Martha Stewart pulls an Oprah: Her show is moving to Hallmark Channel
"The Martha Stewart Show" is leaving syndication, where it got modest ratings, for cable, where Martha will be able to create other additional shows for the Hallmark Channel. But why Hallmark? According to the L.A. Times, "landing Stewart is a high-profile move that it hopes will broaden its appeal. While the channel gets decent ratings, it is not as strong in urban and wealthy markets as it is elsewhere. Stewart caters to an upscale audience that the channel hopes will translate to stronger advertising dollars."
Larry the Cable Guy gets a History channel series
"Only in America with Larry the Cable Guy" will follow the comic as he visits historic sites around the country.
Oprah Winfrey Network's slogan: "it's your life … own it"
Discovery chief David Zaslav explains the slogan: "This network is not called Oprah, it's called OWN – it's about owning your challenges, your relationships, and moving forward in a positive way."
CBS picks up Josh Schwartz's "Hitched"
The "Gossip Girl" creator's first sitcom will revolve around 20-something newlyweds.
President Obama tells Khloe Kardashian: "Great show"
The two met yesterday at the White House where her husband was being honored for the Lakers' world championship.
Matthew Fox: Finale is sure to disappoint "Lost" fans
The actor tells The Guardian: "When you have a show that makes people think as much as 'Lost'; where you've made them hypothesize about what it all means and where it's all going on a plot level; ultimately you're going to disappoint them because they're going to want it to end a certain way, and it's going to end its own way."
"Weird Al" Yankovic is making a movie for Cartoon Network
Weird Al is expected to direct and play a low-key role in the film, which will revolve around a teenager.
Australia's "Biggest Loser" edits out contestant after child porn arrest
Deryck James Ward, who was competing with his sister, was charged with child pornography earlier this month.
Twitter war: Kirstie Alley vs. Joy Behar
Writes Alley: "Joy Bewhore . . . God, I want to bash her in the vagina with her microphone."
ABC has offered Paula a $1 million development deal that would force her to do "Dancing with the Stars" starting in March, according to TMZ. Weirdly enough, the deal would give Paula leeway to join Simon Cowell on "The X Factor" on Fox in fall 2011. But because "Dancing" is starting up in a few weeks, Paula has to make a quick decision.
That's according to Nikki Finke, who reports that Simon Cowell arrived 90 minutes late to their first taping today, which upset Ellen because of her hectic schedule. Meanwhile, Finke is reporting that Mottola is wanted both to replace Cowell and as a judge in Cowell's American "X Factor." According to Finke, "Execs behind American Idol and The X Factor want a high-profile music industry professional to give some gravitas. And our sources say Mottola, who hasn't made headlines since he left Sony and started a new music label, is loving this situation. He's in the middle of an American TV tug of war!"
But young viewers, particularly young men, had been abandoning Conan's show. "If even a small fraction of the additional younger viewers who flocked to Mr. O’Brien’s show last week had turned up regularly in his earlier ratings results, he would almost surely still be hosting 'The Tonight Show,'" notes Bill Carter. "Instead, for most of this past fall, Mr. O’Brien struggled to command the young viewers he needed to counter a falloff in overall audience numbers." Problem is that grabbing the attention of young viewers, especially late at night, has become an increasingly daunting task.
"It would be easy enough to reduce 'Damages' to the status of a pulpy page-turner," Heather Havrilesky says of Season 3, which kicks off tonight. "After all, it's all plot, right? Start with a story that we're already invested in (Bernie Madoff) but that's still shrouded in mystery even now that Madoff is doing time, throw in some high stakes for everyone involved, toss in a mystery man and a murder, and we're sold. 'Damages' could be far worse and still have an audience, as evidenced by the glut of lackluster whodunits on the air. Despite appearances, though, this show transcends the base level of twisty procedurals with one thing: Patty Hewes."
