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Fox took over the Santa Monica Pier for its TCA All-Star Party

It’s that time of the summer, when TV networks present their new and returning programming and talent to the nation’s television critics in a series of panels and presentations in a hotel ballroom. But at the end of the day, it’s time to party. As with the on-air programming, the competition is tough. Here’s how it shook out amongst the big broadcasters:

CBS

The party: An open-air tent at the former Robinsons-May building.  Lots of fatty, high-carb foods like chicken and waffles served in cones, pizza, Chinese chicken salad, cookies and milk and a gelato bar. Not a fork in sight.  Chuck Lorre wanted one for the carved roast beef and in lieu of bread opted to use the only other alternative.  Les Moonves and Julie Chen made the rounds, as did talent from the Eye, CW and Showtime, including Tom Selleck, William Shatner, Ed Westwick, Maggie Q. and Sela Ward.  No champagne at the bar coupled with the hard-to-eat, caloric food and porta-potty trailers left some grumbling. Next year, perhaps, some healthier alternatives and utensils.

NBC Universal

The party: Held in the same location as many of the network’s recent Golden Globes soirées, the rooftop parking lot at the Beverly Hilton.  Barely warmer than in winter, guests flitted from heat lamp to heat lamp and moved in and out of the Zucker zone.  The NBCU honcho spent a lot of quality time schmoozing those brave enough to speak with him.  Talent from USA Networks and Bravo shows also worked the crowd, and Michaele and Tareq Salahi didn’t have to crash to get in, since they’re now on “Real Housewives of D.C.”  On the menu, tray- passed sushi and a buffet that included roast beef and grilled asparagus. Bubbly at the bar and silverware were in plentiful supply. Bathroom benefit: in private suites on the top floor of the hotel.

ABC Disney

The party: No need for a jacket to ward against the summer chill at the indoor Beverly Hills ballroom. Shaquille O’Neal and some Disney characters also heated things up in the room—as did Sofia Vergara and Paul Lee. Menu featured various buffets on the perimeter of the room including an extensive sushi bar, cold cuts, caprese salad, pizza and ravioli.  And yes, champagne was being served—along with a whole lot of brewskis.

FOX

The party: Fun, games and a massive quantity of guilty-pleasure junk food at the Santa Monica Pier’s Pacific Park, the section with the Ferris wheel, roller coaster and those “skill” games where the lucky winners walk off with large stuffed animals. If you like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, potato tornadoes, mini donuts and churros, you could eat your heart out—and many did. Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele made it a Glee-ful night. Gordon Ramsey, Jon Voight and Keri Russell made the rounds, but alas, no American Idol judges—since none have been officially announced. Hands down, the best bash of the bunch.

Jimmy Fallon’s parents won’t be coming to the Emmys to see him host the 62nd edition of the awards show on August 29. They want to come, but he doesn’t want them there. Why? Because he might sweat too much.

The affable host of “Late Night” has seen his perspiration level drop in the 18 months since he took over the program and interviewed his first guest, the notoriously incommunicative and sweat-inducing Robert De Niro.

But Fallon wouldn’t have had it any other way. As he told reporters at the fall press tour, there was nothing to do but jump in, feet-to-the-fire style.

It’s the same thing with the Emmys, airing on his home network of NBC. Although it’s been awhile, he’s not a novice at emceeing an awards show—he co-hosted the MTV Movie Awards in 2001 with Kirsten Dunst and then solo in 2005, and hosted the 2002 VMAs.

The Emmys have a long history of turning to late-night personalities to front the ceremony. Johnny Carson did the honors many times, including a string of shows in the early 70s. Conan O’Brien took the reins in 2002 and 2006. David Letterman, Jon Stewart and Jay Leno have all co-hosted with other television personalities.

The stock of Emmy hosts has been on the way up since the debacle of 2008, when a group of reality hosts including Heidi Klum, Ryan Seacrest and Howie Mandel bumbled their way through the telecast, embarrassing the Television Academy and bringing down the level of the proceedings of what is the industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony. The fallout was and is so negative that this year, the reality hosting category for which many of them are nominated won’t even be televised.

