http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/ en Copyright 2008 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:12:08 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss When William Petersen leaves "CSI" this coming season -- 10 episodes in -- he will be replaced by an actor of "stature" who will play an outsider to the CSI, who "has the DNA" of a serial killer and who is on a "journey" to discover his "true character." So says CBS entertainment President Nina Tassler to TV critics at Thank God We're Working TV Press Tour 2008. Still, she said when asked, this character is not "informed" by Showtime's "Dexter" -- a series that aired this past season on CBS to fill a hole left by the writers strike -- about a forensics specialist working with the police department who has the DNA of a serial killer and his journey to discover his true character. The big difference? "CSI's" serial-killer-DNA guy has not killed anybody while "Dexter's" serial-killer-DNA guy has killed scads. Peterson, Tassler tells us, is leaving to http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/serial_killer_doctor_joining_c.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/serial_killer_doctor_joining_c.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:12:08 -0400 It's ABC's day at Thank God We're Working TV Press Tour 2008. Which means it's time for the traditional TV Press Tour new-season rollout-dates announcement: ABC's PRIME-TIME PREMIERE DATES: Fri., Sept. 19 10-11 -- "20/20" Mon., Sept. 22 8-10 -- "Dancing with the Stars" (special two-hour performance show premiere) 10-11 -- "Boston Legal" Tues., Sept. 23 8-9 -- "Opportunity Knocks" (new series debut) 9-11 -- Dancing With the Stars" (special performance show) Wed., Sept. 24 8-9 -- "Dancing with the Stars Results Show Special" (special day and time) 9-11 -- "David Blaine Special" Thurs., Sept. 25 8-9 "Ugly Betty" 9-11 -- "Grey's Anatomy" (special two-hour season premiere) Sun., Sept. 28 7-9 -- "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (two-hour season premiere) 9-10 -- "Desperate Housewives" 10-11 -- "Brothers & Sisters" Tues., Sept. 30 9-10 -- "Dancing with the Stars Result Show" (regular day and time period premiere) Wed., Oct. 1 8-9 -- http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/abcs_rollout_plans.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/abcs_rollout_plans.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:25:53 -0400 Because FX's "The Shield" is about to start its final season, TV critics naturally greet the cast and crew of the series who show up at Summer TV Press Tour 2008 with one topic of discussion: the finale. Will it be "Seinfeld" dreadful? "Sopranos" pretentious? "St. Elsewhere"/"MASH" brilliant? "I think if and when you watch the finale, it will feel like 'The Shield' universe," series creator/executive producer Shawn Ryan tells the throng of adoring critics. " It will feel completely appropriate." Zzzzzzzzzzzz... "It's the greatest finale ever, that you'll ever see anywhere -- hands down," actress CCH Pounder jumps in. "Blew my socks off. I'm not a great fan of 'The Shield' as a watcher in the sense of I'm like a cringy person -- I'm a bit of a chicken, even though my role is so huge and non-chicken-like," she says while looking not at the critics in the http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/the_shield_gang_slaps_self_on.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/the_shield_gang_slaps_self_on.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:48:05 -0400 Karl Rove came to the press tour to plug his role as commentator at Fox News Channel. But one TV critic wanted to know whether he watched the Fox broadcast network's animated series. "I don't, no," Rove said. "Because they really beat up on you a lot," the critic explained, "and I just wondered how you felt about that." Rove said a lot of people beat up on him, citing - you know it's coming - the New York Times. "My attitude is I know who I am. I'm not the myth that I've been developed into, and there's nothing I can do - I'm like Grendel and Beowolf. People talk about me a lot, and they don't see me very often." -- Lisa de Moraes http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/the_everanimated_rove.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/the_everanimated_rove.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:11:45 -0400 Are you living with the shame of not understanding what the heck is going on in JJ Abrams's ABC series "Lost"? Did you only pretend to have any idea what was up with the whole Rimbaldi thing on Abrams's "Alias"? Don't be embarrassed - you're not alone. "I was at my friend Greg Grunberg's house year ago -- he was on 'Alias' and Heroes' now -- ...and 'Alias' was on," Abrams told TV critics at Summer TV Press Tour 2008. "He put it on and I was watching and I wasn't thinking about it. I watched a few minutes and was so confused. I was like, literally, it was impenetrable. I was like: 'I know I should understand this. I read the - who the [expletive] is THAT guy?!'" -- Lisa de Moraes http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/lost_in_translation.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/lost_in_translation.