DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2011
Oct
20
 
 
I didn't think Kelsey Grammer could do it, but I have to hand it to him. In the new Starz drama series "Boss," with his edgy, calibrated, scary performance as Tom Kane, the Machiavellian mayor of Chicago with a devastating secret, Grammer blots out any memories of Frasier Crane...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
20
 
 
Fairy tales can come true, they can happen to you -- not once but twice in the coming week. NBC was supposed to be first in line with "Grimm", but delayed its announced Friday, Oct. 21 premiere by a week to be closer to Halloween. That leaves ABC to sally forth with "Once Upon A Time"...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
20
 
 
Once upon a time, ABC used to carry a Sunday night series called The Wonderful World of Disney that enabled the whole family to sit together and watch a sweet family-oriented program. That magical time is back...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
19
 
 
One of the most recognizable logo brands of the 20th century, one that's still around (with modernized variations) here in the 21st, celebrates its 60th anniversary Thursday. It's the CBS eye, which, only in the most literal sense, is a black eye on the face of the CBS network. Otherwise, it's a marketing triumph that would make Don Draper weep with pride. The CBS Eye, with the CBS Television Network identified in the pupil, and with the eye floating behind a sky of black-and-white clouds, was broadcast for the first time on Oct. 20, 1951...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
18
 
 
TVWW managing editor Diane Werts has beaten me to the punch on this one, reporting on the amazing audience estimates for Sunday's Season 2 premiere of AMC's The Walking Dead in her For Better or Werts column -- But those numbers, like the show, bears repeating. They really are shocking -- and multiplying about as quickly as a zombie epidemic...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
17
 
 
Monday night at 10 ET, HBO premieres Sing Your Song, a 90-minute biography of Harry Belafonte that has a lot in common with that network's recent, equally triumphant and illuminating George Harrison documentary. Both are loaded with rare photographs, recordings and film and TV clips. Both drop more big names than a Who's Who compendium. And both look at artists who were as concerned with social activism, and personal enlightenment, as with making music...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
17
 
 
I'd say we got trouble, my friend, with a capital T and a capital V and that stands for... you can figure the next part out yourself. For the first time in decades -- actually, the first time ever -- the Nielsen Co. recently announced a decrease in its estimate of the number of U.S. TV Households. This year, Nielsen is estimating that number at 114.7 million households, down from last year's 115.9 million. At the same time, cable companies are seeing a decline in the number of cable subscribe
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
17
 
 
ABC probably has already steeled itself for the Acapulco cliff dive in the ratings from Tim Allen's "Last Man Standing" to the nowhere men of "Man Up!" Allen's re-do of Home Improvement got critically panned. But thanks in no small part to his household name, it opened pretty big in last week's national Nielsens...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
17
 
 
Whoa, and boy howdy -- these are some impressive ratings numbers! Sunday's second-season premiere of The Walking Dead was one live wire for AMC, smashing cable viewership records in key demos -- Clearly, Bianculli's rave had sway!...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2011
Oct
17
 
 
The time has not yet come when TV Worth Watching rules television itself (or at least one channel stocked 24/7 with smart and cool programs). But we CAN stream this Friday's premiere of Starz' Kelsey Grammer political drama Boss. The premium cable channel is sneaking the entire hour to entice viewers to a series it likes so much, Starz has already ordered a second season...