Eric Deggans
Eric Deggans is a critic-at-large at NPR, offering reporting and analysis on TV, media, film, pop culture and social issues for the network.
He moved into this part-time role in 2025 after serving nearly 12 years as the first full-time TV critic hired by the network, contributing as a media analyst and guest host during his tenure as a full-time staffer.
Deggans stepped back from full time work at NPR to assume the Knight Chair in Journalism and Media Ethics at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, overseeing classes on media issues, ethics and journalism and organizing its twice-annual Ethics Institute conferences. As a Knight Chair, he joined a collection of 25 other professors in positions endowed at 23 different universities across the country by the Knight Foundation.
He also serves as a guest instructor and member of the National Advisory Board for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, FL and works as guest host/interviewer the entertainment industry podcast and radio program on Los Angeles NPR member station KCRW, called The Business.
In April 2024, he was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame, joining a roster of journalists which includes 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, CSPAN founder Brian Lamb, CBS Sunday Morning anchor Jane Pauley and NPR colleague Steve Inskeep.
Deggans came to NPR in 2013 from the Tampa Bay Times, where he served as TV/Media Critic and in other roles for nearly 20 years. A journalist for more than 30 years, he is also the author of "Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation," a look at how prejudice, racism and sexism fuels some elements of modern media, published in October 2012 by Palgrave Macmillan.
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Netflix says more than 200 countries tuned into the "Beyoncé Bowl" and its two NFL games. We may just be starting to learn what that ultimately means for the future of television and sports media. -
The hit AMC show Better Caul Saul returns for another season. The Breaking Bad prequel is edging closer to the time when Saul became the fixer for Walter White's meth operation.
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With its streaming TV service launching Wednesday, YouTube joins a crowded field. But it offers several features the others don't. -
Apple TV+ launches Friday, setting off a new round of competing streaming services, with Disney+ on Nov. 12 and HBO Max in May 2020.
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Just days after he was named as one of the newest Saturday Night Live cast members, comic Shane Gillis has been fired. Recordings surfaced of Gillis saying racist and homophobic things.
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The Hulu documentary about movie mogul Harvey Weinstein weaves together eyewitness accounts, the work of investigative journalists and voices of women who have accused him of assault and harassment.
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Whether they're watching sitcoms, prime-time dramas or something else altogether, our television and pop culture critics present a guide to the new programs and series coming out soon. -
HBO's hit drama Big Little Lies wasn't supposed to have a second season. But after last year's debut earned Emmy and Golden Globe awards, HBO announced a second installment.
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Conway built a career playing goofballs who rarely took center stage. On The Carol Burnett Show,he developed a reputation for sidesplitting improvisations that cracked everybody up. -
Two men who met Michael Jackson as children in the '80s allege the pop star sexually abused them for years. Reliance on personal testimony is both the strength and weakness of HBO's Leaving Neverland.
