But last night’s broadcast of the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards satisfied on nearly all fronts…unless you happen to be a Lostie or a Gleek. Fans of other great TV shows – and George Clooney, who unexpectedly showed up in a filmed comedy bit as well as to accept the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award – had a lot to be excited about. Best of all, people who love awards…

Jimmy Fallon hosts the Primetime Emmy Awards

If awards telecasts could be compared to holidays, the Emmys would be akin to a secular celebration of Easter. The award show usually heralds the beginning of a new television season, which traditionally starts the day after the Emmys broadcast –  in years in which the show airs in mid-September. (It’s early this year.)

Fans of some series will go to sleep happy, their shows having received the award equivalent of baskets of candy. For at least one more year they will believe in the ATAS voters with the same magical faith they once reserved for a gigantic rabbit.  Heck, we may even get a delicious ham, if Jimmy Fallon does a good job of hosting.

Good, bad, and ugly, we’re covering…

"Anarchy" at the TCA: Kurt Sutter, Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman and Katey Sagal. Credit: Ray Mickshaw

Pretend for a moment that your favorite cable channels are people. The idea isn’t all that weird when you consider that discussing a channel’s brand identity is, in a sense, outlining its personality. HBO, for example, has a closet full of designer suits and couture dresses. AMC also dresses well, but has a hidden life involving hard liquor and drugs.

Then there’s FX. FX has a five o’clock shadow by 10 a.m.  FX is a beer and whiskey drinker, isn’t averse to getting into a scrap now and then, and has a rowdy sense of humor. If you need dirty work done, you call FX. He is the guy you…

Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Rice answers questions at TCA.

Monday was the day. It was really supposed to happen. Honest, and for reals! Many of us thought — nay, hoped — Fox Entertainment Chairman Peter Rice and Entertainment President Kevin Reilly were going to announce the new judges for “American Idol,” putting to rest all of the speculative burbling in the trades through the weekend.

Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, seated side by side at the judges table, delivering scathing critiques from behind gigantic Coca Cola cups! Can’t you just see it?

Granted, we are not six-year-olds on Christmas morning, convinced that behind that soft, wrapped package of tube socks our parents have hidden a rocket ship. We cover television and are used to keeping our expectations low.

That’s…

Kevin Brockman and friend address the TCA. Photo courtesy of ABC

You can assume it’s  going to be an interesting day when the network you’re covering has lost its head…of entertainment programming. This kind of thing happens quite a bit. Usually lawyers get involved, as is the case ABC’s freshly ousted head of entertainment Steve McPherson.

Then there’s the question of handling the next guy, Paul Lee. Two days ago, Lee was the former head of entertainment programming for ABC Family, a.k.a. the guy who gave us “Kyle XY,” “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” and “Pretty Little Liars.”  Now the mothership’s  programming lineup and overall reputation is in his hands.

ABC’s publicity department was quick to put the kibosh on any questions about McPherson, however. On…

You may not know what you’ve won, mind you, but what does it matter? It’s an open bar function with dim sum and pizza, followed by tiny desserts when the show’s over. Most attractive to the stars and producers who show up? No red carpet. The fun part for the critics is casually mingling with the people who make shows we like so much that we voted to have them here. In a sense, the TCA Awards are the small way we try to make up for the grave omissions made by Emmy and the Golden Globes each year.

But last night’s awards ceremony, the…

It has been a long time since anyone who cares about TV took NBC very seriously. From the top down, the network spent more than a decade making a hobby of ruining its brand and trashing its relationship with viewers.

But what’s done is done…we hope.

On Friday, network executives Angela Bromstad and Jeff Gaspin humbly expressed their hope that viewers are willing to get over the multiple betrayals and move forward. Join us, they said in so many words, won’t you?

This fall NBC has a couple of decent shows — and the guts to let…

Without Press Tour, however, think of all the wrangling they’d have to do when major TV news implosions occur. Phones would be ringing off the hook. Reporters would be jockeying for position and screaming if they don’t get the story angles they want when they want it. Mass hysteria.

Tour is also something of a mixed blessing for TV writers. Entertainment business news is breaking all the time, but it…

Jim Parsons and Kaley Cuoco. Courtesy of WireImage.

Sometimes skepticism gets in the way of everyone’s enjoyment.  This idea occupies the same flavor territory as “ignorance is bliss.” It is a vote for the willful flooding of the brain with seratonin and other happiness-inducing substances, something that often happens when we turn off the internal mechanisms that regulate intellect in favor of turning on,  say, G4′s late night programming.

The next eleven days are not part of this idea. At the Television Critics Association’s Summer Press Tour, currently underway at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, CA.,  skepticism hangs heavily in the air. There are a couple hundred of us here, and we’ve seen the fall pilots. Not only that, we get to confront the people who…

This year, however, there was more cheering than griping. Some would say this is not necessarily a “new” idea, since the tides seemed to turn our way last year — meaning, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences voters’ tastes may have at long last aligned with critics and the public’s.  Let’s give an example:  A few years ago, most people would have expected Emmy voters to snub “Lost” in its final season. Perhaps the thought would be that it was too complex for its own good or, having won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama in 2005, that its moment had already been acknowledged.

But “Lost” will…