimore enjoy. 

We are seeking network approval to
re-air the affected episodes in their entirety. In the meantime, viewers
can log onto FOXbaltimore.com and CWbaltimore.com for links to the
entire episodes online now.

In our conversation, Fanshawe said that the problem involved a router sending the wrong signal to viewers. As a result, viewers who were tuned to WBFF at 8:45 p.m. Monday suddenly started receiving WNUV's signal. The problems were not resolved until 9:22 p.m.

Sinclair Broadcast Group owns WBFF and manages WNUV. Fanshawe is in charge of both.

Fanshawe said that in addition to a link that will allow viewers to view the full episode of  Monday's 24, his Web site will also offer links for fans of Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill to see Monday's episodes of those CW shows in their entirety without the audio problems they had Monday night.

To be clear: While WBFF's Web site will have a link for online viewing of House, right now that is only for last week's episode because of the Fox policy of not putting episodes of House online until eight days after they have aired. But Fanshawe said he is trying to get Fox to relax that rule so that Baltimore area viewers can see Monday's episode withoiut the delay.

Stay tuned to ZonTV for more information on those discussions and times for the re-broadcast of the two episodes if Fanshaw gets clearance from Fox.

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Baltimore Television, Fox, Scripted Series
        

Some area viewers who were hoping to find out how the doctors on House were going to deal with the suicide of Dr. Kutner were in for deep frustration Monday night when the medical drama disappeared about 8:45 p.m. only to be replaced by Gossip Girl without the audio.

Could it be worse?

Yes, the screen went entirely dark on WBFF at times during a foul-up that appears to be the fault of WBFF (Channel 45) and WNUV (Channel 54), which are owned and managed, respectively, by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

As if all of that was not maddening enough, the first 20 minutes or so of 24 were also lost on Channel 45. Good luck trying to join 24 after the first 20 minutes and figure out what is going on.

And through it all, I saw no on-screen explanations from station management telling viewers what the problem was. Nor was there any explanation at the start of the 10 p.m. news on WBFF (Channel 45).

The reason I am fairly certain it had to be a problem at Sinclair is that the foul-up was happening both on Comcast and DirecTV. If the problem was with either the cable or the satellite dish operator, it would have shown up only on that outlet -- not both. Another indication that it was a Sinclair problem is that Channel 45 was carrying the CW programs, Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill,  which were showing as scheduled on Channel 54. Only Sinclair had access to both the Fox and the CW shows by nature of owning Channel 45 and managing Channel 54.

No one from the station could be reached for comment Monday night. There was no story or explanation about the mix-up on the front of the station's Web site.

You do have to wonder how hard it would have been for Channel 45 to get some kind of explanation to its viewers on-screen Monday night -- no matter whose fault it was and how extensive the problem. After all, the mix-up ran for more than 30 minutes and severely disrupted the viewing pleasure for some fans of two popular shows. I know, because I was watching and I was one of them. But, maybe, there is a reason such an explanation was impossible to publish on-screen Monday night.

As to the extent of the problem, apparently, based on two early comments to this post, some viewers were able to see all of 24, at least. So it cannot yet be said how widespread the problem was. But it definitely affected Comcast and DirecTV viewers in Baltimore City Monday night.

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (48)
Categories: Baltimore Television, CW, Fox, Scripted Series
        

The commander of the Navy ship that rescued an American captain from Somali pirates cited his Annapolis training and a conviction that such kidnappers only understand force in an interview with NBC's Brian Williams Monday night.

Here is some of what Commander Frank Castellano, commanding officer of the USS Bainbridge, says on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams Monday:

Williams: Have you had any contact with the Commander-in-Chief other than receiving orders indirectly from him on engagement in this matter?

Castellano: I can tell you I had the pleasure of receiving a phone call from the President last evening. And we had a very wonderful conversation in which he wanted me to pass on to my crew that they did a wonderful job and he was very proud of them and it was a job well done.

The interview continues:

Williams: You've mentioned Commander, modestly, that this is what all your years at Annapolis were about, coming up the ranks of command in the US Navy but how much tension was there in the air, after all as the ship's commander, you had to approach by your choice and there's, armed pirates who were taking an American hostage and you did that. What was the air like at that moment?

Castellano: It, Brian, it was tense. I can tell you that. Honestly it was a very tense situation and in the forefront of my mind was ensuring that Captain Richard Phillips was returned to his family safely and to the United States. And my crew and the crews of the other ships that were involved in the mission and the special operations force, we all worked seamlessly together. Standing watches, watching out for each other and ensuring that the mission was accomplished. And everyone's training, everything that the lessons that we've learned throughout our careers all came together in a culminating moment for Captain Phillips' rescue.

Willliams: Somebody, Commander, said earlier today, these pirates only respect a show of force. Do you, with your exposure to them in this instance and other time you've spent in those waters, do you agree with that?

Castellano: I definitely agree with that. I definitely do. These are, these are criminals and you know, piracy is an international crime. And they use force and they go attack you know, innocent, unarmed merchant men throughout the world. And you know all of the Navies of the world, we are charged with protecting those seas and piracy is something going on hundreds of years that Navies have had to deal with uh to ensure the free-flow of commerce.

 

Posted by David Zurawik at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Baltimore Television, Cable and Network News, NBC
        

Are media workers driving stakes into their own hearts by embracing shorter and shorter forms of digital storytelling -- thereby helping create even shorter attention spans among young audience members?

That's one of the questions posed by Leo Eaton, the Maryland-based producer of such high-end PBS and BBC documentaries as Michael Wood's The Story of India, in an informal annual state of the industry letter sent to friends and colleagues Monday.

Eaton generously gave me permission to share what he said with readers of this blog. Here'a a bite that seems especially timely with Ken Burns losing his GM funding last month and PBS Monday night launching We Shall Remain, a five-part series on Native American history, the likes of which, some analysts say, we are not likley to see again.

Here's some of what Eaton had to say. I think the part about the lack of documentary funding is very troubling, and it comes from someone who lives this reality every day in his work.

No aspect of our vast media landscape contains more information about what we were, who we are and what we can be than documentary films. If they are in danger, then so is our self-knowledge and our ability to imagine a way out of the current mess we are in.

