HBO photo: Michael Muller

Also debuting on HBO Sunday: the fifth season of Entourage. The last season was a big misstep, diddling about while Vince's movie Medellin was in post-production and wasting time on dumb plots about she-males and rimjobs. (Um, is that an inappropriate reference? If you actually know what it means, you're probably not likely to be offended, right? If any teachers are using Tuned In as a classroom aid and want me to take it down, let me know. I promise not to identify you to your principals.)

With the convention and post-vacation catch-up on my plate, I've only watched two episodes of the four HBO sent out. Is the new season better? Not exactly, not much, not yet. But you can see how it could get good again. Whereas season 4 was rudderless, the new season has a propelling storyline: Medellin has bombed, Vince's career is in the tank and he needs (and for once in his life wants) to work to come back. And because Vince is trying to get the eye of the tiger—and is reconciled with agent Ari—the show doesn't need to flail for excuses to shoehorn Jeremy Piven onto the screen.

Most important, the second episode finally confronts a basic question that the show has always inexplicably ignored: Is Vince actually a good actor or not?

Alan Sepinwall, who did watch all four episodes (brownnoser!) says they're an improvement. I'll check back Monday and see what you thought.

As Maureen Ryan writes, there's been a flurry of back-and-forth today between The Drudge Report and The Oprah Winfrey Show. A Drudge post this morning claimed "Oprah's staff is sharply divided on the merits of booking Sarah Palin."

Later in the day, Oprah released a statement that—after having endorsed Barack Obama last year—she had decided not to have any candidates on her show, but that she would love to interview Palin after the election.

It's a strange story, for a couple of reasons. First, the original post mentions the Oprah staff arguing the merits of having Palin on—but doesn't say anything about whether there have actually have been talks, or whether Palin would do the interview in the first place.

Palin, after all, has not been doing any national media at all, besides People magazine. She so far has no plans to. To hear one McCain staffer tell it, it's because the media is so mean and biased. (To hear another, it's because she's not prepared yet. "Ready to be President on Day One! Not quite ready to do Meet the Press, but working on it!")

Given all that, it would be surprising that, however soft a venue Winfrey's show is, Palin would want to grant her first big TV interview to Barack Obama's biggest celebrity supporter. [Update: Obama has been on her show twice, both times before she endorsed him.] Wouldn't that undercut the whole "she shouldn't talk to the biased media" argument? (Or does she agree with me that disclosing one's voting only makes journalists more credible?)

Would I like to see Palin be interviewed on Oprah? Given the potential vice president's radio (and TV) silence, at this point I'd like to see her interviewed by anyone—Matt Lauer, Paula Deen, you name it. I don't quite see the impetus on Palin's part, though, much less Oprah's.

But perhaps once it's clear that Oprah does not want to book Palin, Palin will express an interest in doing Oprah. Nay, will demand it! Will refuse on principle to do any other interviews—though she would love to—until this injustice is rectified!

John McCain outdrew Barack Obama's acceptance speech by about half a million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. An estimated 38.9 million people watched McCain's speech, compared with 38.4 million for Obama—and 37.2 million for McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin. (George Bush in 2004 is a mere footnote, at 27.5 million.)

Obama (and Palin) may demand a recount—or, at least, credit the season-opening NFL game on NBC, which, the Hollywood Reporter notes, brought the networks' convention coverage 13.6 million viewers.

All of which goes to show that if you want to draw a big crowd, football is the key: whether it's a speech at Mile-High Stadium, a Hail Mary of a VP pick, or simply putting on a postgame show. And you wonder why political reporters use so many football metaphors. Now on to the playoffs!

[Update: TV Decoder notes that, if you add in PBS—2.7 million for McCain, 3.5 million for Obama—you get roughly a tie, give or take. Oh dear God, it's the Democratic primary all over again. We demand the PBS delegation be seated!]

[Update 2: As commenter CMR reminds me, BET and TV One also carried Obama's speech, further complicating matters. But I don't have the breakdown of how many watched either individual network. Also, they use the caucus system.]

A reminder that the multi-network fundraiser Stand Up to Cancer airs tonight at 8 p.m. E.T. See the organization's homepage for more information and performers, or to donate.

While I (and others before me) have been advocating that people writing about politics should disclose their votes, journalism has not exactly followed en masse. But the author of US Weekly's controversial Sarah Palin "Babies, Lies & Scandal" cover story announces in the Huffington Post that she's voting—for McCain.

Today US Weekly, tomorrow the world!

PRASHANT GUPTA / HBO

The new print edition of TIME has my review of True Blood. As you'll see, I am not crazy about it. And yet—mainly because I had to cut the review down by about a third—my piece ended up being both more and less harsh on the show than I wanted.

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* The most awesome campaign theme song ever** has hit a snag: turns out Heart don't want Sarah Palin playing Barracuda at her events. (Meanwhile, I missed this piece earlier, but EW also has an interesting story on the mixed reactions among Brooks & Dunn and their songwriter to the use of Only in America by both Bush and Obama.)

* One point I forgot to make in my McCain writeup this morning:

If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed...

Like a community organizer does, for instance? Get on message, hippie!

* And that's about all I got. I missed much of the run-up to McCain's acceptance while writing up Obama-on-O'Reilly, so I'll make this an open thread for any of your thoughts. And then I promise to post something not about the freaking election.

**[Update: Not sarcasm! I don't care who you're voting for, Barracuda kicks ass.]

In the televisual equivalent of a red-state strategy, the Democratic candidate (finally) ventures on to The O'Reilly Factor. Here's my writeup.

The most seemingly comfortable section of John McCain's acceptance speech was his talking about his own torture. Never known as a wizard with the teleprompter, McCain grew most at ease toward the end of his speech, talking about his journey from wayward youth to prisoner of war to candidate. In perhaps his most memorable line, he joined his story of sacrifice in Hanoi (repeating many highlights of the bio video that played before he took the stage) to his claims of having worked for reform in Washington, as well as to a dig at Obama as a tyro who hasn't earned his stripes yet: "I have that record, and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not."

In a way, scars are the message and the promise of the McCain campaign, both politicially and as stagecraft, intentionally and inadvertently. Where Obama's motto is "no drama," McCain's campaign has lived (and at one point nearly died) by drama. Where Obama brought the genial rollout of Joe Biden, McCain gave us the Palin rollercoaster. Where Obama sells himself on cerebral decision making, McCain prides himself on his gut. Visually and thematically, the Obama campaign suggests: we will bring you change, but offer you a smooth controlled ride. McCain's has suggested—as an aide said when the news of Palin's daughter's pregnancy broke out—that "life happens," the approach to the campaign implying that you may hit some turbulence but that you can trust McCain to pull it out in the end.

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