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:03:42 -0400 Best at-mike patter by on-air talent at Thank God We're Working TV Press Tour 2008 goes to Aaron Brown, former CNN anchor/whipping post who is the new host of PBS's "Wide Angle" and who was introduced at a "Wide Angle" cocktail reception by WNET's VP of national programs, Stephen Segaller. But Segaller first reads rave review e-mails the station had received about the addition of Brown to the show. "Getting my mother the computer and teaching her about e-mail has paid off," Brown tells the gathering of TV critics and reporters, who are sitting around, eating cheese and crackers, drinking wine and beer, taking notes. Brown just got back from Jordan and Syria and is some kind of seriously jet-lagged."I am so totally brain dead," he jokes. "You all should have been with me at 3:30 this morning when I woke up because I was really good -- funny and http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/aaron_brown_redux.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/aaron_brown_redux.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:44:33 -0400 Kevin Kline, brilliant actor, came to Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Sunday to take questions about PBS's upcoming broadcast of "Great Performances: 'Cyrano de Bergerac.'" The show is the sold out limited-engagement Broadway production of Edmond Rostand's romantic story about a lawyer-poet with a gimongous proboscis who is in love with his beautiful but, you have to admit, dim cousin Roxane. In a wonderful bit of typecasting, "Alias," "Catch and Release," "Kingdom" and "Juno" hottie Jennifer Garner plays Rox to Kline's Cyrano. "Kevin is a celestial actor, but where is Jennifer?" asks one TV critic, demonstrating how TV critics get such a bad name. "It seemed like a kind of funny casting trick: Let's get a big audience: We will put on the star from 'Alias' from TV who, you know, is a spy that runs around in tight clothing. "Can you talk about how it was to act with http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/post_11.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/post_11.html Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:35:34 -0400 The reality television genre has "exploded in the last five or six years," David Lyle, president of Fox Reality Channel told critics at Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Friday. According to Lyle, in 2002 broadcast TV networks introduced 27 reality shows, and 22 reality shows were introduced by cable networks. This year there will be 32 new reality shows on broadcast and 140 on cable. "Reality is no longer alternative programming. In fact, it is the cornerstone of modern television, like it or not," he said. In the critics' case, that would be "or not." http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/post_10.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/post_10.html Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:44:08 -0400 British actress Gina Bellman says she's recognized more in the United States than in the U.K. as that actress from the British comedy series "Coupling." Bellman came to Summer TV Press Tour 2008 here in Beverly Hills on Friday to plug her TNT drama "Leverage," from Dean Devlin, producer of "Independence Day" and "The Patriot." The new show is about a group of hackers, thieves, con artists and grifters who help out people who are being taken advantage of by powerful bad guys. One critic wondered whether Bellman gets recognized a lot as "the 'Coupling' lady." "I don't know if it's because the British are a bit more laid-back, but I think it's more a case of 'Coupling' still runs here and it hasn't run in England for a long time ... actually I get much more recognition here because it's on all the time," she said, adding, "and I http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/post_9.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/post_9.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:25:10 -0400 The Reporters Who Cover Television are keenly interested in asking any African American they can get their hands on at Summer TV Press Tour 2008 what they think of Barack Obama's presidential campaign and the likelihood of him succeeding. That's the case because filmmaker Shelton Lee, aka Spike Lee, predicts that as of Inauguration Day 2009, "you will have to measure time Before Obama and After Obama." Director and filmmaker Spike Lee. (Frederick Brown/Getty) Among those things touched by the "seismic change in the universe," he said, is the entertainment industry. Really. "The gatekeepers are not people of color and that's how things are going to change," Lee said. "Because there's only a few people...who decide what films get made and don't get made, what goes on television and what doesn't." http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/_the_reporters_who_cover.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/_the_reporters_who_cover.