BillOreilly-related stories
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 3:30PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Daytime, Video, Celebrities, Talk Show
It's always fun when Bill O'Reilly visits
The View. Bob posted about it yesterday, too, talking about
how weird Whoopi was acting.
My first thought whenever O'Reilly visits
The View is Joy Behar. She always looks like she'd rather be anywhere else but sitting next to him. But I suppose she puts up with it -- and has no choice in the matter -- because O'Reilly and Barbara Walters have been friends for a long time, and Barbara, of course, has the final say on who gets on the show and who doesn't.
This is all speculation, of course. I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. Just reading the body language, which I've learned a little about while watching
Tonya Reiman on O'Reilly's Fox show,
The O'Reilly Factor.
Continue reading What's Hot on SlashControl: Bill O'Reilly on The View
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 11:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Reality Shows, Late Night, American Idol, Celebrities, Game Show, TV Squad Lists
American Idol's choice of Ellen DeGeneres as a judge replacement threw everyone for a loop, even schlubs like me who don't watch the show.
It's not that she's not talented, successful or funny. It's just an odd choice, putting a comedian on the show that takes its goal of crushing losers' dreams on live television so seriously. It would evoke the same reaction from me if they picked Andrew "Dice" Clay as the new judge, if the Diceman was talented, successful or funny.
And besides, why do they need humor and comedy on such an otherwise serious show? There are lots of humorless, vapid and downright boring shows that are crying out for comedic interjection.
Continue reading Seven shows that need funny commentators more than American Idol
Posted Aug 11th 2009 9:03AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: News, Industry, Celebrities, Reality-Free
It seems the never-ending feud between Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly has become a kangaroo boxing match. The worst thing you can do is get in the middle of it.
That's exactly what the parent owners of Fox News and MSNBC tried to do when they arranged a "cease-fire" between them and their top-tier shows' "lieutenants."
The cease-fire, however, didn't last long. It's another case of the ol'
Rufus T. Firefly conundrum for peace. Either side might be willing to do whatever it takes to end this war, but they've already paid two months' rent on the battlefield.
Continue reading Olbermann, O'Reilly told to end personal feud, which just creates another feud
Posted Aug 6th 2009 9:25AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
Rupert Murdoch thinks so. In fact, he's betting that folks will
pay to watch all of his television properties on their respective websites.
A friend of mine once suggested something like this. Basically, news would be free, but premium content online would come at a cost. Sort of like how stock quotes are delayed 20 minutes unless you pay a premium to see the prices instantly. And those with extreme political opinions, like sports fans, would pay any price to see their favorite commentators/players do their thing.
Continue reading Would you pay to watch Bill O'Reilly online?
Posted Jul 24th 2009 2:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, News, Animation, Adult Swim, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
There have been a lot of uneasy vibes floating around the offices of TV Squad HQ about the elevation of
Family Guy to Best Comedy status by this year's Emmy nomination committee. I'm not speaking for the entire group, but it does feel a little out of place earning a nomination that even
The Simpsons couldn't score in its 20 year history. It's like giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Michael Jackson for writing "Heal the World" and completely snubbing Nelson Mandela.
But no one is more unhappy about the news than pop culture's official lifeguard, Bill O'Reilly.
He called out Seth MacFarlane's cavalcade of cartoon pop culture for
winning the nomination during his "Reality Check" segment.
Continue reading Bill O'Reilly doesn't feel so lucky there's a Family Guy
Posted Jul 20th 2009 1:04PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: News, OpEd, Celebrities, Obituaries, Reality-Free
Walter Cronkite's passing didn't mark the end of an era in the TV news business. The era he helped produce and prolong died long before he did.
It's hard for me to ever imagine a time when people considered a major network news anchor as America's most trusted source for anything. Claims of bias and political persuasion being injected into every story with a meat syringe created a thick fog that made it very hard to cover anything with a modicum of honesty.
Cronkite, however, was the man people turned to when something blew up, exploded, imploded, launched, landed or any other number of descriptive verbs, because his goal wasn't to make news every time he stepped in front of a camera. His goal was just to report it.
Continue reading What if the Apollo 11 moon landing didn't happen under Cronkite's watch?
Posted Jun 10th 2009 9:00AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, News, Talk Show, News and Gossip
This reporter was thinking just a little while back, that what this country needs is another intolerant political loud mouth on the airwaves. It doesn't matter what political party they call home -- R or D, liberal conservative. No TV viewer seems able to go more than a few minutes without having some self-important gas bag named Matthews or O'Reilly, sporting one ideology or another, raging at a camera.
Fortunately, MSNBC brings us another fix -- the emerging show from Air America personality Ed Schultz. Resembling a sort of square-headed Rush Limbaugh, Schultz's politics run more toward Keith Olbermann. But, let's face it: None of these guys are on TV to discuss sensible politics on either side of the aisle. They're on the air to pontificate, yell, scream and (in Schultz's case) have a borderline
Network-ish nervous breakdown on camera every night.
Continue reading MSNBC's Ed Schultz joins ranks of politcal screamers
Posted May 9th 2009 2:03PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Reality-Free
Whoever says that shows like
The Daily Show and
The Colbert Report suffer from a liberal bias have no idea what they are talking about.
