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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.

Once-dominant drama will end after next season, source says

(NEWSER) - Things might have just gotten a little more desperate than usual over on Wisteria Lane: ABC is canceling longtime stalwart Desperate Housewives, the network confirmed today to the AP. "We want to make sure it has its victory lap," ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee said in making the announcement that the show would end after next season. The show, which has seen once-stellar ratings lag, is also losing creator Marc Cherry as producer next season. More»

NBC made one last run at its old sweetheart

(NEWSER) - ABC has at long last officially announced that it's signed Katie Couric to host an afternoon talk show , beating out a last-minute push from NBC. In a statement , the network said it had a "multi-year, multi-platform" agreement with the former CBS anchor, that will also include appearances on all of ABC's other news shows. Details of what the New York Times calls "one of television's worst-kept secrets" have not yet been released, but Couric will be co-owner of the program and will share in the profits. More»

Don't expect your average cop shows and sitcoms

(NEWSER) - As they ready their fall lineups for advertisers, the major networks are stepping off last season's beaten path of struggles and flops. “We were looking for fresh,” says NBC Entertainment’s new president. “I really want people to see the concept for a show and go: ‘Oh wow. What’s that?’” To that end, his network is planning shows like Smash, the big-budget story of a Broadway musical’s creation. The series will have original songs penned by Broadway legends—and it’s getting some help from Steven Spielberg. More»

Critics: New reality show 'upsetting,' 'uncomfortable'

(NEWSER) - Joan Rivers’ new reality show on WE, Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, follows the 77-year-old comedian as she moves in with her daughter in Los Angeles. It’s as artificial as the botox Rivers extols:

• The show is “upsetting,” writes a pained Linda Stasi in the New York Post . From pushing her daughter to pose nude to giving “away all of her living room furniture,” “it's all so wrong that as much as I love her, I have to say, in this case, ‘Joan Knows Worst.’”