Hannah Ends Next Year: Billy Ray

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.

Singer's performance on live TV better received this time

(NEWSER) - Lana Del Rey didn't exactly get rave reviews for her Saturday Night Live performance, but she seems to have made a fan of David Letterman. After she sang a simpler version of her "Video Games" hit last night, Letterman jokingly asked if she could come back tonight, notes the Huffington Post . "My pleasure," she replied. "How about Monday?" he then added. More»

Police believe the 75-year-old committed suicide

(NEWSER) - Soul Train creator and longtime host Don Cornelius was found dead this morning in his Sherman Oaks, Calif., home, in what police are calling an apparent suicide. Law enforcement sources say the 75-year-old died from a single gunshot wound to the head, which they believe was self-inflicted. Cornelius' Soul Train holds the title of the "longest-running first-run nationally syndicated show in television history," reports the Los Angeles Times . Its 35-year run began in 1971, and in 2010 Cornelius told the paper that he was working on a sort of biographical movie about the show. More»

Lauryn Hill, Jeff Buckley, and the Sex Pistols make the list

(NEWSER) - It's one way to avoid the sophomore slump: Paste counts down 10 singers or bands whose first album set the music world abuzz and whose official second album simply never materialized: More»

She was being sarcastic, rep explains

(NEWSER) - Miley Cyrus is not a stoner, and if Kelly Osbourne did not already make that clear , Cyrus’ rep will. The pop star’s Bob Marley cake “was a joke,” her rep tells Us , and Miley’s ensuing response that she’s a big stoner “was intended to be sarcastic.” In more positive Miley-related news, she’s becoming quite the activist: She released a video dedicated to the Occupy Wall Street protests (watch at left), and posed for the NoH8 campaign— click here to see. More»