July 21, 2008
The NBC executive session at the TCA press tour featured many scheduling announcements. Jay Leno's final episode of The Tonight Show will be Friday, May 29, 2009 and Conan O'Brien will take over the following Monday, June 1. Conan will be stopping his current show in early 2009 and Jimmy Fallon will take over in either March or April, following a virtual preview of the show that will exist online prior to its network premiere.
The other big story was Amy Poehler's role on the new show from The Office writers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur which is officially NOT an Office spin-off. Though Daniels is also developing a spin-off that would include characters currently on The Office, the Amy Poehler show will be tonally similar but has no direct connection to The Office.
July 19, 2008
While accepting the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Miniseries for John Adams, executive producer Tom Hanks was thankful that the TCA Awards are not televised due to his random, somewhat dirty humor. After attending Saturday night's ceremony, I feel just the opposite, because the awards themselves and particularly the acceptance speeches were so hilarious that it's a shame more people don't get to see them,
The TCA Awards recognize the best in television, and this year the awards were divided among three shows: 30 Rock, Mad Men and the HBO miniseries John Adams. In an odd moment of mutual adoration from critics and the industry, those just happen to be the three most nominated programs at this year's Emmys.
July 16, 2008
Below is the audio of our discussion, and the ten semi-finalists for the category and the episode they sent in for consideration. For Best Actor, only the top 7 semi-finalists were leaked, but five nominees will likely come from the below seven actors.
Ricky Gervais won in a surprising result last year for the HBO series Extras. In doing so, both Steve Carell and Alec Baldwin were snubbed. Look for one of those two actors to take home the statue this year. This category, as always, is full of big-name actors. They are mostly deserving, save for Charlie Sheen.
July 2, 2008
The list of acting finalists for this year's Emmy Awards is nearly complete thanks to Tom O'Neil at Gold Derby. He has already uncovered all the major Drama categories, and now he has both Supporting Actor and Actress categories on the Comedy side. The lists are largely dominated by NBC, thanks to three apiece for past Emmy champions The Office and 30 Rock.
Continue reading for these top 10s and a little analysis.
June 30, 2008
With the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences releasing the top 10 finalists for Outstanding Comedy and Drama Series last week, awards fanatics can now feel like they're a part of the nomination process. In recent years, the Emmys have complicated their process a bit, adding in panels, episode judging and weighted ballots to determine who will be deemed the five best shows of the season.
Thanks to the intrepid reporting of Tom O'Neil at TheEnvelope.com, we also know the specific episodes submitted for consideration by each show. Over the weekend, panels gathered in Los Angeles to view one episode submitted by the top 10 finalists for Outstanding Comedy and Drama Series and then ranked them from best to worst. With the episode titles, you too can determine which episodes are your favorites, and with BuddyTV's newly expanded Video feature, you can even watch a few of them right here for free. Continue reading for the Outstanding Comedy Series episodes.
June 13, 2008
Check out the BuddyTV personality quiz, "Which 30 Rock Character Are You?"
Simply answer 15 carefully constructed questions which will calculate the character on 30 Rock that you are most like? Are you an immature, yet somehow successful, man-child like Frank? Or, are you self-absorbed and oblivious like Janna Maroney? Or perhaps you are hopelessly neurotic and self-conscious like Liz Lemon? Take the quiz and find out.
May 23, 2008
Today NBC announced a more detailed schedule for its Fall premieres, including a few changes. The Molly Shannon/Selma Blair sitcom Kath and Kim will move from Tuesdays to Thursdays, leaving room for The Biggest Loser to gain 30 extra minutes. Also, the new series America's Toughest Jobs from the producers of Ice Road Truckers, will premiere this Fall as opposed to next Summer, which NBC originally planned.
Additionally, NBC announced premiere dates for all of its shows. Heroes is returning one week later than previously announced and 30 Rock fans will undoubtedly be upset, and with good reason. Read on to see the new NBC Fall 2008 schedule and premiere dates.
May 9, 2008
30 Rock aired its second season finale yesterday, and the story was typically finale-like. There were “big questions” facing our protagonists, ranging from “How do I get fired from my government job?” to “Am I pregnant?” to “How best do you record the dialogue for a pornographic video game?” The meatiest part of the finale involved Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy and his foray into government work. At the end of last week's episode we learned that Jack had been appointed by the President to serve in the Department of Homeland Security. What followed was a wonderful skewering of the Bush presidency, but more importantly, might tell us something about Alec Baldwin's future life plans.