But what a strange year this is turning out to be for all of us dinosaurs who still believe that thought-provoking, high-end documentaries have a place in our new media landscape.  Ratings continue to plummet for all broadcast (and most cable) networks; the economy’s grim reaper has already scythed two major projects I was scheduled to produce this year while funders struggling to raise finance on other viable projects shudder and turn ashen-white when describing the wasteland that is current documentary funding.  Add to this the explosion of new web-based media produced at a fraction of traditional documentary cost (user-generated content is the latest media buzz-word) and I feel like Miss Prism from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, bemoaning the disappearance of the three-volume novel. 

It’s not that I don’t embrace the multi-platform world; I’ve finally learned Final Cut Pro, Eaton Creative has its own YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/eatoncreative) and a series about new technologies that I’ve created with MacNeil/Lehrer productions and Arizona State University is already a World of Warcraft Guild and will be an island on Second Life long before a single HD frame is shot for the TV programs on PBS. 

But I do question whether we are breeding an audience incapable of paying attention for more than a few minutes at a time.  I recently sat in a darkened movie-theater showing one of the few documentaries to make money on the big screen and saw “digital-natives” in the mostly-young audience busy texting (or perhaps twittering) as the movie played.  While neurologists have now proved that multi-tasking means one does a whole lot of things very badly, the flood of new media platforms and technologies encourages an increasingly ADD approach to media consumption. 

Like any self-respecting dinosaur, I will struggle to avoid the La Brea tar-pits and continue to make good programs (when I find someone to pay for them), whether they be 90-minute movies, hour-long television documentaries or 5-minute pod casts.  Compelling stories, intriguing characters and artful execution are still key, no matter what the length – everything else is just distribution.

 

Posted by David Zurawik at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Documentaries
        

One thing you have to respect about reality TV: Its practitioners see an event or movement in the larger culture, and they try to find a way to make it into television as fast as they can. These folks are on the case -- journalists should be this plugged to shifts in the social fabric.

Last week, Fox announced a new reality game series that will play off corporate downsizing with contestants deciding who should be laid off and kept on as a company "gets smaller" and shrinks its staff.

And now, today, comes Spike TV with a reality-doc series about modern-day pirates -- just like the ones who have be front page news the past week after kidnapping the captain of an American ship off the coast of Somalia. It's called Pirate Hunters: USN.

Here it is in Spike's own words. Note the patriotic tone and sense of righteousness that the producers and cable channel executives sound as they embark on this grand moral mission (I'm being sarcastic):

The recent dramatic increase in piracy off the coast of Africa has made news headlines around the world and now Spike TV has partnered with the Emmy Award-winning reality production house 44 Blue Productions (“The True Story of Black Hawk Down,” “Lockup”) and Adam Friedman (“Vertical Ascent”) for production on the pilot “Pirate Hunters: USN” (working title), an up-close and behind-the-scenes look at the US Navy operation to end this deadly threat of piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

“We are thrilled to be front and center with the Navy on such an important mission,” says Sharon Levy, senior vice president, original series for Spike. “The access we have will really give our viewers the kind of heart-stopping action they have come to expect from Spike programming.”

These often-violent hijackings off the coast of eastern Africa not only pose a grave threat to the lives of sailors taking cargo through the region, but are also starting to add an exorbitant amount to the cost of worldwide trade. Now, television viewers will be able to see this dramatic, tension-filled and high-stakes military mission first-hand.

 “Piracy off the coast of Africa is a real and deadly threat,” said Rasha Drachkovitch, president and founder of 44 Blue Productions. “With ‘Pirate Hunters: USN,’ our goal is to capture that drama for the TV audience in order to highlight the heroic work undertaken by the US Navy every day in this fight against terrorism.

At least the waited until the captain was rescued before annoucning the project. 

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Coming Soon to TV, Reality TV
        

One of the more shameful aspects of non-fiction film making in this nation involves the lack of major projects chronicling the Native American experience.

The lack of historical storytelling about Native Americans is the best evidence I know to support the cynical cultural studies argument that history is merely the stories told by those who won the wars and hold the power.

I fear that We Shall Remain, a five-part series that starts Monday night on PBS, arrives on too fragmented a TV landscape and at a time when viewers are too preoccupied with the current economic crisis to take much notice of any historical epic that demands a major commitment of time.

But give PBS and the American Experience series great praise for trying to make sure that the Native American narrative is told in such a way that it reflects the truth of that experience and finds a home in the nation's consciousness and conscience.

The series runs across five weeks and spans 300 years of history. Tonight's episode, "After the Mayflower," which is directed by Chris Eyre and Cathleen O'Connell (who worked as directors on John and Abigail Adams), re-visits the relationship between the Wampanoag and the earliest English settlers. Part 5, the final episode, brings the story up to the 1970's and the politics of Wounded Knee.

Understand the obstacles to this kind of TV storytelling. While filmmakers can find plenty of illuminating archival footage from 1970s, some of it out-takes from network cameras, the 17th and 18th century parts of the story are harder to tell on TV without using re-creations.

Be warned: This series makes liberal use of re-creation as you will see tonight, and if you philosophically can't abide your history told in such a manner, We Shall Remain is not for you.

I will be happy to debate the use of historical re-creations with any commenters, but I have come to accept and even embrace the use of them for that part of our history where visuals are limited. Nor is it all re-creations. For example, the film wisely makes use of eloquent landscape photography to give a sense of the connection between the land and those who first inhabited.

Among the top cinematographers responsible for some of those landscape images is Allen Moore, the director of photography on such Ken Burns' projects as The Civil War and a professor at Maryland Institute College of Art. (You can read a recent conversation I had with Moore here.)

The other aspect of the re-creations that matters is the commitment by PBS and the producers to historical accuracy and involvement of Native American historians.

The filmmakers did not attempt to tell this history as one straight chronology -- that would have been impossible to do any kind of depth for television. Instead, they focus on five pivotal moments in that history. Besides, tonight's episode from the era of the first Thanksgiving and the finale at Wounded Knee, the film also looks at the life and times of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, the Trail of Tears, and Geronimo.

Five Monday nights is a lot of time to give to any TV series in this era of new media, unlimited on-demand choices, and shortened attention spans. So, maybe PBS won't find a huge audience for this series. But you have to admire public television for making such an impressive effort.

The series premieres at 9 p.m. Monday on MPT-Channel 22 and other PBS stations.

Posted by David Zurawik at 6:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Documentaries, PBS, TV Review
        

With NBC's long-time lead for Meet the Press withering away as ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos continues to gain, it seemed like a good time to check back in with both shows to see what's going on. I am going to be writing more on this matter in coming days, but here's a fast look at the bottom line on what I saw Sunday.

