Whitest Emmys in years?
Out of 39 presenters, just three were minorities. Says one member of the NAACP: "It shows a clear lack of creativity and vision in network television. In this age of President Obama, the networks are clearly on the wrong side of history. You don't see families like the Obamas on network television."
Letterman proves he's better at interviewing Obama than Sunday news shows
"Meet the Press" and George Stephanopoulos basically gave the same interview to the president. Meanwhile, David Letterman managed to "catch his subject off guard and force him to think on his feet," says Steve Kornacki, who adds: "The genius, if you can call it that, of Letterman’s approach with newsmaker guests is that he doesn’t ever try to outsmart them, or impress them with his knowledge, or corner them with gotcha questions. He takes the opposite approach, stepping back from the microscopic level at which most journalists operate and instead making broad, innocent-seeming inquiries that are more philosophical in nature—and that newsmakers like Obama never think to prepare for."
Dave has 2nd-best overnight ratings in 4 years // Why Obama would never do Conan
CBS replaces "Three Rivers" pilot
The pilot episode has been scrapped in favor of a later, and much stronger, episode.
Neil Patrick Harris lands another hosting gig
He'll guest host "It's Magic!" a celebration of magicians at the Kodak Theatre on Nov. 8.
Introducing the "How I Met Your Mother" Shame Index
Each week, Slate.com will closely examine "HIMYM's" tendency to be either really great, or really bad, or some combination of both.
"How I Met Your Mother's" Ted = Ross from "Friends"?
Remember Ross Gellar was a professor, too. As Alan Sepinwall points out, "HIMYM's" co-creators "have embraced (Ted's) inherent douchiness and have turned it into a conduit for jokes." PLUS: Check out Stripper Lily and Cobie Smulders considers herself a single mom, even though she's engaged to her baby's daddy.
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"Dancing's" ratings fall with Tom DeLay
About 17.5 million viewers watched last night's season premiere, the lowest opening audience since season one.
"House" helps Fox win season's 1st night, Leno falls further, "Big Bang" has big return
NBC, meanwhile, saw "Heroes" lose half its viewers. On CBS, "The Big Bang Theory" nearly had ratings as big as "Two and a Half Men."
Texas Tech's quirky football coach films "Friday Night Lights" cameo
Lawyer-turned-football coach Mike Leach, a good buddy of Donald Trump's whom "60 Minutes" dubbed "The Mad Scientist of Football," will play either himself or another character in a cameo he shot over the weekend while in Austin playing archrival the University of Texas, whose head coach appeared in the 1st "FNL" episode.
ESPN scolded for airing "Sorority Row" ads during college football
Why bring back memories of Ted Bundy during a "A great football game"?
Jonathan Rhys Meyers goes grey for "The Tudors"
He's currently working on the final years of King Henry VIII's life.
Heather Locklear's "Melrose Place" role revealed: She'll play Katie Cassidy's boss
They'll work together at a PR firm, in a battle of past and current vixens.
D.C. "Real Housewives" revealed?
The alleged reality housewives include one of Washington's best-dressed women and the wife of a Republican fundraiser.
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Michael Emerson wants to join his wife on "True Blood"
The "Lost" star, who is married to Carrie Preston (AKA "True Blood's" Arlene Fowler) would like to play her dad. “I would go on any Alan Ball show to do just about anything," he says. "I will be the face in the window, I will be the cab driver… I don’t want to be a vampire."
David Carradine talks about the afterlife on HBO's "Celebrity Ghost Stories"
In an eerie interview taped months before his death, Carradine says that he believes the "ghost" of his wife Annie's dead husband visited him from the couple's bedroom closet. The interview airs on Oct. 3.
Claim: Kate Gosselin broke down during her talk show pilot
"Producers flashed a picture of Kate's children on a screen and she burst into tears," a source on "Mom Logic" tells Page Six. Meanwhile, another source tells E! that Kate was too shy during filming of the pilot. PLUS: Kathy Griffin is now BFFs with Kate.
"House" season premiere was like a brilliant stand-alone feature film
It was, says Melinda Beck, "an intriguing look at madness, depression, redemption, pain – and a reminder of how, for all the medical oddities along the way, it’s emotional intelligence that has kept 'House, MD' right on the edge of absurdity without going over it, for five seasons." PLUS: How can "House" maintain its "House-ness" after this episode?
John Barrowman: "Desperate Housewives" wants to write a role for me
"I met with the creator when I was last in Los Angeles," says the "Torchwood" star. "He said he would like to write a role for me in the series. That’s as far as it is at the moment."
Next year's Emmys are expected to plunge in the ratings
NBC will host next year's awards, which means it will likely air in August to avoid "Sunday Night Football." And the last time that happened, viewership fell by 2.5 million viewers. PLUS: Visiting Emmy parties and Charles Dickens and niche shows have an Emmy stranglehold.
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"The Good Wife": The season's best new drama?
Despite arriving in the wake of the Eliot Spitzer and Mark Sanford scandals, "The Good Wife" manages to create its own spin on political scandal. "So often quality TV is defined mostly by writing," says Rob Owen. "But CBS's 'The Good Wife' is both a well-written legal drama and a terrific showcase for actress Julianna Margulies, who elevates the already-good material with her perceptive, open performance."
"Wife" gets the underbelly of politics // "Good Wife" stands above all new dramas
Too much telegraphing // "Good Wife" made Margulies look at cheating diferently
Christian Slater's "The Forgotten" is the worst new drama
"The worst new series of fall, ABC’s 'The Forgotten' calls to mind a TV show that was conceived on toilet paper, sold to drunken network executives and brought to the small screen by felons working off their court-imposed community service," says Mark A. Perigard.
So many things are wrong with "Forgotten" // Why Christian Slater came back to TV
"NCIS: Los Angeles" is really just a buddy cop show
"CBS' latest dramatic brand extension really amounts to a lazy way of promoting a buddy-cop procedural," says Brian Lowry, "with Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J as crimefighters who see a lifetime's worth of action in just the premiere. That the show was a planted spinoff from 'NCIS"' rib and signals its 'Los Angeles' locale with conspicuous beach backgrounds represents the network's determination that viewers know everything from the title, which is mostly true. O'Donnell and Cool J have credible chemistry, and it's nice to see Linda Hunt as their boss. Beyond that, no investigation is necessary to grasp the formula."
LL Cool J on landing the role: He didn't have to audition // Behind the scenes
Rocky Carroll pulls double duty // How Linda Hunt ended up on "NCIS"
It somehow works despite feeling surprisingly baroque and picturesque
"NCIS" has the TV-cop recipe down pat — it's fun to watch without being innovative
Like the original, funny banter will be a staple of "NCIS: LA,"
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The CW has talked the 47-year-old Locklear into reprising her role as Amanda Woodward, starting on Nov. 17, to boost ratings after a bad start. "We're ecstatic to have the chance to bring Amanda Woodward back to Melrose Place," the show's executive producers said in a statement. "Heather's involvement in the show is something we've been working on for some time as we couldn't imagine creating and producing this show without the iconic character's inclusion."
