HBO Offers Shows Online, Free to Subscribers

(NEWSER) - US viewers see ESPN and the Discovery Channel as the most indispensable cable networks, Multichannel News reports. A poll by Solutions Research Group asked 1,200 TV viewers which channels they thought of as “must keep.” The results:

• The top four spots went to the big networks. In order: ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox.
• The rest of the top 10: ESPN, Discovery, History, Sci Fi Channel, HBO, and the Food Network.

Conservative blames axing on 'thought police'

(NEWSER) - Pat Buchanan is leaving MSNBC after a decade, an apparent victim of the network's swing toward the liberal and a backlash against his Suicide of a Superpower book, in which he warns of "the end of white America." Buchanan had been suspended from the network for four months, and MSNBC President Phil Griffin recently said he didn't think Buchanan's views on race and immigration in his book should be part of the national dialogue, much less "part of the dialogue on MSNBC." More»

New series not so lucky for racers

(NEWSER) - Animal right activists are slamming a new TV series after two horses had to be put down after suffering injuries during filming. A PETA official said the organization "repeatedly reached out" to HBO before filming began on its horse-racing series Luck to offer safety advice but was "rebuffed." The two horses stumbled and fell during races staged for the pilot and for the seventh episode of the program starring Dustin Hoffman— and their fractures couldn't be repaired, reports the BBC. More»

And Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is still pretty scary: reactions

(NEWSER) - If you thought Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin was terrifying in the first Game Change teaser , wait until you see her in the full trailer, where she utters lines such as, "We have to win this thing. I so don’t want to go back to Alaska." Watch below, then read on for some reactions:

• This will clearly be "a Frankenstein-esque story about McCain’s staffers coming to regret the choice they made in bringing a little-known governor into the limelight," writes Jon Bershad at Mediaite . "The full trailer ... gives us even more famous actors getting their turn to stare in horror at the 'monster' they’ve created."

Some calling for HBO boycott

(NEWSER) - Staunch atheist Bill Maher is apparently not a huge fan of staunch Christian Tim Tebow, so when Tebow’s Broncos lost to the Buffalo Bills 40-14 on Saturday, Maher wasted no time getting on Twitter. “Wow, Jesus just fucked #TimTebow bad! And on Xmas Eve! Somewhere in hell Satan is tebowing , saying to Hitler ‘Hey, Buffalo's killing them,’” Maher tweeted . More»