The new CBS drama 3 Lbs. has been put on permanent hiatus effective immediately, reports Variety. The medical drama, that was pretty much a direct rip off of my fave TV show House, hasn't officially been cancelled, but the show won't be producing anymore episodes beyond the eight they already have in the can.

This season has been a blood bath. I'm curious to see what new shows will still be on the air when we cross the end of season finish line in may. Should be an interesting second half of the season.

Desperate Housewives star, Eva Longoria's rep has confirmed that Eva is engaged to long time on again/off again/on again/maybe off again/i guess they're on again boyfriend Tony Parker.

Eva and the NBA start had briefly parted ways back in September, but reunited in Paris and rekindled the romance. My guess is Eva had enough of his filandering ways and gave him an ultimatum: "propose to me or we're through." I have never tried that but for some reason I don't think it would work for me.

Do you think Eva is going to become Eva Parker? Or should Tony become Tony Longoria? Do you even care about this relationship?

Talk about open and honest, these ladies weren’t holding anything back. So let’s just jump right in it. Oh, and just for kicks, check out the blog blooper at the end. We all make mistakes, and this time the jokes on me and Jenny.

You just gotta read on…

The claws have really come out now. But then again were they ever really in? The single moms, especially Karlyn have been none too quiet about their disdain for the beauty queens, and clearly for Dustin & Kandice, the feeling is mutual. With only four teams left, they really have an opportunity to act on those sentiments, and that’s exactly what they did.

Starting with first placed Tyler & James, teams set off to Ouarzazate Morocco. On the way to the airport everyone reflected on the race so far, in their interviews. Tyler & James, really wanted the beauty queens gone. The beauty queens really want everyone gone. Rob & Kimberly were taking life lesson’s along. Namely that Rob can’t control everything. Their constant car trouble can be thanked for that one. They’ve also learned to stop fighting so much and work together. And yep, their constant car trouble can be thanked for that one too. Lyn & Karlyn, well they’re just Lyn & Karlyn. So their alliance is gone—they don’t really care. These two have a better them than us attitude, and are determined not to give up.

In ANTM's elimination last week, twins Michelle and Amanda were pitted against one another for the first time. While Michelle took phenomenal photos, the judges sent her packing for her lack of passion. Here's what Michelle had to say on her sister, the elimination and Caridee's controversial comment.

How did you decide to do Top Model?

Michelle: It was something my sister wanted to do. She had tried out for "Cycle Six" by herself and I was too involved with basketball to try out. She talked to some of the casting people and they said she should try out for "Cycle Seven." She got more exclusive interview time and she said, "Oh, I'll bring my sister." I told her that it would be a cool thing to do and that I wanted to do it as well. So we both went.

Was it a shock when you found out you both got on the show?

M: That was pretty shocking because there was like hundreds of girls and we just figured, "Okay…that was fun--at least we tried." And then we get a call and I'm like, "Oh crap, I'm on it?" and then I called her and I'm like, "Did you get it?" and she's like, "Yeah!"

The episode is called Finding Judas, which leads us to believe someone is going to sell out House to Tritter. Tritter has used his day off to once again put pressure on Chase, Foreman and Cameron to testify against House. I could suggest to Tritter other ways to spend a day off, I hear the new bond film is quite good. But instead he goes to the hospital and bribes House’s gang, I guess that’s okay when a cop does it but not the other way around. But it doesn’t work, none of them cave, although we’re made to think Chase has. Or at least Tritter wants everyone at the hospital to think Chase has since he has done it before in season one. One of the best seasons of a TV show ever, in my opinion.

Studio 60 Makes A Comeback: This week marks the first week that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip did not lose viewers. In fact, the show gained some viewers back. Last week's episode pulled in 7.31 million viewers, but this week, 7.45 million tuned in to see the NBC drama. This is good news for me because I'm a fan of the show, although it took a while for me to get there.

Bill Gates To Caryoln Kepcher: You're Hired: Carolyn Kepcher, formerly known as the gal who always wore red and sat to Donald Trump's left, has been hired by Microsoft to be a judge for a contest to help Microsoft find the best small business deal in America.

Rosie To Britney Spears: Come Live With Me: Today on The View, Rosie invited Britney Spears to move in with her and her family and to provide a safe haven for Britney so she can get away from her new BFF's Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan. I think this is a great idea because I'm worried about her two babies. Hilton and Lohan have nary a care in the world, but Britney has two babies at home! Oh and I think Rosie is crazy today.

ABC’s The Bachelor just ended it’s season Monday night, but they’ve has already announced it’s new candidate for the reality show. Andy Baldwin will be playing the role of bachelor and has quite the resume and physique if I may be so bold. But let’s be honest, that’s why he was picked.

