DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2011
Jan
17
 
 
Diane Sawyer scores TV news' big "get" for January. On Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC's special "20/20," she'll talk with Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot through the head Jan. 8 in the Tucson assassination attempt that claimed six other lives...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
17
 
 
[UPDATE: Based on your valuable feedback, we've decided to pursue the live chat idea, but NOT with American Idol. So you're on your own Wednesday night -- but we'll let you know when we've got the right show, and technology, in place to have us gather together to react to a show right after it airs. Thanks for all the smart suggestions, which you can read below...] The TV WORTH WATCHING brain trust (and trust me, that's described with all due irony) met over the weekend to plan the next alte
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
17
 
 
What's more real (or unreal, for that matter) than awards ceremonies? So Altered Reality is tackling Sunday night's Golden Globe Awards..Although we thought Ricky Gervais was pretty funny, we have to assume he'll be persona non grata at next year's event because of his unrelenting comic attacks on everything and everyone. Few survived unscathed...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
14
 
 
Not a complaint -- just the reverse -- but there really IS a lot of good TV to watch these days. Especially Sundays. This week, after compiling the five choices that made the cut for this Sunday's BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS, I realized I had just as many worthwhile options left over...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
14
 
 
Wanna see Ozzy Osbourne on Dancing With the Stars? Maybe John McCain or Carrot Top? Reba or Diane Keaton? How about Brett Favre? "He will undoubtedly be retired and could use something to build his reputation back up." So say DWTS viewers, who've been responding online to the show's entreaty to suggest contestants...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
12
 
 
So the TV audience is fragmenting, eh? A dissenter might argue that if you give viewers dramas and comedies they actually want to watch, they'll come back together again. Two cases in point this week: CBS's "NCIS" and BET's "The Game"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
12
 
 
If the 10th season of American Idolturns out to be as dull as press tour's American Idol panel, this deal is in trouble. Tuesday's TCA session had its moments -- but missing from the session was the blunt Brit, the straw that stirred this drink, Simon Cowell. Cowell always told the truth here at press tour, and his candid banter was sorely missed. One memorable press tour session, the other Idol judges made no effort to cover up for last minute no-show Paula Abdul...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
12
 
 
Midseason brings not only new TV shows, but new time slots for a few old shows. Sometimes, a move is a reward for performing better than expected, as with CBS moving Blue Bloods from Fridays to higher-profile Wednesdays starting next week. Other times, no matter how superb a show is, the move is a slap in the face, a future pink slip, a slow-acting death sentence. That's what NBC is doing this week to 30 Rock...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
11
 
 
Today on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I'm previewing the engrossing new FX series "Lights Out"... It's a show about a heavyweight boxer, but it's really a show about a family man pulled in several directions at once, a guy faced with several unattractive options for his future, and a man who isn't sure where his money went, or how to get more of it. In other words, it's a fairly universal story...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Jan
10
 
 
Hard to believe, but the pioneering CBS sitcom All in the Family turns 40 years old Wednesday, having premiered as a midseason entry with a timid disclaimer on January 12, 1971. Harder to believe, but some of the stuff in that pilot wouldn't pass today's politically uber-correct prime-time broadcast TV standards... The history of All in the Family, in which Carroll O'Connor embodied one of television's most original and iconic roles as cab-driver bigot Archie Bunker, is as unusual and unlikel