As one of the first critics to say David Gregory looked like he was going to be okay as the successor to Tim Russert, I have to acknowledge being disappointed in what I saw Sunday from the new host. Simply put, there was little energy and virtually no passion. And that is the opposite of what made Russert so compelling to watch.

The flaws in Sunday's telecast were not all the fault of the host. The four-member panel assembled for a discussion that lasted some 20 minutes was one of the dullest and least engaging I can remember seeing on a Sunday-morning public affairs show since the networks started making them ratings accountable.

Only once or twice in all that time, did one panelist address another, and no one seriously challenged anything their colleagues said -- an absolutely remarkable development given they were on air about 10 minutes longer than the discussion warranted.

The worst were Byron York, of the Washington Examiner, and Michele Norris, of NPR, who spent more time looking down at their notes (or maybe it was just the table in the case of Norris) than addressing Gregory or the camera that serves as the viewers' point of view. Jeffrey Goldberg, of the Atlantic, wasn't much better. The best was Robin Wright, formerly of the Washington Post and now the Woodrow Wilson Center. The person who booked this panel needs to do a lot better if this show is going to remain in first place.

I will write more about the other two segments of the show later in the week.

But, by way of comparison, This Week was absolutely rollicking in the energy level and interaction for its panel: ABC's George Will and Jake Tapper, along with the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus, the New York Times' Paul Krugman, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. And, believe me, for all the joy the panelist seemed to find in their give and take, it was also more informed and deeper intellectually than anything said on Meet the Press Sunday.

For the record, here is what's happening in the ratings battle between the two: As of April 5, for the 10th straight week, This Week narrowed the gap until there is only about a 200,000 viewer difference between the two -- 3.34 million for Meet the Press to 3.14 million for This Week.

The ABC News show has cut the gap by 480,000 viewers in the last year. That's a 12 percent gain year to year vs. a 4 percent decline for NBC's Meet the Press.

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

The great sports documentaries are the ones that manage to wed their game stories to the culture and politics of the times in which they were played.

HBO’s Thrilla in Manila, which chronicles the epic rivalry between heavyweight boxers Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali, is steeped in the racial and social class issues that separated the two men and fueled the famous 1975 showdown in the Philippines from which the film’s title is drawn.

If Thrilla is not a great sports documentary, it’s on the waiting list – only a half cut or so off the pace. Catch it. If not Saturday night in its premiere at 8, then in one of its many HBO replays: Sunday, Tuesday, Friday or April 19, 22 and 28.

There is an added treat for Baltimore and Maryland area viewers: Radio station WYPR newsman Sunni Khalid is featured as one of the talking heads in the documentary, and Khalid is on the money time and again in his analyses of the fighters and the post-1960’s racial politics at play.

As the film carefully explains, even though both fighters are African American, they came to represent a racial divide that could no longer be ignored following the urban riots of 1968. Whereas Ali was backed by the nation of Islam, Frazier’s backers were overwhelmingly white.

As narrator Leiv Schreiber says in the film, "Ali consistently used the politics of race to demean Joe Frazier."

The documentary shows Ali throwing gasoline on the fire by repeatedly branding Frazier with an ugly term used to describe a person of color who is subservient to whites. Both Frazier and his son are shown today describing how hurtful that was at the time.

Ali is also shown in the film over and over again comparing Frazier to a jungle beast and mocking him in press conferences by slapping around a rubber doll version of the animal. (I am purposely not using the terms because I think they are so offensive and politically charged -- even today.)

There is a moment of great talking-heads interface when Freddie Pacheco, who was Ali’s ring doctor in 1975, says that Frazier acted like a child in taking offense to the Ali insults.

But the smug remarks by Pacheco, who is white, are followed by WYPR’s Khalid, a person of color, firing back with a detailed explanation of how the remarks are viewed when leveled by one black person against another.

“For Freddie Pacheco to say what he says just shows how dumb he is about matters of race within the black race,” Khalid says, taking the conversation to a level of insight, truth and possible confrontation too often avoided by on-screen experts.

One warning that I am sure some viewers will appreciate: The opening of the film includes some graphic images of a cock fight. I get the point that filmmaker John Dower is trying to make about the way these two men were pitted and stoked before going in the ring. And I also get the point about someone who will watch them fight being upset at seeing a rooster get torn apart. But the rooster has no choice, and these men did – no matter how constricted their choices might have been by racism and other sociological factors of the time.

I wish Dower had found another way to make his points, but there’s room to argue the use of such gut-grabbing images either way. I suspect most of the audience members who will tune in this documentary tonight as prelude to a boxing bout featuring Winky Wright and Paul Williams will have no problems with seeing the roosters in mortal combat.

(Full disclosure: I have been doing media criticism at WYPR, the station for which Khalid works, the last six years.)

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Documentaries, HBO, TV Review
        

I love the concept, but I am not so crazy about the execution of College Life, a new reality TV series debuting Monday night on MTV.

The premise involves giving four entering freshmen at the University of Wisconsin digital cameras and letting them chronicle their passage from high school to life at one the nation's best academic institutions in one of its greatest cities, Madison, Wisconsin. (Full disclosure: If the "best" and "great" adjectives sound excessive, the fact that I graduated from UW might have played a tiny role in my choice of words.)

But, seriously, I was eagerly awaiting the screener on this series, because I wanted to see how the new, lightweight, easy-to-use digital filmmaking technology would work out in the hands of these freshmen. I have long thought the new cameras could be better used in everything from daily journalism to ethnographic studies. If reality TV had to be the testing ground where they first proved their worth at taking viewers inside subcultures and behind closed doors, so be it. I was also excited about the series, because I believe going off to college is such an important rite of passage for so many people -- one that often defines the arc of the rest of their lives.

The four student-cinematographers are:

Jordan, the son of a Canadian father and Jamaican mother, who thinks he will study literature. He likes to read anyway. He's kind of quiet, and not into partying, which makes him seem like a bit of a loner on Big-Ten-football-get-drunk-and-puke-in-the-gutter-on-State-Street weekends.

Kevin is from Minnesota, and one of the first things he learned to do was get a keg of beer up the steps and into his dorm room, where he has instantly become a drunken master of ceremonies -- almost every night. Kevin is right in the thick of things on football weekends, he is also instantly so far behind the academic curve that he's about to flunk out. He is also kind of a wise guy. I say goodbye, Kevin.

