Talk Shows

Crazy, '80s Scandalfest The Morton Downey, Jr. Show Chronicled in New Documentary

Years before reality TV and today's conservative political pundits, we had Morton Downey, Jr., whose The Morton Downey, Jr. Show in the late '80s was Jerry Springer, Geraldo, The O'Reilly Factor and Jersey Shore all wrapped up into one, giant hoagie. On May 21, Cinefamily screens a montage of the s ... More >>

L.A. Might Be Losing Leno's 'Tonight Show' To New York, Jimmy Fallon

Los Angeles could be losing an institution, "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." So says the New York Times, which reports today that work is already underway at NBC's Manhattan studio complex and headquarters, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where Jimmy Fallon of "Late Night" and "Saturday Night Live" is waiti ... More >>

5 Best Comedy Shows in L.A. This Week, Including Doug Stanhope

5. I Don't Know Dick Bob Wiltfong combs through love letters by some guy named Dick. The Improv, Sat., Dec. 1, 6 p.m.

Obama In L.A. Wednesday For Jay Leno

President Obama will be back in L.A. this week. Given the tight presidential race, it's only logical that the candidates would be aiming at voters through the most effective of means -- late-night talk shows. That's right, the prez will be appearing on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno ...

The John Kerwin Show, the Long-Running, Late-Night Talk Show You've Never Heard Of

Just a few minutes remain until The John Kerwin Show starts taping, and announcer Keith Leon is teaching us the art of the double clap. It's a trick that's been used since the dawn of television time, he says, to make the studio audience seem bigger. Instead of clapping at a regular pace, he ins ... More >>

Bobcat Goldthwait Interview

On stand-up, leaving Hollywood, and his version of 21 Jump Street

Barry Rothbart

The Daily Show on the Park Slope Food Co-op Monday Night's Vote: The Hummus Shall Remain

It is classic Daily Show. An intrepid Christiane Amanpour type diving into a roiling human rights stew. A few foils setting themselves up for easy ridicule with every utterance. A righteous skewering of extremely small-scale activism-gone-absurd in the land of $1,000 strollers. Samantha Bee brin ... More >>

Jay Leno's Sikh-Temple-as-Mitt-Romney's-Summer-House Joke Enrages Some in Indian Religious Community

Oh no he didn't. Jay Leno is in hot water this week after a quip about Mitt Romney's summer house was accompanied by a photo of the Sikhs' sacred Golden Temple in India, a grand palace indeed. Romney's real summer home, or at least one of them, is right here in Southern California, and isn't half ... More >>

We'll Be Right Back After These Snacks: Food In 5 Talk Show Green Rooms

Flickr/lauren ashleyJimmy Kimmel's green room​ What is a talk show green room? It is the TV-bedecked comfy-couched middle earth between dressing room and stage. It is sometimes (but not always) actually green in color. It is the place where its inhabitants can actually tell if the person who j ... More >>

Conan O'Brien ('s Writing Staff) Kicks Off Everything Is Festival at Cinefamily

The kids you made fun of in high school: All grown up, and richer than you.​ When you hear the name Conan O'Brien, you probably picture the man who single-handedly rallied America's youth against Jay Leno, revenge after Leno took back the Tonight Show gig that, only nine months earlier, he'd l ... More >>

Conan O'Brien Documentary Review

UPDATE: How to Get Tickets for Prince's Los Angeles Residency!

​ [UPDATE: 4/11/11 -- Here are more details on how to get tickets for Prince's LA residency:] Will the internet crash tomorrow morning? We just received a press release announcing the first three dates up for grabs of Prince's "21 Nite Stand" in L.A.: In an effort to make the show affordab ... More >>

MS. GRIFFIN AND HER BIG CHRISTMAS BALLS

Are NFL's Chargers Coming To L.A? Rumors Abound That Staples Center Owner Phil Anschutz Has Taken A Stake In The San Diego Team

Los Angeles Chargers?​Updated with Earvin "Magic" Johnson's comments on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. First posted at 11:32 p.m. Tuesday. Laker legend Earvin "Magic" Johnson announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live! early Wednesday that he's teamed up with the Anschutz Entertainment Group to bring an NFL team t ... More >>

Conan O'Brien Whooped Both Jay Leno And Jon Stewart On Cable TV Last Night -- But Can He Make The Magic Last?

