On Monday, Conan O'Brien and TBS announced that a deal had been reached that will bring Conan back to television this November. I was initially surprised to hear that TBS would be Conan's future home (I don't recall it being mentioned as a possibility in most of the prognosticating over the past few months), but in thinking about it, I think it's a potentially good fit for both Conan and TBS.

Conan O'Brien, seen on The Tonight Show in his 2009 debut, is headed to TBS.

TBS has long been trying to brand itself around the tagline of "very funny," and the cable network's recent attempt to get into the late-night talk-show game with George Lopez's show makes Conan a logical next step for them. Landing Conan is a score for TBS.

For Conan, this might be a good fit as well. The whole Tonight Show debacle showed that the audience drawn by his somewhat more bizarre brand of humor is, while younger, undeniably much smaller than that drawn by Leno's bland appeal. Conan's ratings were about half of what Leno's were. (Read more...)

Word is, this is going to end up being the last season for 24. Based on what we've seen this season, I'm thinking that wouldn't be such a bad idea, especially if it allows the show to just get it over with and become a movie franchise.

Brian Hastings (Mykelti Williamson) and Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff) do counter-terrorist stuff at CTU in season eight of "24."

24 as a series has gotten awfully long in the tooth, and clearly it has simply run out of ideas. The question is not whether the show will surprise us, but whether the show will be entertaining enough in recycling itself to deliver respectably for an hour. I'm not sure what's worse: The general malaise of this season, or the haphazardly messy multiple shark-jumping of season six. Season eight has so far merely alternated between the typically competent 24 action moments, plenty of mediocre beats, and lots of filler.

But by far the worst thing about this season has been what about the last thing any fan of Battlestar Galactica like me would've expected: that any scene featuring Katee Sackhoff, as CTU analyst Dana Walsh, would immediately lead to eye-rolling and infuriation. Sackhoff occupies a subplot that sucks beyond belief and is stupid beyond words. Even in the world that is 24, which we know and expect (and generally accept) to be endlessly contrived, this storyline defies sense at every turn. (Read more...)

I've about reached the end of my patience with Danica Patrick. Specifically, Danica Patrick teamed with Go Daddy to be an annual Super Bowl institution excercising tired and unfunny assumptions about the Lowest Common Denominator. Has anything ever played on such a dumb and repetitive brain-dead premise ("Hey, guys who watch football also like hot chicks in tank tops! You know, like at Hooters!) and so quickly become so utterly forced, predictable, and eye-roll worthy?

Hi, I'm Danica Patrick. Check this shit out (Fig. 1): I will now sell you a domain name by staring intensely at you through your computer screen and hypnotizing you with my extremely undeniable Danica Patrick-ness. Because nothing says "domain names" quite like generic girls in tank tops, me, my awesomeness, and auto racing. Boo-yah.

(The answer to that question, by the way, is: Why, yes, of course about a million things have achieved a similar feat of comparable eye-rolling lameness. This is just one such excellent example.)

I don't remember when Go Daddy first rolled out its chicks-sell-domain-names ad campaign for the Super Bowl, but it's probably been at least five years now. Or 10. Or 50. (How old is the Internet again?)

The campaign the last two or three years has been a lame cutaway from an "escalating" situation of Extreme Supposed Hotness, as a girl rips off her shirt to reveal a Go Daddy tank top underneath, accompanied by a sudden cut to a black screen with the Go Daddy logo, and a promise of "seeing more" at GoDaddy.com. Always, the references to the online continuation implores us to exercise extreme caution: "WARNING: WEB CONTENT UNRATED!" Because it's just too hot for TV, we tell ya! These ads are not edgy. They are the opposite of edgy. (Read more...)

If you haven't already seen it, here it is. The Demon Sheep YouTube ad put out by Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, attacking her "FCINO" (Fiscal Conservative In Name Only) rival Thomas Campbell in a California primary race.

I'm not sure if their goal was for it to be this absolutely, stunningly, unintentionally hilariously over-the-top. (It plays exactly like a parody that you would see on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report.) But let's put it this way: Lots of people are talking about it. (Read more...)