Andy is a Navy lieutenant, a doctor, a triathlete and son of Rep. Roy Baldwin from Pennsylvania. Oh and did I mention he’s a total freakin hottie? I did? huh.

Here in the Survivor Recaps, there's no question too big or too small. So when kd asked a question in my last entry's comments, I decided to pose it to you all.

Here's the problem--kd can't decide who's hotter, Ozzy or Yul.

My two cents:
Yul definitely has the better body, but Ozzy has a certain charm. It's a hard one, but I'm going to go with (drum roll please) Ozzy. I don't know, I just like him. Now's your turn. Cast your vote for the finest dude of the former Aitu crew!

Be sure to keep those questions comin'. Maybe next time your query will be posted in Survivor Reader Speaks Out.

And the "winner" is… Jennifer!

That's right -- on last night's Bachelor: Rome, Lorenzo picked the Florida school teacher. But did she get a ring? And how did Sadie take it? Read on, then put in your two cents.

I might be too old to love Justin Timberlake, well, I guess not because I'm not as old as his girlfriend Cameron Diaz... either way, I love him and I have tickets to his concert in Los Angeles in January. He's such an incredible live performer. Can. Not. Wait.

But it turns out I won't have to wait that long to see him perform. On December 16th, Justin will be hosting Saturday Night Live for the second time. Yeah, he's just that good. Did you see him the first time? In one sketch he was dressed up like a hot dog standing outside a hot dog stand trying to get people to come in, I'm not doing it justice, it was hilarious.

Justin will be both host of the show and musical guest, holy crap, is it December 16th yet? I cannot wait!

We now know all about Michael Richards racist rant that took place last weekend at a Los Angeles comedy club. He's been on the apology tour ever since and everyone is speculating that his career is over.

But now his rant might effect the rest of the Seinfeld group. Yesterday Jesse Jackson called for a boycott of the Seinfeld seventh season DVD that was released last week, yikes, and I thought I had bad timing. The DVD was expected to be a big stocking stuffer seller this holiday season.

What did Jerry, Elaine and George do to deserve this? I don't think it's fair to punish the entire cast and everyone else expected to financially benefit from the sales of the DVD. Am I wrong? It's not their fault Michael went off the deep end. Are you going to still buy the Seinfeld DVD or follow the boycott and why? Talk back below because I'm not feeling good about this new plot twist.

What are the challenges of making a drama that’s about a comedy?
If you could pick one person to host the show, who would it be?
Has the real show hit many roadblocks spoofing its real network, NBC?
Are Jordan and Harriet going to be BFF or best frenemies?

The women of Studio 60 -- Amanda Peet (the tough-as-nails Jordan) and Sarah Paulson (the bible-thumpin’ comedienne Harriet) -- managed to set aside their no-doubt-20-pound scripts to answer my burning questions about the show and about their characters in our Ask the Stars video segment.

Tune in to find out how the cast manages to avoid getting tongue-tied by the 200-words-per-minute dialogue, what’s in store for the rest of the season and just who is funnier -- men or women.

But first, it’s your turn:

All of the above? None of the above??? Comment below, and read on for the recap of this week’s episode.

Frank Angelo, also know as Frank Gotti, son of Victoria Gotti, grandson of mob boss John Gotti and one of the stars of the reality show Growing up Gotti has been arrested on drug possesion. According to Newsday Frank Gotti was arrested earlier this month after the painkiller and recreational drug Oxycontin was found in his car. Neither Frank or the other passengers (Rush Limbaugh wasn't one of the guys in the car unfortunately) would claim the pills as their own, so they all got sent to the big house.

I'm not surprised by this news, but for some reason, I'm sad about it. I loved that show and even though those three boys were out of control, I, for some reason, felt bad for them.

Do you hate Rachael Ray? Well, if you do, you’re not the only one . More than 1,000 people have joined the livejournal anti-Rachael Ray community . The first rule of the community is, “you must be anti-Rachael.” I’m not sure I have an opinion either way. I saw her on Oprah once and she taught me to make a nice lemony cocktail that went over big at a party I threw, but other than that, I know nothing about this woman, but now I’m so curious about her.

How come she’s so hated? What has she done to garner an entire website dedicated to hating her? What are your thoughts on Rachael Ray?

More from Ed Bark:

She hosts a weekly poker night, manages an amateur baseball team, drinks beer, covers the Cubs and has the Sunday NFL preview show on before her pack of male friends even gets to her place.

You also can get to third base and beyond with PJ Franklin (Jordana Spiro). What's more, you'd want to. So welcome to Fahn-tasy Island, dudes. Except this is My Boys, a new TBS comedy series that looks as though it could round into shape with both sexes.