Alex, is from Texas, and she's the one with the brains. She has a scholarship and maybe some emotional issues.

Jordan is described by MTV as a "born and raised cheese head," which means she's from Wisconsin. She talks a lot about being a virgin, and has a strange relationship with a boy from high school, who cooks dinner for her once a week and says, "I own you." They say they are just friends.

The four are good choices, but I wish, for starters, that someone had given them just a little more training with the cameras. I like the messy, jagged look of handheld, digital, cinema-verite, but some of the audio is impossible to hear and some of the images are just a jumpy mess.

But there are larger problems. MTV is hyping the series as breakthrough because the four did all their own filming "No script, producers, directors or camera operators," the cable channel says in promotional material. "This is not reality...this is real."

Well, first of all, other filmmakers have given cameras to subjects in documentaries and had them film all or part of the production. Major journalistic institutions like CNN have done it as well with folks who are generally described as citizen journalists these days. Documentary filmmaker R.J. Cutler used the technique for some of the footage in Freshman Diaries, a 2003 Showtime series that followed a group of several freshmen at the University of Texas.

And even if you cut out the producer, director and camera operators, you still need someone to edit the footage and craft it into a narrative that fits the programming slot available in your lineup -- and is compelling enough for people to watch.

As much as I am frustrated by the lack of training for the students, I am truly disapppointed in the editing and crafting of the final product.

First, there is not one classroom shot in the pilot. For all the drinking that does go on at UW, it is nevertheless a world-class institution, and tough academics are a core narrative of the freshman experience. All we see is what happens to Kevin for not going to class.

Second, for all the talk of being "real" but "not reality," it feels very much like reality TV with the weekly dinner between Andrea and her boyfriend in which both are playing to the camera, in my humble opinion. The claim of cinema verite demands better.

And yet, I'll be back. Inconsistent as a critc? Crazy as a person? No,  just totally shaped by my own personal rite of passage on the shores of Lake Mendota, and trying to re-live it a little bit on MTV no matter how blurry and non-representative the pictures are.

College Life airs at 10:30 p.m. Monday on MTV.

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Documentaries, TV Review
        

Leonard Nimoy, the legendary actor who played Star Trek's Mr. Spock, will guest-star on an upcoming episode of the J.J. Abrams' drama, Fringe, the Fox network announced today.

According to the network, "Nimoy will appear as pivotal person of interest William Bell as the series approaches its first season finale" on May 12th.

Nimoy will be revisiting his role as Spock in the Star Trek feature film that Abrams, co-creator of Fringe, is directing. That's the connection between the director and actor.

I did a long interview on-air interview with Nimoy for a radio show on WYPR that I used to host, Media Matters, and I found him to be one of the most fascinating, multitalented and wisest performers I ever met.

I have tuned out Fringe, but I will be tuning back in to see Nimoy. I think that's the kind of response Fox and Abrams are hoping for with this bit of casting.

(Above: Associated Press photo of by Leonard Nimoy Tom Dodge)

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Coming Soon to TV, Fox, Scripted Series
        

Southland, the new John Wells drama premiering Thursday night on NBC, is a first-rate cop drama. The question is whether prime-time network TV needs another cop drama right now given the fact that viewers are far more focused on the economy than big-city crime these days.

Another question might be whether readers need a preview from me given the fact that NBC seemed to have shown virtually every frame of Thursday’s night pilot last week during breaks in the finale of ER. Was not the relentless intrusion of promos for this series incredibly annoying? I wonder how many potential viewers NBC drove away with its overkill for the show that would replace ER this week in its Thursday night time period.

The series is set in Los Angeles, but it could be Baltimore or New York – only with smog and more sunshine.

Not that we see a lot of sun in the pilot. Most of the drama takes place at night on the shift of rookie police officer, Ben Sherman (Ben McKenzie), who is being trained by a hard-core veteran, John Cooper (Michael Cudlitz).

The training is a clever story-telling technique because it allows the veteran cop to socialize the viewer to the culture of the LAPD (and the show) as he lectures Sherman in the front seat of their squad car.

At one point, Cooper describes their night and their jobs as “driving through a sewer in a glass bottom boat,” and that is an apt description for what we see.

There is violence, blood and perversion galore: an innocent adolescent wander into the wrong neighborhood and winds riddled with bullets from gang members’ guns, a small girl is abducted and the end result is almost to much for a detective to bear, a veteran cop is graphically gunshot, and there is blood everywhere.

The pilot opens on a wailing harmonica and a nightmare scene of bloody bodies being lifted onto stretchers while a young cop looks on dazed and pained.

As I watched, two thoughts dominated. First, how much it was shaped by landmark cop dramas like Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blue and the first season of The Wire when it was epic and great. (And, believe me, I know all about David Simon, the creator of The Wire, saying it wasn’t a cop drama, it was a novel for television blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Spare me.)

My second thought: Ten years ago, I would have raved about Southland, but now, what I mainly feel is been there, done that. I wondered whether I had changed, or the genre had burned itself out and this was just another example of the dying embers.

I’ll be watching the ratings and studying the entrails of comments to this blog for answers to that last question. Southland premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday on NBC.

(Above: NBC Photo of Ben McKenzie and Michael Cudlitz by Richard Foreman)

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: NBC, Scripted Series, TV Review
        

Let me cut right to chase on Harper’s Island, the new CBS drama premiering Thursday night: There’s human blood in the water at the start, and the pilot closes on a character losing his lower torso in a slow and grisly fashion to the hack, hack, hack of a killer’s blade.

And that kind of horror-movie violence might be the very thing that makes this series a rating winner.

Mind you, I am not predicting such success – there are too many flaws in the ointment of this series for me to confidently do that. But I’m just saying that Hollywood makes tens of millions of dollars in movie theaters with inexpensive feature films that rely on the same formula of beautiful young people getting savagely butchered while on some kind of outing that was expected to be a happy event, so why not TV?

The happy outing here is the lavish wedding of a wealthy man’s daughter on an island off the coast of Washington state. The rich man’s daughter is Trish Wellington (Katie Cassidy), and she’s marrying a poor boy who used to work in the summer on the island washing her daddy’s boats. The poor boy is Henry Dunn (Christopher Gorham), and daddy (Richard Burgi) hates this intended marriage.

We open dockside in Seattle where a luxury cruise boat loads up with mostly beautiful young people headed to the island for a weekend full of wedding events. The cast is huge, lovely to look at, and devoid of anyone who can act.