Last year, Neil Patrick Harris made hay of many of those bad memories with his song and dance routines and what turned out to be an overall star turn as Emmy host.

Fallon’s support system includes a man who knows his way around awards shows better than almost anyone, executive producer Don Mischer—and the comfort of bringing over six of his writers from “Late Night.”

Mischer, a decorated veteran of producing Oscars, Tonys, Super Bowl half-time shows and Olympics opening ceremonies (whose name got continually botched at TCA as Mischner) took the stage with Fallon and Academy head honcho John Shaffner and handled reporter questions about the telecast. They included two separate inquiries about whether working with ATAS is like dealing with the Politburo. Um, let’s see. The answer to that was a resounding “no” from Mischer and Fallon, as Shaffner joked about being Brezhnev.

They spent time explaining how presenting the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award to George Clooney relegates some of the other categories like the reality hosts to non-broadcast status at the creative arts ceremony a week before the Emmys—and how guild regulations require that other categories be among the 27 awards televised in the three-hour show.

Fallon was tight-lipped about whether music will play a role in his Emmy hosting gig, saying he wanted to surprise the audience, but you can surely bet he’ll be picking up an acoustic guitar and crooning some bits that’ll bring belly laughs.

Meanwhile, the former SNL star is still giddy about his day job, thrilled to see people in the 30 Rock studio audience wearing “Late Night” T-shirts and warming to recurring skits like “Thank You Notes” and “Slow Jamming the News” with his fabulous house band, the Roots.

Fallon’s also proud of the catchy protest song he wrote and performed about the BP oil spill, (tar) “Balls in Your Mouth,” with him on guitar and the Roots doing backup vocals. He’s also still amazed that he got Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and the Rolling Stones on the show. And in a side conversation, he promised me he’ll be doing “Barry Gibb” again.

But when it comes to the late night wars, Fallon is like a warm and fuzzy Switzerland. He’s friendly with both Conan and Jay, keeping his nose to the grindstone and just doing his job as mortar shells blew up around him in the drawn-out controversy over “The Tonight Show.”

Instead of competition like the nearly two decade “battle” between Leno and Letterman, Fallon feels only kinship with time slot buddy Craig Ferguson, trading on-air waves with the Scotsman on CBS.

And should Conan take home an Emmy for his short-lived “Tonight Show” gig, there won’t be any awkward moments with Fallon—on stage or off.

Some fresh, new blood has been injected into the races for this year’s Emmy awards and some interesting additions and omissions make this one of the most interesting seasons in years.  And, it will be a short one with the televised ceremonies set for August 29.

The Emmys are known for anointing some of the same people for years on end.  Tony Shalhoub is a perfect example.  Although his show, “Monk,” has ended its first run, Shalhoub was nominated for a staggering eighth time as best actor in a comedy series.  He’s taken home the trophy on three of those outings.

But make a couple false moves, or even just one, and see your Emmy reign ended–even if it has absolutely nothing to do with your on-screen character.  Former Emmy darling Charlie Sheen—a four-year in a row contender–didn’t make the cut this year as best comedy actor, as he waits to resolve his domestic violence case.  Jeremy Piven’s mercury poisoning incident had repercussions far beyond the Broadway stage he departed. He’s apparently dragged his entourage down along with him. Recently a repeat contender for best comedy series, it received just one major nomination this time. Ouch.

Kicking “Entourage” and “Two and a Half Men” to the comedy curb made room for two new entrants that are sure to have a long Emmy run, “Glee” and “Modern Family.” Both had large numbers of nominations showered upon them. “Nurse Jackie,” not exactly considered a comedy in most viewing households, is a surprise entrant in the category, which has long been dominated by “30 Rock.” But don’t count out the Rock just yet. It scored 15 nominations, including those in every acting category except supporting actor.

Long-time laffers “The Office” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” are also vying for the trophy.

But it was the late-night comedy terrain that had the most drama. Clearly a message from the voters–and the huge surprise to everyone else–Conan O’Brien racked up four nominations for his abbreviated seven-month run as host of “The Tonight Show.” Leno: 0.

Bad-boy behavior at the office may have contributed to the abrupt end of David Letterman’s 26-year long streak of garnering Emmy nominations. As Jay said, maybe they’ll both be watching the telecast from Oprah’s house.

