The Emmys celebrate TV's supposed best Sunday night (8 p.m., CBS) and although I generally hold the awards in contempt for their inability to reflect what is actually the current best in television -- the Television Critics Association Awards and even the Golden Globes are more progressive -- I am looking forward to this year's show because of host Neil Patrick Harris.
He's already hosted the TV Land Awards and Tony Awards this year -- and he was particularly charming on the Tonys -- so there's reason to hope that even if the Emmy voters blow it with their choices Sunday night, Harris may be able to make watching the show worthwhile.
"I want the show to be as classy as it can be," Harris said at a press tour press conference last month in Pasadena, Calif. "My whole thing with hosting a show like that is to be sharp. It's like you're hosting a big joint dinner party, sort of Dean Martin-style. So I feel like it's not an opportunity for the host to show everyone how funny he is or how talented he is. It's really to represent the show and to keep things at a tight clip and to let the audience see all these famous people in a different context, so I like the glamour of it very much."
See a list of Emmy nominees here.
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TiVO's Web site is letting viewers play TV programmer by creating their own prime-time lineup in the "Build Your Own Network Game."
I created a prime-time lineup, not based on ratings but on what I would watch. I also tried to be a slightly responsible programmer by keeping the raunchier comedies on later at night. So far my score is pretty unimpressive but that's logical since I write about TV and don't work in the industry.
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So here's the latest in the unending bad news out of CBS's yet-to-debut "Three Rivers." CBS e-mailed TV critics on Sept. 2, saying the new first episode of "Three Rivers" would arrive on Sept. 15. It's now Sept. 18 and still no screener or an ETA on when it might arrive.
Why is this bad? Because for many newspaper TV books that are printed in advance, "Three Rivers" may be out of the running. Today's my deadline for the Oct. 4 TV Week cover, which I had intended to be a review of "Three Rivers." Now it won't be. The show's one saving grace: Fewer newspapers have TV books these days, so the promotional loss may not be as severe as it would have been a few years ago. But the show's failure to meet the planned delivery date adds another reason to wonder about what's going on behind the scenes.
While waiting for the show to begin, here's a new video with interviews with the cast:
Posted
Sep 18 2009, 12:01 AM
by
Rob Owen