TBSSomewhere between poverty and basic cable​Hot damn, Conan. We knew the comeback would be big, but that was some next-level shit. America's favorite middle-aged carrot set the record for the most-watched show in cable-TV history last night: His brand-new 11 p.m. slot on TBS roped in a baffl ... More >>

Will You Watch 'Conan' At 11 Tonight, Or Stick With Jon Stewart?

Pulse2Back up off my slot, Stewart​All the bleeding gingerhearts on Team Coco finally lay down their arms tonight. After 10 months following "The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour," Conan O'Brien fans will gather J.Bieb-style outside the Warner Bros. studios in Burbank, w ... More >>

A Spooky Season For Jay Leno As Ghost From Conan O'Brien's Past Kicks His Ass In Ratings

NBCDead Conan is kicking live Jay Leno's butt.​This is a true Halloween treat: The ghost of Conan O'Brien's late-night show is beating Jay Leno's Tonight Show numbers. Talk about being beaten by a dead horse. The Wrap reports that O'Brien's short time in NBC's 11:30 p.m. slot in summer, 2009 ... More >>

Larry King Pulls The Plug On 'Larry King Live,' Says He'll Still Host Specials

​Larry King, the 76-year-old talk show host who's been smeared by critics over ratings and poked fun of by comics for his age, stated Tuesday that he's calling it quits. The Los Angeles-based Larry King Live show has been on the air for 25 years. At the beginning of Tuesday's program, he mad ... More >>

Conan O'Brien To Give First Post-NBC Interview To '60 Minutes'

Meghan SinclairSuper CoCo.​In his first interview since leaving NBC, late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien will appear on CBS News program 60 Minutes Sunday, Associated Press reports. O'Brien's exit deal with NBC -- he walked away from the network with more than $40 million for himself and ... More >>

CONAN THE HILARIAN

LEAVE IT TO CLEAVAGE

An Evening with Tavis Smiley

Today In WTF: NBC Buys A Show From Conan

NBC​As the world watched the biggest break-up since (possibly) Brad and Angelina unfold in slow-motion this month, it would be reasonable to think that the blood between late-night host Conan O'Brien and NBC would be as bad as it gets. The network paid him and his staff nearly $45 million to w ... More >>

The Bob Bendick Podcast

Conan Signs $45 Million Deal To Exit NBC

​NBC made it official today: Conan O'Brien is leaving with a $45 million package that includes about $33 million for the soon-to-be ex-Tonight Show host and $12 million in severance for members of his staff, according to Business Week. The agreement allows O'Brien to get on the air via anothe ... More >>

Conan Getting $30 Million To Walk Away, According To Report

​Sharon Waxman's The Wrap is reporting that NBC will pay Conan O'Brien to walk away from The Tonight Show and his contract dispute with NBC. Waxman states that NBC executives, including CEO Jeff Zucker, held an all-night negotiating session Thursday to help come to the deal. O'Brien had rejec ... More >>

Defamer Calls For NBC Chief Zucker's Head Over Conan Fiasco

NBCJeff Zucker.​There was a time when publications, mostly of the dead-tree variety, would call for heads of leaders, mostly of the political kind. But in this info-stream era, everyone's an armchair studio chief, and every public figure -- not just the one you voted for -- is game. It was on ... More >>

Conan O'Brien Says No To Later Time Slot At NBC, Wants Network To Reconsider Late-Night Moves

NBCConan O'Brien.​Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien rejected NBC's proposal to have his Tonight Show start a half hour later as a result of the resurrection of a Jay Leno late-night program to start at 11:35 p.m., calling the the proposed move "destruction" of the franchise. In a widely distribu ... More >>

