ABC
Still a while yet before I complete my duty-watching of the "fall finale" of FlashForward. But I thought I should get a Morning After post up for the interested, not least because I've technically already run out of morning. Did the episode make you more eager to see FF when it returns? And what do you think of this whole mini-trend of "fall finales"? (I'm looking at you, Glee.)
The holidays really do bring people together! Mediaite and conservative media watchdog Newsbusters find themselves united today in one belief: CBS shouldn't have messed around with Frosty. The two sites knocked the network for some mashup promos that intercut the perennial kids' cartoon Frosty the Snowman with rather adult dialogue from How I Met Your Mother (above) and Two and a Half Men.
After the jump, the other video, and my thoughts on just what's so creepy about this whole thing:
I'll be on The Takeaway Friday morning a smidge after 7:30 a.m. E.T. (More public radio! For I am a man of the people!) Subject: More NBC-Comcast. (Question: do regular actual humans find this merger nearly as interesting as media people do?)
Find a local station or listen online (scroll down for a link). Expect lots of 30 Rock references.
Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post is reporting—as has been buzzed about for months—that ABC is offering the job as Diane Sawyer's replacement on Good Morning America to George Stephanopoulos.
Now I am all for anything that shows a difficult-to-spell last name is no impediment to rising in the media. But is this the best choice for George?
I'll be on KCRW radio's excellent talk show To the Point today, lowering the level of reasoned discourse with my thoughts on the NBC-Comcast merger. My interview's at 2:45 p.m. Eastern, but you may want to check with your local public radio station for airtimes. Or get the podcast. Or ignore it entirely.
Illustration by Francisco Caceres for TIME; Salahis: Gerald Herbert / AP; Samantha Appleton / Whitehouse / AP; Woods: Matt Sullivan / Reuters
In the coming print edition of TIME, my Tuned In column is about your two big media distractions of the week, and how Tiger Woods and the Salahis respectively represent an old- and new-fangled strain of celebrity: the attention-controller and the attention-seeker. Not that this was a particularly good week for either group.
Dear celebrities and pseudocelebrities: Please don't crash anything else, literally or figuratively, at least until I go on vacation. Thank you.
DirecTV
I get the sense that most of Tuned Inland's Friday Night Lights fans are waiting to watch it on NBC, so most of the readers who weighed in asked that I wait until the NBC run to post about season 4. For various reasons—mostly personal laziness—I've abided by the request. But last night's episode, "The Son," was so good that it deserves a comment. (Obvious, but note: Spoilers ahead!)
NBC
Giant cable-TV provider Comcast has reached a deal with GE this morning to take over giant entertainment company NBC Universal. This means big changes ahead for 30 Rock's Jack Donaghy, who will have to adapt his core competencies from selling microwave ovens to pushing upgrades on DVR cable boxes. But what does it mean for you as a TV viewer?
In the short term, not much; probably not even that much in the medium term. (For starters, the deal faces an approval process which could take a year.) In the longer term, it says a few things about what the TV business is becoming, and what "TV" will mean in the future:
RSS