Mega Beasts
Mega Beasts
9/8c Discovery
This new series brings to life some of the most ferocious dinosaurs to roam the earth. Scientists piece together what these mysterious creatures looked like, how they behaved, and what they encountered. In tonight's episode, we'll get a look at the phorusrhacids — or terror birds — and their reign in South America.
Read on for previews of King of the Hill, True Blood, the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, There Goes the Neighborhood, HGTV Design Star and Entourage.
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Mad Men
Mad Men
10/9c AMC
Betty's slipping-into-senility father (Ryan Cutrona), who's become a bit of a nuisance around the Draper home, pushes Don's buttons, which leads to an encounter with the man of the house. Peggy also has a domestic issue: She's looking for someone with whom to share her swinging bachelorette pad. On the work front, a new client with money to burn has great expectations in regard to the firm, and Sal is handed a plum assignment when the director on a soft-drink ad drops out to shoot a picture in Hollywood.
Read on for previews of Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, Shark Tank, Jerry Lewis Telethon, Masterpiece Mystery! and HGTC Design Star.
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Samuel L. Jackson, The 2009 ESPY Awards
ESPY Awards
9 pm/ET ESPN
This 17th annual mingling of athletes and celebrities in L.A. comes on the heels of an Olympic year, which always adds a little intrigue to some of the 37 fan-voted award categories. Host Samuel L. Jackson can expect to see as many swimmers and gymnasts as NBA and NFL stars on the Nokia Theatre stage, which is graced by a variety of nonsports presenters from comedian Andy Samberg to model Marisa Miller to musician will.i.am. Kobe Bryant and Candace Parker are crowd favorites for Best Male and Best Female Athlete, but Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin loom from the Beijing contingent.
Read on for previews of Labor Pains, AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Michael Douglas, HGTV Design Star and Most Popular.
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Vern Yip by Ben Smith/Fratelli Studio/HGTV
HGTVs Design Star is back Sunday night 9 pmET with the premiere of its third season and promises an all-new set of contestants challenges highs and lows in Nashville TN TVGuidecom chatted with one of the shows judges Vern Yip to get the scoop on what to expect from the Nashville scene what contestants can do to impress or disappoint why design has evolved from its uber-exclusive status to a more populist topic and how this years Design Star mirrors Idols battle of the Davids Anna DimondTVGuidecom Whats this season going to be like and how will it differ from previous yearsVern Yip In my opinion this is going to be the best season ever because our contestants are not only really talented but theyve had two years of Design Star so they come in with so much more knowledge They have more prowess with hosting Its no longer a surprise to our contestants that you have to be a triple threat Its really intense and really competitive Even if you don
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Bill Engvall by Danny Feld/TBS
TBS has ordered a second 10-episode season of The Bill Engvall Show, the cabler announced on Tuesday. Engvall also will host Blue Collar Comedy: The Next Generation, a special airing on TBS Nov. 17.... HGTV is moving ahead with a third round of Design Star, and is currently receiving applications from wannabe contestants. Meanwhile, Season 1 champ David Bromstad's Color Splash has been picked up for three more 13-episode seasons.
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Vanessa Hudgens, Zac Efron and Ashley Tisdale in High School Musical 2 by Adam Larkey/Disney Channel
The ridiculous (in a good way) ratings for Disney Channel's multiple record-breaking weekend launch of High School Musical 2 was just the most spectacular reminder of what a great TV summer this has been — if you have cable.Not even a big hit like TNT's The Closer can match HSM2's numbers, and some of the best series, like AMC's mesmerizing Mad Men, are only doing so-so. But that's only to be expected given the glut of programming on many nights — including Thursdays, when Mad Men goes head-to-head with USA Network's latest clever breakout caper, Burn Notice. I thought my DVRs would get a break this summer. Didn't happen.Just look at the options we’ve had over the last few nights, including terrific new episodes of Burn Notice and Mad Men on Thursday. I’m really enjoying Burn now that ex-spy Michael Weston is getting closer to the truth about how he was set up to be fired. And what can I say about Mad Men besides the word I used to start my initial review of th...
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Question: OK, I know it's not your channel or your kind of show (it is a chick thing!), but I was wondering: Have you previewed any episodes of Lifetime's Side Order of Life? Though it's a little cheesy, with its Ally McBeal-esque antics (not done half as well...), the heart of this show is very sweet and genuine. Diana-Maria Riva is absolutely amazing as Vivy. The way she makes me laugh and cry, portraying a woman striving to live a normal life despite having cancer, is a prime example of why I love TV and come back for more each week!
Answer: Message received. My initial reaction to reviewing this pilot was to cut it some slack. I agree with the remark about it being cheesy, but I also found it harmless and likable and, most important, very much in keeping with the Lifetime brand (and I don't mean to be patronizing here). By comparison, despite a strong performance by Lili Taylor, I thought its companion show, State of Mind, was an annoyingly over-the-top attempt to bring an FX-like
...
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Vern Yip courtesy HGTV
Any Trading Spaces or HGTV addict out there knows Vern Yip and his clean designs. Now you have a chance to have him give your home office a $25,000 makeover. Enter by writing a 250-word essay talking about how technology can improve your life and office sitch; 10 finalists get a Microsoft software package. "I'm all about making spaces more usable and friendly, and more productive," says Yip. "[The home office] is no longer just a place where you go to pull up a recipe or find a movie time. They are real offices." For cubicle dwellers who don't work from home, here's a Yip tip: "The smaller the amount of space you have to work with, the more important it is that you take a hard line about what is necessary, and have just one or two things that are inspirational."In addition to judging the new Design Star debuting July 22 ("The talent this year is way over where it was last season!"), Yip has a new show, Deserving Design, premiering Sept. 12. "Every episode focuses on a person who is ...
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Question: I'm curious to see what your opinion is of Top Design now that the season is well under way. As a huge Project Runway and Top Chef fan, I really wanted to like this series, but I think it's pretty bad. The designers are boring, the judges are boring, the hosts are boring, the challenges are boring. I don't see anyone with the charisma of Tim Gunn or Michael Kors, and I can't remember who the contestants are an hour after the show ends. Plus the judging at times has been incomprehensible. You can't tell what the judges are looking for or why one design is "in" and another "out." Plus, "See you later, decorator" has to rank as the lamest exit line, worse than Martha's goodbye letter on her version of The Apprentice. I can't even say that I'm learning something or getting ideas of my own because they show so little of the design process. How much more fun would it have been if instead of doing the "fake" rooms for those students, the show had gone into a college dorm and had ...
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Ready, set, create something fabulous!
That in a glitzy nutshell is the gist, and the appeal, of a new wave of skill-based reality-competition shows that I have become completely addicted to on Bravo. They may be rigidly formulaic — from over-the-top casting to the soul-crushing (if not career-crushing) judging — but why mess with success?
It all started with the wildly entertaining and Emmy-nominated fashion-design contest Project Runway and continued into the kitchen with the succulent Top Chef, whose second-season finale this Wednesday will be followed by the newest promising contender: Top Design (premiering Jan. 31 at 11 pm/ET). This one pits interior designers against each other. Watch the fur,and paint, fly.
HGTV has covered this territo
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