Day: July 25, 2019

Weekly Previews

Week’s top-10 for July 29: It’s finale time (plus music)

1) “CMA Fest,” 8-11 p.m. Sunday, ABC. It’s a night of starpower –Blake Shelton, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert and such. Thomas Rhett and Kelsea Ballerini host and do two songs apiece. One of hers is with the Chainsmokers, in a night with lots of duets. Brothers Osborne and Brooks & Dunn do two songs, one adding Ashley McBryde. It’s Tim McGraw with Luke Combs, Maren Morris with Brandi Carlisle, even Carrie Underwood with Joan Jett, plus Keith Urban wih Billy Ray Cyrus and Lil Nas X. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 25, 2019
Stories

Post-‘Thrones’ HBO: More shows, more nights

LOS ANGELES – Imagine a baseball team shedding superstars.
Ruth, Gehrig and Mantle all retire … just as the manager is told to play more games with more people.That’s HBO now.
Gone are “Game of Thrones” (shown here) — with 32 Emmy nominations, a dozen more than any other show – plus “Veep” and “Big Little Lies.” The pilot has been shot for a “Thrones” prequel, progamming chief Casey Bloys told the Television Critics Association, but there have been no plans for a third “Lies” season.
This comes just after HBO got corporate instructions to have more shows on more nights. “The big challenge … was to make sure we weren’t just filling hours to fill hours,” Bloys said.
So far, that seems to be working. After averaging just over 100 hours of original shows in most seasons, HBO will finish this year with 150; next year, it may have 160. That means: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 25, 2019
Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for July 27: A slice of ‘Heaven’

1) “Heaven,” 8-10 p.m., Lifetime. Starting with “Flowers in the Attic,” Lifetime has soared big with movies based on V.C. Andrews novels. Now it will fill five straight Saturdays with her stories of the Casteel family. In this first one, Heaven Casteel (Annalise Basso, 18, shown here) is the oldest of five siblings in a mountain shack. A tragedy forces her into new worlds. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / July 25, 2019