The magazine features celebrities on the cover and addresses topics such as
television ratings, movie grosses, production costs, concert ticket sales, advertising budgets, and in-depth articles about scheduling, producers, showrunners, etc. By the time print publication ceased, the magazine was published once per month, although the legacy name
Entertainment "
Weekly" is still used.
Layout Entertainment Weekly follows a typical magazine format by featuring a
letter to the editor and a
table of contents in the first few pages, while also featuring advertisements. While many advertisements are unrelated to the entertainment industry, most ads are typically related to up-and-coming television, film, or music events.
News and notes These beginning articles open the magazine and as a rule focus on current events in pop culture. The whole section typically runs eight to ten pages long, and features short news articles and several specific recurring sections: • "
Sound Bites" usually opens the magazine. It is a collage of media personalities, actors, presenters, or comedians, alongside their recent memorable quotes in
speech bubble form. • "
The Must List" is a two-page spread highlighting 10 things (books, movies, songs, etc.) that the staff loves from the week; it usually features one pick from
EW readers. • "
First Look", subtitled "An early peek at some of Hollywood's coolest projects", is a two-page spread with behind-the-scenes or publicity stills of upcoming movies, television episodes, or music events. • "
The Hit List", written each week by critic Scott Brown, highlights 10 major events, with short comedic commentaries by Brown. Typically, some continuity to the commentaries exists. This column was originally written by Jim Mullen and featured 20 events each week, and Dalton Ross later wrote an abbreviated version. • "
The Hollywood Insider" is a one-page section that reports breaking news in entertainment. It gives details, in separate columns, on the most-current news in television, movies, and music. • "
The Style Report" is a one-page section devoted to celebrity
style. Because its focus is on celebrity fashion or lifestyle, it is graphically rich in nature, featuring many photographs or other images. The page converted to a new format: five pictures of celebrity fashions for the week, graded on the magazine's review "A"-to-"F" scale
(see Reviews section below). A spin-off section, "
Style Hunter", which finds reader-requested articles of clothing or accessories that have appeared in pop culture recently, appears frequently. • "
The Monitor" is a two-page spread devoted to major events in celebrity lives with small paragraphs highlighting events such as weddings, illnesses, arrests, court appearances, and deaths. Deaths of major celebrities are typically detailed in a one-half- or full-page
obituary titled "
Legacy". This feature is nearly identical to sister publication
People's "Passages" feature. • The "
celebrity" column, the final section of "News and Notes", is devoted to a different column each week, written by two of the magazine's more-prominent writers: • "
The Final Cut" is written by former executive editor and author
Mark Harris. Harris' column focuses on analyzing current popular-culture events, and is generally the most serious of the columns. Harris has written about the writer's strike and the 2008 presidential election, among other topics. • "
Binge Thinking" was written by screenwriter
Diablo Cody. After several profiles of Cody in the months leading up to and following the release of her debut film,
Juno (2007), she was hired to write a column detailing her unique view of the entertainment business. •
If You Ask Me..." Libby Gelman-Waxer (
Paul Rudnick) was brought in to write his former
Premiere column for
Entertainment Weekly in 2011.
Feature articles Typically, four to six major articles (one to two pages each) fill the middle pages of the magazine. These articles are most commonly
interviews, but also it has narrative articles and lists. Feature articles tend to focus mostly on movies, music, and television and less on books and the theatre. In the magazine's history, only a few cover stories (e.g.,
John Grisham,
Stephen King) were devoted to authors; a cover has never been solely devoted to the theater.
Reviews Seven sections of reviews are in the back pages of each issue (together encompassing up to one-half of the magazine's pages). In addition to reviews, each reviews section has a top-sellers list, as well as numerous sidebars with interviews or small features. Unlike a number of
European magazines that give their ratings with a number of stars (with normally 4 or 5 stars for the best review),
EW grades the reviews academic-style, so that the highest reviews get a letter grade of "A" and the lowest reviews get an "F", with plus or minus graduations in between assigned to each letter except "F". The sections are: ;"Movies": Typically, this section features all the major releases for that weekend, as well as several
independent and
foreign films that have also been released. Chris Nashawaty is the primary
film critic. "Critical Mass" was a table of the grades that have also been given by a number of noted movie reviewers in the American press (such as
Ty Burr from
The Boston Globe, Todd McCarthy from
Variety, and
Roger Ebert from the
Chicago Sun-Times). Also eliminated from this section was the box-office figures from the previous weekend and some sort of
infographics. The A+ rating is rarely awarded by
EW. Two films to have received it are
Citizen Kane and
My Left Foot (1989).
