I doubt you remember Andy Richter Controls the Universe. Heck, I doubt anybody does. It was a fairly rote sitcom, unceremoniously cancelled in 2003 for its low ratings, which averaged around 8 million viewers a week. The show aired on FOX, then the fourth-place network in America. (This is a pre-American Idol world, mind you.)

In 2011, NBC’s biggest scripted hit is The Office, which averages, not kidding, 8 million viewers. The number of viewers FOX scoffed at eight years ago are now the champagne wishes of NBC executives, who hold on for dear life to any show with numbers above 4 million.

There’s nothing quite like the Christmas season on television. Aside from season finales, Christmas is the time of year that a show’s writing staff really pulls out every stop to make a great episode.

However, most of these specials go overlooked during the holiday season, as most people turn to old standbys like Peanuts, Rudolph, and Frosty. That’s not to say there isn’t anything wrong with the saccharine sweetness of those classics, but since the ’70s and ’80s heyday of schmaltz, there have been a number fantastic Christmas specials that explore the less-overt aspects of the holiday.

This week’s episode of Glee should have been poised to be one of the highlights of the series’ entire run. Instead, the glee club’s return to competition felt like it came out of nowhere, with no build-up other than characters dropping the word “sectionals” sporadically throughout the season.

FOX recently announced its plans for mid-season replacements, and it seems that Running Wilde will be the network’s first major cancellation of the fall season. The sitcom, starring Will Arnett and Keri Russell, has struggled in its timeslot, and FOX has gone so far as to hold off all new episodes until after November sweeps.

“I fantasized ’bout this back in Chicago,” Kanye West proclaims at the outset of his latest full-length album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The following 70 minutes feel like a true culmination of Kanye’s fantasies of grandeur and musical innovation.

With a title that would make even the most hardened emo band cringe and a year full of faux pas for West, audiences are naturally skeptical that Fantasy is anything more than a self-indulgent mess. However, anyone who misses out on this album out of hatred for Kanye, loyalty to Taylor Swift or any other reason are missing out on something special. This is an album showcasing an already-trailblazing artist at the pinnacle of his talents. In fewer words, it is simply transcendent.

There was no way Conan could live up to its hype.

The NBC late-night debacle of January 2010 needs no introduction, and that alone would have been enough to build insurmountable anticipation for tonight’s premiere. But Conan O’Brien and his loyal, sometimes rabid, fan base built Conan (the show, not the man) into something far larger. Over the course of the last nine months, Conan (the man) became what more than a few news outlets have called America’s 21st Century folk hero.