Rumor Mill: NBC Looking For Guest Host For Tuesday's 'Tonight Show'

NBCConan O'Brien.​Rumors are circulating in Hollywood that NBC is scrambling to find a guest host to fill in for Conan O'Brien on Tuesday's Tonight Show. Earlier today O'Brien issued a statement rejecting NBC's proposal to move his show to 12:05 a.m. to make room for a renewed late-night progr ... More >>

Leno Prime-Time Show Done; NBC To Go Back To 'Scripted' TV

NBCJay Leno.​NBC over the weekend copped to its retirement of the short-lived Jay Leno Show at 10 p.m. weeknights, officially announcing that its hoped-for lineup shuffle was a proposal that would have Leno and Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien squeeze into late-night together at 11:35 p.m. and ... More >>

Top Entertainment Stories of 2009 Named; Jackson, L.A. Dominate List

​The death of Michael Jackson topped a list of top-ten entertainment stories for 2009, and headlines emanating from Los Angeles dominated the list. The survey of news editors was conducted by Associated Press. Its top stories: 1) The death of Michael Jackson; 2) the rise of singer Susan Boyle ... More >>

Oprah's Move: Good luck or good riddance?

Conan To Emcee Police Benefit; You're Really Not Invited

An elite event to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Los Angeles Police Department, to mark the end of Chief William Bratton's tenure, and to provide yet another opening ceremony for the new Police Administration Building will feature Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien as an emcee, Wolfgang Puck as ... More >>

NBC Wanted Leno Out Earlier

One of the bigger ironies surrounding Jay Leno's primetime debut Monday is that NBC, he says, wanted him out as host of The Tonight Show even earlier than planned. In today's New York Times, the comic says the network approached him in 2004 with a plan to replace him as the late-night show's host i ... More >>

The Writers Guild Cleared Jay Leno, but Now Must Indict Itself

LATE-NIGHT TALK SHOW WARS

Letterman, O'Brien and Leno do reality-TV battle.

Oprah Free Chicken Coupon Chaos: The Backlash, The Rain Check, The Reckoning

Poultry pandemoniumAs our nation's saga of poultry pandemonium continues, this just in: KFC locations to hand out chicken rain checks to poor disgruntled saps who were denied free grilled fowl despite their original Oprah-website-issued free chicken coupons. Confusion reigns in the Oprah free chicke ... More >>

The Bird and the Bee Announce Leno, Kimmel Appearances, Offer First Glimpse of New Album

LA's The Bird and the Bee have been doing rehearsal gigs around town for the past couple months, so it's not like you haven't had ample opportunity to catch them live. But in anticipation of their upcoming second full-length, Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future, the duo of Inara George and Greg Kurs ... More >>

Stone Temple Pilots, Jimmy Kimmel Show, 5/1

Stone Temple Pilots Jimmy Kimmel Live, May 1 By Ryan Colditz "One time a thing occurred to me What's real, and what's for sale? Blew a kiss and tried to take it home" The opening lines of "Vasoline" during Stone Temple Pilots' first public show since 2002 on Jimmy Kimmel Live! put the entire e ... More >>

Big Gives

Some philanthr-Oprah

The Karlin Report

ELLEN'S GAY

Two frosted haired ladies walk stiffly through the ebbs and flows of sidewalk traffic on West Alameda Avenue in Burbank. The street is lined with WGA strikers circling the Disney, NBC and Warner Bros. studios. The ladies, residents of the O.C. are here to enjoy their recent retirement. Tops on their ... More >>

The Greg Proops Chat Show

Truth to Oprah Power

My Life on the Couch

Bill Clinton’s Oprah Moment

A Head Above

Bill Maher in real time

Confessions of a Celebrity Dope Fiend

Crying Freedom

Jonathan Demme's beautiful Beloved

The Oprah Effect

The TV star has transformed the publishing world