Working from home, and without an audience, some late-night hosts shine, while others sputter. (Read all about it in TVWW’s Eric Gould’s latest blog in Cold Light Reader.) Tonight, Conan O’Brien joins the fray, and I’m betting on him to do well. O’Brien always has gravitated to things he thinks are funny, rather than trying to second-guess his audience, and therein lies originality, and laughter.

2020

Mar

ABC NEWS NIGHTLINE By David Bianculli

ABC News Nightline began in 1979 as a late-night 11:30 p.m. ET news program reacting to an ongoing crisis, with Ted Koppel anchoring nightly reports, initially focused on the hostage crisis in Iran. Eventually, Nightline outlasted that single-topic focus. Decades later, the program, was shifted to after midnight, so Jimmy Kimmel could compete more directly with the other network’s late-night major-league hosts. But now, in the course of the coronavirus epidemic, ABC wisely h

2020

Mar

THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT By David Bianculli

Stephen Colbert has done very funny Late Show remote programs from his home, and even from his bathtub, online. Now he’s back on CBS, but still socially distant. And since he’s one of the best comics out there when it comes to reacting to the daily headlines, he’s one of the most prominent broadcast TV voices to watch. Keep it up, please, Stephen.

2020

Mar

JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE! By David Bianculli

Jimmy Kimmel is now televised after midnight, and, like his cohorts on other networks, is working without an audience, remotely from home, and pretty much without a net. But watch. These are extraordinary times, and the times are providing us with some truly unprecedented television. And I’m pretty sure, in Kimmel’s desktop shots from his home, that birdcage drawing behind him is a drawing by Kurt Vonnegut. So it goes…

2020

Mar

CITIZEN KANE By David Bianculli

Next year, Orson Welles’ cinematic debut, Citizen Kane, will be 80 years old – and still ranks at or near the top of most lists of the best movies ever made. Watch it tonight, again or for the first time, and see why. The structure, the photography, the characters, the sheer intelligence of the damned thing – it all sticks the landing all these decades later, including the movie’s takes on politics, the media, and show business. It’s an amazing accomplishm

2020

Mar

IHEART LIVING ROOM CONCERT FOR AMERICA By David Bianculli

A month ago, Elton John was diagnosed with walking pneumonia, and was led offstage after performing for two hours at a concert in New Zealand. A month later, with the coronavirus spreading around the world, Sir Elton is hosting this last-minute concert fundraiser on Fox, which uses the network time slot vacated by the virus-canceled iHeart Radio Music Awards to present a socially distanced music charity special. Billie Eilish performs from the privacy and safety of her own home. So doe

2020

Mar

ZOEY'S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST By David Bianculli

In last week’s episode, Zoey revealed her hidden power, the ability to watch and hear people sing their inner thoughts in songs no one else can witness, to one of her closest friends. “I am a mutant,” she explained. “I am The X-Men meets The Voice.” And tonight, for the first time, Zoey herself takes center stage for the entire episode, singing her own inner thoughts. This is her song, and this one’s for you.

2020

Mar

THE WALKING DEAD By David Bianculli

Last week’s episode was spent with Michonne, and was fairly harrowing. We learned a lot about her, and also learned that her long-missing loved one, Rick Grimes, the former protagonist of this apocalyptic adventure, may still be alive.

2020

Mar

WESTWORLD By David Bianculli

The Season 3 premiere of Westworld took place in the “real world” outside the disastrously out-of-control theme park, and focused on a killer female android, Dolores. Last week’s episode, the season’s second installment, went back to the park, introducing a WWII Nazi theme land called Warworld, and focusing on another killer female android, Maeve. But it ended with Maeve (pictured) finding herself in the “real world,” and helplessly controlled by par

2020

Mar

HOMELAND By David Bianculli

This is almost the end – for Homeland, and maybe for Saul and Carrie as well. And frankly, no one in their inner circle, or even their outer one, looks to have a clear path to redemption or happiness right now.

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