In this sense, it is more afternoon soap opera than horror movie. But the two genres do blend nicely once the killing starts.

Let me tell you how limited the young unknowns in this cast are: Harry Hamlin makes a guest appearance, and winds up stealing the hour. Harry Hamlin!

The idea here is that at least one person will die during every episode until the happy wedding on the island becomes a bloody nightmare. Think of an Agatha Christie mystery cast as a teen soap opera and then made into a horror flick. I say that with deep apologies to Christie and her billions of fans – I am just trying to explain the concept.

Part of the fun for young viewers will be in seeing if and how the series follows horror film conventions. The producers are obviously playing with the formula. In the publicity handouts from CBS, each character is not only named, but also listed by type.

The character named Chloe Carter (Cameron Richardson), for example, is tagged “The Flirt” by the producers. She’s the blonde, and I am guessing she is going to die as flirty blondes tend to do in such films.

If you like that kind of thing and can stomach the lower half of someone's body being gashed off, CBS may have your number with Harper’s Island, which premieres at 10 p.m. Thursday.

(Above: CBS photo of Elaine Cassidy and Christopher Gorham by Chris Helcermanas-Benge)

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: CBS, Scripted Series, TV Review
        

TV has a new family feud -- this one between the Palins and the Johnstons -- and now that the battle has reached the level of network morning show, it is getting nastier.

Wednesday on The Early Show on CBS, Levi Johnston, the father of the grandson of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, said he believes that the former GOP vice presidential candidate sees him and his family as "white trash." Furthermore, he called Palin a liar and says that she changed for the worse after her defeat in the November election.

The Palins, meanwhile, have issued statements calling Johnston a liar. Classy bunch of folks -- just the kind daytime TV talk shows love.

Here is some of the conversation between Maggie Rodriguez, of The Early Show, and the 18-year-old high school dropout Wednesday morning:

LEVI JOHNSTON:  And we're not cashing in on their name, you know.  I'm just trying to get my side of the story out there and letting people know who I am.

RODRIGUEZ:  What do you think is the biggest misconception about you?

JOHNSTON:  Probably that my family's white trash. ... 

RODRIGUEZ (voice-over):  But now Levi and Bristol have split, and he says he isn't allowed to have private time with baby Tripp, even though he once lived in Sarah Palin's house.  Palin's camp says he never lived there.

(on camera):  Sarah Palin, through a spokesperson, has denied a lot of the things you're saying.  So, either you're lying or Sarah Palin is lying.  Which is it?

JOHNSTON:  They said I didn't live there.  I stayed there.  I was like, OK, well, whatever you want to call it.  I had my stuff there.  So, if you want to call it staying there, that's fine, but...

RODRIGUEZ:  You had all your things there?

JOHNSTON:  Yes.

RODRIGUEZ:  Toothbrush, pajamas? 

JOHNSTON:  Yes.  Yes.

RODRIGUEZ:  Stayed there every night. 

JOHNSTON:  For a while, yes.  So.. 

RODRIGUEZ:  So they're lying?

JOHNSTON:  Yes. ...

RODRIGUEZ:  What was Sarah Palin like when times were good with you?

L. JOHNSTON:  She was great.  I mean, she treated me like a mom.  I think she'd do anything for me at the time.  And now I don't know.

RODRIGUEZ:  So, times are good, and she gets the call to be the vice presidential nominee.  At that point do things change?

L. JOHNSTON:  I think it was all when we -- when she lost, is when it started happening.  When she had got back, I think it's when it went downhill....   

RODRIGUEZ:  Do you ever feel like they think you're not good enough for her?

L. JOHNSTON: Yes.

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

Amy Poehler earned my undying admiration for her work during the 2008 election on Saturday Night Live – particularly the Sarah Palin rap she delivered from the Weekend Update desk along with that fabulous chorus line of dancing moose. Because of her work during this monumental election, I will go to my grave singing her praises.

I need to say that because the preview of her new NBC series, Parks and Recreation, which premieres Thursday night at 8:30, is going to seem like a mixed one based on my reluctance to predict success for the show despite its several winning elements. 

With all the pre-air hype and snippets that NBC has shown during other prime-time shows everyone knows that it is intended to be a companion piece for The Office, another mockumentary workplace sitcom featuring a mid-level manager with a wildly inflated self-concept. It is created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, executive producers of The Office, and it will debut Thursday night sandwiched between two episodes of NBC’s most successful comedy. Nice launch if you can get it.

Rather than the corporate workplace, the object of satire in this show is local government with Poehler playing Leslie Knope, deputy director of the Department of Parks and Recreation in Pawnee, Indiana. She sees herself as the next “Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton,” though most viewers will quickly understand that she will be lucky to rise to the level of director of the Department of Parks and Recreation in Pawnee by the time she is ready for retirement. As one character describes Leslie in the pilot, “She’s a little doofy, but sweet.”

The doofy side of her personality is nicely revealed through conversations she has with a subordinate in the office, Tom Haverford (Aziz Ansari), a bit of a hustler who she thinks is true blue and devoted to her. The tone of the pilot is set as she and Haverford arrive for a public forum at a school gymnasium.

“This,” she says importantly to Haverford as they are about to enter the gym, “is where the rubber of government meets the road of human needs. When I walk through that door, I have to be on like a White House press secretary.”

And then, after she squares her shoulders to enter the room, she pulls on the door, only to find it locked. When they finally do get into the sparsely attended meeting, she hears a complaint about an open pit in a neighborhood. Instead of just trying to get the pit filled in, she decides to try and build a park on it: “This could be my Hoover Dam,” she says with a far way look in her eye.

What saves Leslie from only being a fool are sweetness and optimism in the face of her own limitations and some of her low-rent colleagues. The most interesting of the bunch is her boss, Russ Swanson (Nick Offerman), a cleverly crafted personification of the George W. Bush administration.

He’s a government official who is ideologically opposed to government – a TV version of a libertarian. Not only does he not want to spend a nickel on letting Leslie do things like turning the pit into a park, he wants to privatize the whole Parks and Recreation Department.

This would have been a brilliant character had he been on the tube during the Bush administration rather than after. Still, he proves this is a series about more than silly laughs.

The problem with the pilot is in tone. Self-important and silly, but optimistic and sweet is a hard mark to hit week after week. If anyone can do it, Poehler would be my candidate who can. But if she and the producers miss by just a little in the first few weeks, it is going to be hard to find the kind of mass audience needed for success on network TV.

