Heroes to Kill Major Character

The War on Terror could take some pointers from NBC show, says Juan Cole

(NEWSER) - With the ratings on Jack Bauer's "24" fading almost as fast as those of George Bush's White House, it's time for the principals in the war in Iraq to start studying "Heroes"—the most-watched show on television this year—writes Salon's Juan Cole. In fact, think of Heroes as a sci-fi corrective to the whole the Bush-Cheney approach to terrorism. More»

NBC puts quality ahead of quantity, sticks with light, cerebral, heroic for fall

(NEWSER) - NBC offered surprising few new plays for its 2007-08 season, with only one new comedy, five new dramas and a slew of cancellations. The network has been bringing up the rear in a generally bearish market, but signaled it would continue to push shows with critical acclaim but middling commercial success, among them 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights. More»

Copyright-protected content will be available for free online in new NBC-News Corp. partnernship

(NEWSER) - TV biggies NBC Universal and News Corp. are teaming up to hit YouTube with the full force of their their combined TV content, offered online for free. Starting this summer, AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft's MSN and News Corp. subsidiary MySpace will hope to win over internet users (and the advertising that goes with them) with shows like 24 and Heroes. More»

Quarter of schedule devoted to comedy

(NEWSER) - NBC is looking to comedy to help it climb the ratings ladder: Nearly 25% of the network's fare next season will consist of sitcoms, up from just 14% last fall. Execs are aiming to recapture the highly-educated young adults that helped propel Seinfeld and Friends, the Los Angeles Times reports. And "audiences have been very receptive to comedy and light fantasy drama the past couple of seasons," says chairman Bob Greenblatt. 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.