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Coagulations! HBO Bounces Back with "True Blood"
September 5, 2008 6:27 AM
One thing HBO needs is another Sopranos, a show that can drive the national conversation and define the network as first among quality-TV equals. True Blood, which premieres Sunday, isn't that show. Not quite, or at least not yet.
But it's a good one, no question about it. Alan Ball, who also created Six Feet Under, returns to HBO with a series that gets more interesting, and original, as it goes on. By episode five (the last one provided for preview), you can really sink your teeth into it.
Based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, True Blood stars Anna Paquin as Sookie, a small-town waitress tending bar in a moody Louisiana area dotted with foggy bayous and gothic plantation mansions. It's a spooky setting already, made more spooky by the central premise of the books and this series: vampires, formerly hidden from society, have, as Sookie says excitedly, "come out of the coffin."
A Japanese invention, synthetic blood, has allowed the vamps to reveal themselves and try to mainstream, but it's not an easy transition for either side. Some vampires, like biker gangs with fangs, still like to roam free and plunder. And some humans, having discovered that small drops of vampire blood act as a mind-bending drug and sexual stimulant, have begun hunting the hunters.
Ball does some genre-bending, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans will be right at home with the mix of terror, comedy and character. Paquin, as Sookie, is one of this show's secret weapons. As a character, Sookie has a secret weapon of her own -- she's telepathic -- but Paquin's secret weapon is her appealing, naturalistic acting.
There are other secret weapons in True Blood, too. Stephen Moyer, as the brooding vampire who enters the restaurant and instantly captures Sookie's curiosity, is another. And among the supporting cast, Ryan Kwanten as Sookie's brother, and Rutina Wesley as her best friend, are just as enjoyable and interesting to watch.
It takes a few episodes for True Blood to really kick in. But by the time Moyer's vampiric Bill is embraced by the community and invited to a town meeting to share his war stories -- Civil War stories -- the series has found its own voice and direction. And by making room, in that same episode, for music by the Tuvan throat singer Ondar, True Blood sold me completely.
Republicans Get Message Across Unfiltered
September 4, 2008 6:40 AM
Last night the Republicans made history, and not just by nominating the first woman to be part of their presidential ticket. They made history by being the first party at either of the 2008 conventions -- and, if my memory serves, the first party at any presidential convention ever -- to get across its prime-time message totally unfiltered on commercial broadcast TV.
This happened, in part, because ABC, CBS and NBC have limited themselves to one hour of prime time nightly at these conventions. But even so, all previous nights have allowed room for the networks to skip one speech while replaying parts of another, give room for its anchors and commentators to comment, and settle in for the night's one big speech.
Not Wednesday night. Wednesday night, Republicans filled the entire hour, and then some.
CBS, NBC and ABC joined the cable and PBS coverage at 10 p.m. ET, and said hello to viewers, setting up the speakers to follow: Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin. And that was it. At 10:01, Giuliani began speaking, with a New York skyline image, notably bereft of the World Trade Center towers, towering behind him.
As soon as Giuliani was through, he introduced Palin. The biographical video that had been scheduled was scrapped, in an undeniably canny move that allowed the Alaskan governor to, in essence, introduce herself to the American TV public.
Palin spoke until 11:08, at which time she was joined on stage by John McCain, who made his first appearance at the convention. At 11:15, local stations took over with local news at most stations, and that was it.
Both speeches were presented whole.
And both were accompanied by memorable visuals, including one of Palin's daughters cradling Palin's youngest child, and licking her palm to smooth his hair. The images, like the speeches and the evening, went by mostly unremarked -- except on cable, where there was room to speak afterward.
On commercial broadcast TV, all those anchors and correspondents, all that money and expertise, and they got to say nothing except a few minutes of observations at the end.