Don’t forget, The Office had marginal ratings once upon a time. They are not yet exactly blockbuster.

There is also the question of how funny the foibles of government are going to seem to millions of viewers when so many of us now realize how desperately dependent we are on government to try and pull us out of the nosedive in which this nation now finds itself.

Again, during the Bush administration, this show would have been a brilliant satire. Today, in these new and desperate times, I wonder if we will want to be reminded of how delusional and silly the people in government can be.

Posted by David Zurawik at 6:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: NBC, Scripted Series, TV Review
        

It is one thing when a syndicated daytime talk show hosted by a model features a questionable character like Levi Johnston, the father of the grandson of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. That's what The Tyra Banks Show did on Monday.

But on Wednesday, The Early Show, a network morning show produced by CBS News, will feature the high school dropout and teen parent as well. I wonder how they will top the conversation between Johnston and Banks about "safe sex" -- something Johnston at first tried to insist that he and Palin's daughter did indeed practice. 

All of this comes under the heading: Is there nothing TV talk won't try to exploit?

Maggie Rodriguez will be doing the interview with Johnston and his mother, Sherry, and sister, Mercede. You tell me where the thing we used to call "socially redeeming value" is in this chat. 

Posted by David Zurawik at 2:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

Here's the crux of what I said: "In recent years, prime-time economics and hustler producer-writers who have killed off characters left and right for shock value in an effort to paper over their failures as dramatists have cheapened the medium (cable channels like HBO included) to the point where it is a sea of cheap thrills and empty storytelling come season finale time."

You can read the full post here.

In defense of the way the killing of Kutner was treated onscreen, I think most longtime fans of Fox are used to seeing life and death depicted harshly and raw. This is not a drama for those who want their view of life and death sugarcoated. I do not believe an honest drama could depict suicide without making it shocking, awful and sad.

But was the suicide itself dramatically necessary or just an exploitative twist to creat some buzz for a show that didn't have much this season? And about the morning-after blitz by Fox as it tries to extend the matter and grab more publicity? Here is how the network describes it:

FOX has launched a special online memorial at fox.com/kutner to give viewers an opportunity to remember “Dr. Lawrence Kutner” (Kal Penn), whose unexpected suicide occurred on last night’s episode of HOUSE. Features of the site include a video tribute to Kutner featuring music composed by Hugh Laurie, Kutner’s obituary, messages posted by Princeton Plainsboro coworkers and a link to the Kutner memorial Facebook page.

On the Facebook page, fans have the opportunity to leave personal messages remembering the character, view photos, video clips, as well as “grab” his hospital ID to post on social networking sites and their personal blogs. Additionally, the HOUSE homepage at fox.com/house will have a new look in observance of this somber storyline.

I am fascinated by the ritual of mourning being played out in social media. As a student of pop culture and media, I could write about it forever.

On the other hand, and maybe I am being naive about teenagers and their understanding of new media, but given the shock of the on-air death and this kind of "somber" handling, I wonder if some adolescent viewers might be confused and think the actor, Penn, died.

(He didn't. He says he is going into politics as a staffer in the White House, according to Entertainment Weekly. You couldn't make that up.)

But maybe this concern for the viewer is only old-media thinking on my part -- why should I worry  that audience members have solid information and are not confused by what they are seeing on the screen.

I'll tell you why: because the emotional ties we form with TV characters are serious, complex and, I would argue, even profound in some cases -- and the creators of the shows we reward with our loyalty have a responsibility not to abuse it. Think of your favorite all-time character, and how much they affected your life, especially in your teens and 20s.

If Fox and producers of House aren't crossing a line, I believe they are walking right up to it.

Posted by David Zurawik at 8:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (33)
Categories: Dead on TV, Fox, Scripted Series
        

If you have HBO, tonight is the night to see Aaron Shaw, a 12-year-old actor from Baltimore County, make his debut in a featured role on the premium cable channel's acclaimed drama In Treatment.

The second season of the series started Sunday night with Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne back as psychologist Paul Weston and Emmy Award winner Dianne Wiest as his Maryland-based therapist. 

Those who tuned in Sunday night met two new patients of Dr. Weston's played with edge and bite by Hope Davis and Alison Pill. Tonight, they will meet two more -- John Mahoney as a CEO losing control, and Shaw as a child patient with eating and body issues complicated by the abandonment he feels as his parents go through divorce. Shaw, who never had a formal acting class, is terrific.

I profiled Shaw in the Sun on March 29, and you can read that here.

How good is this young man?

"Aaron just kept getting better and better," Warren Leight, the Tony-Award-winning executive producer of the series said of Aaron's acting the past four months during which the series was taped. "And by the way, the other actors who are trying to do what he does are Hope Davis and John Mahoney."

Posted by David Zurawik at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore Television, HBO, Scripted Series
        

For those many readers of this blog who expressed their anger over Maryland Public Television preempting Frontline's "Inside the Meltdown" when it premiered nationally on PBS on Feb. 17, I have some good news: The documentary will air Tuesday at 10 p.m. on MPT.

This is the finest single piece of TV reporting to date on the politics that led to and helped cause the economic meltdown with which we now struggle so desperately. If you weren't able to see it in February because you couldn't access WETA (Channel 26), the Washington PBS outlet that did air it then, Tuesday's your chance.

Speaking of great documentaries that MPT has pre-empted in recent months, about 400 persons gathered Sunday night at Goucher College to see Inheritance, the soul-stirring account of the relationship between the adult daughter of a Nazi concentration commandant and a Jewish woman who worked as slave labor in the commandant's villa during the war. MPT pre-empted this film as well on its national premiere date in December.

Academy-Award-winning director James Moll and Helen Jonas, the Jewish survivor of the Nazi camp commander's brutality, discussed the film after it was shown.

Full disclosure: I was on the panel and I teach at Goucher. Make of those facts what you will, I still have to tell you that I cannot remember ever being in an academic setting and feeling as inspired as I did in the presence of Jonas and Moll Sunday night at Goucher. 

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Baltimore Television
        

Is there any private place daytime talk TV won't go -- and pat itself on the back for going there?