Created by Betsy Thomas, a self-described "guy's girl" in real life, it's more often than not a winning combination of sports and the sporting life. PJ's oft-used baseball analogies sometimes run in circles when applied to the dating game or her mostly male posse. But it doesn't matter all that much because she's in there pitchin' and we'd like to see her win. An appealing cast and the bracing lack of a canned laugh track make up for an error here or there. My Boys easily is the best comedy ever developed for TBS. Not that there've been many on a veteran network that still relies heavily on broadcast TV reruns.

Since the arrival of Rosie O'Donnell on The View, the show has become appointment television viewing for me. And I'm not the only one. In a very unscientific poll that I took amongst my friends, male and female, people everywhere are tuning into this show in unprecedented numbers.

I think the reason I like it is because it just seems fun now. Before I believe they took themselves way too seriously, really attacking the issues of the day. Now I'm all for current events but I like to get that information from a program I like to call, The News. I don't watch The View to learn about Fidel Castro. No I want to know what Britney Spears has been up to this weekend. FYI: not wearing panties as far as I can tell.

Anyway, I want to get tickets to see The View because now that Rosie is in charge, they're giving away free stuff left and right: $200 gift certificates to Target and some sort of cooker was today's gift.

Speaking of today, on the show was Matthew Broderick who was promoting his new film Deck The Halls. What happened to him? He got old. And if he got old that means I've gotten old. I'm sad about how not good he looks. I loved him as baby face Ferris Bueller, I mean LOVED him, thought he was such a suave sophisticated older man. Now he's a middle aged dad. I guess that happens to the best of us.

Are you watching The View now that Rosie and her "libel to say anything" attitude is back on the tube? Why are you watching? Are you waiting for a Hasselbeck/O'Donnell throwdown like me? I don't want to miss it.

I have no idea why, but Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen will be on The Today Show this morning. They're going to be on during the real part of the show, between 7-9a.m., when Meredith and Matt interview people. I'm not exactly sure why the 9-10am hour of the show exists, it's a total snooze fest.

I wonder what they could be promoting or talking about? I don't think they have a career movie coming out and they seem very busy with school partying and dressing like hobos, to take the time to grace The Today Show with their presence, but I'm totally tuning in to find out what is up.

Later, Ian tells Susan his parents are coming to town – presumably from London – and he wants them all to have dinner together. When Susan suggests a little French place they like, Ian says he thinks they are expecting more of a home-cooked meal. In true Susan fashion, she explains to Ian just how poorly her cooking really is, but she eventually says she’ll figure something out. What I don’t understand is why Ian didn’t offer to help her but whatever. I figured she would ask Bree for help, anyway, which is exactly what she did.

This week on Survivor…

Ok, sorry for the long gap, and if you’re wondering what that whole thing’s about, that’s just me taking a little time out to do the cabbage patch, the roger rabbit, the running man and any other old school dances you can think of, in celebration of Nate’s exit. Remember in The Wiz, when a short-haired Diana Ross finally defeated the Wicked Witch and everybody broke out into song and dance—yep that’s me up there. O happy day, sing with me now. O hap--ok, I’ll snap out of it.

Let’s get into the events that led up to Nate getting tossed.

Just had to get one more in. Here we go…

Theme: Secrets and betrayal

Patient Information: An old guy in a car crash who gets diagnosed with spinal stenosis… A pregnant lady who flew threw a window… George's dad, who has cancer, and has to have surgery.

Music: Damien Rice's "9 Crimes". Love. Him.

A Good Day… Goes Bad: The show starts with Meredith and Derek all cozy-cozy in bed -- but still not having sex -- when Christina arrives to talk to her BFF about the Burke tremor situation. Derek goes downstairs. Christina gives Meredith a hypothetical situation -- not saying Burke's name -- and asks for her advice. Mer is pretty clueless about what Christina is talking about.

Hello Operation, Give Me Number Nine: George's dad is ready for his operation, but George has second thoughts about letting Burke perform surgery. So he schedules the surgery with Dr. Erica Hahn instead. The name won't sound familiar, but she's the doc at the competing Seattle hospital who fought with Burke/Alex over the donor heart last season. The heart eventually went to Denny, who later died. She also went to school with Burke or something and is very competitive with him. Christina sees Dr. Hahn in with Chief, George and George's dad and she bugs out thinking George exposed Burke's secret. As she starts to sweat, Chief calls her over and tells her that he needs to talk with Burke… immediately.

After Jaeda's elimination last week, America's Next Top Model was down to five girls (Caridee, Melrose, Amanda, Michelle and Eugena) before last night's episode. Here's what happened:

Reality Bites
The show began with Tyra telling the girls how hard the modeling industry is. It's not like other things, where you can improve on your product, she tells them. She explains that the judges are so hard on the girls because they want them to be prepared for the real world of modeling. Tyra then asks each girl to say the harshest comment they received from the judges. I loved that Melrose said hers was when the judges told her she photographed old -- I knew that comment had to make her feel rough!