At CBS, Jeff Greenfield said Palin's speech had "perfect populist pitch." At ABC, George Stephanopolous said that McCain "broke free of George Bush tonight." Chris Wallace, on Fox News, called Palin's address "a heck of a speech," And on PBS, Jim Lehrer observed of Palin, "To say that she was well-received in the hall would be an understatement."
A lot of Palin's speech, as with Giuliani's, focused not only on attacks on Barack Obama, but on the media, and its treatment in covering and uncovering the various stories about the national neophyte Sarah Palin. Thrust upon the national stage, she is the first governor nominated for vice president since Spiro Agnew in 1968.
Agnew, of course, was the first vice president to make a name for himself by attacking the media, which he dismissed as "nattering nabobs of negativism." As another Republican said more recently: Here we go again...
Palin Takes Stage, "Daily Show" Takes Aim, "90210" Takes Off (Barely)
September 3, 2008 8:44 AM
There's a lot to cover today: How the networks covered last night's convention, and what to expect tonight. How good The Daily Show is doing at these conventions. And how the two-hour premiere of CW's 90210, not available for preview, measured up last night.
So let's get right to it, in order:
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION -- Day 2 of the Republican National Convention, the first real day of speeches and TV coverage (because of Hurricane Gustav), was a mixed affair in terms of cable and broadcast coverage. When Orson Swindle (he being one of the POWs held captive the same time as John McCain) spoke during the 9 p.m. ET hour, C-SPAN, CNN, MSNBC and PBS all televised the speech intact -- but Fox News, oddly, only joined it in progress.
That network was on board with everything the rest of the night, though, as were all the cable news operations. They were there for Laura Bush, who was there in person to introduce her husband, who wasn't -- but who spoke via satellite, in an eight-minute speech that was over at 10:01 p.m. ET, just as the broadcast networks came aboard for the night. (CBS, NBC and ABC did offer tape-delayed coverage of President Bush's remarks.)
All the broadcast networks, including PBS, ignored the Ronald Reagan video tribute, and, except for PBS, presented Fred Thompson on a delayed or truncated basis. Anyone watching public TV or cable, though, could see and hear, live, Thompson's playful endorsement of Alaska vice presidential presumptive nominee Sarah Palin: "I think I can say, without fear of contradiction, she's the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose."
Joe Lieberman's speech was the evening's only clean sweep, covered live by everyone. Tonight, the one speech guaranteed to be covered by everyone is Palin's acceptance speech, Be there, and flip through lots of channels afterward to taste a wide sampling of reaction.
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART -- How I love this show. Last night, its first night in St. Paul, the correspondents covered the delegates "stranded" at the convention center on day one as the white, pampered equivalent of Hurricane Katrina's huddled, ignored victims three years ago. Deadly, hilarious counterpoint.
Barack Obama didn't escape unscathed, either. Stewart offered a mock visual of Obama in New Orleans, holding back the water as a modern Moses. And later, Stewart interviewed Brian Williams, and the two, as usual, got along great, even as Stewart asked questions so direct -- especially about the dysfunctional family of colleagues over at MSNBC -- Williams had to sheepishly sidestep them.
They're a great team, Stewart and Williams -- the "real news" guy going for jokes, and the "fake news" guy raising serious points in a funny manner. Watch them, and you'll laugh. But if you listen closely, you're also likely to learn something.
90210 -- Because the CW neglected to send out preview copies of their small network's biggest new show, I expected the worst. Last night, I saw it.
Actually, 90210 fits right in at CW, where Gossip Girl, its allegedly "hit" show, has more press mentions than viewers, and whose dramatic intensity and credibility is about on par with an Archie comic book. The new 90210 is that way, too, only the sweet Betty is a brunette, and the nasty Veronica is a blonde.
The reunions scenes between Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty, from the old Beverly Hills, 90210, were one highlight. If there was a second one, I missed it. And I watched both hours.
