The Best Shows on TV

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Now anyone with a high-speed Internet connection can find out what's on TV, watch a favorite show online, and read about the stars that make it great. In this guide, you'll learn about the history of television, how to find reviews, and how to keep your kids safe while watching cable. You can even learn about the pixels and wires that make the whole thing work.

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The Best Shows on TV

Although there's a wealth of entertaining and informative content on TV, there is also no shortage of bad programming. With so much available, and an ever-rotating lineup of new favorites, it can be hard to keep track. Never fear: we've compiled a list of resources-including valuable advice from major media sources, blogs, and more-to help you figure it out.

Dulcinea's Insight

A great place to go for reviews and advice on what to watch is the arts section of your favorite paper. The "Television" section of the New York Times offers TV news, reviews and recaps, as well as a guide to weekly programming. The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times (to name a few), offer similar resources.

Awards like the Emmys and the Golden Globes are given to the best shows and actors on television. Review the lists of nominees and winners to watch the best of the best-at least according Hollywood insiders.

Bloggers are on top of the latest shows and tend to be quite opinionated. Visit blogs for enthusiastic, humorous and sometimes sarcastic reviews of the latest shows. Yes, tastes differ, but as you begin to read a few blogs regularly, you'll figure out which author's opinions align mostly closely with your own.

Dulcinea's Picks

For reviews ..

Zap2it brings original perspective to the entertainment industry by covering the latest television news, reviewing new shows, and supplying photography. The "Best Bets" section is similar to the Times' "What's On Tonight?" as it gives an overview of the evening's programming with advice about what to watch. The "Ratings" section has weekly and seasonal Nielsen ratings, commentary, program listings, and more.

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TV.com is part of the massive TV show information portal presented by CNET Networks Entertainment. Although the site focuses on program rankings generated by user reviews, each show has a page with links to summaries, cast information, related news stories, episode lists, videos, pictures, and more.

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Metacritic.com rates and ranks shows by compiling reviews from other sources in a fashion similar to that of the popular film criticism Web site RottenTomatoes.com. Use the table of contents on the left side of the page to locate shows and reviews.

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For awards ...

Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has an "Awards" link at the top of the page that allows you to peruse the Emmy Award's nominees and winners across all categories. The Emmys honor excellence in television, and are the equivalent to Oscars in film. Download a PDF of last season's winners here to find out what's worth watching.

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Hollywood Foreign Press Association is the creator and organizer of the Golden Globe Awards, given for television and film. On the left side of this page are categories in which you'll find information on winners and nominees, the history of the awards, video clips, and more. Some fun, interactive portions of the site include photo and video galleries as well as a "Trivia" link, which explains the history of the award show.

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Screen Actors Guild Awards is an awards ceremony created by one of the major acting unions, wherein only actors vote. Thus film and TV actors are awarded based on the opinions of their colleagues. The most interesting and useful section of the site is the "Nominations" section, which contains the details of past winners across the different categories

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For blogs ...

Tuned In is a blog developed by Time magazine's television and media critic. It covers developments from TV and online video blogs with humor, wit, and genuine insight. Discussions include reviews of new shows, previews of upcoming series, commentary on the news, and more. You'll also find hyperlinks to other valuable articles published by reputable media sources.

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From Inside the Box is Zap2it's blog. Like all blogs it covers news, rumors, and the Hollywood buzz, and it tends to be snarky in its commentary. While here, you'll also find links to the other blogs hosted by Zap2it: "It Happened Last Night," "TV Gal," "Gossip Girl" and "Blogger Central" are all featured on the top navigation bar and offer different perspectives of TV culture and news.

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The New York Times "Screens" blog covers the realm where the Internet and television collide. Use it to stay current on developments related to the booming world of online video.

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For a directory of TV blogs ...

Blogdig.net aggregates the best TV blog posts from around the Web and hosts them in one place. Not only is this a good place to find an entertaining article, but it is also a great resource for discovering new and entertaining blogs. Visit the "Cool Stuff" section for interactive blogging: you can join a live discussion, watch the news ticker, visit the RSS feed, recommend a great TV blog, or add your own blog to the site.

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