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

 
 
2012
Jan
12
 
 
Bill Moyers is back -- twice! This weekend, he'll make you think, as he launches the inaugural edition of public TV's Moyers & Company. But already this week, he's made you laugh -- as Stephen Colbert's guest on Tuesday's installment of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report. Not many people can parse the differences between tax breaks and tax dodges on one show, and screech owls and hoot owls on another. But Moyers can, and does...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
11
 
 
If you're wondering why this week's BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS provide no mention of either the new NBC sitcom Are You There, Chelsea? or the new CBS sitcom Rob, let me be clear. It's not an oversight. It's a judgment. Both shows are terrible -- but Chelsea Handler's program is the more disappointing, because she's been so clever and successful at hosting talk shows and writing memoirs...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
9
 
 
By watching its premiere telecast, you can tell much more about a news program's immediate weaknesses than its potential strengths. Chemistry and reputation take time to build, but groan-inducing mistakes, missteps and poor editorial judgments are there from the start...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
6
 
 
Sunday, in addition to the NFL playoff games, there are a ridiculous number of fresh TV offerings -- way too many to mention in BEST BETS alone. But on my most recent radio report for Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I tried. Read on for details about not only Showtime's House of Lies and PBS's Season 2 of Downton Abbey, but NBC's new The Firm, BBC America's Absolutely Fabulous special, and more...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
4
 
 
The Iowa caucus has delivered the first official votes in the 2012 race for President of the United States, and anointed yet another surging challenger to Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination...Next comes the New Hampshire primary, where, 16 years ago, President Bill Clinton took first place in his Democratic bid for re-election. In second place that year, with more than 900 votes?...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
3
 
 
Upset by both the popularity and content of certain of its country's reality TV shows, China has adopted a new, rather severe set of guidelines aimed at containing the genre's excesses and negative messages. Meanwhile, back in the United States, we have Gary Busey on ABC's Celebrity Wife Swap on Tuesday, and the fifth season of MTV's Jersey Shore premiering on Thursday...I don't want to be the subject of a modern Joe McCarthy Communist witch hunt or anything -- but in this case, maybe the Chinese are on to something...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
2
 
 
Clearly, Oprah Winfrey began the New Year determined to OWN it. She's doubling down on her Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) by premiering, on January 1, 2012, the inaugural edition of her new talk show -- her first since stepping down from her syndicated empire as the Queen of All Media. Her new show, televised Sundays at 9 p.m. ET, is called Oprah's Next Chapter, and it's quite a risk, as well as quite a departure...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jan
1
 
 
Happy New Year! We have big plans for TV WORTH WATCHING in 2012 -- some of which will require your help and input, so rest up. Meanwhile, my personal TVWW-related New Year's resolution is one that I'm putting on the record, and implementing, today. It's one that many of you have asked for, quite understandably: a more reliable and helpful posting method for BIANCULLI'S BEST BETS...And wait, there's more...