Megan Fox, SNL Premiere Not Too Funny

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.

Zooey Deschanel hosts 'Saturday Night Live'

(NEWSER) - Zooey Deschanel hosted Saturday Night Live last night, but the show was really more memorable for a couple of cameos, reports the Hollywood Reporter . The Artist star Jean Dujardin stopped by to give a leg up to a French dance number featuring Deschanel, and Nicolas Cage dropped in on Weekend Update, joined by Andy Samberg (starring as none other than Nicolas Cage). Bill Hader also spoofed Clint Eastwood's much-maligned Super Bowl ad ... three times. Check out highlights in the gallery. More»

Kristen Wiig hams it up as Callista, Lana Del Rey; Bon Iver turns in solid showing

(NEWSER) - Newt Gingrich got his hat handed to him in Nevada last night, and Saturday Night Live heaped insult on injury. The show ribbed Gingrich's "moon shot" with a sketch envisioning him as "moon president" in the not-so-distant time of 2014, notes Mediaite . Highlights include a student-janitor telling Newt, “The people of South Carolina wanted you to be president." Responds Gingrich: “Not all of America is as forward-thinking as South Carolina." 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»

This field should be a gift from the comedy gods: Kera Bolonik

(NEWSER) - There was a time when Saturday Night Live could have had great fun with Mitt Romney's proclamation that he "liked to fire people." Instead we got this week's bland cold open (see video) in which Romney tried to (ha ha) fire his breakfast. "It's been that kind of year on Saturday Night Live," writes Kera Bolonik at Salon . "The Republican presidential field is an embarrassment of crazy-train riches. But the writers have been lazily broad-stroking caricatures." More»