The Challenge
The girls were given a mission to go on "go-sees" by the agency director of Elite Barcelona, Pancho Saula. Basically, they had to meet with as many of the 10 designers as possible and were judged on their personality and runway walk. The BIGGEST requirement, however, was that they come back on time. Shocker, the twins (Amanda and Michelle) paired up to go on their go-sees. Eugena went with Caridee, and Melrose went alone. Proving two minds are not necessarily better than one, Melrose won the challenge with the most go-sees and points from the designers. Michelle and Amanda, who had split up in the end, both came back late and were disqualified from the challenge.

The Photo Shoot
When in Spain... make sure you head over to the Monumental bull fighting arena for your photo shoot. The girls had to pose as matadors with a live bull practically right next to them. You can see their best shots for yourself. Personally, though, I thought Eugena's picture was the best. She looks like an acrobat!

The Elimination
At judging, all of the girls were asked who they thought had the most potential and who had the least. Of course, most of them said they themselves were the best (duh!), but Michelle, being insecure Michelle, said she thought her sister was the best -- awww, no! I knew Michelle had sunk herself right there, and even the judges said she might be trying to take the fall for her twin.

In the end, that's exactly what happened. Tyra told Michelle that Top Model was more about passion than talent, and the judges went with Amanda, who had the passion.

Do you think they chose the right twin? Was Michelle really covering for Amanda? Will Amanda go further now that Michelle's out of the competition?

Wilson is having a tough go of it. The episode starts off with his car being towed away, compliments of Detective Tritter. Then he arrives at work very late because he had to take a bus (guess the doctor has never heard of the new fandangled transport system known as cabs) and learns that his DEA number has been suspended, making him unable to prescribe for his cancer patients. He informs House what’s happening to him and House is naturally unsympathetic and more concerned about his vicodin hook up. Wilson tells House he’s going to need someone from his team to do his prescribing. House assigns Cameron who breaks the news to Wilson she can’t ethically or morally I’m not sure of the difference, prescribe for these people without first diagnosing them. Wilson is all, I diagnosed them, but Cameron, who I think might be judging Wilson a little for enabling House and getting himself into this big mess, insists she meets the patients, making Wilson look like an incompetent doctor in front of his patients. Wilson finally snaps at House saying he’s closing up his practice and he thought House would be there for him, but it’s clear that’s not happening and he kicks House out of his office.

Such a great episode for those who love the Wilson/House relationship, one of the most interesting relationships on TV today. Every time you learn something new about either one of them you’re constantly questioning why they’re friends. Come to think of it I have some friends I wonder why I am friends with them, I think we all do.

NBC has announced that it has ordered three more scripts for the Tina Fey comedy, 30 Rock. That goes with the three additional scripts they ordered a few weeks ago. NBC is doling out scripts like my parents would dole out my halloween candy, one piece every few days.

If you're not watching this show, you're missing out. Alec Baldwin is absolutely hilarious and the writing is really smart and funny. It's not doing great in the ratings, but I can't figure out why because it's really, really good. Although I shouldn't be surprised, I know a lot of really good shows that people don't watch and then they just go away. 30 Rock will move to its new night and time tomorow night at 9:30pm after Scrubs. I'm hoping its move to Thursday will give it the boost it deserves.

File this under: Are you kidding me? Did anyone happen to catch The Today Show this morning? Well, I did and on it was guest Gloria Allred, a publicity monger lawyer, you know the one who represented Amber Frey in the Scott Peterson trial. Anyone, this morning she announced that she is representing the two guys who Michael Richards' verbal racist tirade was directed at, Kyle Doss and Frank McBride. She said they're willing to meet with Michael to discuss "compensation."

Since when do people get compensated for being yelled at and verbally harassed because if that's the case, I have a few nuns I need to look up from grade school I'm gonna need to hit up for some serious cash.

Do you think they should get cash for being yelled at?

Last Friday when Clay Aiken was guest host with Kelly Ripa on Live With Regis and Kelly, Clay put his hand over Kelly’s mouth to get her to stop talking in the middle of interviewing Dancing With The Stars Winner, Emmitt Smith. Kelly pushed away Clay’s hand and said, “I don’t know where that hand has been.”

Today on The View Rosie O’Donnell called Kelly out and said that comment was homophobic. Kelly called in to defend herself and clarified that she meant the comment to be about cold and flu season and it had nothing to do with the speculation about his sexuality. She said Clay was shaking every audience member’s hand and the hands of the guests and she was afraid that it was covered in germs. Kelly made a good point that Clay would have never done that to Regis because he respects Regis in a way he doesn’t respect Kelly and she had a problem with that.

Also did I miss Clay coming out of the closet? Is he gay? Do you think Kelly’s comment was homophobic? And was Clay totally inappropriate with Kelly, covering her mouth to get her to stop talking on her talk show? Talk back below.

