It is already October 15th! How did that happen? I guess you could say that the Earth rotated around the sun a specific number of times and that days winnowed into nights which bled into days and so on and so on in the circle game. I think that's it. So, how have we been spending these ever-marching autumn hours? Watching TV, of course! Lots and lots of TV. Some has been good (Mad Men, The Daily Show), some has been bad (90210), and some has just been puzzling (Two and a Half Men?). So as we approach the ever-important November Sweeps Week—when networks set their ad rates based on inflated, extraordinary episodes that don't actually reflect typical week-in, week-out quality—let's take a second to give a quarter term report card. How has television been faring, you know, quality-wise (because we already know that ratings are in the toilet)? We'll analyze after the jump.
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A reporter from England's Telegraph is explaining The Colbert Report to his countrymen today. "The Colbert Report is news parody of the first order. The show's titular host offers a funhouse-mirror reflection of the bellicose Right-wing opinionisers of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel (among others) who dominate and dictate the political discourse in the States with lengthy and obnoxious opinion-slots that are somehow passed off as 'news'."
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Slate political reporter and IvyGate founder Chris Beam is going to appear on "The Colbert Report" tonight! He emailed all his friends! He's so excited to be crossing that picket line. Scab. (Email after the jump!)
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Plastic surgery disaster Alex Kuczynski appeared on "The Colbert Report" last evening: here's the clip. It's amusing (or at least Colbert's end is) and nothing more, but a few things you may want to note:
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The secret to Headline News' success? Bloviators, and plenty of 'em. [NYT]
Meredith Viera is doing just fine on Today, thanks. [NYDN]
Departing Daily Show/Colbert producer Ben Karlin's exit could not be more amicable. Really. He and Jon Stewart are still totally trading one-liners and stuff. [NYT]
Speaking of Colbert, he's the I Want Media Media Person of the Year for 2006, which is like winning a Pulitzer except, you know, the whole "award from a website no one's ever heard of" thing. [IWM]
Field guide or no, we still have no idea who Louise McBain is, or why we should give a shit. In any event, she stiffed avant-garde director Robert Wilson's Hamptons museum (read that phrase again, isn't it incredibly ridiculous) to the tune of $50,000. [NYP]
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Variety reports today that Stephen Colbert has signed a seven-figure deal for a Colbert Report-esque book, to be published in September 2007 by Warner. Warner also published the Daily Show's disgustingly successful book America, for which Colbert was a contributor. Unlike America, however, Colbert's book will not have an illustrated component and it will be written mostly by Colbert, who is bravely rejecting the safety of his writing team.
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andrew sullivan