"It was, all in all, a sweetly subdued ending to half a month of scorched earth," says Mary Elizabeth Williams, referring primarily to 
"In the great high school of life, NBC opted to follow the siren call of cool, explains Neal Gabler. "And now, for what may be the first time since 18 to 49 became the American grail, the system has blown up, so much so that NBC was willing to pay O'Brien tens of millions of dollars just to get rid of him and restore Leno to 'Tonight.' And that is the real significance of the Leno/O'Brien smackdown. Say what you will about Leno, his return is a cultural milestone. As O'Brien faded into the evening last night with bundles of cash and newfound martyrdom, the baby boomers have finally gotten some small measure of revenge, however old and dorky and undesirable they may be."
Jay Leno should also stop tussling with David Letterman, advises Joshua Alston. "Schools of piranha attack with less ferocity than with which David Letterman has chewed up his old rival," he says adding: "While the temptation to retaliate is understandable, Jay has to remember that engaging with Dave only reminds people that Conan isn't the first guy whose job he's taken. The only way to float above the fray is to grin and bear the potshots until the whole thing blows over."
Leno, who last 
The MTV reality show, argues Jon Caramanica, "restored the vitality to reality television in a way no show has accomplished since 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,' and is certainly MTV's greatest cultural phenomenon since 'Jackass.' Its characters have genuine idiosyncrasies. It's endlessly quotable. And with its unwavering commitment to the ethic of partying, it's possibly the last vestige of reality television as it used to be: unself-conscious."
The Syfy prequel, says Heather Havrilesky, "suffers from the awkward starting block of presenting 'the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence and robotics that will eventually lead to the creation of the Cylons,' but it's also charged with exploring the same looming questions that 'Battlestar' did over the course of its run. This means that, not only does every plot point of 'Caprica' feel like a big, obvious explanation for the far more compelling original … but the whole thing is stuffed with the worst sorts of flashy but skin-deep characters.
"I was helpless in its grip," Hank Stuever says of the Starz series premiering tonight. "It's a long way from Kubrick, but what isn't? … It's also just about the grimiest, nastiest, bloodiest thing you could hope to find on TV on a Friday night. Limbs fly. Blood splatters everywhere. One warrior rips off the face of another and wears it as a mask to his next fight. There's lots of soft-core love scenes: Spartacus and his bride frolic around like the original "Joy of Sex" cartoon drawings. Lucretia and Batiatus have their slaves serve as marital aides. And you can't help but laugh at the dialogue."
David Letterman can be forgiven for his pointed barbs (he's always been that way), but Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno traded their friendly facades for a more mean-spirited tone these past few weeks, according to AlessandraStanely . She says: "However clownish, the late-night host is cool and self-contained, sending up the water-cooler follies of the day at a benevolent remove. Suddenly, Mr. Leno, Mr. O’Brien, Mr. Letterman and their ilk are the water-cooler folly, and they are neither removed nor benevolent. At times they have seemed as outraged and sanctimonious as the politicians, news anchors and movie stars they normally lampoon."
Forget Jimmy Fallon: With Conan officially out, the 38-year-old "Community" and "The Soup" star looks like the perfect person to succeed Jay Leno when the Big Chin eventually retires. "He's a triple threat," says Robert J. Hollywood Jr. "He cracks wise and he's at ease on the air (usually). Got a little Bill Murray thing going, a little Van Dyke. Has a Regis-like ability to burn minutes of air time without breakin' a sweat. The guy is a talent. More specifically, he is a TV talent. Meaning: He wears well."
It's been argued that Conan O'Brien never seemed comfortable in "The Tonight Show" slot, but in the past two weeks "CoCo" has elevated his game and recaptured his comedy voice. If NBC had kept Conan in place, James Poniewozik argues that Conan might have "puttered along" — "he might never have figured out how to get comfortable in the mass-market time slot. And a couple years from now, he might have gotten axed anyway, without the argument that he didn't get enough of a chance." But thanks to this brouhaha, Poniewozik says, "NBC has just provided a massive new sampling, an underdog-hero image and a potential future following in a valuable demo group—to a guy they're paying millions to go somewhere else. I don't know if Fox is going to offer Conan a show, but if they were interested two weeks ago, they have to be a hell of a lot more interested now. Well played, NBC."
