Channel Island archive

March 9, 2009

CHANNEL ISLAND / SCOTT COLLINS

Barbara Walters still a hot topic

As readers of this section probably already know, Barbara Walters and her cohorts from ABC's "The View" are coming to the Walt Disney lot to do a week's worth of shows starting today. This column spoke with Walters by phone last week and is pleased to report that she's a great interview. (Are you surprised?)

February 25, 2009

Channel Island

MTV's 'Dogg After Dark' puts Snoop's paw prints on the variety genre

No surprise here, but Snoop Dogg is not a big worrier. Tucked into a banquette at a Hollywood nightclub last week, the rapper seemed entirely at ease about the prospects of his new MTV variety show, “Dogg After Dark.”

December 1, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

A SAG strike won't cripple TV

If an actors strike really does come to pass, don't worry. You won't have to do without "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" or "Saturday Night Live." Even certain scripted series, such as CW's "90210" and CBS' "Gary Unmarried," would be safe. And thank the gods in heaven that Fox's sitcom " 'Til Death" wouldn't suffer from a walkout.

November 17, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

How does CBS spell success? 'NCIS'

By spring 2007, the CBS drama “NCIS” looked to have run out of luck.

November 10, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

Change the networks want to believe in

At last the election is over! Now, viewers can go back to really important TV fare, such as "Dirty Sexy Money" and "Lipstick Jungle."

November 3, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

Campaign '08: Media winners and losers

"Politics," the media philosopher Marshall McLuhan once said, "will eventually be replaced by imagery."

August 18, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

Bonnie Hunt prepares (sort of) for daytime TV

SPEND AN hour or so with Bonnie Hunt these days and you come away convinced she's got a daytime talk show inside her head.

August 11, 2008

Hidden complexity in 'Design'

SOON, IT will all return: the mammoth egos, the nasty feuds, the career fates that teeter on choosing just the right fabric swatch. Bravo is bringing back its reality competition set in the dangerous world of interior design. And this time, "Top Design" is overseen by the unscripted wunderkinder best known for the network's fashion hit, "Project Runway."

August 4, 2008

Channel Island

A parting of the programming ways for networks, cable

AND THEN, the audience parted.

July 23, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND / SCOTT COLLINS

A new era for Ebert-less 'At the Movies'

"At the Movies," the syndicated series that introduced the TV-watching masses to passionate on-air debates about film, is about to get a major face-lift.

July 21, 2008

CHANNEL ISLANDS / SCOTT COLLINS

'Wanna Bet?': ABC places wager on Ant & Dec.

ON REALITY TV, the British are ever coming.

July 14, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND / SCOTT COLLINS

Just call Matt Kunitz the king of reality TV

EVEN people who detest his brand of reality shows would be well-advised not to wrestle Matt Kunitz in the mud.

June 23, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

Open letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger re: SAG talks

To: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

June 16, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND / SCOTT COLLINS

Where TV and the Web converge, there is Hulu

IN A very short time, Hulu has rocketed from nothing to being one of the top video destinations on the Internet. We've all heard the years of trade-show claptrap about television-Web "convergence," but Hulu has come as close as possible to turning your computer into a TV without actually sending a tech to monkey around with the hardware and wiring.

June 9, 2008

Channel Island / Scott Collins

The farming out of CW's Sunday nights

YOU MAY recall that on Sundays last fall, the CW featured a lineup of shows that included "Online Nation," a reality series that . . .

May 11, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

Will 'Ugly Betty' and others strike for SAG?

HERE we go again. The entertainment industry quivers near the brink, threatened with another devastating strike even as people are still picking up the pieces from the last one. Can it be much longer before we start seeing A-list celebrities wielding picket signs again?

March 24, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND / SCOTT COLLINS

'Samantha Who?' aims to jog fans' memory

Don Todd knows his way around the TV business, having spent more than 20 years writing for shows such as "Ugly Betty," including a few that didn't work out ("Life as We Know it," "Inconceivable"). He's also cheerfully and openly neurotic.

March 10, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

David Archuleta: Who the people want

THE top 12 " American Idol" contestants arrived as a group at the post-show party in West Hollywood on Thursday night, but the scrum of paparazzi left little doubt who was the object of their obsession.

February 18, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

Strike coverage was hazardous duty

IT'S official: The strike drove writers nuts.

February 4, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

TV's grave new world

REMEMBER when they used to gobble horse innards and other delicacies on "Fear Factor"?

4:41 PM PST, January 20, 2008

CHANNEL ISLAND

The strike aside, hit shows are still missing

WHEN NBC's Golden Globes telecast devolved into a fiasco earlier this month, with ratings skidding more than 70%, it seemed to hammer home the conventional wisdom about the writers strike.

December 17, 2007

CHANNEL ISLAND

Working for reality TV? Sorry

PREDICTIONS often come back to haunt the predictor, but this column will go out on a limb anyway: Chances are slim to none that the Writers Guild of America will make good on its vow to organize large numbers of reality-show workers as a result of its current strike.

December 14, 2007

CHANNEL ISLAND

Hail king cable

EVERYONE knew that 2007 was a breakout year for big, noisy cable shows, so it wasn't necessarily surprising that the Showtimes and FXs of the world mopped up nominations for the 65th annual Golden Globes on Thursday.

December 3, 2007

CHANNEL ISLAND

Strike puts TV critics press tour in limbo

NEXT month, reporters and TV critics from all over the nation are supposed to converge on the Hilton Universal City to get the skinny on the latest shows. Top talent and executives are scheduled to turn up for press conferences and lavish parties hosted by some of the industry's biggest guns.

November 23, 2007

CHANNEL ISLAND

Show runners run the show

WHEN the dust settles on the strike of '07 -- now 19 days old -- we'll probably see it as a Hollywood turning point. No, not in the history of the Writers Guild of America, or of the studios and networks. It's a critical and historic shift for TV show runners.

October 7, 2007

CHANNEL ISLAND | SCOTT COLLINS

CHANNEL ISLAND: ABC likes its chances in 'Murder Club'

THOSE plucky detectives on ABC's "Women's Murder Club" sure do use some innovative crime-solving techniques.