DVDs are now profiled in the one-page "Movies on DVD" section that follows. Longtime critic
Lisa Schwarzbaum left the magazine in 2013, and critic
Owen Gleiberman was let go after a round of layoffs in spring 2014. In 2015, it started publishing the scores of movies from
Metacritic,
Rotten Tomatoes, and
IMDb under "Critical Mass." ;"Television": This section features reviews by critics Darren Franich and Kristen Baldwin for
made-for-television films and new
television programs or series, as well as some
television specials. The section no longer includes the
Nielsen ratings for the previous week. On the following page is typically a "TV on DVD" section, profiling releases of television films and specials or complete seasons of television shows. Current reviewers include Melissa Maerz. ;"What to Watch": Currently written by Ray Rahman, this features brief, one- or two-sentence reviews of several television programs on each night of the week, as well as one slightly longer review, usually written by someone else, with a letter grade. ;"Music": This section reviews major
album releases for the week, divided by
genre. Typically, at least one interview or feature is presented, as well as a section called "Download This", highlighting several
singles available for download from the Internet. ;"Books": This section features reviews of books released during the week. Sometimes, authors write guest reviews of other works. Typically, one interview or spotlight feature is included in this section per issue.
Bestseller lists appear at the end of this section. ;"Theater"*: Reviews productions currently playing, listed by the city where they are running ;"Games"*: Reviews current video game releases ;"Tech"*: Reviews new websites and products, and profiles current Internet or technology phenomena :*
Not in every issue. The Bullseye This section occupies the back page of the magazine, rating the "hits" and "misses" from the past week's events in popular culture on a
bullseye graphic. For example, the May 22, 2009, edition featured
Justin Timberlake hosting
Saturday Night Live in the center, while the then-drama between
Eminem and
Mariah Carey missed the target completely for being "very 2002". At the time when this was printed on a small part of a page, events that were greatly disliked were shown several pages away.
Specialty issues Every year, the magazine publishes several specialty issues. These issues were often published as double issues (running for two consecutive weeks). Many times these features were so long that they replaced all other feature articles. Common specialty issues include: • Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter Preview issues: Generally each quarter, the magazine reports on upcoming releases in movies, music, television, live shows, and books. Typically, the summer issue's focus is on upcoming movies only unless major television series or events, music releases, or book releases are occurring then. • The Photo issue: Once a year, an issue is dedicated to featuring (aside from the normal reviews and news content) only photographs of celebrities. Unlike tabloid issues, these photographs are done with the celebrities' cooperation, and often they use some form of artistic expression. A wide variety of celebrities has been used, including
Green Day,
Reese Witherspoon,
Morrissey, the cast of the television series
Arrested Development,
Tobey Maguire, and
Cameron Diaz. Generally, the photographs contain some descriptive text, sometimes about the person or sometimes a commentary from the photographers who photographed them for a story. • Academy Awards issues: In the past, the magazine devoted at least four cover stories per year to the
Academy Awards; "The Oscar Race Begins" issue in January predicted the nominees, the "Nominees" issue in February profiled the recently announced Oscar contenders, the "Oscar Odds" issue predicted the winners the week before the awards, and the "After-Awards" issue covered the ceremony the week after it airs. Virtually every issue mentioned the Oscars in some capacity, often on the cover, and a film or actor's Academy Award chances were often noted in the magazine's reviews. In comparison, music's
