TV 2009: David Bianculli On The Best ... And The Rest

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Bite size: Sookie (Anna Paquin) and her vampire beau, Bill (Stephen Moyer) steam up the small screen. HBO's third season of True Blood scores another point for the cable team. HBO hide caption

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Bite size: Sookie (Anna Paquin) and her vampire beau, Bill (Stephen Moyer) steam up the small screen. HBO's third season of True Blood scores another point for the cable team.

HBO

The classic battle between broadcast and cable TV programming may have come to a head this past year — at least, that's what TV critic David Bianculli thinks.

After taking a look at the best, next best, and worst programs of 2009, Bianculli concludes that cable might be winning. He joins Fresh Airhost Terry Gross to talk about the increasing importance of cable, and why broadcast is losing its edge.

Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975 and a Fresh Air contributor since the show's inception. From 1993 to 2007, he was a staff critic for the New York Daily News.

Bianculli has written three books. Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour' was published on Dec. 1, 2009, by Simon & Schuster/Touchstone. His previous books are 1992's Teleliteracy: Taking Television Seriously and 1996's Dictionary of Teleliteracy.