Thirty-five years after it premiered, “Saturday Night Live,” shows no signs of waning, ending its season on a high note with the Betty White Mother’s Day episode. That show alone garnered seven nods, including—hooray!– one for Ms. White. In fact, SNL has quietly become the most nominated show in Emmy history, with its 12 new nominations this time around bringing its lifetime total to 126, surpassing 124 for “ER” and 117 for “Cheers.” As the years go on, Lorne and crew will obviously widen the gap.

Speaking of raw numbers, HBO is again in triple digit territory, with 24 of its 101 nominations coming for “The Pacific.” No drama in the miniseries category, a business in serious decline on television. The only competition for the 10-part Spielberg-Hanks produced World War II saga is “Return to Cranford,” which aired on PBS.

Riding the current trend of the popularity of all things vampire, the pay cabler’s “True Blood” finally broke through to Emmy voters, as did the overlooked “Friday Night Lights.”

“The Good Wife” as a best drama nominee and industry favorite Julianna Margulies as best actress vaulted to the top of their class in their freshman year with nine nominations, boding well for a fertile period of popularity with Emmy voters.

“The Good Wife” joins “True Blood,” the just-departed “Lost,” “Breaking Bad” and “Dexter” in squaring off against recent perennial trophy-getter “Mad Men,” whose nattily-attired leads, Jon Hamm and January Jones, are naturally up for the gold.

It’s going to take a lot to dislodge the folks at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce from their preeminent Emmy position, but “Wife” could be the one to knock them off their pedestal.

Mel & Oksana, in more peaceful times

Yes ladies and gentlemen, we’ve probably all seen and heard it before. We’ve all known abusive men like Mel Gibson. Whether it be in the workplace, in the home or in a romantic relationship, there’s nothing new about Gibson’s hateful rant directed at his former girlfriend.  Listening to the just-released tape, no matter by whom, how or why, what was unusual was the racist element of his diatribe.

Sure we’ve all said nasty and hateful things, (listen to Alec Baldwin and Christian Bale) but the vast majority of us wouldn’t use racial slurs in the midst of a heated argument. Whether or not it’s “right” to record someone in their home without their knowledge, are we really surprised at Gibson’s sick, vengeful, racist venom?

Much of it came out after his infamous 2006 DUI arrest on PCH. Then, Jews were the target. With so much money at stake in his illustrious film career, Mel went on the media apology tour and seemed to be somewhat rehabilitated in the public mind– although people have long memories when it comes to repeat offenders. Who could forget his capping off the evening by calling a female sheriff’s deputy “sugar tits?”

And there’s more in store. I’m sure we’ll soon actually hear him say these words, “I’ll burn down the house, but you’ll blow me first”–and hear him rant about “wetbacks.” Oh, boy.

This time it’ll be much harder for Gibson to get back on track.  Even though Ari Emanuel was looking for any excuse to drop him from William Morris, and the death of Ed Limato sealed the decision, I’m sure in due time, another tenpercentary will pick him up.

Back to the tape and Mel’s rant against Oksana’s fake breasts and how she chose to display herself in public, not unlike how countless numbers of “Hollywood” women dress themselves.

It reminds me of how a previously sane boyfriend went postal on me, accusing me of wearing a bathing suit to the beach just so men would look at me and criticizing the way I walk for just the same reason.  He was left to stew in his obsession over where I was when I didn’t answer the phone immediately– and later told me I had ruined his life.  Good riddance.  But the difference was I didn’t somehow manage to sneak in a kid with an incredibly wealthy man I saw as my meal ticket.

Part of me feels sorry for Oksana, with her bruises and broken teeth, but part of me thinks she knew exactly what she was getting into– and is unfortunately now paying the price.