Gustav Storms Gulf Coast, TV News Networks Storm Storm
September 2, 2008 8:47 AM
Brian Williams, returning to the site of his impressive Katrina reporting from three years ago, climbed atop one of the precarious levees separating New Orleans from another devastating flood. Determined and defiant, he was like Jack Nicholson at the end of A Few Good Men.
You want him on that wall. You NEED him on that wall...
Even though Monday was the scheduled first day of the Republican National Convention, and TV news organizations are very cognizant of charges of unfair and unbalanced coverage, moving to the site of Hurricane Gustav was the right call. Williams, Katie Couric at CBS, Charles Gibson at ABC -- all of them headed to Louisiana instead of St. Paul, and all did very well.
Anderson Cooper of CNN -- who, like Williams at NBC, gained notice for his strong reporting during and after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 -- was there again, and perspective and experience was one of the best things TV had to offer yesterday. One of the worst things, as always: The idiotic insistence upon throwing reporters into the center of the storm, bending like human palm trees. Ann Curry, on NBC, was one of the ridiculous rag dolls on display this time.
What I'll never understand is why the networks don't simply anchor remote-controlled cameras at key location, and use time-lapse photography and simple editing to show rising storm surges and wind-force levels as they change from hour to hour -- and from hurricane to hurricane.
The one truly intelligent use of TV technology on view this time was John King's computer maps over at CNN, used to stunning effect. Not only did he use his satellite-eye views to show where the places from which CNN reporters had been reporting, but just seeing the Mississippi River and the various levees from a clear series of satellite photos made it all seem very understandable. And very scary.
Away from the storm, the Republicans used the convention site to raise money for victims, in a plea by Cindy McCain and Laura Bush. But there were storms of a sort to weather in St. Paul as well, as news surfaced about vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her pregnant unmarried daughter.
And, finally, there was other storm news, and it wasn't good -- just as Hurricane Gustav was losing strength after making landfall, the Atlantic Ocean was playing host to Hurricane Hanna, rapidly moving towards Florida, with other storms in its wake.
Looks to be a busy TV news month, and not just for politics.
Republican Convention, Hurricane Season, Fall Season -- Split-Screen Scrambles Everywhere You Look
September 1, 2008 10:10 AM
Last Wednesday night, while most network anchors and analysts were focusing on the evening's Democratic National Convention speeches by Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, NBC's Brian Williams looked ahead to the Republican event, and to the threat of Hurricane Gustav bearing down on New Orleans -- and warned of the very real possibility of the Republicans having to deal with "a split-screen convention."
Very prescient. Very smart. And for the Republicans, potentially disastrous...
So instead of a split-screen convention today, with shots of Republican speakers and delegates on one side and hurricane-force winds on the other, John McCain has called off his own party's party, at least for day one. The last thing the Republican party needs is to convene with funny hats in the Twin Cities while water levels in New Orleans rise again, reminding everyone of government inaction in 2005.
McCain's instincts, in this case, are correct. Anderson Cooper already is reporting from the streets of the French Quarter, rather than from St. Paul -- and on tonight's evening newscasts, all three anchors are expected to follow suit. The RNC, at least on the day Gustav makes landfall, is not the "A" story.
C-SPAN will cover the stripped-down, basic parliamentary necessities occurring today at the convention, beginning at 4 p.m. ET. But by prime time, the hall should be quiet. No speeches, no speakers. No one-hour summations and addresses for the broadcast networks to present. And for McCain, that's a plus, not a minus.
Tonight's speakers were scheduled to include President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. Joe Lieberman. Because of Hurricane Gustav, alll four of those speakers have been erased from the schedule. Not postponed. Erased.
Presto! The current administration's most powerful leaders -- the ones most responsible for both the response to Katrina and and the invasion of Iraq -- are no-shows. Schwarzenegger and Lieberman, neither of whom pleases the conservative side of the Republican base, are silenced. McCain and company, I'm guessing, are celebrating (but only in private) like little kids on a snow day from school. Bush, too.
