The New York Observer » NBC

Tonight in DVR: Smash is Still On

It's so weird that Smash is still on after every entertainment journalist, in the culture dearth of early February, discussed it to death before the premiere (we were hardly immune). Guess what? It wasn't a one-time event! Like Celine Dion's heart, it will go on--at least until the end of the season and then Read More

Michelle Obama’s Talk Show Challenge: Is the First Lady in Better Shape Than the Rest of the World? (Video)

If you're a fan of talk shows where famous people talk to other famous people so that the second famous person can promote their latest whatever, then you might have noticed an odd trend: First Lady Michelle Obama has been making the rounds lately: first on Ellen, then Jay Leno, and now Jimmy Fallon, all in an effort to raise awareness for the Let's Move! health initiative. Or is it?
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Did Saturday Night Live Mock A Former NBC Local News Anchor?

Keen-eyed, New England-based Saturday Night Live viewers last weekend may have noted that the frumpy character Bobby Moynihan played in a Super Bowl-themed sketc h, Janet Peckinpaugh, shared a distinctive name with the former anchor of NBC's Connecticut affiliate. "Janet Peckinpaugh" is a lady of a certain age who idolizes Tom Brady, offering the quarterback Read More

Tonight In DVR: ‘Parks’ Indulges Itself

This season of Parks and Recreation shows troubling signs that the writers no longer believe new audiences are going to discover Leslie and her gang. With the addition of a ludicrously winnable election plot, every episode congratulates its characters for being so terribly lovable, rather than expanding many new dimensions. One character told Leslie she Read More

The Man With Two Brians! Can NBC’s Personality Industry Save the Anchor from Irrelevance?

On a recent post-NFL season Monday night, 7.3 million people watched a remake of Hawaii 5-0. Another 6.7 million watched Castle, a crime procedural that’s safely avoided buzz for four seasons. A crowd less than half that size, 3.2 million, watched an American furniture manufacturer tearfully repent for outsourcing the family business, met a real-life moon colonist, and saw a chimpanzee flip through a children’s book. “They like to look at the pictures,” the voiceover explained.

They had landed on the three-month-old newsmagazine Rock Center, NBC’s prime time bid to recapture an audience for TV news by offering a looser format in which to showcase Brian Williams’s formidable charisma. Mr. Williams’s sensibility is so deeply ingrained in the programming that Rock Center executive producer Rome Hartman likes to say that, when it’s working, it feels like “Brian’s playlist.” Read More

Smash Star Megan Hilty Likes to Read Marilyn Biographies

In the feature on the death of camp in today's paper, we spoke to Smash star Megan Hilty, who plays one of two actresses auditioning for the role of Marilyn Monroe. "Last year, I was gearing up for yet another pilot season--" Ms. Hilty laughed ruefully "--and the script for Smash just kind of Read More

Mitt Romney Makes Tom Brokaw ‘Extremely Uncomfortable’

NBC and Tom Brokaw have criticized Mitt Romney's campaign for using NBC Nightly News footage from 1997 in a Newt Gingrich attack ad.

"The NBC Legal Department has written a letter to the campaign asking for the removal of all NBC News material from their campaign ads," NBC News said in a statement to Politico, adding that a similar note had gone out to all other campaigns that had used NBC materials. Read More

UPDATE: Tracy Morgan Released From Hospital After Sundance Collapse

After a surprising collapse during an award ceremony last night at the Sundance film festival, Tracy Morgan's health issues appeared far from over. Lewis Kay, Morgan's publicist, was quick to rule out drugs and alcohol maintains upon his release this morning that "exhaustion and altitude" were to blame. Read More

Tonight in DVR: Actually Watch ’30 Rock’ This Week

We’re here to tell you just how to set your DVR before heading out for drinks or dinner–or just watching something better on TV! Sure, you're planning on watching 30 Rock tonight--we don't need to tell you to DVR it. But we encourage you Read More

“6 Seasons And A Movie”: Community Fans Flashmob 30 Rock

Amid the Christmas chaos of Rockerfeller Plaza, fans of the NBC show Community came together to protest its cancellation. It was a worryingly modest showing, to be honest. The Observer had to look hard for the small group of fans, who had been shunted to one side of the plaza. But we found them Read More

Could NBC Offer Enough to Lure Ryan Seacrest Off the West Coast and Onto ‘Today’?

With a fair amount of speculation and anonymous sourcing, The Wall Street Journal reported today that Ryan Seacrest may take over for Today show host Matt Lauer, who reportedly made some exit noises to Today executives earlier this year after Meredith Vieira announced her departure. But could Mr. Seacrest--who is the brand embodiment of E!--leave for NBC's more East Coast pastures?

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Updated: FourSquare Allows New Yorkers to ‘Treat Yo Self’

Updated below with a response from list founder Alisha M.

Foursquare, the social-networking app that allows you to "check in" to venues, become a mayor, meet up with your friends, and find out which Starbucks locations have been masturbated in, now has a new crowd-sourcing function. In the words of Parks and Recreation's Tom Haverford, it's time to "Treat Yo Self!"

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Internet Attacks Whitney Cummings’ Pilot Prior to Premiere

Ouch. Here we thought were in the post-Bridesmaid era of empowering female comedy, what with TV's new fall lineup revolving around such quirky leading ladies as Zooey Deschanel (Fox's New Girl), Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs (CBS' 2 Broke Girls) and Whitney Cummings (NBC's Whitney). But maybe America just isn't ready to have a sitcom where boys aren't the main focus, since despite not airing until September there is already an online petition to get Whitney canceled.

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Steinem Urges Bunny Boycott of NBC

The writer Gloria Steinem, who went undercover as a scantily-clad Bunny in order to report on conditions at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Clubs, is encouraging viewers to avoid NBC's new series The Playboy Club. The show, which seems to crib from Mad Men's retro-cool style while depicting the trials and tribulations undergone by a Read More

The Friday Night Lights Series Finale Reading List

After five seasons, NBC's critically adored and ever-embattled drama Friday Night Lights is coming to an end. The show has endured despite impressively low ratings due in no small part to obsessive (and media-driven) fandom. There's a certain irony in this: a show ostensibly about high school football in Texas—flyover country doing flyover country things—ended up capturing the hearts and minds of coastal elites (and landlocked coastal elites). And nobody else. Read More