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:21:40 -0400 Just a few short years after TV networks took shots at the TV press tour over the absence of African Americans in front of and behind the camera, Comedy Central introduces to critics "Chocolate News," a sketch comedy show that focuses, the cable network says, on "the urban experience in America from the African-American perspective." It was created by and stars David Alan Grier. It is executive-produced by four white guys, who join Grier on stage at Summer TV Press Tour 2008. Actor David Alan Grier (Stuart Ramson/AP) "I can't help but notice that most of the panel are white guys," one sharp-eyed TV critic notes right off the bat. "You represent, yeah, but why aren't there more African Americans up there?" the critic asks. "What do you mean by that?" Grier asks. "I don't know if you noticed that the guys to your right are white," the critic says. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/chocolate_news.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/chocolate_news.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:28:31 -0400 *"Nightline" icon Ted Koppel joins BBC America's newscast and "Nightline" hires former "The View" co-host Lisa Ling. What could be more perfect? Less than 24 hours after BBCA announced Koppel had joined its newscast, ABC's late night news show announced Ling would contribute a series of reports for the show. Lisa Ling (Courtesy of National Geographic) Not to worry; Ling will continue to be a special correspondent for Oprah Winfrey's show. In the past, Ling has covered the crisis of AIDS orphans in Uganda and bride burning in India. But for her debut on "Nightline," Ling will expose the astronomical growth of retirement age people in America and the shockingly rapid growth of luxury retirement communities to meet the growing demand. She will travel to two high-end retirement living complexes in the wilds of Northern California, where she gets residents to open up about the heartbreaking challenges they face in http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/nightline_icon_ted_koppel_join.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/nightline_icon_ted_koppel_join.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:22:52 -0400 Nothing is so perplexing for an actor as playing to a room filled with reporters and critics whose eyes are glued - to their laptops. What with all the blogging, twittering, e-mailing, Internet trawling and editor-messaging that goes on all day long at the tour, it's no wonder even the most seasoned actors sometimes leave a press-tour Q&A session with a death-where-is-thy-sting look about them. But none has ever actually chastized the critics for their inattention. Until now: "This is so weird sitting on a white leather sofa, talking to loads of people while they all check their e-mails," snipped James Corden, co-creator of, and an actor in, the new BBC America comedy series "Gavin & Stacey." "It is so amazing. There are people [in the audience] going "Yeah! Oh, yeah!" There are a couple of people shopping. He's on YouTube!" Corden marveled. "Some woman was on [her] Facebook., but http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/vive_la_indifference.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/vive_la_indifference.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:16:35 -0400 Former ABC News "grand dame" Ted Koppel appeared at the press tour via satellite to discuss the news that he'd been named a contributor to BBC America's "BBC World News America" just in time for the Democratic and Republican national conventions. Journalist Ted Koppel. (Haraz Ghanbari/AP) One critic remembered that it wasn't long ago when Koppel said conventions weren't so important these days. "Have you changed your mind on that at all?" he was asked. "I did more than express an opinion on that," Koppel responded. " In 1996, I walked out of the Republican convention in San Diego, pointing out that it was really nothing more than a picture show and there wasn't any news happening," he said. Although it's already clear who the two parties' candidates will be this year, Koppel insists this year's conventions will not be the infomercials he accused the GOP convention of being in http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/ted_koppel_again_a_conventiona.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/ted_koppel_again_a_conventiona.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:52:44 -0400 Members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists today approved their new three-year contract with Hollywood studios. The Screen Actors Guild had tried its best to kill the AFTRA deal. No wonder -- industry navel-gazers have forecast that the smaller union's approval probably would put the kibosh on any idea the SAG leadership might have to ask its members to give the thumbs-up on a possible strike. SAG's contract with Hollywood studios expired at the end of last month. Actress Barbara Niven (Frederick Brown/Getty) Appearing at Day 1 of Thank God We're Working Summer TV Press Tour 2008 to promote HER new Glutinous Hallmark Channel Made-for-TV Movie, SAG national board member Barbara Niven explained to TV critics, "All of us in this business, we love what we do so much. We just want to all get a little piece of the pie so we can keep doing it. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/saghollywood_labor_update.html?nav=rss_blog http://blog.washingtonpost.com/tvblog/2008/07/saghollywood_labor_update.html Summer TV Press Tour 2008 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:40:50 -0400