Jaeda talks about her hair, the acting episode and why she doesn't think she was accurately portrayed. Read on…

How did you get involved with Top Model?

J: My dad was looking on the internet and he found an open call for the show. It was in Minneapolis, which is like three hours away, so we were like, "Okay, why not?" We went to the open call and I had my on camera interview with Tyra. Three months later I got called back with the news that I made the top 30.

Did people tell you often, growing up, that you should model? Or was that an ambition that you had?

J: It was constant. My mom was actually a model and we did a lot of modeling when I was younger. People always told me I should model and I was just always into it. I was always into magazines and fashion and things like that, so it's something I've always wanted to do.

Derek: "I can't stop thinking about you wearing anything but bubbles!"

That's what I think Derek has just said to Mer and that's why she's laughing. What's Meredith's response?
What is Derek really thinking? Do we ever really know what is going on in a man's head? I have to admit that I do not. But I guess that doesn't stop us from trying to figure it out.

Caption the photo below from this weeks Grey's Anatomy episode and then tune in Thursday to find out what was really said.

Michael Richards has gone off the deep end: Did you see Michael Richards, who played Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, apologize for the vicious racist outburst he had this weekend? He apologized on Letterman last night and just seemed plum crazy, watch the video here and tell me what you think because I’m starting to think the whole “crazy Kramer” act wasn’t an act after all.

Sopranos gets whacked one more time: Is it me or does the show The Sopranos come on for like eight weeks every other year? Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the show, think the writing is top notch and can’t get enough of the peach and teal outfits they put Carmela in, but I am still completely lost about when it’s on, if it’s over, when it’s coming back and if then will it be over. But now I have a little insight. This season HBO ordered eight episodes, but it was just announced that creator David Chase has asked for one more to wrap up the story and HBO has agreed. Well, now I feel like I finally know something. These mobsters are really good about being mysterious and keeping you in the dark.

It’s safe to say that poking fun at Jessica Simpson isn’t too difficult. So, you’d think Studio 60, the smartest show on TV, would be above mocking the intelligence of the former Mrs. Lachey.

Which is precisely why the show’s opening bit about J.Simp seeking peace in the Midwest was so brilliant.

Just when you think they’re going to zig, they zag, and when you think they’re going to zag, well, they zag again -- all because they knew you’d think they’d zig. Ah, Sorkin. Well played, my friend.

Read on for more.

Fox still has ample time to mercy-kill next week's planned O.J. Simpson specials.

Criminally scheduled for Monday and Wednesday, O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened has put the not always high-aiming network in an indefensible position. It's been wall-to-wall denouncement since last Tuesday's announcement. Leading the charge are two of Fox's biggest stars, Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo Rivera.

O'Reilly, the most-watched personality on cable's Fox News Channel, has urged viewers of The O'Reilly Factor to follow his lead in not watching the specials and shunning any products advertised during them.

Nobody’s perfect, not even you Rob Lowe (although I think you are). Rob, who last night started a run on the ABC Drama Brothers and Sisters was offered the Patrick Dempsey role of McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy and turned it down. He told USA Today that it was “the first time in all of my career that I picked wrong … definitely a biggie.” If I remember correctly you've picked wrong before, but I don't want to dwell on the past, Rob, because I still love you.

Oh and how cute was Rob on Brothers and Sisters last night? Do you think he's going to be a good addition to an already stellar cast? And by "stellar" I mean so freakin' cute and I'm talking about you, Dave Annable who plays Justin, so delicious to look at!

Last week the show left off on a very hectic note. Tyler & James raced with manic fervor trying to beat out the beauty queens to come in first for that leg of the race, while Rob & Kimberly desperately tried to stay ahead of the remaining six-pack. All that stress only to come to the end and find out that there was no pit stop this time around. These five teams that managed to stay in the game longer than all the rest had to keep on racing. And that’s exactly where we pick them up this week.

Last night's Desperate Housewives episode focused on the "bad men who walk among us." And to some extent, I thought the title was extremely relevant. But even though I like to rank on guys as much as the next girl, sometimes, especially on Wisteria Lane, you have to admit that there are some bad women who walk among us, too.

Susan finally convinced Ian to let her sleep at his place (and by place, I mean McMansion). She awoke naked the next morning, staring at the butler, Rupert. Rupert was less than thrilled by Susan herself and even less so by her request for a drawer to call her own in the house. Clearly, Rupert's allegiance lies with Jane, the woman of the house who is still in a coma. Susan tries everything to get Rupert to like her, including buying him a ridiculous Great Britain t-shirt, but in the end, she slaps him across the face when he calls her a gold digger.