The King & Hef: 160 years and countless women between them

CNN will soon be saying goodbye to the person who helped put it on the media map 25 years ago. No real “suspends,” especially after that nasty on again/off again divorce and affair with his wife’s sister scandal, but “Larry King Live” will sign off this fall. The 76-year old King says he’s not leaving CNN entirely, and will do periodic specials, a la Barbara Walters, it appears. The ratings were down, sure, but now CNN has to replace the still-popular show with a new host and a new program. (Sorry, Eliot Spitzer, you already have another time slot on the cable net.)  King himself wants Ryan Seacrest to take over. Other speculation centers on Piers Morgan, a judge on “America’s Got Talent” and Katie Couric. But it’s doubtful anyone can match the King’s reign.

Last week, King interviewed Hugh Hefner live at a television industry conference in downtown Los Angeles, and made no mention of his impending departure, but did elicit this fun exchange:

King: Do you have orgies?

Hef: Let’s see. Is this Thursday?

Larry, we’ll miss those insightful questions.

The Queen is the MC at BET

It’s the baby of entertainment industry awards shows. This Sunday, the BET Awards turn 10 years old in ‘10, as the network itself celebrates its 30th year.

The show got booted into adulthood last year, when just three days before it was scheduled, Michael Jackson unexpectedly died, sending shock waves throughout the world. Perhaps it was fated to be the first major nationally televised awards show to pay tribute to the pop legend, as Jackson himself had strong ties to Black Entertainment Television — and was considered part of the “family” the network likes to foster with its staff and talent.

“It was just devastating,” remembers BET Chairman and CEO Debra Lee of Jackson’s death. She was in the middle of a speech at DirecTV in Los Angeles when she got the news. “Everyone worked around the clock, knowing how important it was to the audience to make it a special tribute. Michael had always been very good to BET, having his videos released to BET and MTV at the same time, and he was the first honoree at our Walk of Fame. He was a big fan of BET, and it was important for us to do the tribute right.”

It was a night to remember, with Janet Jackson taking the stage in her first public appearance since her brother’s untimely passing. “She called us, knowing this would be the place fans would come for comfort,” says Stephen Hill, BET’s president of specials and music programming, who EPs the show with Lynne Harris-Taylor and production partner Cossette Productions. He and his team spearheaded the frenzied activity to revamp the entire program to make it a celebration of Jackson’s life and career by the top artists in the business.

Not surprisingly, the show garnered its best ratings ever, with about 10.7 million viewers — and Hill has his work cut out for him this time around to match last year’s epic broadcast.

Sunday’s program features not only a popular Queen and a celebrated Prince, but a King and a Princess. Queen Latifah hosts the show for the first time — not that she hasn’t been asked before. The artist known once again as Prince gets the Lifetime Achievement Award for his legendary, iconic career — and the tribute to him promises to be a blockbuster. King of the South TI is performing, as is Princess Nicki Minaj. And let’s not leave out Eminem, Alicia Keys, Ludacris, Usher, T-Pain, Drake, Diddy-Dirty Money and Rick Ross.

Assuredly, all eyes will be on Kanye West as he makes his first awards show appearance since the debacle that was his notorious interruption of Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV VMAs last year. Will she be waiting in the wings to exact some payback in West’s direction? Hill won’t say, but promises a lot of surprises.

Prince scores the Lifetime Achievement Award

What BET brings to the awards show table is not only a celebration of music, but honoring the best of African American culture in entertainment and athletics, as well as singling out people who have made a difference in their communities. Six-time Grammy Award-winning artist and philanthropist John Legend will receive this year’s Humanitarian Award for his work to end poverty through education. Long after the mainstream media spotlight has dimmed, there will also be recognition of the continuing plight of the people of Haiti, in the wake of the devastating earthquake.

“It’s as much a family reunion and gathering as it is an awards show,” says Hill. “The cousins get together and show off in a dance competition, bringing their best and brightest productions. They know we embrace their art and desire to show off. It’s a cool place for surprises — and to get the best entertainment and look back to yesterday.”

Achievements will be recognized in 19 categories.  Jay-Z leads the pack with five individual nominations for Best Male Hip Hop Artist, Best Collaboration, Video of the Year (two nominations) and Viewer’s Choice. Following with four nods each are Beyonce (Best Female R&B Artist, Best Collaboration, Video of the Year, Viewer’s Choice), Alicia Keys (Best Female R&B Artist, Best Collaboration, Video of the Year, Viewer’s Choice), Trey Songz (Best Male R&B Artist, Best Collaboration (two nominations), Viewer’s Choice) and Melanie Fiona (Best Female R&B Artist, Best New Artist, Video of the Year, Centric Award).

