A blog about television by TIME’s TV critic James Poniewozik.

Jay Leno a Failure; Also, Jay Leno a Success

Love him or hate him, success or failure, Jay Leno taking over NBC's 10 p.m. slot is the biggest TV story of the year. And now that he's been on-air for a couple months, the assessments of his ratings performance have been coming in.

On the one hand, Leno's been the subject of one bad ratings story after another for weeks, as he some nights dipped below even the 5 million he got in late night, or the 1.5 rating NBC set as a break-even bar.

On the other hand, the past two weeks have shown signs of stability, even improvement. Defamer looks at Leno's ratings and suggests that the situation "doesn't seem that bad," pointing to such small-bore accomplishments as its beating an Ugly Betty rerun. Or as TV Squad put it: "Leno's Ratings Suck Less."

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The NewsHour to Pick Up the Pace

In other respectable-news news, PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer--in a move originally planned for September--next month will rename itself The PBS NewsHour, taking the anchor's name out of the title for the first time and pairing him with a rotation of co-anchors. In the process, the newscast plans a few changes to increase its metabolism, integrating its online operation more closely, covering late-breaking news quicker (online if necessary) and shaving time off some news segments.

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Looking for Reasons to Care About Tiger Woods

We in the respectable media are not interested in Tiger Woods' car crash for prurient reasons. Oh, no. We don't care about what a celebrity, but a private citizen, may or may not have been doing with his extracurricular time. Nor do we care about the rush of viewers and readers—like you there, who came to this article by Googling "Tiger Woods car crash affair rumors"—and how good it will make us look to our advertisers if we indulge it.

No, we care only for high-minded reasons. It's about, um, the business impact of the story on the lucrative sports-endorsement business. It's about, um, the ever-changing culture of American celebrity. It's about, um, traffic safety! How many more innocent trees must suffer? Wait, no! It's about the media coverage itself! That's the ticket! So here is a blog post about the media coverage itself!

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The Morning After: Holy Trinity!

Showtime

Quick spoilers for Dexter coming up after the jump:

 

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Reality TV 1, Secret Service 0

Further reinforcing the theory that reality TV participation is replacing surly reclusiveness as the chief warning sign of future acts of bizarre notoriety, the New York Times runs a page-one story today on the couple who crashed a Presidential state dinner—who were, naturally, under consideration as participants in Bravo's Real Housewives of D.C. The fascinating piece—which among other things, features Brian Williams as a witness—notes that the Salahis arrived with a camera and makeup woman in trail. The unanswered question: are they still under consideration for Real Housewives, and does the incident help or hurt their case?

If you missed the occasion, you can still see photos of the Salahis brush with fame at Michaele Salahi's Facebook page, which lists her under the honorific "Other Public Figure" and invites you to become a fan. There's also e-mail contact information, should you wish to sign up Salahi for a "national or International endorsement for your product or company." Maybe for a home-security system?

          

Brief spoilers for Modern Family coming up after the jump:

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As if to prove that gay reality show contestants are not the only people who can offend America on live TV, Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels enlivened a Thanksgiving NFL Network broadcast with a certain twelve-letter word on a live mike, yelling at his team to "win a _______ing game!" The network apologized—after all, who could possibly anticipate that football coaches swear in the middle of games?

In other sports news, the Detroit Lions came through for me and my fellow natives of America's cheeseball belt by losing; it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without that. Feel free to share your stories of holiday TV, and to test Tuned In's profanity filter, in the comments, and Happy Black Friday.

          

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you and yours occasional moments of peace and love this holiday:

          

 

FOX

There's a new Glee on tonight. Savor it. After Dec. 9, the show is going on hiatus; the intermission was expected, but it's going to be a long one—no more Glee until April Freaking 13.

 

That's quite the hiatus, but in retrospect, debuting the show's pilot in May and then building anticipation until September didn't hurt the show earlier this year. But that means four long months of me gazing into my mirror, lip-syncing "Defying Gravity" into my hairbrush microphone.

The rest of Fox's midseason schedule is out, too. The (very) lengthy details after the jump:

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The Morning After: Universal Health Scare

ABC

Spoilers for the fall finale of V coming up after the jump:

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