Stories

A real-life, cowboy-style judge? Reba portrays her

This sounds like a piece of Old West fiction.
A circuit judge travels empty stretches of Nevada. In county seats where the Earps once lived, she’s quick with her gavel and her voice; she also packs a pistol.
But this is true and it’s nowadays. Judge Kim Wanker has been nicknamed The Hammer; now Reba McEntire (shown here) stars in a vibrant cable movie (8 p.m. Jan. 7 and 10:03 p.m. Jan. 8) with that name.
“She is quite the character,” McEntire said of the real judge. “She’s amazing. She’s strong. Little, bitty gal. But what she does and how she stands up to people who have done other people wrong; she makes it all fair.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 29, 2022

Stories

It’s get-tough time for TV reality shows

Wednesdays, it seems, have become TV’s designated tough days.
This fall, “Survivor” and “Amazing Race” had ordinary folks facing extraordinary challenges. Now come two more shows; they overlap on Jan. 4, then share the night:
— CBS’ “Tough as Nails” is 9-11 p.m. the first week, then 10 p.m.. Regular folks – a carpenter, welder, firefighter, construction worker, etc. — face demanding, blue-collar tasks.
— Fox’s “Special Forces: The World’s Toughest Test”is 8-10 p..m. the first week, then 9 p.m. “It is actual Special Forces training, without votes, alliances or eliminations,” Dwight Howard (shown here, second from right) said in a Television Critics Association press conference. “You just have to survive.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 27, 2022

Stories

Dionne Warwick: decades of soaring pop songs

Dionne Warwick’s voice floats through large chunks of pop-music history.
She’s had about a dozen top-10 hits, spanning 23 years … plus 40-some other singles on the charts. She’s sung everywhere, done everything. But that’s just the start, Dave Wooley said.
“Dionne (shown here) is a genius,” said Wooley, writer and co-director of “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over,” which debuts at 9 p.m.ET New Year’s Day on CNN. “And I don’t just mean a music genius.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 23, 2022

Stories

For Fox’s dramas, these are turbulent times

The Fox network’s scripted shows are in a state of transformation. Or, maybe, turbulence. Consider:
— “Monarch,” Fox’s big plunge for this fall, has been canceled.
— “The Resident” (shown here), a consistently well-made show, has been trimmed. Last season, it had 23 new episodes; this season, it has 13, with the final new ones on Jan, 3, 10 and 17.
— The best launching pad for a new drama – after the Super Bowl – won’t go to a scripted show … or to any new show. Instead, it will start the second season of Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level Chef.” Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 15, 2022

Stories

A non-flop propelled her career of music and more

Fresh from a classy British drama school, Karen David jumped into her first professional job.
It seemed like an odd one at the time – a musical that simply patched together pop hits.
“I remember all my classmates just saying, ‘You’re going to ruin your whole career before it even starts …. This is going to be the biggest flop and you’ve just done Chekhov and Ibsen and Shakespeare at the Globe,’” David recalled in a press conference for her new movie (shown here), “When Christmas Was Young.”
The show, “Mamma Mia,” didn’t flop. It’s still in London, 23 years later; it did 14 years on Broadway, has been seen by 65 million people worldwide and been spurred two movies. And David’s career didn’t flop, either; she stars in “When Christmas Was Young,” at 8:30 p.m. Sunday (but 8 p.m. on the West Coast) on CBS. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 12, 2022

Stories

Amid a long shutdown, she had some grand moments

For Megan Hilty, the all-or-nothing world of show business hit some extremes.
The Covid shutdown lingered. There were no Broadway shows, no on-camera roles. “To have that taken away was a shock,” she said.
But then there was one busy stretch, a year ago. First, she was hurriedly added to NBC’s “Annie Live,” replacing Jane Krakowski, who had Covid. Two weeks after that, she was in Salt Lake City, surrounded by the 300-voice Tabernacle Choir (formerly Mormon Tabernacle Choir). “It is enormous,” she recalled in a virtual press conference. “It’s almost like bathing in sound.”
That Christmas concert (shown here) will air at 8 p.m. Tuesday (Dec. 13) on PBS and 8 p.m. ET Dec. 18 on BYU-TV. It almost didn’t happen. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 7, 2022

Stories

Here’s the updated Christmas TV mega-list

The Christmas TV blitz keeps transforming.
On Thanksgiving Day, we had an elaborate list of what was coming up. Since then, however, several things have changed. Here’s the list in its original form, but with two changes — “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” (shown here) and “CMA Country Christmas” both moved back a week, to Dec. 8 — and a several additions: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 5, 2022

Stories

We must love a cliche-scarce Christmas movie

If you think it’s hard to watch all these Christmas movies, imagine what it’s like to write them.
Consider Mark Amato. He used to be your standard TV writer, doing multiple episodes of “Mutant X,” “Baby Daddy,” etc. But in recent years, he’s had 13 TV movies produced; 10 were Christmas ones and two were she-meets-a-prince ones.
He’s used a lot of plots and groped for more. “You sit at a computer and the words aren’t coming,” he said. “Or, worse, they’re coming, just not any good.”
So he turned that struggle into his latest movie (shown here). ““Must Love Christmas” (9 p.m. Dec. 11) is the second of three new holiday films CBS airs on consecutive Sundays. The first (“Fit For Christmas”) was disappointing, the third (“When Christmas Was Young,” Dec. 18) has its moments … but it’s this middle one that stands out. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / December 4, 2022

Stories

Restless for mid-season? Here are return dates

Right about now, viewers could be grumbling.
Most scripted shows are starting long holiday breaks. Christmas specials are fine (sort of), but when do the real shows return? And when do the mid-season ones arrive?
Earlier, the big-four networks set their plans; we’ve attached those stories below. Now the CW has its news, mostly resuming its fall line-up in January … or, for “Kung Fu” (shown here), early February.
Still pending, however, are the starting dates for several key shows that were delayed to mid-season — a new “Superman & Lois” season and the final seasons of “The Flash,” “Riverdale” and “Nancy Drew.” Those could end up at 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays and from 8-10 p.. Sundays. Meanwhile, we’ll start with the CW news: Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 30, 2022

Stories

It’s a sweet, prah-lean kind of movie

Television, we all know, is an educational medium.
So here’s today’s lesson, via a Christmas movie: A tasty confection is not pronounced “pray lean,” as much of the world assumes. It’s “prah lean.”
“We learned that really fast,” said Keshia Knight Pulliam, the producer and star of “A New Orleans Noel” (shown here), at 8 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday (Dec. 3-4) on Lifetime.
Brad James, her husband and co-star, also had to learn this. But Angela Tucker, the director and co-writer, was well aware of how to say it … and how to eat it. “I had a praline, probably, for breakfast, lunch and dinner” while filming, she said. Read more…

By Mike Hughes / November 29, 2022