In more Dancing With The Stars news, sore loser Mario Lopez insists he was the better dancer and should’ve won. “I figure if this was truly a dance competition they would have voted for the better dancer," he said. “But I'm not crying over spilled milk…"

Really? Because it kinda sounds like you are, Mario. It really annoys me that Mario is so immature that he just can’t deal with the fact that he lost and he’s not the better dancer, hence the not winning aspect of the competition. What do you think? Who was the better dancer?

As we all know, I’m utterly obsessed with Grey’s Anatomy. So I am freaking out that this week’s Grey’s Anatomy that airs on Thanksgiving is not only going to be a new episode but it’s going to be one hour and ten minutes long ! A whole 70 minutes of McDreamy (more tub, I say), Alex and McSteamy.

Did you see the whole cast last Friday on Oprah? I thought it was just okay, I mean they rehashed the whole Isaiah Washington/Patrick Dempsey scuffle (snore) but I thought all the women looked so beautiful, yes even Ellen Pompeo who I never think looks good, perhaps it’s her engagement glow .

I don’t even know why I’m reporting this, but it’s TV news and that’s what I talk about, so here goes. Former daytime TV Diva, Star Jones Reynolds, who thought she would have offers rolling in after her unceremonious dismissal from The View last July is finally gainfully employed. She’ll executive produce and appear a new show on TV One a black-oriented cable network.

I thought the project you always wanted to do was throwing that ridiculous wedding, huh, just goes to show you what I know.

I hate to toot my on horn, so I guess I’ll just pat myself on the back. Pat, pat, Shireese, you’re right again. I warned everyone about the white tribe banning together, and taking everyone else out, but I can’t give them all the credit. There were 15 other people in this game besides them, so technically the whites were out numbered. But they had that one thing that many in the other races secretly admire—the power of being white. I’ll hatch out my own conspiracy theory of sorts about this later, for now let’s get into last night’s episode. Oh, and one more thing I TOLD YOU SO! You didn’t think I could resist that did you?

More drama over on the set of Desperate Housewives, seriously when will these woman stop embarrassing my gender! Perez Hilton is reporting that Terri Hatcher has started dating Eva Longoria's Ex, Stephen Kay. Of all the men in the world, Terri, you had to pick someone your co-star dated?

I think that's pretty lame and I'd be pissed because friend's ex-boyfriends are off limits, even if you're a star of a major TV show. Am I right? Tell me what you think of Terri "Denise Richards" Hatcher's behavior.

Patient information: George's dad, who learns he has stage 3 cancer… A young girl, who was run over in a car by her nanny… A plastic surgery patient who got pec implants to impress his girlfriend.

If you wanted to feel extremely awkward, you should have watched ANTM last night. Not only did the girls try to "act," but Tyra's HORRIBLE stylist returned once more! Here's the recap:

Off to the Theatre
The show began with the girls heading off to the Los Angeles Repertory School to work on their acting. Their coach is a woman names Tasha, who claims she has worked with Tyra on her acting. OK. Total. Red. Flag. Did anyone else see Tyra's diva performance during the first photo shoot? It was embarrassing. My boyfriend had to leave the room. It was that BAD. You would think the girls would take off running, but instead they deliver some very cringe-worthy performances.

To promote his book, If I Did It, O.J. Simpson will appear in a two-night special broadcast on Fox (November 27 and 29). In the interview, O.J. will explain if he killed his wife, Nicole Brown, in 1994, how he would have done it. There's a whole lot of wishy-washy sayings that skirt around outright admission of guilt, but critics are saying the show really is O.J.'s murder confession.

Note from Beth: We have a special "guest star" for today's TV Cocktail! The creator of Medium, Glenn Godon Caron, is joining in on our fun by giving us a little run-down of what it took to put last night's third season premiere of Medium together -- that's him second from the right at the premiere party. Enjoy....

I’m often asked where the ideas for episodes of Medium come from.

While many episodes are derived from or suggested by experiences that the real Allison Dubois has had, a large number also spring purely from the imaginations of writers. This year’s season premiere, “Four Dreams” is an example of that. I had long harbored the idea of doing an episode that used classic animation as the visual grammar for Allison’s dreams. I mentioned this in one of our earliest writer’s meetings this season and Javier Grillo-Marxuach, an excellent writer who joined us this year from Lost, rather fearlessly went off after having only been with us several days and crafted a framework for a story.

At the exact same moment, Rene Echevarria who executive produces Medium with me, mentioned how surprised he was at the audience reaction to a museum screening of “Too Close To Call”, an episode he had written for Season 2. In it, an old girlfriend of Joe’s contacts him in hopes of winning a job and perhaps rekindling their old love affair. Rene was convinced that there was a great story if an old love of Allison’s -- perhaps a dead old love of Allison’s -- were to suddenly to appear on her doorstep.

