Queen Latifah by Monty Brinton/CBS
Maybe the Globes are onto something by sucking it up and going with a simple hour-long press conference? Similarly struck by the strike, Tuesday night's extremely strange and borderline unwatchable People's Choice Awards — in which host Queen Latifah had the unenviable task of reading the winner from what looked like a Franklin Planner, then throwing it to a pre-taped acceptance speech — gave props to a trio of Grey's Anatomy stars (Patrick Dempsey, Katherine Heigl and Chandra Wilson), House (named favorite TV drama) and Two and a Half Men (fave comedy). Other winners on the TV front included talk host Ellen DeGeneres, Dancing with the Stars (reality show), Deal or No Deal (game show), Stargate Atlantis (sci-fi fare) and The Simpsons (non-human programming).
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Needless to say, we heart our parodies here at TVGuide.com, so when we saw this Simpsons video, we couldn't resist sharing. In this clip that aired in yesterday’s episode, The Simpsons mimicked the Noah photo time-lapse video (see below) of the dude who took a picture of himself every day for six years and strung together a video of it. In this updated version, we see what it would look like if he took a picture of himself every day for the past 39 years. We get baby Homer, acne-ridden teen Homer — even Homer balding before your very eyes! Maybe Dove will use this for their next ad. More online videos
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The Simpsons courtesy Fox
The past few weeks have been trying ones for anyone who cares about TV and the potentially devastating impact the ongoing writers’ strike could have on the current season and beyond. Which is why, being a cockeyed optimist and all, I’ve been cautiously thanking the fates ever since hearing that the Writers’ Guild and the producers’ alliance are going back to the negotiating table on Monday. No guarantee, of course, that this will mean a quick end to the standoff that has shut so much production down already. But hey, it’s Thanksgiving week, so let’s stay in a thankful and hopeful mode, OK?In that light, here are 10 more reasons to be thankful about the current week in TV as we head into the Thanksgiving break.1. We’re still in a sweeps month, which has allowed us most nights to live blissfully in denial that a strike is even happening, since new episodes continue to abound (including over most of this long holiday weekend). Depending on what happen...
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Prime time, shime time. The first Sunday of November sweeps' top program aired in the afternoon: CBS' coverage of the New England Patriots/Indianapolis Colts game averaged a ginormous 22.5 household rating and 39 share. Did I say the day's top program? Pshaw. That was actually the best-rated afternoon regular-season NFL game in decades! Natch, those numbers helped 60 Minutes, which did better in the 18-49 demo than it had in almost two years (a 5.0 rating, 12 share), and Amazing Race, which garnered its best premiere demos since '05 (4.2/9). Also of note: Fox's "Treehouse of Horror" episode of The Simpsons scared up a 5.7 rating and a 13 share in the 18-49 demo, its best showing in about four years, and Desperate Housewives, the night's No. 1 show in the baby-faced demo, earned a 7.0 rating and a 16 share. —Ben Katner
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The Simpsons
As synonymous with Halloween as pumpkins (even if they do air after the holiday), the celebrated annual "Treehouse of Horror" episodes of The Simpsons (8 pm/ET, Fox) are always a treat. "It's a tradition, like the Macy's Thanksgiving parade — only more violent," says executive producer Al Jean. "This is where we can do those jokes you can't do the rest of the year — the things that are unreal." Like many of its predecessors, tonight's "Treehouse of Horror XVIII" offers a mix of film parodies, pointed satire and genuine scares. This year's trilogy opens with "E.T. Go Home," a send-up of the 1982 Spielberg classic that charts Elliott's — er — Bart's friendship with a stranded alien. Unfortunately, Bart's new friend is the decidedly uncuddly and diabolical Kodos. Next up is "Mr. and Mrs. Simpson," a spoof of Mr. and Mrs. Smith
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First off, let’s all say a quick one for the folks over in Malibu and San Diego. I don’t care who you pray to, they can use all the positive energy they can get right now, you know?OK, so now that we’re only a week away from the greatest holiday (that doesn’t involve wrapping paper), it’s the perfect time to whip out the fondness for some of TV’s best Halloween episodes, which—look at that!—are also saluted in tvguide.com’s supernifty Halloween section! Some are funny, some are freaky, some are just damned frightening. But they all celebrate the season and are available on DVD, so they also therefore rock..Buffy the Vampire Slayer—“Halloween” In the words of Marie Osmond, oh crap. Was this Season 2 howler from ’97 a blast or what?! The Scoobies and most of Sunnydale slip into cursed costumes from a shop run by Giles’ nasty crony and soon, the town is overrun by trick-or-treaters who’ve morphed into whatever ...
