Scandal-Plagued Ex-DA to Become TV Judge

And its long run could continue for quite a while: USA Today

(NEWSER) - American Idol has dominated the Nielsen ratings for 10 seasons, and its 11th season starts up tonight. Bill Keveney of USA Today rounds up some reasons why this pop culture institution might just go on forever: More»

Modern comedies badly rehash old ideas: Times critic

(NEWSER) - If this is the comeback season for the sitcom, at least one critic wants to go wayyyy back: to Seinfeld, Mary Tyler Moore, and Leave It to Beaver. "Certainly no series introduced this fall is breaking new ground," writes Neil Genzlinger in the New York Times . He concludes that "all television jokes going back to those first flickering black-and-white images fall into one of five categories," which were executed brilliantly in the old days. Today, not so much: More»

Amazon Prime customers can now access 7K shows, 2K movies

(NEWSER) - Netflix and Hulu beware: Amazon has struck a new blow in the battle for streaming content. A deal with NBCUniversal has added some 1,000 movies and TV shows to the web giant’s streaming library. Alongside a deal with CBS, Amazon now provides its Prime customers—who pay $79 a year for free shipping and other perks—with 7,000 TV shows and 2,000 movies, Mashable reports. Meanwhile, Netflix faces a setback as customers quit over its new pricing plan . More»

Did we really need the first 'Love Boat,' let alone the second?

(NEWSER) - Hollywood is constantly churning out movie remakes that really should never have been greenlighted, but TV doesn’t get off scot-free. The Huffington Post lists 11 boob-tube remakes we really never needed to see:

• Knight Rider: “The original starring The Hoff is a camp classic,” writes Ross Luippold, but “not even Will Arnett, who was cast as the voice of KITT until being replaced by Val Kilmer, could save this dud.”
• The Love Boat: “The 1970s were encapsulated in The Love Boat: polyester clothes, soft lighting, and a swingin' good time.” Something that time-sensitive should never be remade.

Forget new shows: You're missing out on these old shows

(NEWSER) - This fall, instead of trying to figure out what NBC's sure-to-be-mystifying The Event is actually about, why not pick up a great show that's already on the air? Kevin Fallon gives his 12 picks in The Atlantic :

• Cougar Town: Don't count Fallon among the many Cougar Town haters . He calls the Courteney Cox show one of "television's strongest ensemble comedies," a "sharply written sitcom about a quirky group of friends and neighbors."
• In Treatment: Don't be scared by its unusual format (often, "the screen is shared by just two actors for an entire episode"): Gabriel Byrne 's show about therapy is "one of the finest acting showcases in television."