Grammy Awards, television's
Emmy Awards, and theater's
Tony Awards are given relatively limited coverage. • The "Must List": A double-sized issue, it was usually timed for release in the last week of June. It focuses on what the magazine considers "musts" in entertainment with the latest hot movies, TV shows, music projects and novels along with previews of upcoming projects in those media that are gaining interest. • The Fall TV Preview issue: Generally released in early September, this issue has the magazine detailing the upcoming fall season of both new and returning series. • End-of-the-Year issue: The last issue of each year, whose cover shows the "Entertainer of the Year" chosen by readers at
EW's official website. The issue features the ten-best releases in theater, film, television, music, DVD, literature and (as of last year) fashion that year. Music, television and film have two critics give their top ten; the others only have one. Each section also has a five-worst list (film is the only section in which both critics give the worst). Also in the issue are special sections devoted to the Entertainer of the Year, great performances, newly arrived stars, a
timeline of infamous celebrity mishaps, and obituaries of stars who died (this used to be in a separate issue; it was combined with the "end-of-the-year" issue in 2003). This is the only issue without any reviews. : The complete list of the annual "Entertainer of the Year" winners: •
Bart Simpson (1990) •
Jodie Foster (1991) • the cast of the television series
Saturday Night Live (1992) •
Steven Spielberg (1993) •
Tom Hanks (1994) • the cast of the television series
Friends (1995) •
Rosie O'Donnell (1996) •
Ellen DeGeneres (1997) •
Leonardo DiCaprio (1998) •
Ricky Martin (1999) •
Russell Crowe (2000) •
Nicole Kidman (2001) •
Denzel Washington (2002) • the cast of the film
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) •
Jon Stewart (2004) • the cast of the television series
Lost (2005) • the cast of the television series ''
Grey's Anatomy'' (2006) •
J. K. Rowling (2007) (the first entertainer named known primarily for writing) •
Robert Downey Jr. (2008) •
Sandra Bullock (2009) •
Taylor Swift (2010) •
Daniel Radcliffe (2011) •
Ben Affleck (2012) •
Sandra Bullock (2013) •
Jimmy Fallon (2014) •
Jennifer Lawrence (2015) •
Ryan Reynolds (2016) Starting in 2017, the publication began awarding 10-16 honorees as Entertainers of the Year.
2017 (15 winners): •
Gal Gadot •
Greta Gerwig •
Jimmy Kimmel •
Issa Rae •
Jack Antonoff •
Kumail Nanjiani •
Elisabeth Moss •
Jordan Peele •
Laurie Metcalf •
Big Little Lies •
Stephen King •
Kesha •
Carrie Coon •
Ben Platt •
Will & Grace 2018 (12 winners): • The women of
Crazy Rich Asians:
Constance Wu,
Awkwafina,
Michelle Yeoh, and
Gemma Chan •
Cardi B •
Darren Criss • The women of
Black Panther:
Angela Bassett,
Danai Gurira,
Lupita Nyong’o, and
Letitia Wright •
Emily Blunt and
John Krasinski • The Fab 5:
Karamo Brown,
Bobby Berk,
Jonathan Van Ness,
Tan France, and
Antoni Porowski [from the Netflix reboot of
Queer Eye] •
Nicole Kidman •
Bradley Cooper and
Lady Gaga •
Sandra Oh •
Ariana Grande •
Donald Glover •
Christine Baranski 2019 (16 winners): •
Awkwafina •
Renée Zellweger •
Regina King •
Taika Waititi •
Lizzo • The cast of
Succession •
Phoebe Waller-Bridge •
Ta-Nehisi Coates •
Billie Eilish •
Margaret Atwood •
Eddie Murphy •
Taylor Swift •
Lil Nas X •
Brad Pitt •
Keanu Reeves •
Sterling K. Brown 2020 (16 winners): •
Pedro Pascal •
Kerry Washington •
Sacha Baron Cohen •
Dan &
Eugene Levy •
Chadwick Boseman •
Taylor Swift •
Michaela Coel •
Brit Bennett •
The Chicks •
Jonathan Majors •
Maya Rudolph •
The Weeknd •
Megan Thee Stallion •
Elisabeth Moss •
Jamie Foxx •
Sarah Paulson 2022 (10 winners): •
Jennifer Coolidge •
Abbott Elementary cast •
Bad Bunny •
Brian Tyree Henry •
Lizzo •
Sadie Sink •
Harry Styles •
Top Gun: Maverick cast •
Jeremy Allen White •
Michelle Yeoh ==Thousandth issue and redesign==