One of the ideas I had been developing by myself was an episode built around multiple dreams, which we would use to explore some of our supporting characters like District Attorney Devalos and Detective Scanlon.

It was at around this time that Kevin Reilly from NBC contacted me to tell me that we would not be returning in September to our old familiar time slot and to ask if there was something special we could do, so that when we did return to the schedule it would be with a bang. It was in this meeting that the idea for a two hour premiere was born, marrying Javier’s cartoon script with my idea for multiple dreams and Rene’s conviction that there was a great story in the appearance of one of Allison’s past loves on her doorstep at the moment of his death.

I hope you enjoyed “Four Dreams”. I believe it is one of our most ambitious and emotional episodes to date.

Glenn Gordon Caron

It was almost too close to call, but in the end NFL Champion Emmitt Smith proved that the gridiron isn't his only battlefield. Yes, Emmitt and partner (and previous DWTS champion) Cheryl Burke have won the coveted Dancing with the Stars disco ball trophy.

It's been quite a ride, from mambo to foxtrot, from Jerry Springer's, well ... survival to Sara Evans' divorce. I don't think we could have asked for a better final two than Emmitt and Mario, who, along with Cheryl and Karina, put on a great show. But what did you think of this season's competition? Who were your favorite stars and what were your favorite moments? Who would you like to see dance their way into your heart for the next season? That's all for me -- thanks for all your comments! Remember to keep your feet on the ground and keep on Dancing with the Stars...

I know our favorite dance show just ended last night, but according to the Hollywood Reporter the folks over at ABC are debating whether or not their hugely popular show Dancing With The Stars can bring down the ratings behemoth American Idol if they were to go up against each other when Dancing With The Stars third season premieres next March.

I'm not sure this is the greatest move because when they show those terrible singers on American Idol it's pretty entertaining. Which do you prefer, bad singers or bad dancers? If they go head to head which reality show are you tuning in to see? Talk back below.

My Name is Earl star Jaime Pressly announced on the The Tonight Show With Jay Leno last night that she's four months pregnant. The emmy nominated actress told the audience that she has had a pretty uneventful pregnacy with the exception of: "The mood swings you can't do anything about. You want to stab people and you don't know why!" Note to self: Stay out of Jaime Pressly's way for the next five months.

What should she name the baby? Earl, Joy or crab man?

Hey Beach Bums!

Sigh. It was graduation day in Laguna as the Seniors prepared for their big day, and the Juniors complained that they were being left behind. Derek, Kelan, Chase and Nick moved their tassels to the other side, as Kyndra, Cami and Cameron looked on. The girls cried while the boys celebrated. You know, a typical graduation.

Rocky celebrated with Alex at his graduation and gave him a NICE IPod Nano as a gift. She later confided in her mom that she feared Alex would move on to bigger and better things now that he is off to college.
The super-pretty couple have a heart-to-heart on the beach of what's to come and Rocky and Alex decide to stick it out and try a long-distance relationship while he's away. Alex gives Rocky a creepy looking ring to seal the deal.

Cameron and Kyndra threw a "beginning of summer" barbecue at Cameron's house. Kyndra fought with Cameron because he wasn't emotional enough about his friends graduating. Man, she is so annoying. I bet he isn't sorry that whole Cabo hookup didn't happen. The twosome do manage put together a video of the good times with their Senior buddies that was actually quite touching.

According to E! Online Masi Oka, the time travelling, time stopping super hero stud on NBC's Heroes will be checking back into Scrubs to revive his role as Franklyn, a worker in the blood lab. Scrubs Executive Producer, Bill Lawerence says they "want to bring him back this season, but with his powers from Heroes intact!"

Huh, that should be interesting, I actually might tune in! Way to go Scrubs, I likey your NBC familly cross promotion. And who says families can't get along during the holiday season.

House eats lunch and watches Blind Date with a bunch of people in comas/vegetative states. I’m not smart enough to know the difference. When we last saw Wilson he had been confronted by Tritter about House possibly forging Vicondin prescriptions. So Wilson enters the room and starts yelling at House for making him lie to the cop. House tells him if he lied to Tritter, than Tritter has nothing to go on and they’re both in the clear. The son of the guy in the vegetative state walks in and House starts to flicks the lights on and off and then gets up and simply disappears. He reappears right in front of the kids face. House diagnoses him as having an illness that gives him seizures and doesn’t allow him to see things move, i.e. House moving across the room. The kid immediately drops to the floor and stars seizing, triggered by the flicking the lights on and off, House is quite a guy.

