So, apparently, yesterday, there was this game on or something, and there were commercials that were particularly special. OK, I kid, I’m a huge football fan, but I think I need to weigh in on the fact that the commercials were a bit lacking this year. I was kind of disappointed in the How I Met Your Mother bit, with Barney in the audience with his phone number on a poster. The message when you called (because, of course we called) wasn’t particularly funny. The mistake I made was not trusting in showrunners Bays and Thomas to bring it home by integrating into this week’s episode.

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American Idol has become such a ratings juggernaut that it’s always a little surprising when something actually tops it. The Grammy Awards were able to do just that last week, thanks to the best ratings for the show since 2004. The other big event for the week was the return of Lost on ABC. It didn’t approach the Idol or Grammy numbers, but it did finish the week as the number one scripted show in the adult demo. Granted, it was the season premiere, but knocking off Grey’s, House, 2 ½ Men, and Big Bang Theory is always worth noting. On cable, the big surprise was probably the performance from USA’s White Collar and Psych. Both were well down from last week. Read the rest of this entry »

“Just because a man talks about a fictional character a lot on a first date doesn’t mean he’s not husband material.” – Lily to Robin
“Sasquatch is not fictional.” – Marshall

I know, I can’t believe I’m actually reviewing How I Met Your Mother again, either. What’s more, I’m about to say really great things about it — two strange things in one night. Will wonders never cease? Because with “The Perfect Week,” Bays and Thomas remind us why we all watch this show in the first place.

Didn’t this episode remind you of the likes of season two’s and three’s “Swarley”? “Slap Bet“? “The Bracket”? It was tightly written, circled back around on itself to make the most of the jokes (Cook Poo anyone?) and the biggest surprise of all — Lily was actually funny.

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There’s something scary going on in television that we haven’t seen in a very long time, if ever. I can define it in one word: stability. After years where viewers waited on their couch edges waiting to hear if their favorite shows have been renewed, we’re now getting a number of very early seasonal pickups for some popular shows.

Part of this, most likely, is to enable the networks to keep or grow the audience they already have for these programs. The other part — and this is purely speculation —  is they want to show their viewers that they aren’t the train wreck that NBC has become. Either way, the early renewals show us a partial picture of the 2010-11 season. And, so far, it looks pretty good.

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The complete implosion of Heroes just never gets old. I’m fascinated by it, and the show found an all new low last week. Over the years we’ve seen plenty of shows fall from their once lofty heights. But to see one crash so fast, and in such a dramatic fashion, is a rare thing. On a brighter note, the week that was also brought a host of premieres, including 24, Human Target, White Collar, Burn Notice, and American Pickers. And if you want to see some really crazy numbers, click through and take a look at what iCarly did. Read the rest of this entry »

Ladies and gentlemen, you have just witnessed How I Met Your Mother: the catch-phrase episode. There were four — count ‘em, four — catch phrases permeating “Jenkins,” for better or for worse. And tonight, we definitely got a little bit of both.

Let’s start with the “but um,” a bad habit of Robin’s that become Ted’s students’ favorite drinking game. This was my favorite story line of the show, mostly because it was actually funny from start until finish. We went from Robin thinking she was recognized as a celebrity, to finding out she was the “but um” of a drinking game, to watching her have the last laugh. It played out pretty well, even though there wasn’t much Barney involved. Though seeing Ted and Barney crocked was worth tolerating every bit of screen time that Barney was absent.

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FOX has been waiting all season to drop the big hammer, and the time has finally come. Idol returned last week, and the ripple effect of adding over 20 million viewers to Tuesday and Wednesday was felt by a number of shows, but not all of them. Despite Idol adding some 24 million viewers to the numbers that So You Think You Can Dance was delivering, Gibbs and his NCIS team still managed to garner 20.85 million viewers of their own. Read the rest of this entry »