Conan O'Brien
Conan O'Brien spoke at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner Saturday, but most of his barbs were directed at the media and television networks, rather than at President Barack Obama.
The dinner also included a sketch courtesy of House of Cards star Kevin Spacey, who parodied his Netflix series with a spoof dubbed "House of Nerds," which included appearances by John McCain and several White House journalists. Check it out below:
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Tyler Perry, Whitney Houston
Oprah Winfrey's OWN will premiere two new original series from Tyler Perry — including a Downton Abbey-esque drama — on May 29, OWN Presidents Sheri Salata and Erik Logan announced Saturday at the winter TV previews.
The Haves and the Have Nots will focus on the dynamics and secrets of the wealthy Cryer family and of the family of their maid, Hanna. Love Thy Neighbor, a half-hour comedy, will center on a local diner and all of its zany customers. The two series are part of...
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Axis Dance Company
Our top moments of the week:
13. Bumpiest Arrival: After spending hours traveling to St. Barts, battling her fear of flying all the while, Aviva arrives at the latest Real Housewives getaway only to be "accidentally" flashed and then yelled at by Ramona and Sonja for bringing her husband. Aviva calls the two girls "white trash" as they both do their best to talk over her. Aviva eventually makes amends with...
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Tom Brokaw
The stunning panoramic views of London featured throughout NBC's coverage of the summer Olympic Games make it hard to imagine the devastation that occurred 72 years ago during the Blitz. While it might harsh your Olympic-induced mellow, NBC's Tom Brokaw takes an intense look back at how the city survived the barbarism of Adolf Hitler's Germany in the two years before the U.S. entered World War II with Their Finest Hour (Saturday, 8/7c).
The documentary precedes...
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Kevin McHale and Robert Ulrich
Send questions and comments to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow me on Twitter!
Question: What the heck is institutionally wrong with NBC that they can't seem to handle transitions with any class or make a choice and stick with it? I can remember the first Today show debacle when they pushed out Jane Pauley and put poor Deborah Norville in her place, only to abandon Norville to take the brunt of the backlash for their bad decision. Jump ahead to the next century where they push Jay Leno out before he's ready to go, but won't completely let go of him because they can't make up their minds. They put Leno where he's pretty much guaranteed to fail in prime time and then give up on Conan O'Brien before he's really had a chance to grow into the job. Again, treating both performers pretty shabbily considering what they'd contributed to the network.
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Lester Holt
Twenty years ago, the hottest genre in network television wasn't sitcoms, dramas or reality shows — it was newsmagazines. CBS's 60 Minutes was the number-one show. ABC had Barbara Walters and Hugh Downs scoring big ratings on 20/20 and signed Diane Sawyer for Primetime. NBC had the most difficult time getting a newsmagazine off the ground until it launched Dateline NBC on March 31, 1992 after trying and failing with 17 other shows.
Over the next 20 years...
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Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz
Once again testing the audience's willingness to follow Bones all over prime time, Fox follows up its non-surprise eighth-season renewal by moving the enjoyable romantic/forensic procedural to yet another night: Mondays at 8/7c, in front of the ...
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Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney said Monday he would consider pulling a TV campaign ad produced completely from old NBC Nightly News footage after the ad caused outrage from the network and its former evening news anchor, Tom Brokaw.
The commercial features a 1997 segment of NBC Nightly News in which Brokaw announced the House Ethics Committee's decision to penalize then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich — now one of Romney's top competitors for the...
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Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake
TV Guide Network will look at the monumental moments that have affected today's television landscape in a five-part series starting Sunday.
Among the biggest: Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction," the Van Doren "Quiz Show" scandal, and how reality shows such as Survivor and American Idol launched a new genre.
Journalists such as Tom Brokaw discuss the debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, the O.J. Simpson trial and the birth of CNN. Larry King explains how his talk show paved the way for the...
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Tom Brokaw Presents Bridging the Divide
As part of USA Network's monthlong "Characters Unite" campaign to fight discrimination, Tom Brokaw will host a documentary looking at the progress made since the civil rights movement.
In Bridging the Divide, airing Friday at 7/6c on USA, Brokaw puts the spotlight on...
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