News

National Geographic’s Emmy-nominated talk show “StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson” is back for Season 4 with guests that include the late Anthony Bourdain. The show returns on Monday, November 12, at 11 p.m. Et; watch an exclusive first-look clip, featuring Tyson’s chat with former Vice President Al Gore, below.

The Bourdain episode features Tyson chatting with the gourmand and famed host about “the science of food and the most pivotal moment in his television hosting career when he traveled to Beirut.” Besides Gore and Bourdain, Ooher guests include Jeff Goldblum, who speaks about dinosaurs and aliens, George R.R. Martin, who gives the the backstory of “Game of Thrones.”

Tyson also meets with comedian Joe Rogan, author Patricia Cornwell, parody king Weird Al Yankovic, host and educator Bill Nye, news anchor Dan Rather and actors Jack Black, James Marsden, and Anna Deavere Smith.

Tyson will also travel to Greenland with the...

I fully expect a lot of the jokes during YouTube Comedy Week to be ethically questionable and morally wrong, but at least one event during the week will be socially just. Comedy Gives Back, an organization that uses laughter to better the world, has teamed up with Jash to produce an "International Comedy show" on May 20th. The show will be on the Monday of Comedy Week, with Rob Delaney, Rove McManus, Greg Berhandt and Matt Kirshen performing. Tickets are free, as Comedy Gives Back will attempt to drum up support for its main project: a 24-hour live streamed comedy event that will go down on November 6. That event will work with the Malaria No More charity to help Africa fight the deadly disease, which kills thousands of the continent's inhabitants every day. To help promote the show, Comedy No More has released a promo video featuring Dane Cook, Kevin Nealon,...

You wouldn't want the network of Once Upon a Time to run out of Happy Endings would you?

News

The big news is that FX announced that the Fox Soccer channel will be turned into a sister channel of FX. Fxx will focus on younger viewers than FX. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Legit and The League (which were all renewed for additional seasons) will move to the network along with Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell, which will become a daily late night talk show. Combined, the two networks (along with the movie-focused Fxm channel) hopes to create 25 hours of original programming.

Meanwhile, the mothership FX has renewed Justified for a fifth season and ordered its first mini-series, a 10-episode adaptation of Fargo, which will follow the same basic characters dealing with a new crime. The channel is also developing a handful of potential series including a portrait of...

Press Release:

BBC America Announces The Nerdist Guest Line-up Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs and Matt Smith among the first stars to join Chris Hardwick for the first season in his new studio

Los Angeles – March 24, 2013 – Your favorite nerd, Chris Hardwick, swoops in to your Saturday night’s with 10 all-new episodes of his comedy-variety talk-show, The Nerdist, premiering Saturday, March 30th at 10pm Et as part of Supernatural Saturday.

Guests announced today for this season include: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, Matt Smith, Katee Sackhoff, Tatiana Maslany, Michael Rooker, Guillermo Del Toro, Gillian Jacobs, Robert Kirkman, Buzz Aldrin, Karen Gillan, Bobak Ferdowsi, Jenna-Louise Coleman and others to come.

Stand-up performances include: Ron Funches, Rob Hubel, Kyle Kinane, Matt Kirshen, Natasha Leggero, Paul Scheer and more to come.

The comedian, writer, Doctor Who evangelist and web pundit invites some of today’s hottest actors, writers,...

Chris Hardwick’s show, The Nerdist, on BBC America is gearing up for its third season, which is premiering this Saturday, March 30. Filled to the brim with as many “nerdy” guest stars as can be found, The Nerdist takes a look at what it’s like to be a nerd, stimulating great conversation. When the new season premieres, there will be plenty of faces joining Hardwick, some of whom have made appearances on his other talk show, Talking Dead. If you thought the first two seasons had great names from nerd culture, you haven’t seen anything yet.

The 10-episode season will, according to Deadline, feature the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, Matt Smith, Katee Sackhoff, Tatiana Maslany, Michael Rooker, Guillermo Del Toro, Gillian Jacobs, Robert Kirkman, Buzz Aldrin, Karen Gillan, Bobak Ferdowsi, Jenna-Louise Coleman and more are still to be announced. I...

The upcoming season of Chris Hardwick‘s BBC America series The Nerdist is starting strong with a guest lineup that draws from nerd royalty and from Hardwick’s other steady TV hosting gig on AMC, Talking Dead. BBC America has revealed the 10-episode new season will see appearances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, Matt Smith, Katee Sackhoff, Tatiana Maslany, Michael Rooker, Guillermo Del Toro, Gillian Jacobs, Robert Kirkman, Buzz Aldrin, Karen Gillan, Bobak Ferdowski, Jenna-Louise Coleman and others to be announced. The show will also feature standup from the likes of Kyle Kinane, Matt Kirshen, Natasha Leggero, Paul Scheer Ron Funches and Rob Hubel. The Nerdist airs Saturday nights at 10 Pm as part of BBC America’s ‘Supernatural Saturday’ lineup. The new season starts March 30.

The rising price of comedy, Harry Hill post-TV Burp – plus, a new Bill and Ted adventure, and your take on the week's comedy

Comedy news from Edinburgh

It's week two of the fringe, and unease about low audience figures continues to thrum beneath the surface jollity. Richard Herring broke cover at the end of last week, writing on his blog about his own experience of low sales for his Underbelly show Talking Cock. "It's a shame that I have taken the chance on a bigger venue," he writes, "in the year when the Olympics/the recession/the dissatisfaction with high prices of everything in Edinburgh (delete or add as applicable – there's no definitive answer) has sucked out all the punters as if someone opened the door on a spacecraft."

In a thoughtful rumination on the subject, Herring predicts that the Edinburgh comedy bubble is about to burst. "It's open...

Since I'm graduating from graduate school soon (that always looks weird to me), we're fast approaching the day I will need to find a real job and I'm thinking I won't like that since right now at the top of my list of "things I want in a real job" is "nap time" and I don't know of any workplaces that allow that. Even when you're a preschool teacher I think you're supposed to stay awake while the little ankle-biters sleep so you can make sure none of them punch each other or steal your wallet or whatever trouble small children are getting up to these days. At that age most of what I did when I was left unsupervised involved ferreting out inappropriate reading materials and climbing things. Good times. Any suggestions other than winning the lottery? Or becoming a trophy wife? Thanks. Here's your Wednesday night TV:

8:00pm: "American Idol" on Fox.