Drake scored three individual nominations, as did Young Money. Other multiple nominees include Rihanna, Fabolous, Nicki Minaj, B.O.B., Maxwell and Monica. Justin Bieber fever will heat up the house at the Shrine Auditorium, as the teen heartthrob scored a nod for the new “Fandemonium” award. He’s competing against Minaj, Songz and Chris Brown.

The Subway Sportsman of the Year Award promises a lot of drama, with LeBron James pitted against Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, Carmelo Anthony and Usain Bolt. On the distaff side, it’s both of the tennis superstar Williams sisters up against Candace Parker, Vanessa James and Tamika Catchings for the hardware.

Women vying for the Best Actress trophy are Gabourey Sidibe, Zoe Saldana, Mo’Nique, Taraji P. Henson and Regina King. Either Denzel Washington, last year’s host Jamie Foxx, Quinton Aaron, Idris Elba or Don Cheadle will take home the Best Actor award.

Jay-Z leads the nomination pack

“We’ve established a reputation as one of the best shows out there,” says Lee. “The audience continues to grow, people who love African American culture and music has allowed to grow. Our goal is to keep growing.”

The show has come a long way since its inception ten years ago, when BET brass decided enter the fray of awards shows that attract a similar audience, including the Grammys, the MTV Awards and the Soul Train Awards.

“The productions have gotten more elaborate, the pairings of artists has gotten better,” says Lee. That will be reflected in the tribute to Prince, says Hill, who expects the unexpected. “He’s nothing less than changed music and the perception of how black men play instruments. He’s the most emotional singer in more genres than anybody. He is music. We are honored beyond belief that he will appear,” he told me.

The Prince tribute will surely take its place among top moments in BET Awards history, like Michael Jackson’s surprise appearance during James Brown’s tribute, Rick James in his final duet with Teena Marie and Will Smith presenting Muhammad Ali with the first-ever Humanitarian Award.

The new star of the TNT/TBS Universe bolted out on stage bright and early at the Hammerstein Ballroom, looking a little worse for the wear–after an amusing video clip showing him in a fat suit with a long beard, putting peanut butter on his feet and having his dog lick it off among other funny vignettes, while waiting for that hoped for call–to get a new show after the debacle of his short-lived Tonight Show gig.

10 a.m. is not exactly Conan O’Brien’s best time of day, especially between road gigs in Minneapolis and Chicago, but he did bang out a couple of good one-liners. “I first met Steve Koonin {prez of Turner Broadcasting} on Jdate, where the raw sexual enthusiasm was palpable.”

O’Brien then brought out an acoustic guitar for a rendition of “On the Road Again” that became “My Own Show Again.”

When it was Lopez’s time in the spotlight, he compared the duo to Desi and Lucy 50 years later, although they will of course be back to back instead of side by side. And naturally, the comic noted that he flew cross country, but bypassed Arizona.

Turner spared no effort in promoting a large slate of new programming and parading the casts of each on stage, after, of course, the mantra of the week and the Powerpoints to prove it: television advertising is back and better than ever.  Some of the product placement for brands like Yoplait and Pantene in network promos was a bit over the top, but seemed to go over well in the crowd of advertisers and media buyers.

At the end of the day, it’s still going to be very difficult to say goodbye to Jack Bauer. (Losing Renee was hard enough.)
At Fox’s upfront presentation–during which Keifer Sutherland made somewhat infamous remarks last year, just after his Met head-bashing incident, the network was clearly moving on from ’24.” This time, Hugh Laurie and Jane Lynch were the talent with speaking roles, with Laurie charming the packed Beacon Theatre and Lynch having some fun at Kevin Reilly’s expense. “That weatherman hair! Those chalk white teeth!”
This woke up the crowd from the charts and demo-graphs presented to convince the media buyers that broadcast TV was still the place to be, and Fox in particular.
Reilly got in a dig at former employer NBC, by saying being a top dog can make a company a complacent target.
Meanwhile, Fox did not announce Simon Cowell’s successor on American Idol, saying it would take away from his final season (and of course, he’ll be back with his other show in Fall ’11.)
Several teaser trailers for new shows got a big response, including Mixed Signals, Lonestar, Raising Hope and Ride-Along, a new cop show from The Shield’s Shawn Ryan set in Chicago. And then there was the Spielberg extravaganza “Terra Nova.” Avatar as a series? We’ll see. But not much could top the Glee cast performing a rousing “Like a Prayer.”
And then it was off to the rollicking bash at Central Park’s Wollman rink, where there was no prayer of getting out of there without getting a little bit toasted.

