EntertainmentWeekly-related stories
Posted May 22nd 2009 9:05AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: American Idol, Watercooler Talk, Ratings, Judges

The week before the
American Idol gigantic-mahunga-godzilla two-hour-plus finale aired, Simon Cowell predicted it would be a
"ding-dong finale." Of course, that brilliant prognostication was hype personified, but Simon did his job. The finale drew 28.8 million viewers. Ironically, the buzz in the biz when those figures were revealed skewed it as a bad thing.
It was the lowest-rated American Idol finale ever. But it still drew a tremendous amount of eyeballs, so why is it being characterized as a flop?
The answer is simply this:
American Idol is competing with itself. It's expected to exceed its highs year after year, and generally speaking in television, that just doesn't happen. Older shows decline, and yes, even superhits like American Idol can't stay on top forever. Look at
ER or
CSI.
Continue reading American Idol's finale was a flop?
Posted May 15th 2009 7:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: American Idol, Watercooler Talk, Contestants, Alumni

Attention, Rosie O'Donnell: Simon Cowell promised that next week's
American Idol will be a ding-dong finale. Break out the Drake's Cakes! Actually, Simon wasn't referring to Rosie's favorite chocolate cake treat, he was using perhaps the strangest euphemism he could come up with to hype the finale which he anticipates -- and rightfully so -- a great showdown between two singers who could both be deservedly crowned the winner of
American Idol.
Adam Lambert vs. Kris Allen might seem like a heavyweight versus a bantam weight, one guy who's already been splashed on magazine covers -- last week's Entertainment Weekly -- as the presumptive champ, while the other was nearly knocked on his butt by the judge's song choice that was so bad that Simon faulted Kara and Randy for setting him up to fail.
Continue reading Anticipating a ding dong American Idol finale
Posted Dec 19th 2008 2:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, Reality-Free

No one's accused the cast of
How I Met Your Mother of having a collectively crummy sense of humor. Quite the contrary; every time I've seen them either in person or in a behind-the-scenes video, they always seem to be goofing around and having fun. At the very least, I'd imagine that neither Jason Segel nor Neil Patrick Harris allows things to get too heavy on the set.
So when
Entertainment Weekly asked the cast
to pose as various celebrities in a "The Best of 2008" pictorial, I'm sure they didn't need much time to say yes. In the pictorial, the cast portray the Olympic 4x200m relay team, the Jonas Brothers, and the cast of the
Indiana Jones and
Sex and the City movies. Finally, Segel and Alyson Hannigan pose as Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, respectively, during the VP debate. It might have been more interesting if they reversed roles in that photo, but I guess Segel didn't have the legs for it.
[via
Pop Candy]
Posted Aug 22nd 2008 10:21AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Reality-Free, Comic-Con
(Check out part three of this four-part report)
Tired of hearing about Comic-Con? Figured all the talk was over? Sorry to disappoint you, but due to an untimely vacation (vacation untimely? Wha...how?) and a bit of reflection on my first trip to the big 'Con, I was able to get this last bit complete for you.
The Sci Fi / Entertainment Weekly PartyMan did it feel good to have gone to my last panel. I had much sympathy for Rich, who had another nearly-full day ahead of him on Sunday. So, we went out to finally get a decent meal at an actual restaurant downtown before we had to head off to the party. We had no idea at all what to expect from the party -- would there be food? Free booze? Who would be there?
Continue reading My post-Comic-Con report, part four
Posted Aug 5th 2008 10:20AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Interviews, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Reality-Free, Comic-Con

