Dean Gets CNBC Gig

Daily Show host mocks Liz Trotta, Rick Santorum for views on women in combat

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart celebrated Valentine's Day last night by gleefully ripping into people who have a problem with the Pentagon's new policies on women in combat. He took some brief shots at Rick Santorum ("What a surprise, Prudence von StickUpHisAss has some concerns!") but saved his real ire for Fox News contributor Liz Trotta, who argued that sexual assault should be expected in the military. "You know the old saying," Stewart quipped, "you can't make a co-ed omelet without raping a few eggs." More»

Reality show to reveal moment couple learned of miscarriage

(NEWSER) - After 19 kids, the Duggars aren't calling it quits. "We would be open to more if God saw fit to bless us with more," Michelle Duggar tells Today in her first interview after a miscarriage in December . Even after the "devastating" experience, "I would do it again," she says. "We realize our sweet little Jubilee is with the Lord, and we will see her again someday." Meanwhile, they're enjoying being grandparents to two. More»

Both Battleground and Lilyhammer get mixed reviews, as streaming services branch out

(NEWSER) - Online streaming sites Hulu and Netflix both launched original series this week, as both services take baby steps toward competing with regular television, reports Gigaom . A look at each:

• Hulu's Battleground is the more conventional of the two, a 13-episode comedy about a Senate campaign in Wisconsin that started today, with a new 22-minute episode airing each Tuesday. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has solid praise for Battleground, saying it is "a smart, well-written comedy series you might find on a premium cable network." The AP is less kind, however, calling it "a light, watered-down knockoff of The Office," while the New York Daily News comes down somewhere in-between.

'Daily Show' host also baffled over contraception controversy

(NEWSER) - Jon Stewart took a week off from the Daily Show , and in that time, the nation managed to hand Rick Santorum three primary victories . "What the hell, America?" Stewart asked last night. "I leave you alone for one week. One week!" And it wasn't just Santorum's transition to frontrunner that Stewart missed: He also had to get caught up on the White House vs. the Catholic Church fight over birth control. Fortunately, that fight is already over, thanks to President Obama's compromise —right? Wrong. More»

NBC musical dazzles critics... mostly

(NEWSER) - If you watched the Super Bowl, you just might have heard of Smash, NBC's new drama about the making of a Broadway musical. It premiered last night, and critics are (mostly) giving it a standing ovation:

• The buzz has gotten so intense that the conversation isn't even about whether it'll be good. "Good? Darling, it's great!" gushes Mary McNamara of the LA Times . The creators have "managed to capture the grand and sweeping gesture that is musical theater and inject it with the immediate intimacy of television," an impressive, unprecedented feat.