Just got off the phone with Simon Cowell. Rather, off the Fox phone conference with the American Idol judge, which is nowhere near the same thing. Feeling a little bit like a contestant who came all the way from Canada for an Idol audition but didn’t get a chance to sing. The way these telephone… Read on

One thing my old pal Jim Bawden was always quick to flip were the numbers. Since the long time TV columnist was squeezed out at The Toronto Star late last year, those overnight TV ratings have more or less gone missing in that daily. Well, the numbers are in on The Border: 710,000 viewers caught… Read on

Last night something revolutionary happened. My teenage son wanted to see a show on CBC.The show is called jPod, and it airs Tuesday nights at 9 p.m.This hasn’t happened since, well, never. Credit CBC’s on-air promotion department for getting the word out. Credit also the teen magnet subject matter: the show is about a group… Read on

My buddy David Bianculli, for years the esteemed TV critic at the New York Daily News, has kindly posted a review of my book “Truth & Rumors” on his web site “TV Worth Watching” (http://www.tvworthwatching.com/books.shtml). Check it out, I swear I didn’t write it myself.Oh, yeah, you can order the book here.

Perhaps the only fun of watching the new, writerless versions of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report last night was detecting the seething anger both hosts evidently feel from having to front half-assed versions of their shows. While both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert drew wild ovations last night, both knew that what their… Read on

Judging a series by its pilot episode is a lot like judging a book by its cover. Unfortunately, these days on television, you don’t always get a second chance to make a first impression. That’s my fear with The Border, which premiered last night on CBC. The 13-episode series continues Monday nights at 9 p.m.… Read on

Busy night of new TV, with more late night returns, new CBC offerings and one close shave. Here are the headlines:The new CBC drama The Border starts tonight at 9 p.m. The 24-like drama looks at “the world’s longest undefended border,” which, as anyone who has tried to cross recently at the Peace Bridge in… Read on

I’m as guilty as everybody else. The most brilliant show on television keeps crafting new episodes and I keep ignoring it. Now it is a matter of catch it while you can. The landmark HBO drama The Wire begins its fifth and final season Sunday night (seen in Canada on The Movie Network/Movie Central). This… Read on