SERIES PREMIERE: Series creator Jason Katims is basing his newest TV series on a movie, which, in turn, was based on a book. In this case, it’s Nick Hornby’s novel, which was made into a movie starring Hugh Grant in 2002. But Katims has followed the same formula before, and emerged with NBC’s excellent Friday Night Lights series, as well as made a very impressive TV version of another film in the ongoing Parenthood. NBC is giving Katims’ newest series, About a

2014

Feb

THE XXII OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES By David Bianculli

If you’re watching live, you’ve seen some of the best stuff already today, including Sweden earning its way into the gold-medal final game for men’s hockey. Other live events today include, in men’s hockey, the other semifinal, with the U.S. vs. Canada, televised live beginning at 11:45 a.m. ET on NBCSN, and the gold-medal final in men’s curling, with Great Britain vs. Canada at 5 p.m. ET on CNBC. In prime time, on NBC, the taped packages will focus on skiing and sp

2014

Feb

SHARK TANK By David Bianculli

On tonight’s new installment, one of the entrepreneurs hoping for investment dollars from the business angels on Shark Tank is a guy from Portland, OR (where else?) who combines a sidewalk smoothie and juice stand with bicycle-powered blenders. This means, of course, that his fledgling business, uniquely, involves both peddling and pedaling.

2014

Feb

GREAT PERFORMANCES: "STING: THE LAST SHIP" By David Bianculli

This performance by Sting, taped at New York’s Public Theater on Oct. 2, was a special event for several different reasons. One, it was one of a string of many benefit concerts staged last fall by Sting for the Public. Two, it was taped on Sting’s birthday. And three, it previewed music from The Last Ship, which is a new musical set to premiere in Chicago this summer before heading to Broadway. Check local listings.

2014

Feb

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER By David Bianculli

There’s a full roster of guests on Maher’s show tonight, but one of them, on this program, has been greeted by the studio audience, on previous appearances, with the sort of fervor usually reserved for a teen idol. Returning for her latest guest shot: Rachel Maddow.

2014

Feb

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON By David Bianculli

Jimmy Fallon has had a strong first week as the new host of The Tonight Show – and it’s likely he’s saved the best for last, as his old cohort in comedy and playful musical pieces and parodies, Justin Timberlake, shows up. As on many of his Saturday Night Live appearances, Timberlake serves here as both headliner and musical guest.

2014

Feb

THE XXII OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES By David Bianculli

The ladies’ free skate decides the competitive, dramatic final total for the gold medal in women’s figure skating, with South Korea’s 2010 gold medalist, Yuna Kim, battling it out with highly placed skaters from Russia, Italy and the U.S. They compete live at 10 a.m. ET on NBCSN, and will be the centerpiece of NBC’s tape-delayed prime-time coverage at 8 p.m. ET. For a review of Olympics skating coverage so far, see Monique Nazareth’s MNtv. And don’t forget abo

2014

Feb

AMERICAN IDOL By David Bianculli

Olympics coverage is coming to a head the next few days, but the competition at American Idol is just getting into gear. Tonight’s show is the one that whittles down the field of competitors to the Top 13 finalists – which is when Idol enters a new phase, and concentrates only on singers who actually will become the next crowned American Idol. Well, one of them, anyway.

2014

Feb

INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO By David Bianculli

Tonight’s new edition salutes, and interviews, an actor who has reinvented himself of late, and whose story, at this particular moment in his career, ought to provide acting students at the Actors Studio with a particularly valuable lesson. The guest? Matthew McConaughey, who’s done such great work of late in, among other works, The Dallas Buyers Club and the current, brilliant True Detective on HBO.

2014

Feb

RAKE By David Bianculli

Tonight’s guest star makes this episode worth a peek. Guest starring as the latest client of Greg Kinnear’s Keegan is a chef, but he’s not accused of murder and cannibalism – just bigamy. And he’s played by Michael Imperioli, who has plenty of women troubles as Christopher on HBO’s The Sopranos.

Posts 41-50 of 165

4 5 6 7 8

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption