Last night, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart won its ninth Emmy in a row for outstanding variety, music or comedy series. The show also won a writing award, the acceptance of which prompted New Yorker television critic Nancy Franklin to tweet, "Jon Stewart's writing staff: 14 men and — wait for it — 2 women! Practically…
A subway station I walked through last night was taken over by advertisements for NBC's fall lineup, dominated by images of women in contradictory roles. Bunnies in The Playboy Club (and, not far away, vintage flight attendants on ABC'sPan-Am.) Frazzled moms on Up All Night. Maria Bello looking badass on Prime Suspect. …
A big New York Times story on the ratings declines of late-night network variety shows says, of David Letterman, that "some of his biggest advocates have suggested that it might be time for him to consider stepping away before his legacy is tarnished" by bad ratings, the worst he's ever seen. Not mentioned in the piece:…
In her new installation at the Winkleman Gallery, Jennifer Dalton picks apart the lack of female guests on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, among other programs. (Image courtesy of Dalton and the Winkleman Gallery.)
There was a dramatic drop in the number of female writers in the last television season, and AOLtv's Maureen Ryan asked a few people high in the ranks — men too — why that happened. The answers will depress you!
Girls who like girls on TV, rejoice: "There's a major uptick this fall in sitcoms about young single women, and, even better, several of these shows were created by female writers," writes New York's Emily Nussbaum. But will it reverse the depressing drop of women onscreen and behind the scenes seen in the last…
Both shameless panderers to attention for its own sake, Christine O'Donnell and Piers Morgan are clearly a match made in heaven. This morning, having slowly walked off
Last night, Gloria Steinem was on Colbert to promote the new HBO documentary about her life. As Stephen Colbert put it cheerfully, it's "only seventy five percent as long as documentaries about men."
Melissa McCarthy was presenting the Primetime Emmy nominations
Roseanne Barr has an awe-inspiring rant in this week's New York magazine about the sexism of TV executives. And she says not much has changed: "All over the tube, you will find enterprising, overmedicated, painted-up, capitalist whores claiming to be housewives." Is she right?
Last year, an analysis declared the worst year in a decade for women in pilot season, the crucial period when networks decide which writers' pilots to pick up. But are things looking up?
The final episodes of the ABC soaps will air in September 2011 and January 2012, respectively. Each has been on the air for around four decades.
The New York Post points out that ratings at Lifetime and Hallmark are slipping, while other networks like the History Channel and MTV are gaining shares of women viewers.
Even though there's been no confirmation that either Katie Couric or Matt Lauer are planning to leave their current TV gigs, there's already speculation that the pair may be teaming up again for a talk show.
Erin Burnett is hot. She is also a financial reporter. Unfortunately, many of the men around her seem incapable of separating the two.
If the rather confident AP report that Katie Couric is leaving the anchor post proves true, it will surprise no one.
Once upon a time, it might have been big news that The Bachelor was coming back for a second chance at love; that he had a criminal record; that he had a love child. This season, these revelations were met with a resounding "meh." Too dull for camp, too contrived for drama, The Bachelor is a relic from an earlier time …
Doggie Moms is a new reality show that chronicles that peculiar breed of people: those who not only belong to a subculture, but admit to it and share it with the entire TV-viewing public. In this case, obsessive dog-lovers.
"Sometimes, you just have to say, 'Fuck you,'" said Hounddog director Deborah Kampmeier. It was at a recent all-star panel at the Athena Film Festival in New York (moderated by our own Dodai), on the Bechdel Test.
Hayden Panettiere has weighed in on the Amanda Knox case, saying of the controversial convict, "she didn't have any intention to do this." Why? Panettiere's playing Knox on Lifetime.
Alex Leo notices that Fox News is rather lenient about its chyron placement when it interferes with the cleavage that's a core part of its business plan
This is so obvious it's hard to believe it isn't already in the works at MSNBC.
Amid the retrospectives and interviews populating women in comedy week week over at Splitsider, there's the now-customary debate over the paucity of women in comedy writing jobs. And, maybe, some reasons to be optimistic.
