How do you launch 90 minute of live television comedy less than 36 hours after one of the most awful crimes in American history?  SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE tried to finesse the moment by starting its telecast tonight with a children’s choir singing “Silent Night,” but there was nevertheless some unavoidable awkwardness when the show […]

  The second 2-hour chunk of the newly anointed most popular scripted show in the history of basic cable, History’s HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, was much like the first episode:  a strong opening hour followed by a second that didn’t quite live up to it.  Oddly, Hour 4 even failed for many of the same reasons […]

  It’s relatively unusual for a movie star to host SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE without having something to plug, but this week Bruce Willis took the lead for his first turn since the days of the original Die Hard in 1989.  Willis rarely gets the credit he deserves for the range of his roles (the Die […]

  For Jay Pharoah and Kenan Thompson–but especially Pharoah–this week must have felt like alternate-universe SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, because with Kerry Washington as host, suddenly he was the show’s featured leading man, a situation he probably shouldn’t expect to see again anytime soon.  Washington herself was an enormously enthusiastic host, very funny (despite a certain […]

> The networks have proclaimed their Fall schedules, the new series have been (partially) unveiled, so… what now?  What will actually be worth watching when network TV comes back to life in a few months?  SHOWBUZZDAILY is here to help you out.  The good news is that since virtually all TV series are available these […]

  Tonight’s SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE marked the return of movie-star alumnus Will Ferrell as host, but he had a minimal amount to do with the clear highlight of the night.  That would be the show’s 100th Digital Short, a genuine extravaganza (if this was the reason there was no Digital Short last week, the effort […]

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE didn’t exactly hide its fears about Adam Levine’s comic chops as host when the show loaded up his opening monologue not only with the inevitable The Voice parody, but with guest “mentors” Andy Samberg, Cameron Diaz and Jerry Seinfeld.  (Samberg and Seinfeld got off a couple of funny lines, while Diaz’s There’s […]

    CHICAGO FIRE:  WEDNESDAY 10PM on NBC WHAT IT’S SAYING:  Backdraft, not Rescue Me.  Big fires, sweeping, heroic music, a stalwart band of brothers (and the occasional sister) uniting despite their personal strife to save the people of Chicago. WHAT IT’S REALLY SAYING:  Even though it’s from Dick Wolf, not a pure Law & […]