Ed Martin has been the programming and entertainment editor for several JackMyers Report publications since 2000, including The Myers Programming Report, The Jack Myers Entertainment Report and, at present, Ed Martin's TV Buzz and TiVoWorthy TV on JackMyers.com.


A member of the Television Critics Association since 1990, Ed is among the media's best-known and most respected commentators on television programming. His access to industry leaders assures JackMyers readers unique insights into the behind-the-scenes influences that impact network programming executives and producers. Ed is also one of the leading experts on soap operas. (He has even tried his hand at acting in them.) His "voice" is among the most influential in the television programming community.


Previously, Ed was a television critic and reporter for USA Today and was senior editor, television critic and programming editor of the award-winning television and advertising trade magazine Inside Media. He has written features for Advertising Age, Television Week, Broadcasting & Cable and TV Guide magazines. Earlier in his career, Ed was publicity director for the independent feature film production and distribution company Vestron Pictures, where he orchestrated publicity campaigns and produced electronic press kits for dozens of movies including the Academy Award winning Dirty Dancing.

Blog Entries by Ed Martin

"Friday Night Lights" Speaks to the Realities of Hard Economic Times

Posted November 3, 2009 | 10:39 AM (EST)


Much like the working-class citizens of Dillon, the small Texas town in which it is set, Friday Night Lights hasn't had it easy during its three years on television. It has never commanded high ratings, it has never enjoyed the support of Emmy voters and it would not have survived...

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No "Glee" on NBC, Less Violence on the BBC, "Monty Python" on IFC, "Leave It To Lamas" on E!

Posted October 16, 2009 | 11:08 AM (EST)


As I watched Tina Fey promote the season premiere of 30 Rock Wednesday on CBS' Late Show with David Letterman and Thursday on ABC's The View I couldn't help but wonder: Why did NBC see fit to forbid the cast of Fox's Glee from performing in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day...

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David Letterman, Sons of Anarchy, Grey's Anatomy, Dexter: Random Reflections on the Opening Weeks of the Fall TV Season

15 Comments | Posted October 7, 2009 | 06:04 PM (EST)


This was supposed to be the autumn of NBC's talk-show success, with low-cost episodes of The Jay Leno Show energizing the network's failing primetime fortunes while Conan O'Brien refreshed The Tonight Show and pumped a growing young audience into Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Instead, NBC is flailing while David...

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Neil Patrick Harris Triumphs in a Much Improved Emmycast

8 Comments | Posted September 21, 2009 | 01:29 PM (EST)


Congratulations to CBS, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, producer Don Mischer and producer-host Neil Patrick Harris for putting together the most entertaining Emmy telecast in memory.

That said, the future still looks bleak for this beleaguered awards franchise. Even at its best it seems to run on forever,...

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TV Tirade: Ellen DeGeneres on "American Idol," Kanye West on MTV, Jay Leno in Primetime and the End of "Guiding Light"

8 Comments | Posted September 17, 2009 | 11:03 AM (EST)


The new television season officially begins on Monday -- and it can't get here soon enough. Perhaps the excitement of all those new shows, some of them quite promising, will take my mind off the bad decisions and boneheaded moves by network executives, powerful show-runners and ego-crazed celebrities that have...

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Daytime Emmys 2009: The Beginning of the End?

7 Comments | Posted August 31, 2009 | 12:52 PM (EST)


Watching the 36th annual Daytime Emmy Awards on The CW during the dog days of August confirmed what I already knew: These are dark days indeed for the daypart overall and for soap operas in particular.

It's not that the telecast was all bad: I actually prefer smaller venues for...

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TheWB.com and Johnson & Johnson Have a Winner in The Lake

Posted August 26, 2009 | 12:24 PM (EST)


TheWB.com's latest original series, a teen drama titled The Lake, is hardly groundbreaking as scripted entertainment, but it is a very effective centerpiece in a grand platform for advertisers. At a time when traditional and experimental media are colliding and business models are in perilous play that makes it a...