But where does this leave the broadcast networks covering these events? CBS, NBC and ABC should devote their convention-reserved hours tonight for news specials, but if one of them blinks and presents an entertainment-show rerun instead, that'll say a lot about that network's priorities, and greed.
Finally, at the same time, the broadcast and cable networks are paving the way to launch a new fall TV season. TNT's new legal series from Steven Bochco, Raising the Bar, premieres tonight at 10 p.m. ET, but it's too tepid and clunky to get or deserve much notice. The CW presents season premieres of Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill tonight, Fox devotes its prime time to the return of Prison Break -- and NBC promises the first-ever million-dollar winner on Deal or No Deal. (So much for suspense. And it had to stack the deck with five $1-million slots to do it.)
But the split-screen effect is at work here, too. All these TV events -- storms, politics and entertainment -- are fighting for attention on this particular Labor Day. And on this day, Gustav wins. But by cancelling the most problematic lineup of his convention, McCain wins, too.
Obama Gets High Marks from Most Analysts, But CBS Deserves Low Ones
August 29, 2008 12:03 AM
Barack Obama ended the Democratic National Convention, and made history, with a speech that got high marks from most (but not all) analysts -- but what many called his finest hour was marred, at the start, by an arrogant editorial decision by CBS News.
At the start of the 10 p.m. hour, as the biographical film began that served as Obama's official introduction, CBS decided to ignore it. Instead, it continued with its own reporting, after which Katie Couric cut to commercials. The Barack film was joined in progress afterward.
Meanwhile, everyone else covering the event, on broadcast as well as cable, showed the film from the start. CBS was the only news organization to make the call that the introductory film for the Democratic nominee for President of the United States was not worth showing in full.
CBS was wrong. And if it pulls the same trick by showing only part of John McCain's film next week, it'll be wrong again. The commercial broadcast networks have cut back on coverage so much already that they're making themselves obsolete -- but to ignore even a portion of a national political convention's main event, and deny its viewers the chance to see and assess that message, is an indefensible lapse in judgment.
Otherwise, there were no major gaffes or missteps during coverage of the final night of the Democrats' turn at bat -- and, given the stadium setting, a sports analogy is even more appropriate than usual. Former Vice President Al Gore's speech occurred long before the broadcast networks' prime-time window, but was given respectful coverage by outlets already offering coverage.
And as for reaction to Obama's speech, seldom was heard a discouraging word. Oh, there were a few, including one Fox News pundit, Juan Williams, who dismissed the speech as "more prose than poetry" and "more like a laundry list." But that definitely was a minority opinion, Even fellow Fox News analyst Bill Kristol, unimpressed by most speeches all week, called it "an actually impressive performance."
At CNN, David Gergen called it "less a speech than a symphony," admitted to being "deepy impressed," and said, "As a political speech, it was a masterpiece." On MSNBC, Chris Matthews said, "I've been criticized for saying he inspires me. To hell with my critics." And Pat Robertson, Buchanan, also on MSNBC, delighted the crowd listening to the post-speech analysis when even he, as a proud conservative, said of Obama's address, "That wasn't a liberal speech at all," and called it "a genuinely outstanding speech."
Monday, the Republicans take over. Stay tuned...
Democratic National Convention Day 3: Broadcast TV Missed the Best Parts
August 28, 2008 8:23 AM
By giving an hour, and only an hour, of prime-time coverage to political conventions in 2008, the commercial broadcast networks are condensing themselves into relative irrelevance. Two of Wednesday's most anticipated, dramatic and historic events at the Democratic National Convention -- Barack Obama being nominated by acclamation by Hillary Clinton, and Bill Clinton's suppportive speech -- occurred when CBS, NBC and ABC weren't televising.
How is a news organization supposed to maintain and strengthen its brand, when it's not around when you need and expect it?
