Go to Harvard, Study The Wire

Or at least a movie, pleads Eric Holder

(NEWSER) - The nation's top lawyer has it out for David Simon. AG Eric Holder yesterday ordered the creator of The Wire to start working on another season of the HBO crime drama—and jokingly reminded him that "I have a lot of power." Holder issued his plea to Simon and Ed Burns while appearing alongside three Wire stars at a Justice Department conference focusing on protecting children from drug abuse and exploitation, Reuters reports. More»

Face it, O'Brien's ratings weren't great

(NEWSER) - Conan O’Brien joins the ranks of the unemployed today, so the ousted Tonight Show host now has plenty of time to track the backlash and second-guessing about the TV shell game. Jay Leno remains the villain of the piece, but the hard truth is that O’Brien never drew the numbers of young viewers to his time slot that NBC had hoped for. “The 18-to-34 group is so difficult to attract and the lower half, 18 to 25, is the hardest of all,” a strategist told the New York Times. More»

Joss Whedon, Judd Apatow, HBO prominently featured

(NEWSER) - From the standard (No. 16, Friday Night Lights) to the quirky (No. 29, Wonder Showzen), the long-running (No. 8, Lost) to the canceled-too-soon (No. 4, Freaks and Geeks), The Onion runs down the 30 best shows of the '00s:

• No. 1, The Wire: This drama “unfolded like a great American novel.”
• No. 2, The Sopranos: A brilliant cast served up “soap opera, mob intrigue, and surrealist digressions.”
• No. 3, Arrested Development: The cult sensation “not only makes viewers laugh, it makes them feel smart.”

24 takes top honors, followed by Lost , Friends

(NEWSER) - Jack Bauer doesn't even have to torture you to keep you glued to your couch, reports the Daily Telegraph, scoring nearly a fifth of the votes for most addictive show in a survey of some 3000 couch potatoes. “Although crime doesn't pay, as our list reveals, it most certainly pulls in the viewers,” says a LOVEFiLM exec. The list:

1. 24, 19%
2. Lost, 17%
3. Friends, 10%
4. Heroes, 9%

Former governor happy to poke fun at herself

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin kicked off her Today stint this morning by reading a newspaper on screen, as co-host Matt Lauer joked, "Oh, man, she's doing her homework!" Lauer had already teased Palin about that issue—a reference to her 2008 interview with Katie Couric in which she couldn't name any newspapers she read—yesterday. It was the first in a series of quips proving Palin has no problem poking fun at herself, Politico reports:

• After coming out from behind the newspaper, Palin shared a story from yesterday: "Oh geez, Matt. The nicest lady in the world, she stopped me, asked me where I was heading. I said 30 Rock and she said, 'Oh honey, I told you, Tina Fey is here.'"