One of the highlights of the Sci Fi / EW party at Comic-Con was being able to talk to and shake the hand of Joss Whedon. It's no secret that I'm a fan of his work, and with the incredible presence of
Dr. Horrible and
Dollhouse at this year's Comic-Con, it's no mystery why he was at the 'Con.
Unfortunately for me, I had no idea he was going to be heading down that red carpet, so in hindsight I of course have a ton of questions I would have liked to have thought of at the time. Since my time was limited with everyone anyway, I kept it relevant to what was going on at the 'Con as best I could.
I've got more to add later about the discussion regarding the digital medium, but that will be a different post down the road. As for Joss, he's very easy to talk to and my transcription doesn't really show how good-natured the conversation was. At one point Eliza Dushku stepped in to say hello to us -- you don't see that every day.
Continue reading A short talk with Joss Whedon
Posted Jul 16th 2008 8:02AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Industry, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, The Simpsons, Animation, Stargate, The Office, Children, Eureka, Kyle XY, Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
Saturday -- a time of rest and relaxation. A time to put your feet up, grab a lemonade, open a book, and let the cool, summer breezes gently rock your hammock as a lazy July day passes. Of course, that's if you aren't attending the San Diego Comic-Con. Then, it's out of your bed, quick shower (if any), breakfast-on-the-go, and right back into the queues to see your particular favorites talking about their television shows.
Like Friday, Saturday at Comic-Con will be packed with television goodness. This is the day that many of the big guns come to play. Shows like The Office, Lost, Battlestar Galactica will be making appearances. They will be joined by newcomers Chuck, Dollhouse, and Pushing Daisies. There will even be an appearance by the recently single Sarah Silverman. There's also a good bit of television animation being featured, particularly by Nicktoons and B.E.T. Animation.
In order to make sure you get the most out of the money you paid to get into the convention, we here at TV Squad are providing you with a complete list of television-related panels for that day. If you are interested in seeing what else is going on July 25th you can review the official full schedule at the Comic-Con website. Remember, times and appearances are subject to change and seating in all event rooms is on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Continue reading Comic-Con Countdown: Saturday, July 26th
Posted Jul 14th 2008 3:23PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Project Runway

So, hot on the heels of
Entertainment Weekly suggesting that Bravo wasn't giving Project Runway -- the new, and last before Lifetime takes over -- season its due, Bravo rolled out a press release today with the names of all 16 designer/contestants, as well as the celebrity judges for
Project Runway Season Five.
On the celeb front, the show's landed Diane Von Furstenberg, Sandra Bernhard, Apolo Ohno, Brooke Shields, LL Cool J, RuPaul, Rachel Zoe, Cynthia Rowley and Francisco Costa. I can see potential fireworks from Sandra B and RuPaul. The rest -- eh. I mean, really, is Brooke going to be critical? And have you seen how Apolo dresses?
Continue reading Project Runway: Meet the new designers
Posted Jul 2nd 2008 10:38AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free

The new
90210 has yet to air but it's already created a tremendous amount of buzz. The return of actresses
Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth from the original series has made news, as well as Luke Perry's words that he won't be coming back and
Jason Priestley letting the world know he'd be available to direct.
But what about Brenda?
Well, in his new perch at
Entertainment Weekly, Michael Ausiello reports that his sources -- producers
Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah -- have confirmed that Miss Shannen Doherty is in formal talks to join 90210 in her original role, Brenda Walsh.
Continue reading Is Shannen Doherty really coming to the new 90210?
Posted Dec 13th 2007 10:02AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Web, Festivus
...seven sites worth linking.
The world wide web is the best place to waste time while learning about anything and everything. Here, at TV Squad, we are masters at finding sites related to TV. During
last year's Festivus,
Joel gave a good list of cool TV-related sites people may or may not have heard about. As he did last year, I decided to avoid mentioning those big sites everyone knows about (Yahoo, IMDb,
TVGuide, Google News,
Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, YouTube, Television Without Pity, Ain't It Cool News). I also tried to find sites that weren't mentioned in last year's Festivus.
Let's sit around the Festivus tree and open the seven-sites-worth-linking gifts which, I hope, will now find a spot in your bookmarks list as useful and entertaining TV-related websites.
Continue reading On the 7th day of Festivus, TV gave to me...
Posted May 3rd 2007 1:03PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Heroes