Viewers have to switch channels, more and more, to find out what they're missing elsewhere. On Wednesday, CNN thought enough of Melissa Etheridge's rousing musical medley (which included "Give Peace a Chance" and reclaimed "Born in the USA") to televise it intact, but no one else did. Except, of course, for C-SPAN, which showed everything, without comment. Increasingly, that was the most satisfying place to turn.
Steven Spielberg's film about war veterans, which featured and was narrated by Tom Hanks? CNN showed it, too, and so did PBS. But Fox News and MSNBC ignored both Etheridge and the Spielberg film, and also ignored the prime-time speech by John Kerry (CNN showed part of Kerry's address, and PBS showed all of it). And Bill Clinton's speech? On CBS, NBC and ABC, it was pretty much reduced to sound-bite replays.
The strangest thing last night was at the culmination of the night, during the applause following Obama's surprise appearance. Fox News said nothing. Nothing. For more than a minute, just letting the natural sound run.
On MSNBC, meanwhile, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews have begun to snap at each other more frequently and obviously. Three days into this convention, they've become the most visibly uncomfortable anchor team since Dan Rather and Connie Chung. And with another week and another convention yet to go, Olbermann and Matthews may eclipse Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters as the most obviously contentious anchor team in TV history.
The Democrats have put on a show of unity this week -- but at MSNBC, they're demonstrating, by example, just how hard that can be to pull off.
Democratic National Convention Day 2: More Unity, But Also More PUMAs
August 27, 2008 8:11 AM
On Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention, Hillary Clinton went a few minutes overtime, spilling out of prime time past the 11 p.m. ET hour and giving the poor broadcast networks even less time to assess her speech. But there and on cable, most reviews ranged from positive to raves.
"I don't know how Barack Obama could have asked for more," Bob Schieffer said on CBS. Over on CNN, David Gergen said, "I thought it was a class act," summarized her speech as "an authentic call for unity," and called it "perhaps her finest hour in politics."
On MSNBC, former sports anchor Keith Olbermann amplified the predictable home-run metaphor, calling it a "grand slam, out of the ball park, across the street" smash, adding, "I don't know how it could have been better." But on Fox News Channel, Fred Barnes managed to dismiss Hillary Clinton's effort as "a very tame speech."
Whether or not Tuesday's speech helped to unify the divided factions in the Democratic party, the entire night certainly shone a harsh spotlight on the problems regarding TV coverage of national political conventions.
The commercial broadcast TV networks have decided these dog-and-pony shows are worth no more than an hour a night, even though the dogs and ponies chosen to be paraded at these events are illuminating in their own right. Last night, it was difficult to argue with the broadcast networks' assessment, since virtually nothing of real interest or import happened until the 10 p.m. ET hour, when Hillary Clinton was introduced by a video and by her daughter, Chelsea.
(NBC ignored the first part of the video to run ads instead, but otherwise, everything Hillary-related was run wall-to-wall by all broadcast and cable networks covering the convention.)
What weakened the networks' argument against giving the convention more air time was the shoddy video guano they served up instead. These included an hour of enforced boredom on Big Brother on CBS. Two hours of card tricks and other nonsense on America's Got Talent on NBC.
And on ABC, after an hour of Wipeout, another mind-numbing hour, this time of Wanna Bet?, a game show featuring Sherri Shepherd yelling at a young kid for guessing wrong and losing some of her prize money.
If the networks want to use qualitative value as a defense against covering conventions, they ought to at least be careful not to fill the hours with steaming piles of TV excrement.
And because the broadcast networks are showing up late, they're being pushed to the finish line without even getting a chance to stretch. Minutes after Hillary finished speaking, local news had grabbed back the air waves, leaving highly paid network pundits, reporters and anchors to scramble to cable, the Internet, or their hotel rooms. It's a bad system -- and tonight, when Bill Clinton's speech arguably is as newsworthy as Joe Biden's, it'll look even worse.
