Extra Hot Great: This Week In TV

Though it’s never been easier to avoid commercials if that’s what you prefer, some do deserve applause. That’s why we’ve assembled to choose our favorite TV commercial characters in product categories from fast food to hard drinks to drugstores and beyond. We also stay on-theme with a pitch for the Tiny Catchy Commercial Jingle With Punchable Child Canon AND a Non-Regulation Game Time all about th...

Larra submitted a late-season DS9 about baseball — in which bunting figures heavily! — for this month’s Forcening, so we stepped up to the plate for Worf homers, MLB nepo casting, and practicing strike-three calls. Ask EHG invited us to write our own Drunk History eps and set Emily Gilmore up on dates, and Tara hung a funny hat a Simpsons Tiny Canon pitch; then we named Not Quite 11 tennis episode...

Who better than EEHG’s Green Screen correspondent Stephanie Early Green to discuss Freeform’s new reality show about the super-rich Snugli set — Million Dollar Nannies . Sarah actually didn’t hate the show in theory, but in practice, we found the premise non-credible, the nannies suspect skills-wise, and the richie clients were the Forbes 400 equivalent of Vrbo text art. We left the mysteries of D...

A whole passel of alt-comedy superstars got together to make a comedy feature for Hulu about the class of 2008 having to redo the last two weeks of their senior year. Should they…maybe not have bothered? Brandi Brown returns to discuss it (and we hope will return again after we made her endure this). Around The Dial takes us through Miss You, Love You ; Office Romance ; a viral video of the cast o...

Interview With The Vampire returns with a tonally shifted, maximalist third season — and Caroline Framke also returns to talk about the show’s new POV character, in-universe songcraft, when scenery-chewing works, and how vampires’ greatest trick was convincing the world they don’t exist. We went Around The Dial with Not Suitable For Work , Love Island UK , Gardener’s World , and Michael Jackson: T...

While the counter-history of For All Mankind was going on, what counter-historical events were occurring in parallel in the U.S.S.R.? The spinoff Star City is here to dramatize it, and new guest Sophie Brookover is here to say whether it’s a “da” or a “net.” Around The Dial takes us to Make That Movie , The Tower , Deli Boys S02, and Instadocs . Wendy pitches the Designing Women episode “How Great...

The Stranger Things team (among others) is back with a similar “a community of X bands together against a supernatural force” story in The Boroughs , which features an all-star cast (Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Lester from The Wire ) going up against [ redacted ] AND their own aches and pains. Does the actors’ group chemistry carry the story, or did it need to take one thing off? And have we may...

The last of the Emmy-begging shows are nearly behind us, which means it’s time to look ahead to what has historically been TV’s silliest season: summer! Alan Sepinwall and Kathryn VanArendonk, co-hosts of the new podcast TV Is Good , join us to share the shows they’re into; the shows they should be into but aren’t; the shows no one should be into; and the “Good For You!” shows that aren’t for them...

You hear us play Game Time, but only the bravest few dare attempt it themselves. Laura, Mike, and Rob face off in a trio of Game Times, one written by each co-host. Listen to find out how many winners there are among them! GUESTS 👤 Rob Hartmann 👤 Laura Hampton 👤 Mike Seifert TOPICS Game Time: 📚 Stacks-onomy Of Episodes Game Time: 🔠 One Letter Off Game Time: 🫥 Oh! I Didn't See You There SUPPO...

Two past and future EHG guests and one listener are showcased in this special episode. First, the good: Mlle. Caroline's pitch for the fourth episode of BBC's 1995 Pride & Prejudice , and Dan Cassino deep (sea) dive on Iron Chef 's "Squid Battle." Bringing up the rear is Wendy's Nonac pitch for The Great British Bake Off 's infamous "Mexican Week." Warning: might make you hungry for a giant ha...

Krystal Farmer helps us keep turning EHG into a hoops pod by coming back to talk about Running Point 's second season: why it works, what it (perhaps wisely?) hand-waves, whose idea it was to cast such short kings as NBA players, and whether a certain former WB heartthrob is getting a back-door NHL pilot. We went Around The Dial with Call The Midwife , a Jerry West documentary, and Killing Grounds...

Beef has returned with more than twice the beefs (or beeves, if you will); Phillip Maciak has also returned to talk about whether it still sizzles. Around The Dial takes us through S05 of The Boys , Saturday Night Live , and Untold: Jail Blazers . Phillip pitches the New Girl episode "Normal" for induction into The Canon. And we close things up with the Winner and Loser of the week, skipping Game...