It was NBC’s first actual upfront in several years, and it got off to a rousing opening at the NY Hilton with a taped opening from Jack Donaghy, er, Alec Baldwin, who urged several thousand attendees to get drunk at the lunch and blow off Fox. That probably didn’t happen, as there were several hours of recovery time in between presentations.
The peacock net has been working overtime to make up for the 10 p.m. Jay debacle, getting back into the scripted business in a big way–with high profile shows including “Undercovers,” “The Event” and “Chase.”
Jeff Gaspin thanked the media buyer/advertising audience repeatedly, while Angela Bromstad was earnest in presenting the fall and midseason slate.
Even though L&O has been cancelled, its offspring live on at NBC as SVU and the new kid, “Law & Order: Los Angeles.”
The likeable Jimmy Fallon came out onstage with a guitar and performed ad libbed live ads about advertisers like Zappos and Applebees. Same lyric: “Applebees lists their calories on the menu. What part of I don’t give a f— don’t you understand?”
What is understood is this: new comedies like “Outsourced,” about a guy running a call center in India, may not make it, but “Rock” and “The Office” still rule.

Betty White didn’t—and couldn’t—physically bound out on stage to take the reins of Saturday Night Live, but her highly-rated hosting gig Saturday will go down in history as one of the 35-year old show’s sweetest moments.

See what a little Facebooking can do for a gal? Hard to believe the 88-year old comedienne had never hosted the venerable late night show, although truth be told,  it turns she turned down the offer several times—until the onslaught of online pressure finally got to her. 

A new groundswell has already started urging Lorne Michaels to book her as a host next season. If there is not a precedent for a host doing the program twice in one season, perhaps it should start now, because sadly, there is not infinite time. For Ms. White, with her instant iconic hosting status, there can numerically be no rivaling of the multiple emcee gigs of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

Highs and lows have marked SNL’s recent history, from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s takes on Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton– and the general bullseyes struck regularly during Campaign 2008– to Gabourey Sidibe’s  stumbling and bumbling through most of her sketches just a few weeks ago.

From the moment White took the stage and ragged on Facebook for being a waste of time for losers that she’d never heard of before, viewers knew they were in for some great comedic moments. What else did you expect from a consummate pro who’s been in the business for six decades?

White alternately charmed, cajoled and cussed in sketches ranging from amusing to hysterical. Talk about physicality. Even though she didn’t dance frenetically in sketches, there was barely a moment in the all-too-fast 90 minutes when she wasn’t killing on camera–in guises ranging from a batty cat lady being interviewed by census taker Tina Fey to the star detective of ”CSI: Sarasota.” Three delectable times she appeared as MacGruber’s grandma, the one with the tendency to reveal embarrassing personal information just before things totally blow up.

With SNL’s Mother’s Day edition also featuring female alums like Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon, all of whose talents are missed—and a reuniting of Amy Poehler with Seth Meyers on “Weekend Update,” White had an elite supporting cast to back her up.

As Shannon and Gasteyer took their roles as the geeky hosts of a public radio cooking show, you just knew you would be on the edge of your seat—waiting for a reference to the infamous “Schwetti balls” so deliciously showcased on the segment by Alec Baldwin. But the “muffin” schtick was right up in there. As White said, it hadn’t had a cherry on it since 1939.

Jay-Z’s two lengthy medlies of Blueprint material added to the special-occasion quality of the show, and as he shouted out after his performance of “Forever Young” with the mysterious Mr. Hudson, “This is for the incredible Betty White.” And to quote Neil Young, Betty, long may you run.