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Syfy/Entertainment Weekly Party Rocks Comic-Con Once Again

2 Comments | Posted July 28, 2009 | 05:35 PM (EST)


Once again, the highlight of Comic-Con was the annual Syfy/Entertainment Weekly party at the Hotel Solamar – a relaxed gathering of several hundred stars, producers, executives and media folk on the hotel’s fourth floor pool deck and arguably the hottest ticket at that four-day fan fest.
...
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A Twitter Milestone! A Nerd Rave! Kazoos! G4's Kevin Pereria and Olivia Munn Were the King and Queen of Comic-Con

Posted July 28, 2009 | 08:17 AM (EST)


 

What the heck were the Comic-Con organizers thinking?
 
Kevin Pereria and Olivia Munn, the co-hosts of G4’s Attack of the Show, who rule over fan boys and girls like few other people on television and telecast...
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Notes from the Media Party Circuit at Comic-Con

2 Comments | Posted July 28, 2009 | 08:05 AM (EST)


 

There were more parties at Comic-Con than anyone could count, the two most spectacular being the annual Syfy/Entertainment Weekly bash at the Hotel Solamar (more on that to come) and the Wrath of Con party on the...

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2009 Emmy Nominations: Not So Bad (For a Change)

5 Comments | Posted July 17, 2009 | 06:40 PM (EST)


The annual announcement of the Primetime Emmy Award nominations is generally one of the most contentious events of the year for anyone who works in, writes about or cares about television. Nomination Day usually falls right in the middle of the annual July Television Critics Association tour, so for the...

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Torchwood, Nurse Jackie, Burn Notice: Summer TV's Best Bets

5 Comments | Posted July 7, 2009 | 02:23 PM (EST)


The annual orgy of fall season premieres seems less exciting with each passing year. Could it have anything to do with the fact that summer television keeps getting better and better? Here are the best of the season's new and returning series so far, along with a couple of teases...

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Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett: How They Changed Television

3 Comments | Posted June 26, 2009 | 08:00 PM (EST)


The not-unexpected passing of Farrah Fawcett and the shocking sudden death of Michael Jackson on Thursday stir all kinds of emotional responses - among them wistful nostalgia for those decades in which they both became pop-culture icons. Those were the days -- when talented people worked for years to become...

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Fearless Emmy Advice!

8 Comments | Posted June 11, 2009 | 05:10 PM (EST)


Voting members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences this week are poring over their 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards ballots, selecting up to six individuals or programs in each category that they feel are worthy of nominations. Surely, few if any of them watch as much television as professional...

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CBS and The CW Come on Strong at the Upfronts

1 Comments | Posted May 27, 2009 | 07:42 AM (EST)


CBS once again emerged as the class act of Upfront week.

After a brief stumble in 2008, when the network stripped its presentation down to near-ABC proportions and cancelled its traditional after-party, the No. 1 broadcaster was back in fine form last Wednesday, informing and entertaining its audience of advertisers...

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ABC's Low-Key Upfront Presentation

Posted May 20, 2009 | 08:08 AM (EST)


 

 
This week marks the 20th anniversary of my first Upfront experience (which consisted way back when of only four networks putting on press conferences, presentations and parties, all of them comfortably scattered over a two-week period),...
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Fox' "Glee"-ful Upfront Presentation

Posted May 19, 2009 | 10:50 AM (EST)


When it comes to Upfront presentations, you have to hand it to Fox - this is one network that still knows how to put on a show while putting across a message.

The message this year was all about the new 2009-10 series Glee, a comedy-drama with music about a...

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I Want My MSNBC!

7 Comments | Posted May 11, 2009 | 08:26 PM (EST)


My cable provider in recent days reached into my home and rudely removed a number of basic cable channels from several rooms - including MSNBC, which hit me like caffeine withdrawal Monday morning when I tuned in for my daily dose of Morning Joe.

In recent months I have increasingly...

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Jay Leno at 8 p.m.? Why Not?

8 Comments | Posted April 28, 2009 | 12:33 PM (EST)


As NBC prepares to announce next week the remaining details of its 2009-10 schedule, I can't help but wonder, What if the beleaguered network were to strip Jay Leno's new primetime program at 8 p.m. ET, rather than 10 o'clock? The more I think about it, the more I ask...

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BBC America's Singing Competition "Any Dream Will Do" is "Idol"-Worthy

Posted April 15, 2009 | 04:10 PM (EST)


As hot as American Idol may be, it is not necessarily the best singing competition on television this spring. That distinction may go to a two-year-old British import titled Any Dream Will Do over on BBC America.

Dream is actually a follow-up to the hit 2006 British search-for-a-star singing competition...

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