In preparation for the much-hyped
Heroes finale, which is spread out over three episodes,
Entertainment Weekly offer five different covers which are said to contain clues for the upcoming spectacular installments of the series. "Each of
Entertainment Weekly's five Heroes covers is packed with references and teasers to the finale episodes of the season," reveals the magazine when describing this covers special. EW.com even invites fans to come back in the coming days/weeks for more information about each cover.
Continue reading EW covers reveal Heroes clues?
Posted Apr 16th 2007 3:38PM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: American Idol, Judges, Contestants, Alumni, Predictions and Trends, News and Gossip
What exactly is 'Chris Daughtry-itis?' Does it involve a fever and a rash? Does it cause baldness? And most importantly, is it curable?
Simon Cowell complained in this week's Entertainment Weekly that the current batch of finalists just don't want to win badly enough. And this laid-back attitude is effecting their "A Game," or creating a lack thereof.
Simon said, "I think that we suffer from Jennifer Hudson- and Chris Daughtry-itis, which is people who didn't win getting great careers and now a lot of the contestants believing it absolutely doesn't matter."
Continue reading Simon says Idol finalists suffer from 'Chris Daughtry-itis'
Posted Mar 19th 2007 11:58AM by Liz Finn-Arnold
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol, Watercooler Talk, In Defense Of, Contestants

Before you start throwing rotten tomatoes, please hear me out. I'm not saying I think Sanjaya should win this thing. Not even close. Those of you
who've read my recaps, know I'm not a fan of Sanjaya.
But as much as I've disliked his performances, I'm actually going to defend Sanjaya. Mostly, because I feel sorry for him. He's a young kid thrown in the deep end of the pool, and sometimes he looks like he's drowning in front of 33 million viewers. The judges, critics, and viewers have been really, really cruel. And I'm not a fan of big bullies (ahem, Simon) who beat up on the younger, weaker kids just for sport.
Continue reading In Defense of: Sanjaya and his teenybopper fans
Posted Dec 2nd 2006 8:40AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Festivus, Celebrities
This is the kind of advertising that I hate. It disguises itself as some sort of pop culture piece, one that's tied into the holiday season, but it's really just a way to mention a lot of products, list the company web site, and get some advertising in. It's Entertainment Weekly's Holiday Gift Guide, where they pick a celebrity or TV/movie character and list items you could get for that person. You know it's bogus because the gifts picked are either ridiculously obvious or don't really make any sense at all.
Continue reading What to get Jim Halpert for Christmas
Posted Nov 6th 2006 8:14AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, NBC, Celebrities, Heroes
I've mentioned several times here that I'm getting sick of all the times Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, and CSI have made the covers of both Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide. So it was really great to see the cast of Heroes on the cover this week.
Among some of the tidbits revealed in the article: Masi Oka (Hiro) worked on the special effects for The Perfect Storm; Ali Larter (Niki) bought herself a Porsche when the show was picked up for the whole season, and almost accidentally hit Kanye West with it; creator Tim Kring talked to Lost producer Damon Lindelof, a good friend, about the idea when he came up with it; and the first season finale is going to blow everyone away, especially regarding one major revelation. And speaking of...
Warning! This article contains several spoilers about the rest of the season!
Posted Sep 30th 2006 8:20PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Cable, News, Celebrities

Oh, and so does John Grisham!
Interesting piece by the horror writer in this week's
Entertainment Weekly (the one with Kate Winslet on the cover). King talks about the latest controversy involving the
mentally unbalanced queen of exploitation legal journalist, and has a few choice observations for the woman he calls "Graceless and Tasteless:"
"And before you accuse me of writing about news in your favorite entertainment magazine, let me assure you Nancy Grace is entertainment...if, that is, you're the sort who watches NASCAR for the crashes and Survivor hoping no one will. In the increasingly weird world of infotainment, she is the belle of the Freakers Ball...[Grace] conveys by body language alone the idea that we're all guilty of something...and she knows it."
Bravo, Mr. King. He goes on to talk about the recent case involving the disappearance of Trenton Duckett. Grace had his mother on her show and pretty much hammered her about her whereabouts that day, and Duckett wouldn't say (as King points out, her lawyer told her not to, duh). And when Grace and CNN found out that she had killed herself earlier that day did they decide to not run it? Of course not,
they ran it anyway.
(The article isn't
online yet, but the issue is on newsstands now.)
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