May 1, 2008 4:41

First the Dodgers, Now Project Runway

First Project Runway moved from Bravo to Lifetime. I was fine with that. Now comes word (from EW via tvtattle) that Runway is moving from New York City to Los Angeles, at least for a good chunk of season 6.

Oh, no they dih-n't. Oh NO they DIH-n't.

Look, I'm sure they have plenty of little fashion thingies in L.A. I understand people wear clothing there. But this New York City, capital of the fashion world. Or at least the fashion country. You get my point. My point is: did we try to steal On the Lot from you? No. No, we did not. Did we steal the Real Housewives from Orange County? No, we found crazy rich people of our own.

But now the East Coast / West Coast TV war is on. Look out, City of Angels: we're coming after American Idol now.

Or at least Shear Genius. We can totally get Shear Genius.

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May 1, 2008 11:44

Will the Last Person to Watch Television Please Turn Off the Set?

Working on a print piece again, so the blogging may be a bit scanty today too. (Writing about TV, you learn in this job, tends to get in the way of actually watching TV, much less blogging about it.) According to the New York Times, however, this is probably not a big deal, because it turns out that you do not care about television anymore. Post-strike, broadcast network primetime ratings are down—way down, strikingly so even in comparison to the falloffs of recent seasons. Among the explanations:

* Daylight savings time now begins earlier. Verdict: No more convincing this year than when they trotted it out last year.

* Dramas, which are generally suffering more than comedies, are more vulnerable to a strike interruption because viewers lose track of their serial plots whereas they can easily jump back in to a sitcom. Verdict: Getting warmer. But does not account for the falloff in dramas like CSI and House, which are much more episodic and don't really require watching every episode to understand them. But makes the decision to push Heroes, Chuck, Dirty Sexy Money et al. off until next fall seem even more brilliant!

* DVRs and other alternative ways of watching, are cutting in to regular primetime viewing. Verdict: Plausible—and squares with what some Tuned In commenters have said—but again does not explain why they should suddenly be cutting into viewership so much more than in the fall.

* The strike gave viewers permission to break up with shows they were cooling to anyway—be they aging series or new shows they were lukewarm on to begin with. Verdict: Although the article makes this argument only briefly, bingo.

There's a good chance that all these explanations are correct to some degree, and that this defeat has many fathers. But this is a good place to turn the question on you. Why do you hate TV, America?

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May 1, 2008 10:06

Solid as Iraq

You'll probably be seeing a lot about this anniversary in the news today. But whatever implications it had for national security, our faith in government and the current political situation, let us also not forget how it made possible TV's greatest extended satire about Iraq, right down to the hubris and the daddy issues:

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May 1, 2008 8:33

The Morning After: Paula's Damage Control

Spoilers on the American Idol elimination—and the latest on Paulagate—coming up... after the break!

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