Monday morning on the The Tyra Banks Show, Banks talks to Levi Johnston, the ex-fiance of Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Let me be plain about Johnston's claim to fame: He's the high school dropout who got the daughter of the conservative, "family values" politician pregnant. He's the kid whom GOP Presidential candidate John McCain greeted like a long lost son at the Republican National Convention after Palin was named McCain's running mate and news of the pregnancy became known.

If you tune in to the Tyra Show,you will hear such things as Banks asking Johnston is he practiced "safe sex" with Bristol Palin. You will hear him say, "yes."

Then, you will see Banks ask with some incredulity, "All the time?"

At first, Johnston says yes, but then, he says well, maybe not all the time as Banks plays him with a smile and a knowing wink. That's followed with everyone chuckling -- Banks, Johnston and the young man's mother and sister who are with him on-camera. He also says he is "pretty sure" Sarah Palin knew he and his daughter were "sexually active."

I wonder what sense other teenagers will make of Johnston being treated like a celebrity and chatting so "intimately" with such a beautiful woman. I wonder why we have so many unwed teenage fathers and mothers.

Here is the hype from the Tyra Show on the "exclusive" interview:

For the first time, Levi Johnston, the former fiancé of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, breaks his silence and sits down exclusively with the "Tyra Show." Levi talks about his relationship with Bristol, what it was like to be thrust into the spotlight at the Republican National Convention, and why his engagement with Bristol Palin ended.

Levi shares intimate details about his relationship with Bristol, what he really thinks of Gov. Palin and what it's like to be a teen father. Find out if Sarah Palin knew Levi and Bristol were sexually active and what he has to say about practicing safe sex. Tune in to the "Tyra Show" on Monday, April 6th for the full interview with Levi and his mother and sister. Click here for your local listings.

In Baltimore, the interview is scheduled to air at 11 a.m. Monday on WUTB (Channel 24).

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: TV and Politics
        

How eager are cable channel TLC executives to get Jon and Kate Gosselin and their brood back on the air since their season ended two weeks ago with a finale that beat network series like Heroes and 24 with young women viewers?

Well, on April 19, less than a month after they went off the air, Jon & Kate Plus 8 will be back with a special on how they are making their new house "eco-friendly," according to TLC. Does this commitment to the environment on the part of the Gosselins sound like a bit of a stretch? Of course, but if you are a savvy programmer like TLC's Eileen O'Neill, you do whatever you can to keep this bickering couple and their kids on the air.

Here's how the folks at TLC explain the special:

Please note our special JON & KATE PLUS 8 GREEN on Sunday, April 19 at 9 PM ET/PT.  The special shows how the Gosselins make eco-friendly changes to their new home.  As you may know, Eileen O'Neill was the president at Planet Green before coming to TLC, so this is a great episode that reflects the network's more environmental approach under her influence.  It's also a fresh new episode for fans missing the show since its season finale.  

Another full season is expected to start in about a month, a network spokeswoman said. I can't wait to hear what the folks at gosselinswithoutpity have to say about the special.

(Above: TLC Photo of Jon and Kate Gosselin with kids Leah and Collin by Kate Alquist) 

Posted by David Zurawik at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (24)
Categories: Reality TV
        

NBC's medical drama ER ended its 15 year run on a strong ratings note Thursday night attracting an audience of 16.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen figures supplied by NBC. 

It was the biggest audience for the final epsiode of a drama series since Murder, She Wrote ended its CBS run in 1996, the network says.

By way of comparision, the CBS newsmagazine, 60 Minutes, has been averaging 15 million viewers a week this season. So, while ER's numbers are good, they are not through the roof.

Posted by David Zurawik at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: NBC, Scripted Series
        

The second season of HBO's In Treatment series starts Sunday, and that's a weekend viewing pick that I can really get behind.

With Golden Globe winner Gabriel Byrne as a psychologist and Emmy Award winner Dianne Wiest as his therapist, this series boasts some of the best acting talent on television. And with Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning writers like Warren Leight and Marsha Norman, respectively, it is the richest and most literate drama on TV. The production returns Sunday night with two new patients for Byrne's Dr. Paul Weston to see, and they are played with edge and bite by Hope Davis and Alison Pill.

The series, which airs as five episodes a week for seven weeks, continues Monday at 9 with the debut of two other new patients: John Mahoney as a CEO losing control, and Aaron Shaw, a 12-year-old actor from Baltimore County, who is flat-out terrific as a child patient with eating and body issues complicated by the abandonment he feels as his parents go through divorce. I profiled Shaw last Sunday, and you can read that here.

Photo of Aaron Shaw as Oliver with Gabriel Byrne as Dr. Paul Weston courtesy of HBO

How good is this young man?

"Aaron just kept getting better and better," Leight said of Aaron's acting the past four months during which the series was taped. "And by the way, the other actors who are trying to do what he does are Hope Davis and John Mahoney.

In Treatment and the discovery of young talent like Aaron Shaw are the kind of the things that make HBO worth the extra money.

Posted by David Zurawik at 6:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Baltimore Television
        

I stopped watching ER after the first five years, but I decided to give the finale a try after the spirited replies I received to my Thursday post about ER not being the equal of St. Elsewhere. While I was far from dazzled, I have to say creator John Wells took the series out with a respectable finale.

I especially liked the final scene with the ER team suiting up and standing ready to respond in the courtyard to the arriving fleet of emergency vehicles loaded with victims of an industrial explosion. Perhaps, it was one last tweaks at the critics who said the pilot looked more like a feature film and would never make it as a TV series -- because it was definitely a movie ending.

There were no brilliant or original threads in the finale, but I also liked the story line of Dr. Greene's daughter visiting with a group of prospective medical students. I wish, though, that Wells had cast the part a better. The actress playing Greene's daughter didn't do much but smile. A better performance by the young actress would have added a lot more emotion to the last shot we saw of her running into the hospital after Dr. Carter.

And let's talk about Noah Wyle as Carter. Wells hung a big chunk of this last two-hour episode on Wyle, and he didn't do much with the part. Again, it was an incredibly limited performance of only one or two notes -- mainly characterized by the continual look of a man smiling through the pain. It was hard to be moved by this character's story either. And if you weren't moved by Carter, who among the regulars was going to move you?

John Stamos, Uncle Jesse? Please. Actually, Stamos is a much better actor than I remember him being. But when Stamos is your go-to guy for emotion as he was in the finale, you are hurting. The fact that Stamos is your go-to guy is a barometer of how far the series has fallen since the days of George Clooney.

And why wasn't more use made of Eriq LaSalle? Here's an actor who could have provided much more than he was called on to do Thursday night.

