Golden Globes (Ugh) Reality Shows (Doing Great) And Strike

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Good news for those who want their scripted TV shows back on air: The Directors Guild met all weekend long with the Producers Association, the AMPTP, and it sounds like they might be pretty close to a finding a compromise, which could prompt the writers to make a deal.

There's lots of pressure to wrap up this strike nonsense before the Oscars: every actor or writer who could be nominated wants their chance to collect the gold. Nevermind the fact that the fashion and jewelry industries want celebs to strut the red carpet, giving them free exposure, and all the restaurants, hotels and florists want the business the big event brings.

And last night's attempt to salvage the Golden Globes, though the gala and red carpet was cancelled was so disappointing, I'm sure the Academy and ABC, which hosts the Oscars, wants to make sure things go differently.

A preliminary estimate from Nielsen gives NBC's hour-long presentation of the globes a 4.8 rating and a 7 share, putting it in fourth place, behind the CBS miniseries "Comanche Moon," ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," and Fox's "Family Guy," and "American Dad." Without the acceptance speeches, the audience reaction shots, an awards show just isn't an awards show, if you ask me.

This weekend out and about in Hollywood, there were two hot topics of conversation: Golden Globes bashing, and what there is to watch through this dearth of new scripted shows. For one thing, reality TV ratings have been HUGE--including NBC's "American Gladiators" and ABC's "Dance Wars." And of course, "American Idol" returns to the air waves tomorrow night.

But I'm not a big fan of reality TV, so I'm trying to catch the last few episodes of "30 Rock" (there was a hysterical one last week) and "Friday Night Lights" (which is back on air). And then there's a wealth of great, relatively-new scripted shows from cable, you might have missed. "Mad Men," on AMC, was one of my favorite shows last year--and it picked up two Golden Globes last night, best drama, and best actor in a drama. It's not out on DVD yet, but if anyone you know has DVRed it--go watch it.

Everyone's also raving about "The Wire," which I have on DVD and am about to dive into. I also love "Arrested Development," which is now airing in high def on HD Net (perfect for that new HD TV you might have gotten this holiday season). And then there are all the new web offerings. I've spent a lot of time on Hulu as well as the networks own web sites. Good stuff, and the players are getting better and better. Now let's just get this darn strike to end so we can get more NEW content up there!

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