The Colbert Report, in particular, has a large audience of deep conservative thinkers whose arteries AND veins run redder than their state.
The problem is that some of those conservatives may not be laughing at what they are watching. In fact, get ready to be scared out of your head. They might actually agree with what they are hearing.
A new study conducted by
Ohio State University found that some viewers of Colbert's show who purported to be conservative are taking the show a bit too seriously. And by a bit too, I mean literally seriously.
Continue reading Conservatives can't quit Colbert
Posted Feb 9th 2009 9:11AM by Eliot Glazer
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Watercooler Talk, Dancing With The Stars, TV Squad Lists, Casting
Well, it's official. Yesterday, ABC
announced their new line-up for the eighth season (!) of
Dancing With The Stars. And, as usual, the names chosen range from weird to ... even weirder (really, David Alan Grier?). Not that we necessarily disagree with the producers' choices, but we'd like to take a moment to suggest seven potential choices of people we believe to be fully primed for a spot on the dance floor.
Listen up,
DWTS producers. Season nine is just around the corner, and
Alan Alda is probably waiting by the phone. (...In our wildest dreams, that is.)
Continue reading Seven people we'd like to see on Dancing With The Stars - VIDEO
Posted Jan 27th 2009 11:08AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
Ah, the celebrity roast. Comedy Central resurrected the tried and true comedian ass-kiss off with hilarious specials featuring Denis Leary, Flavor Flav, Bob Saget and William #*$&$ing Shatner. Then came the capper: a roast of music legend Willie Nelson. It was a shift in evolution so great, it could have made Charles Darwin buy into the theory of intelligent design.
Then the network caused a global groan so loud that it shifted the tectonic plates when they announced that Nelson had to cancel and they would replace him
with Larry the Cable Guy.
It's such an obvious and safe choice that might be a good recipe for ratings, but it's a sure fire recipe for boring. Here are the iconic stars who would have made much better kindling for a white hot comedy roast.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Stars who should have been roasted Instead of Larry the Cable Guy
Posted Dec 15th 2008 9:29AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: News, Programming, News and Gossip, Reality-Free
Once again I'm forced to ask the question, what the hell is going on here? Have we entered the bizarro world? Is up now down? Has black become white? Did police arrest PGA golfer John Daly for shooting himself in the leg with an unlicensed handgun in a crowded hip-hop club, and the NRA award Plaxico Burres their Humanitarian of the Year award?
Fox News has announced
their replacement for the outgoing Alan Colmes, the liberal ying to Sean Hannity's conservative yang on their self-titled debate show: it's Sean Hannity.
He's doing the show all by himself, so finally he has someone worthy of debating him.
Stephen Colbert's "Formidable Opponent" will never be funny again.
Continue reading Sean Hannity replacing Alan Colmes with Sean Hannity
Posted Nov 11th 2008 11:04AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Here's some news that's bound to equally thrill and displease readers.
MSNBC has given Keith Olbermann a new four year deal, ensuring that
Countdown with Keith Olbermann remains in the cable's primetime lineup. For fans of Olbermann, the prospect of Keith's continued commentaries and his clever interpretation of the news is a good thing. For those who loathe the man -- and there are just as many detractors as fans -- this is one more reason to be ticked off with MSNBC.
The fact is that TV success doesn't depend on having everybody love you. There are many stars, in fact, who are polarizing figures. Either you love them or you love to hate them. The point is that you don't ignore them. So,
Keith Olbermann will remain a part of the public discourse and that means the best media feud of the decade goes on -- Olbermann versus Bill O'Reilly.
Continue reading Keith Olbermann inks a new four year deal
Posted May 2nd 2008 12:23PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: News, OpEd, Video
There's another Bill in Hillary Clinton's life now. Talk show pundit Bill O'Reilly, who interviewed Clinton on his Fox News show,
The O'Reilly Factor this week. The interview covered a lot of territory, including the economy, high gas prices, illegal immigrants, the war on terror, and foreign policy.
All the presidential candidates have their strengths and weaknesses, but Clinton made a smart move towards unifying her platform by agreeing to the O'Reilly interview. Although they're on opposite ends of the spectrum politically, O'Reilly and Clinton showed that two diverse personalities can sit down together and have an intelligent debate about the issues without resorting to a screaming match.
Continue reading Hillary Clinton and Bill O'Reilly: chemistry? - VIDEO
Posted Apr 29th 2008 11:42AM by Jay Black
Filed under: Sports, News, OpEd, Watercooler Talk, Reality-Free
I've mentioned several times in this space about my love for ESPN's
Pardon the Interruption, but I can always find a reason to say it again: I love this show! I mean, both Kornheiser and Wilbon rank several places higher than most of my family on my Kidney Donation short-list. I don't want to overstate the issue, but spending an afternoon eating pizza and watching
PTI makes me understand how Cartman felt when he
got own his own amusement park.
Soooooooooo happy.
As I was describing (yet again) to my wife how much I love the show, something occurred to me regarding all the other other millions and millions talking-head shows bouncing around my digital cable box: why don't any of them employ a stat boy?
Continue reading Why don't Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann have a Stat Boy?
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