Eric Deggans

The ratings for prime-time shows are out. If you look at the demographics advertisers pay the most for, young people, there are even more scripted shows edging out reality TV.

Orange is the New Black has always been a bit of a head fake.

Creator Jenji Kohan has admitted she uses the story of WASPy prison inmate Piper Chapman to draw TV audiences into stories about the types of women who rarely take centerstage in more mainstream fare: a transgender ...

This year, more original, highly anticipated summer TV series are debuting on the broadcast networks than ever before — along with some big-ticket series from cable and one of Netflix's biggest shows.

A death, a divorce, a song and dance number and a sale; must be the end of another Mad Men season.

Creator Matt Weiner has a reputation for ending seasons on a melodramatic note. And even though this year's run of Mad Men episodes was cut in half by AMC ...

Every so often, storytellers land on the same idea close enough to the same time that it rattles the zeitgeist like an earthquake.

That's how it felt, sifting through the well-crafted, emotionally exhausting scenes that fill HBO's version of The Normal Heart. Created as a searing, tragic look at the ...

For those of us who have spent time arguing for increased ethnic and cultural diversity on television, the last seven days have felt like a fantasy fever dream.

This week, the big broadcast networks announced their schedules for the 2014-15 TV season during the industry's "upfront" presentations to advertisers. And ...

Note: This interview contains language that may be offensive to some listeners.

Beyoncé is everywhere, most recently on the cover of Time as one of the 100 most influential people. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg of ...

Barbara Walters retires from daily television work on the May 15 edition of The View. Walters may be the real parent of today's TV journalists, who often meld the worlds of entertainment and news.

This week, the television networks announced their new season lineups. NPR's TV critic, Eric Deggans, talks with host Audie Cornish about some of the new shows and the trends that they reveal.

Alan Cheuse reviews American Innovations, a new collection of short stories by Rivka Galchen.

Funny or Die, a website founded by comedians including Will Ferrell, is finding ways to channel the loose comedy of the Internet into projects both online and on television.

When the comic's alter ego rejects a woman because she's overweight, she pours her heart out in a way television rarely allows.

It's rubber meets the road time in TV land.

Today begins the week in which the nation's big broadcast networks officially unveil their new schedules for the 2014-15 TV season to New York's advertising community – and by extension, the world.

It's called the "upfronts"; named for the practice of ...

It's not often the gods of TV hand you almost exactly what you ask for.

So it's time to praise Comedy Central for trying something different in late night, handing Stephen Colbert's time slot to the guy who plays The Daily Show's "senior black correspondent," Larry Wilmore.

Not only did ...

TV is full of dramas that are as complex as the best novels or films. But they all owe some debt to the pioneering gritty cop show Hill Street Blues, which has just been released on DVD.

Let's get one thing straight right away: Fox's new version of 24 references all sorts of newfangled ideas about politics, espionage and terrorism — from the use of drones to kill America's enemies to efforts by hackers in the Edward Snowden mold to expose governments' illegal acts.

But the heart ...

As has become the recent custom over at CBS, when Craig Ferguson decided to announce his departure from The Late Late Show on Monday, he had a self-deprecating joke ready.

"Thanks everybody! That was quite convincing!" he said, as the audience groaned at news he would leave the ...

Announced, the cast is: The Star Wars franchise has announced the cast for the upcoming Episode VII movie.

Actors John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson and Max von Sydow will join the cast of the new movie. The three stars of the original films ...

Fans who worried that John Oliver's new HBO program might somehow diminish his legacy at The Daily Show can rest easy.

Because apparently he's decided to copy it.

That doesn't mean Sunday's debut of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver wasn't funny, because it was. Sitting behind an expansive desk ...

My first hint that a recent column on diversity in late-night TV had made an impact came when I saw a tweet from an old acquaintance.

He runs a website and blog devoted to covering television and had decided to write a post based on my ...