Ernest Borgnine did a decent turn in a guest starring role as a man whose wife dies in the hospital, but, my goodness, I have seen that scenario exploited too many times to count. Wells and NBC could have done better for a finale than life, death, Ernest Borgnine and endless promotional messages for the network's new cop drama, Southland.

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (34)
Categories: Scripted Series, TV Review
        

It is a national day and night of celebration and mourning for fans of the long-running ER. 

I realize how dangerous it is to say anything less than gushing when fans are grappling with separation anxiety as they are today. But the truth is that St. Elsewhere was a more important and better medical drama. It was far more innovative, with much better writing. It was also groundbreaking in its handling of adult subject matter, and I dare anyone to come back here after the final credits roll and tell me that tonight's finale was better than the brilliant ending of St. Elsewhere. Remember the child and the snowy globe?

ER was a medical drama that wanted to be a soap opera, St. Elsewhere was a medical drama that wanted to be a Samuel Beckett play.

Still, ER was a great drama in terms of its cast and 15-year run, if nothing else, and tonight's finale does mark the end of an era.

Here's what I said in a piece on the finale at cnn.com, and I believe history will bear me out.

Baltimore Sun television critic David Zurawik, who writes about the industry in the paper's "Z on TV" blog, said there may never be another collection of such talent in an ensemble drama on network television.

"There's just no way in the business model of network television for a producer out in Hollywood to say 'Here's the concept, and I've got this star, this star and this star,' " Zurawik said.

"By the time they got two sentences out, the production studio head they are pitching would say 'Who's going to be paying for that.' The economics for that are just not there, and neither is the audience."

Zurawik noted that audiences and actors alike now have gravitated to cable television, where dramatic hits such as "Mad Men" and "Rescue Me" are being produced by the likes of AMC and FX.

"Cable is growing whereas network TV isn't," Zurawik said. "The better actors, the ones who work in film and theater, really like doing cable because cable has been flexible. It's not, if you sign on to this series you are going to do 22 episodes a year and you have to sign away five or six years of your life. Nobody wants to do that anymore."

You can read the full cnn.com story on ER's finale by Lisa Respers France here. And while just the gift of George Clooney would be enough to celebrate ER, let's not mis-remember how great St. Elsewhere was. In fact, I am going back tonight to watch the Elsewhere ending again. I'll save my tears for that long-ago and far-away TV moment.

(Above: NBC photo of Eriq La Salle and Noah Wyle in tonight's ER finale by James Stenson)

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (27)
Categories: NBC, Scripted Series, TV Review
        

But NBC Universal Wednesday issued the following statement:

NBC Universal, The Weinstein Company and Lifetime have resolved their disputes. The Weinstein Company will pay NBCU for the right to move Project Runway to Lifetime. All of the parties are pleased with the outcome. Harvey Weinstein added, "I want to personally congratulate Jeff Zucker and NBCU on their success in the litigation and thank Jeff for resolving this in a professional manner. We look forward to working together on our ongoing projects.”

Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn  & Co. are back in the prime-time fashion and reality TV business after the nasty spat that hurt their fans more than any of the three show-biz entities involved.

Andrea Wong, president and CEO of the Lifetime Networks issued the following statement confirming the summer start:

I couldn’t be more excited that Lifetime will bring its viewers an amazing, all-new season of Project Runway this summer.  As the highest-rated cable network for women, Lifetime is the perfect home for this outstanding program as well as its companion series Models of the Runway.  All of us at Lifetime are thrilled to move forward with Heidi, Tim, Nina, Michael, The Weinstein Company and the entire Project Runway team.

(Above: Bravo photo of Tim Gunn and season five contestant Keith by Barbara Nitke)

Posted by David Zurawik at 4:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Coming Soon to TV, Reality TV
        

Guiding Light, the longest-running show in TV history, will end its epic 57-year run in September, CBS and the show's producers announced Wednesday. CBS decided not to renew the landmark daytime series for another season.

Here's the statement from the network:

Guiding Light, the longest running show in broadcast history, will complete its final season on the CBS Television Network in September. The daytime drama was not renewed by CBS for the 2009/2010 broadcast season, marking the end of its 57 year run on the Network.

Over the years, GL has been on the forefront of innovation in both use of technology and groundbreaking storytelling. GL launched the careers of several Hollywood personalities, dramatized relevant social issues and has been awarded numerous accolades, including an unprecedented 69 Daytime Emmy awards.

 "Being on the air for more than seven decades is truly remarkable, and it will be difficult for all of us at the show to say goodbye," said Executive Producer Ellen Wheeler. "I'm proud of everything we've been able to do... This show has such a rich history, wonderful fans, and I'm honored to have been a part of the GL legacy."

Posted by David Zurawik at 3:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: CBS, Scripted Series
        

Peabody Awards for 2008 will go to one of the most diverse and socially-responsible lineups of programs in the history of television's oldest and most prestigious award. They range from ABC TV's serialized drama, Lost and HBO's John Adams miniseries to CNN's coverage of the presidential election and NBC's Opening Ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. YouTube, Saturday Night Live and The Onion were also honored.

In terms of Baltimore flavor, ABC News won for its Hopkins documentary, a sequel to Hopkins 24/7 that followed the lives of doctors and patients at the world-renowned hospital. WBAL-TV (Channel 11), Baltimore's NBC affiliate, will share a Peabody with 24 other stations owned by Hearst-Argyle -- for reporting by a TV group on political candidates and races.

"All-access filmmaking in the corridors and operating rooms of a fabled teaching hospital produced human drama of open-heart intensity," the judges said of the Hopkins series.

The awards, which were announced Wednesday, also honored some of the most innovative and daring broadcast efforts in decades. They included The Giant Pool of Money, a team effort by public radio's This American Life and NPR to explain the nation's economic meltdown long before any TV networks or cable channels tried to do so.

NBC's Saturday Night Live won for its political coverage that included Tina Fey as Alaska Gov. and GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

"The late-night legend stole the election-year thunder from its satirical competition on cable and may have swayed the election itself," the judges said.

One of the most encouraging awards was the one that went Richard Engel, of NBC Nightly News, for a series of battlefield reports from Afghanistan. Engel is one the last great war correspondents, and it is nice to see him honored.

For a complete list of awards: http://www.peabody.uga.edu

Posted by David Zurawik at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: ABC, Baltimore Television, NBC, PBS