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Sarah Michelle Gellar by Richard Cartwright/FOX
It seems like a more innocent time, when a haircut could rock an entire network. But that's what happened when Felicity star Keri Russell's trademark curly locks were shorn during a summer hiatus in 1999. The early WB fave was never the same after that follicle debacle. Susanne Daniels, who was the creative executive behind many of the network's early successes, and Variety deputy editor Cynthia Littleton have recounted the wild ride of the short-lived six network era in Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB and UPN (Harper Books). When reading the story, it's hard to believe two over-the-air broadcast networks were launched only a dozen years before we made a habit out of watching TV on our computers. Both UPN and the WB (which merged to become the CW last year) were born out of their studio-owners' fear that once the government allowed the established networks to produce their own series, they would be shut out of prime time. That never happened. But the youth-orie...
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Question: In previous years, whenever CBS aired a late-afternoon football game, it pushed the Sunday night lineup back, sometimes as much as a full hour, so they could air every show starting with 60 Minutes. But I noticed that on Sept. 30, when there was a late-afternoon football game scheduled, 60 Minutes was scheduled to start at 7:30 pm/ET and run until Cold Case started at 9. My question is, was this something specially scheduled because 60 Minutes did have high-profile stories (a Supreme Court justice and a rising football player), or will 60 Minutes always air in this pattern when CBS has late-afternoon games?
Answer: According to the TV Guide listings (a very useful resource on this website and in our magazine pages — I'm just saying), this expanded and late-starting version of 60 Minutes is scheduled for the next two Sundays. I'm a big fan of this idea, as it keeps the rest of CBS' prime-time lineup on track and without the overruns that aggravate so many loyal viewers of Cold
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Justin Chambers and Katherine Heigl in Grey's Anatomy by Scott Garfield/ABC
Grey's Anatomy is this TV season's most expensive show for advertisers to buy into, commanding on average $419,000 per 30-second spot, says an Advertising Age survey. Last fall's titleholder was Desperate Housewives, which drew $394K.Rounding out this year's top five are NBC's Sunday Night Football ($358,000), The Simpsons ($315,000), Heroes ($296,000) and the ladies of Wisteria Lane ($270,000). Come January, Grey's riches could look like peanuts compared to what American Idol stands to reap. Ad Age hears that Idol is asking for anywhere from $500,000 to $700,000 per :30, depending on when during the season the commercial gets slotted. The next round of 24, meanwhile, is said to be looking at $300K per incredulous plot twist spot.
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This Sunday, as NBC's NFL coverage averaged 16.46 million total viewers from 8 pm/ET on:• The debuts of the CW's newsmagazine whatevers CW Now and Online Nation were sampled by barely a million viewers each. That's way less than half of the year-ago Sunday premiere of, say, Everybody Hates Chris.• The news was better for Fox, whose 'toons The Simpsons (9.44 mil, +500K), King of the Hill (7.74 mil) and Family Guy (10.65 mil, +1.3 mil) each drew healthy premiere audiences.• On CBS, Cold Case was welcomed back by 12.3 mil, a drop of five mil from last year's opener. Lead-out Shark christened its new day/time period with 11.54 mil, a mil fewer than caught its Season 1 finale in May.POLL: What do you plan to watch live tonight? Vote here with your 8 pm and 9 pm picks.
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