Alas, our planned guest Devindra Hardawar couldn't join us after all -- but we forged ahead with our discussion of The Audacity , whose all-star cast didn't save the show from feeling superfluous. Should you give AMC's takedown of crappy rich Californians a try, or just watch Succession again? We went Around The Dial with Margo's Got Money Problems , Love, Ted Bundy , and the new season of Taskmas...

With its series adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale a major awards success for Hulu, the logical next step is an adaptation of its sequel novel, The Testaments , revolving around the privileged young women of Gilead being prepared for their lives as Commanders' Wives; Alison Herman returns to discuss the latest project on Chase Infiniti's extremely prestigious CV. Around The Dial takes us through Ha...

For All Mankind , aka "Space Show," may be laboring under 15 tons of old-age makeup -- but the panel, and guest David J. Roth, are here for it. Maybe in space, the makeup is weightless? Or maybe it's a handful of good performances amid the non-credible writing, or the show's occasional foray into lunatic interstellar action (and Martian pizza franchising) -- but if you're not already watching, you...

This is an un-vaulting of EEHG 388. Haaaaappy holidays! Return with us now to December 3, 1980 -- and all the utterly of-their-time commercials (and by "their time," we kind of mean the '70s) from a rerun of an After School Special , including Barbie food, fights over fluoride, and the worst baby-doll ever. We're also answering your Ask EHG questions about real-life tropes and memorable magazines,...

This is an un-vaulting of EEHG 376. For this year's special This Week In TV History episode, we're journeying back to 1996 for February sweeps -- specifically, the week of February 21-27 -- and investigating all the starry stunts the networks AND premium cable channels were busting out to capture audiences. Leading (with its chin) is The Late Shift , HBO's TV movie take on Bill Carter's nonfiction...

The third Bill Lawrence show to début or return in 2026 Q1 is Rooster , loosely "What if Carl Hiaasen had a daughter he needed to help through her divorce from a fellow prof at a New England liberal arts college by taking a job there?" College English instructor Robert Krut returns to discuss whether it's worth auditing. Around The Dial lands on Vladimir , The Fall And Rise Of Reggie Dinkins , Chr...

R.J. Decker is a photojournalist-turned-private investigator who originated in a novel by Carl Hiaasen. Is he more than just the network-TV version of Bad Monkey ? Kim Reed returns to talk about it. Around The Dial takes us to Nate Bargatze's new ABC game show The Greatest Average American , and all over the current reality landscape: The Traitors S04, Survivor 50, House Of Villains S03, and Austr...

Paradise is back for a whole new season of [major spoiler redacted]. After we made guest Alyson Lewis cram 11 episodes in a week, is she mad at us, or delighted to welcome her favorite new show into her life? Listen to find out. Around The Dial takes us through Reality Check: America's Next Top Model , Tales Of The Unexpected , and The Rockford Files . Tara pitches Northern Exposure 's S02 premier...

The latest true-life story from the Ryan Murphy factory is Love Story , all about John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. Was our 90s nostalgia powerful enough to get us past its taste issues? Jessica Morgan returns to talk about it. Around The Dial stops at Going Dutch Season 2 (NOT Tara's favorite show, but she does like it!) and Summer House . Dave wonders if a certain recent piece of Star Tr...

Peacock counter-programmed the Super Bowl with a series adaptation of the 1989 horror comedy The 'Burbs . Horror expert Matt Monagle makes his EHG début to discuss whether it made a convincing case for its existence in its new format. Around The Dial stops at Shrinking S03 and the first two seasons of AMC's Interview With The Vampire . Tara explains why front-facing vertical video commercials in t...

The Muppet Show returns with a one-off episode starring Sabrina Carpenter; Muppetry expert Adam Grosswirth returns to discuss it, including whether the new version nailed the original's vibe, what makes a good Muppet guest (and whether Sabrina's got the right stuff), and how we can't believe Dolly Parton never guested on the show (...so far). Later, we went Around The Dial with The Pete Davidson S...

Fox's new drama Memory Of A Killer , about a hitman in denial about his serious memory loss, stars Patrick Dempsey, so naturally we had to invite Dan Cassino, one of our most dedicated Grey's Anatomy fans, to discuss whether you should add a reminder to your calendar to watch it, or immediately forget it exists. Around The Dial takes us through The Beauty , a roundup of cozy British and internatio...

The Star Trek universe goes teen drama -- and, for once, does it in the/a future instead of the pre- TOS "past." Since it's a Trek property, Andrew returned to talk about Paul Giamatti feasting on his anachronistic lines, whether the show works better as sci-fi or Space High , and where it ranks in Paramount-era Trek shows. We went Around The Dial with Ponies , Andrew's middlebrow-TV catch-up, and...