Maggie Lange · 08/14/13 12:17PM
Prepare to high-five a million Tina Fey angels: she's developing a new show for NBC, that should be like "Cheers... on Fire Island." What? Whatever, I mean obviously we'll take it.
Prepare to high-five a million Tina Fey angels: she's developing a new show for NBC, that should be like "Cheers... on Fire Island." What? Whatever, I mean obviously we'll take it.
Jason Sudeikis announced tonight on Letterman that he's leaving SNL. He's the third male cast member to leave the show since last season, following Bill Hader and Fred Armisen. Seth Meyers, set to replace Jimmy Fallon when he jumps to the helm of the "Tonight Show," will also leave sometime over the next season.
Last last week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) delivered a masterful defense of her proposed update to the bank-regulating Glass-Steagall Act on CNBC's "Squawk Box," effectively shutting down co-anchor Brian Sullivan's claim that government can't do anything to rein in financial risk.
Community creator Dan Harmon tweeted that he will be returning to the show for its fifth season. He was dismissed from the show before its fourth (and worst) season.
On Sunday, NBC stunned no one by announcing Jimmy Fallon's eventual Late Night replacement: long-time Saturday Night Live head writer (and current Weekend Update anchor) Seth Meyers. The stunning part happened next, on the network's official Twitter handle.
As the scene in Watertown, Mass escalated, news channels were, understandably, confused about exactly what was happening. One brave reporter for New England Cable News admitted as much live on the air, albeit accidentally. As Brian Williams cut to the channel, an unidentified reporter can be heard saying "Oh, you're not listening? Well, I don't know shit."
Wholly unsubstantiated rumors of an impending Friends reunion slated for Thanksgiving 2014 made mild waves online last week.
Chris Brown's contrived redemption tour continues — in an interview with Matt Lauer that aired earlier this morning on Today to promote his underwhelming new single "Fine China," the singer repeatedly emphasized how good and positive his current state of mind is. He did this with words. ("For my album and what I'm promoting as far as the single or whatever it is, it's just about me being positive..." "Everything's good. We're fine." "I'm not really focused on the negative. Everything is positive for me." "Movin' forward. Positive.") He also did this with his shirt, which sported a print of interlocking hearts, peace signs and laurel wreaths. Behold, love's champion.
New York magazine's lengthy dissection of the ultimate first-world problem that is morning-news drama is a good read, if you're into media navelgazing. Covering Matt Lauer's role as the villain in Ann Curry's unsentimental firing from the Today Show, and the Today Show's subsequent fall from grace, the piece contains a lot of interesting information that helps shed darkness on the sometimes frustratingly bouncy world of morning news programs.
After Ann Curry was unceremoniously fired from The Today Show last year, nugget-headed everyman cohost Matt Lauer was demonized as the driving force behind her ouster. But did Lauer really deserve to become morning TV's most hated man? According to a new New York magazine profile by Joe Hagan... yes, he kind of did.
Brian Williams, famed misspeller of names, is in hot water with powerful Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel. It seems as though Ari was caught off guard by Williams's hard-hitting approach during a recent interview with the Brothers Emanuel, including Ari, Chicago mayor Rahm and bioethicist Ezekiel. What was supposed to be a fluff piece to promote Ezekiel's memoir about the brothers instead, according to a New York Post source, resembled something "from Meet the Press."
Why were Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb wearing full-body dog suits on television this morning? Why were they begging for Facebook "likes"? Why are morning shows still on the air? I don't know. But I do know we are asking all the wrong questions. The real question is: what does "liking" Kathie Lee and Hoda on Facebook say about you, Internet?
Brian Williams is the blow-dried anchor of NBC Nightly News. His salary is $13 million per year. His daughter stars on Girls. But hey, don't go thinking Brian Williams is fancy—has he told you about his working class roots?
Andy Griffith, who passed away last July, was unceremoniously absent from this year's Oscars "In Memoriam" tribute, so NBC's Cleveland affiliate WKYC-TV decided to make it up to him by giving Matlock most of their Thursday primetime block.
As the Today Show hemorrhages ratings, executives have no doubt spent countless hours in their corner offices at 30 Rock speaking in hushed tones about "social media integration" and "guest co-hosts." Who knew it was passion that America's ex-favorite morning program was missing?
30 Rock ends tonight, after seven seasons on NBC, with little of the fanfare that surrounds a grand television event. Instead, it feels as if the show has already slid into the semi-obscurity of syndication. The critics would rather talk about Parks and Recreation and Girls; the Internet hive mind is swarming over Community and Louie; the awards shows have switched their allegiance to Modern Family. And the American viewing public? Well, it never liked 30 Rock all that much in the first place. At its peak, in its third season, it was the 69th most popular prime-time series in the country.
Dr. Phil says the man behind Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend Lennay Kekua, Roniah Tuiasosopo, told him he was "deeply, romantically in love" with Te'o and claims that the voice talking back to Te'o for countless hours on the phone was not his cousin, as reported by the New York Post, but him. Asked by Dr. Phil if he is gay, Tuiasosopo says that, yes, he is, then clarifies that he is "confused."
Buoyed by the mostly negative reception of Jessica Simpson's 2006 feature film, Employee of the Month, NBC has just revealed it is developing a scripted comedy based on her hilarious life.
This morning on the Today Show, Al Roker was in Chicago to talk to a TV fireman about the weather, but one concerned individual would rather we keep talking about that time when Al Roker #sharted at the White House. Suspecting that we may be getting off track, this brave man (apparently a radio DJ in Chicago) was there to redirect the national conversation by holding up a simple cue card: "#shart." (Upper left hand corner; later, front and center.) And yet when NBC's camera man tried to pan away, our hero went above and beyond the call of duty to get back in the shot.