“Survivor: Micronesia —Fans vs. Favorites”Thursday 8pm, CBS The surprisingly resilient reality competition shakes things up again for its 16th season, bringing in 10 new famewhores and bringing back 10 previous competitors. Given how poorly the previous “all-stars” edition was received, it’s probably a smart move for CBS and the newbies. But you have to wonder […]
“Eli Stone”Thursday 10pm, ABC This new dramedy features a premise that could go very wrong very quickly, but its pedigree suggests that it could actually pull it off. Johnny Lee Miller plays Eli, a vicious, high-powered attorney who starts experiencing baffling visions, such as George Michael performing live in his living room (hey, it beats […]
“Moment of Truth”Wednesday 9pm, Fox I suspect that America will love this show, and that makes me deeply uncomfortable. “Moment of Truth” is already an international hit, and now Fox is bringing it to America. It’s essentially the game show from hell. Contestants are hooked up to a lie-detector machine and asked a series of […]
“American Idol”Tuesday & Wednesday 8pm, Fox And so it begins again. The “Idol” machine has been getting some bad press lately, as several of its underperforming stars—Season 2 champ Ruben Studdard, Season 5’s Taylor Hicks and Kat McPhee—have been dumped by their labels, while last year’s Idol, Jordin Sparks, had the lowest-selling debut for a […]
“Masterpiece Theatre”Sunday 9pm, PBS The barometer for classy TV is about to get downright hip, as Agent Scully herself, Gillian Anderson, comes on board as the new host of “Masterpiece Classic.” That’s right; the show will now feature three mini seasons (the other two are devoted to mysteries and contemporary fare), and Anderson will introduce […]
"Cashmere Mafia"Thursday 10pm, ABC If this new lady-centric drama feels a bit like "Sex and the City," that’s because it is. The show is produced by "Sex"’s Darren Star and follows four highly successful Manhattan women as they try to navigate both love and life. Lucy Liu ("Ally McBeal," Charlie’s Angels) plays the upgrade of […]
A Christmas StoryTuesday, TBS It’s not quite the Yule Log, but it’ll do. TBS replays the 1983 holiday classic back to back to back until 8pm Christmas Day. A Christmas Story is right up there with National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Scrooged as ’80s holiday movies I have to watch every year. (…Yes, I have […]
It seemed like only yesterday that the most incendiary Hollywood scandals were Man-Eating Actress A snatching up Milquetoast Actress B's husband, Leading Man C getting caught diddling the help, or Has-Been Z wandering through the Valley claiming to be the reincarnation of a space god …
"Handy Manny"Weekdays 9:30am, Disney Channel Easily the best thing Wilmer Valderrama has done, ever. Although since his previous credits include playing Fez on "That ’70s Show," producing MTV’s odious insult competition "Yo Momma" and allegedly deflowering Mandy Moore and Lindsay Lohan, that isn’t saying much. But "Handy Manny" really works. It’s easy to look at […]
"Crowned"Wednesday 9pm, The CW How do you make a reality competition about wannabe pageant girls even campier? By making it a competition featuring the girls and their mothers, of course. This sounds like a train wreck—a glorious, tiara- and tantrum-filled train wreck. Note that the girls and their mothers are not competing against each other. […]