So far, PBS has looked polished, while MSNBC, for placing its anchor desk outside like some NFL pre-game show, often has looked and sounded absurd. The wind never stops, and I'm not talking about Olbermann and Chris Matthews. And last night, there was a loud series of train-whistle blasts that not even the MSNBC folks could talk over, or refrain from laughing at.
But one place, Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, was perfect. I absolutely adored John Oliver's report on the angry Hillary supporters who refused to back Barack Obama. He sought the help of a child psychologist, who said, "Sometimes children just aren't group-ready," and suggested therapeutic games and songs to help them along.
Samantha Bee, singing to two of them while strumming a guitar, sang, "When I feel mad, I stomp my feet / When I get upset, I shake my fists in the air / And I feel better... And I stop acting like such a bitch." I laughed out loud at that one.
I was amazed, though, to recognize one of the faces among the six angry people Oliver had corralled for his part of the piece.
One of the pro-Hillary, anti-Obama folks was the same abrasive woman whom Chris Matthews had interviewed on live TV the day before -- the one calling herself a PUMA, an acronym for Party Unity, My Ass.
Small world. And, when both a political convention and the media are in Denver, small city...
Democratic National Convention TV Coverage: Here's What You're Missing
August 26, 2008 8:19 AM
Every network made choices about what to show, and ignore, while covering the Democratic National Convention Monday night. Here are those choices, culled after watching coverage on 12 TV sets simultaneously...
Michelle Obama, the night's key keynote speaker in the final hour of prime time, was the only element of the DNC's first night to enjoy a clean sweep from the cable and broadcast networks. Obama's wife, and only Obama's wife, was televised live by everyone. Otherwise, there was a lot of picking and choosing -- and sometimes, the picks and choices were somewhat surprising.
C-SPAN covered everything. The next most comprehensive place to turn was PBS, which presented everything but the most minor of interstitial speakers.
On cable, CNN presented the Jimmy Carter video and appearance, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's introduction to Ted Kennedy and endorsement of Barack Obama -- but didn't run the Ted Kennedy tribute film co-created by Ken Burns. CNN also ignored the opening speech by Nancy Pelosi, but did televise remarks, in the same opening prime-time hour, by Jesse Jackson, Jr.
MSNBC, on the other hand, showed the Pelosi speech and the Kennedy video, which CNN skipped, but ignored the Carter tribute video and Jackson, which CNN showed.
And over on Fox News, the entire first hour of DNC material was ignored completely -- no Pelosi, no Carter, no Jackson. But Fox News, unlike CNN, did show the Kennedy tribute film, rather than spend the time with its own correspondents.
Finally, when the commercial broadcast networks deigned to chime in at 10 p.m. ET, only ABC took the time to present Ted Kennedy's stirring, unscheduled speech intact -- though it fudged a bit, while replaying the address that had taken place at 9:30, by tagging Kennedy's taped speech as having occurred "moments ago." CBS and NBC showed only the briefest of snippets, and all three broadcast networks, by limiting themselves to covering only the final hour of Monday's convention, deprived viewers of a thrilling piece of live TV history.
The short speech by Craig Robinson, who introduced his sister Michelle, was presented in full by CNN, MSNBC, PBS and C-SPAN, but only in part by Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC. David Gergen, on CNN, complained that the first two hours of night one were way too boring as a TV event. Except for Ted Kennedy, he wasn't wrong. And the only clever innovation to the coverage, on opening night, was CNN's addition of informative convention-history factoids as superimposed lower-third graphics.
Best parts of night one? Easy: the stirring speeches by Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama. But it also was nice to see, on MSNBC, the debut of Tim Russert's son, Luke, as a convention correspondent at large. Afterward, Tom Brokaw was smiling like a proud parent.
Most intriguing part of night one? The CBS coverage, which shot immediately at 11 p.m. ET from the broadcast network to its own CBS News website.
