RosieLive-related stories
Posted Jan 2nd 2009 9:00AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
How can we enter a new year without celebrating the last year's best and worst TV? Not a lot of the new shows were impressive, but I've been entertained for the last year, so I can't complain.
In making out my lists, I realized I must be a half-full type of gal, because even my worsts aren't that bad, and I had a heck of a time coming up with them.
So, here are my lovin'-life, lovin'-TV best and worst lists for 2008:
Best new show -- Leverage Man, I love everything about this show -- the chemistry between the characters, the quotable quotes, the clever jobs, the flashbacks. It's the most entertaining hour on television right now. Thank you, TNT!
Continue reading Best and Worst of 2008: Debbie's list
Posted Dec 12th 2008 11:25AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, OpEd, American Idol, Music and Variety, Festivus, Reality-Free, Celebreality, America's Got Talent
... Twelve shows a stinkin'
That aroma tickling your nose is not one from an oven full of fresh gingerbread cookies. No, it's from a television full of burned-out ideas and gutted hulks of viewers who can't take the crap that is heaped upon them. That's because, more than ever, there is a lot of stink on the television landscape. Most of it is due to inordinate amounts of reality programming which has flooded the market. The rest is due to the lack of new ideas for an industry that is rapidly changing.
In order to start our annual Festivus countdown we have compiled a scientifically proven list of 12 shows just stinking up the flat screen. And, when I say 'scientifically proven' I mean I just asked a bunch of people off the street about shows they disliked. So, it's as accurate as it possibly can be. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'll have opinions, one way or another, on these shows and others not on the list. So, if you have your nose plugs, let's begin.
Continue reading On the 12th day of Festivus, TV gave to me... - VIDEOS
Posted Dec 5th 2008 12:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Music and Variety, Reality-Free
Memo to TBS: vaudeville is dead. Apparently, the folks at Turner never got that news flash.
TBS has greenlighted a vaudeville pilot to be hosted by Harland Williams. The half-hour installments -- should it get picked up -- would be a late-night entry.
That means you'd have to be up late and probably pretty bored with infomercials to not surf away from the jugglers, puppets, plate spinners, gymnasts and other novelty acts likely on the program.
TBS is serious about this concept, tentatively called
The TBS Comedy Roadshow, and if they emphasize the comedy aspect, maybe it'll find a niche. But the term vaudeville makes me very wary.
Continue reading TBS to try vaudeville...no kidding
Posted Nov 30th 2008 12:05PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Programming, Music and Variety, Celebrities, Cancellations, Ratings, Reality-Free
It seems that the show
NBC hoped would revive the variety show format was getting an autopsy before it even had a chance to get off of the operating table.
E! Online reports that Rosie O'Donnell said her live variety show, the cleverly named
Rosie Live, won't make it past the first episode, or as she so cutely wrote on her
web site, "there will b no more."
The one and only episode of Rosie's return from TV purgatory was dismal, to say the least.
Friday's Wednesday's episode only drew 5 million viewers, despite the appearance of high profile celebrities like
Alec Baldwin,
Alanis Morissette and
Ne-Yo to help them forget the fact that they were watching a show where Rosie O'Donnell is the star.
Continue reading Rosie Live now among the living dead
Posted Nov 28th 2008 10:33AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Video, Ratings, Reality-Free
It looks like
Rosie Live has been declared dead. Her attempt at reviving the variety show format
tied for the lowest-rated program of the evening.
Frankly, I don't think it's necessarily a death-knell for the format so much as the host. Rosie's
highly-
publicized feuds have certainly soured me on watching any sort of television program hosted by her.
In comparison, Stephen Colbert's
A Colbert Christmas pretty much embraced the variety show format (with enough changes to keep it modern and interesting) and it was great entertainment. Granted, cable stations don't have the ratings requirements of network and the entire special was pretty much an attempt to sell the DVD (in a humorous, non-annoying fashion). If some other Broadway-style celebrity hosted the same show, I'm willing to bet ratings would have been higher.
I've embedded a video from
Rosie Live after the jump, guest-starring Alec Baldwin. I'll let you folks judge for yourselves whether or not Rosie's variety show is cringe-worthy or simply unappreciated.
Continue reading Rosie does not equal ratings - VIDEO
Posted Nov 26th 2008 10:04PM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Music and Variety, Episode Reviews
I grew up on
The Lawrence Welk Show (during visits to my grandmother) and
Donny and Marie, so my affinity for the variety show started young. I was always a little bit rock-and-roll, which is why I couldn't help but like the
Nick and Jessica Variety Hour specials when they aired several years back; it was in my blood.
So I was curious to check out
Rosie Live! tonight. I expected some goofy skits, like from
Laugh In (or
Nick and Jessica), but instead we got some authentic conversation with the guests, some horribly executed guest visits, some unknown talent that was almost painful to watch and ... show tunes.
I liken
Rosie Live! to a parade. You wait through the whole broadcast for those special floats that don't come until the end, and of course for the bigger-than-life balloons. The balloons never came, folks.
Continue reading Rosie Live! - the parade with no balloons
Posted Nov 25th 2008 12:06PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: News, Celebrities, Reality-Free
You know that Barbara Walters-Rosie O'Donnell dust up this week with the two former
View co-stars trading comments/insults about the sins of the past? Well, it smelled to me of a publicity stunt and now I'm convinced of it.
Turns out both divas will be having TV specials on Wednesday night, November 26. That's tomorrow night.
Rosie Live will air at 8 o'clock on NBC.
Meanwhile, Barbara Walters
has snagged Barack and Michelle Obama for a one-hour news special to air at 10 o'clock on ABC on November 26. What a coincidence!
Continue reading Barbara Walters snags the Obamas for a sit down
Posted Nov 13th 2008 1:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, Music and Variety, Reality-Free
Once upon a time the airwaves were filled with TV variety shows. There were stars like Sonny and Cher and Donny and Marie, and further back,
The Ed Sullivan Show and
The Carol Burnett Show.
Well, Rosie O'Donnell remembers that kind of TV entertainment, and she thinks it's what America wants now.
As Bob reported not long ago, NBC is giving her an hour to see if anyone agrees, the night before Thanksgiving,
November 26, from 9-10 p.m. ET, Rosie Live will air live from the Shubert Theater in New York.
The news today is that Rosie has booked
Ne-Yo and
Alanis Morissette to provide the musical portion of the program. The plans for the rest of the hour include a topical monologue, which Rosie should have no problem pulling off because she did one every day on her daytime talk show.
Continue reading Rosie Live...or how NBC is trying to revive TV variety shows
The TV Squad Podcast: Linda Purl talks about The Office, we talk spoilers, and more
Ask TV Squad: Ghost Whisperer and more!
The TV Squad Podcast: Bill Scheft of The Late Show, Cake Boss, Mad Men and more
