Moraes on TV: January 16, 2011 - January 22, 2011

'American Idol' 10th season premiere continues in New Orleans

Once upon a time, struggling young music artists who were not feeling quite themselves sat down at a piano and interpreted a work by one of those Russian composers nature had provided for this purpose. These days, wannabe Idolettes, whose auditions have gone badly, sit down at a piano and shred the Charlie Chaplin tune, "Smile," for the TV camera.

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 20, 2011; 11:35 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (23)
Categories:  "American Idol"  
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MTV's 'Skins': child porn or not child porn -- that is the question

Cast of "Skins" on MTV. (MTV) The Parents Television Council has fired off a letter calling upon the chairman of the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees, AND the Department of Justice to investigate whether MTV's new scripted series "Skins" is actually kiddie porn in sheep's clothing. Some of...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 20, 2011; 5:51 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
Categories:  TV News  
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About 26 million check out Steven Tyler and JLo on "Idol" Wednesday

[This blog post has been updated] About 26.2 million people checked out the new judges on "American Idol" Wednesday. That is the Fox franchise's smallest ever in-season debut. The new "Idol" judges stopped in New Jersey for the first round of auditions. (Fox) On the bright side, that's about 5...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 20, 2011; 2:37 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (2)
Categories:  "American Idol"  
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'American Idol' premieres: New judges, same old show

Worried that "American Idol" would be unrecognizable after some major re-vamping (new judges, new age limits, new in-house mentor who really runs the show, etc.) that took place over the last year? Good news! Nothing's changed.

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 19, 2011; 11:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (28)
Categories:  "American Idol"  
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'American Idol: The Reboot' debuts tonight

The new season of American Idol debuts tonight with new judges Steven Tyler and JLo, a new record-label-CEO "mentor," and an overhauled format. New "Idol" judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez. (AP) Click image to see gallery. On the eve of "Idol's" return, while Aerosmith's frontman Tyler prattled on merrily...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 19, 2011; 10:38 AM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (9)
Categories:  "American Idol"  
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Oprah Winfrey arrives in Australia, shares spotlight with adorable koalas

Oprah Winfrey finally went to Australia in TV time (she took the trip in December in real life) to weep, to laugh, to sing about Koala, to arrange for nice young men to propose to their fiancées under water, and to have a holy moment of silence and camera...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 18, 2011; 6:23 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (2)
Categories:  TV News  
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Steven Tyler has issues with 'American Idol' conference call

Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, new "Idol" judges.(AP) WaPoTeamTV's Emily Yahr reports: Edgy Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler is supposed to breathe new life -- and younger viewers -- into the new season of "American Idol" which debuts Wednesday night. Fox set up one last phone group hug with Tyler...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 18, 2011; 6:02 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (0)
Categories:  TV News  
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'Harry's Law' grabs big ratings for NBC; 'The Cape,' not so much

Kathy Bates on "Harry's Law." (NBC) About 11 million people watched the debut of Kathy Bates' new David E. Kelley dramedy "Harry's Law" on NBC Monday at 10. That's 116 percent more viewers than had watched NBC at 10 p.m. Mondays during the 2009-10 TV season, aka "The Jay...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 18, 2011; 5:40 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (7)
Categories:  TV News  
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Regis Philbin stepping down as host of 'Live! with Regis and Whoever' [video]

[This blog post has been updated] Regis Philbin announced he will step down from his weekday talk show. (ABC News) Rege is retiring! Regis Philbin announced Tuesday morning that this is his last season as host of his infotainment show "Live! with Regis and Whoever." His current contract to do...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 18, 2011; 4:12 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (16)
Categories:  TV News  
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Ricky Gervais Globes-hosting kerfuffle does not move ratings needle

Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globes for the second year in a row.(NBC) [This blog post has been updated.] Ricky Gervais's swan song as host of the Golden Globe Awards attracted the same number of people as his debut performance in '10 - around 17 million viewers - but...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 18, 2011; 3:30 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (2)
Categories:  TV News  
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About 2.1 million watch Piers Morgan and Oprah Winfrey go mano a mano on CNN

[This blog post has been updated with ratings] About 2.1 million people watched Piers Morgan and Oprah Winfrey's death match on the unveiling of Morgan's new CNN show "Piers Morgan Tonight" in Larry King's old timeslot. About a quarter of them -- 521,000 -- fell into the 25-54 year old...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 18, 2011; 2:00 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (3)
Categories:  TV News  
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'Glee' and 'Boardwalk Empire' soar while Ricky Gervais crashes at Golden Globes

The 68th Annual Golden Globes Awards will go down in history for having brought Hollywood together in its hatred of host Ricky Gervais, but we're here to bring you the TV news that emanated from the frosty ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel where Gervais's career died. Ricky Gervais, host...

By Lisa de Moraes  | January 16, 2011; 9:51 PM ET  |  Permalink  |  Comments (65)
Categories:  TV News  
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