That's where Katie Couric held court, checked with several correspondents and analysts, and interviewed Caroline Kennedy. She was joking about being on a webcast, much the same way NBC's anchors and reporters, back when MSNBC was launched, joked about being on the hinterlands of cable. Now, clearly, it's no laughing matter.
Most cringe-inducing part of night one? Chris Matthews' rope-line interviews on MSNBC's Hardball, handing his live mike over to onlookers and protests, including two pro-Hillary, anti-Obama representatives from PUMA (a charming acronym for Party Unity, My Ass) who insisted they had proof, without providing it, that Barack Obama had registered as a Muslim as a school in Indonesia. Matthews refuted the charge, and basically dismissed the women, but not before giving them valuable air time.
"Classic agitprop," he told co-anchor Keith Olbermann later that night. "It's the kind of crap we shouldn't let get on television."
I couldn't agree more. Only problem is, Matthews is the guy who facilitated it.
Goodbye, Olympics -- Hello, Politics and Other "Dangerous Jobs"
August 25, 2008 7:06 AM
The XXIX Summer Olympics are over, and should be considered a major success, in several categories: As TV entertainment, inspirational content, successful propaganda.
Tonight, the Olympics are replaced by day one of the Democratic National Convention from Denver, and by NBC's aggressively premature launch of the first new show of the fall season. In those same three categories -- entertainment, inspiration, propaganda -- how will the Democrats, and NBC's entertainment shows, measure up?
First, one last nod to the Olympics. It was a great Games, and the splendor with which the Chinese packaged it was the Olympic equivalent of shock and awe. Even when they sank to something hokey, like the closing ceremonies British double-decker bus, it somehow managed to charm as much as it perplexed.
And it's worth noting, too, that as figures come in for those watching the Olympics, more than 90 percent of those watching were doing so on television, not on their computers. Something to keep in mind.
NBC's entertainment shows, so heavily promote during the Games, begin rolling out tonight, with a special Deal or No Deal promising to present the first $1 million grand prize in more than 200 contests. (Just shows you how good the bait-and-switch game has been for Howie Mandel and company for years now.) That's followed by the premiere of America's Toughest Jobs, a competition reality series in which contestants compete to do some tough, dirty, physically risky jobs -- crab fishing and Alaskan trucking, in the first two outings available for preview.
The show isn't bad, and has enough travelogue aspects to give it some of the flavor of The Amazing Race, as well as a general Walter Mitty aspect to it. It feels, to me, like a good show for cable, but still beneath the level of offering a major broadcast network should be presenting. But I forget -- now that the Olympics are over, we're not talking about a major broadcast network any more. We're talking NBC.
And now for the news, and the convention, and the news about the convention. C-SPAN is the starting place, showing you exactly what's at the podium. And among the commercial broadcast networks, one hour a night is deemed sufficient. At that hour (10 p.m. ET), I'd suggest tuning to CBS, because it's poor Katie Couric's biggest chance to make an impression. As soon as it's over, she and her crew are shifting online. Not cable. On line.
At least Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw and company get to stretch their legs and talk at length over at MSNBC, where Keith Olbermann reins himself in and Chris Matthews runs looser than ever. Here and on NBC, you may also catch glimpses of Luke Russert, Tim's son, making a high-profile debut as correspondent at large, as well as see more of the rapid ascendancy of plain-speaking analyst Chuck Todd.
The point, though, is to be fickle. Jump around to hear what Jeff Greenfield and Bob Schieffer have to say at CBS, and George Will and Maureen Dowd at ABC, and Mark Shields and David Brooks at PBS. And on cable, don't stay on your own side of the political fence. If you usually watch MSNBC, see what they're saying over at Fox News this week, and vice versa. Watch CNN, but also watch the competitors, and broadcasters.
And by all means, remember that Jon Stewart and The Daily Show are covering the convention beginning Tuesday night on Comedy Central, and Bill Maher is returning to HBO with a new Real Time edition on Friday. The Olympics are over, but the political circus is back in town.