House and his team try to come up with reasons why the kid is having seizures. House has learned that the father also has seizures and gets Chase, Cameron and Foreman to do genetic testing. Kyle tells Cam he bascially has no friends, his dad is in a vegetative state and his mom died in a fire, this kid has a bummer of a life. When Cameron is examining him, he gets nauseous and she realizes that nasty drinking habit he has might be responsible for his liver shutting down. This is not this Kyle's day. Foreman comes in to announce that now his kidney is shutting down. As Chase puts it, not too many people bounce back from multiple organ failure. House realizes they need a more detailed medical history about the family. The only person who can provide said information is the dad. House heads to the pharmacy to get meds to wake up the dad who has been in a vegetative state for ten years. House’s little gang of nay sayers follow him telling him all the reason why he can’t do it, but I know he’s going to do it because… I saw the promo.

Anchal had some choice words for Melrose. Read on to get all the dirt…

How did you get involved with Top Model?

A: I was contacted me over MySpace … I did't know if was legit or not, so I was actually planning on not going. But I talked it over with my dad and we went to go meet the scout. It ended up actually being legit and I auditioned. A month later I got a call back and I was going to LA.

Had you ever thought about modeling before that?

A: Yes, I started modeling when I was 15 and I have been in French Vogue and Miami Fashion Week three times. SO I had modeled before … I had stopped for a little bit. I thought America's Next Top Model was my second chance to go back into it.

Brad was always the sweet on the show, and there was no shortage of his affable disposition when I met with him last Friday. The man even offered me something to drink, and he was the guest. After his hospitality he chimed in with, “Be nice to me at iVillage, only nice things about Brad.” Maybe that fear of being talked about came after trusting Nate during the taping, only to watch the show and find out that Nate was talking behind his back instead of having his back. Read on to find out what Nate said that really made Brad mad, and how he felt about the game. You'll also discover that this sweetie pie has a great sense of humor as well.

Come see what I mean…"

The final three… Now we're getting down to business.

With the diva socialite out and the "Vegas, baby!" chick just a distant memory, The Bachelor is actually watchable now. This week, Lorenzo's mission was to choose between the "cream of the crop": Jennifer, Sadie and Lisa.

His first fantasy date was with Barbie Jennifer, who is pretty, sweet… and whose voice goes right through me. "Oh, Lorenzo. Giggle, giggle." She seems like a nice girl but can someone talk to her about her voice and that giggle? It makes her sound like she's 11. There was nothing "off" about their date -- trip to an amusement park and dinner. No awkward moments. No uncomfortable discussions. No "timelines" like Bitchy Lisa. Barbie Jen quickly said yes to going back to the fantasy suite. I could tell she was getting a rose and I was okay with it. Aside from her voice, she seems like a nice girl.

Did you know that according to studies on Tuesdays workers work the most out of any other day in the work week? That's why I post the weekly Grey's Anatomy Photo to be captioned on Tuesdays so I can get everyone to ignore their work responsibilities and have fun.

So here's this week's photo from this week's episode entitled: "Staring At The Sun"

Election day might have been a week ago, but according to the New York Post celebrities around the entertainment industry are casting their votes in a heated battle for who will win this season’s Dancing With The Stars. Will it be Mario “Slater” Lopez or Emmitt “NFL Hall of Famer” Smith. Let’s take it to the air waves. Howard Stern says his money is on Lopez, but mostly because he has prior dancing experience which he lied about at the beginning of the season.

Alex Trebek from Jeopardy thinks Emmitt Smith is going to take home the crown and the… hey wait a second what do these people win at the end of the show? A million dollars? Come to think of it, I’m not sure they win anything. How is that fair? Isn’t the preparation for this show simply grueling? Anyone know what the big prize is?

Well, I’m not voting because I still want Jerry Springer to win.

NBC announced today that it has given a full-season order to its critically hailed freshman drama Friday Night Lights

This is great news because now that it has a full season, I’ll find out what happens with Riggins and Layla because hot damn, it looks like from last week’s episode that Street knows they’ve totally been making it behind his back. And then there’s all the coach angst. Poor Kyle Chandler, I want to hug him because he is getting screwed by all the busy body townies who think they know what’s best for the Dillon Panthers. He’s the coach, leave him alone!

Our female football fan blogger chatted with some of the cast last week, including Zach Gilford who plays back up QB Matt Saracen and who I totally heart. I don’t want to talk about him too much lest my TV boyfriend Hugh Laurie might get jealous.

So, who else was excited to see how this saga unfolded?

Anybody?

Oh, you there. Good. I was worried that viewers would actually be disappointed with the top-secret reason behind the whole “I will NOT tell you why I was speeding! I rise above!” diatribe. Glad I was wrong.

Is there anything this man can't do? The British newspaper the Sun is reporting that after Hugh Laurie and Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as Borat, a fictional Kazakhstan TV reporter, were on Saturday Night Live together, they got into a scuffle on the streets of New York City.

Sacha, still in his Borat costume, went up to a guy and asked the man to buy his clothes:

That's when the guy started to beat down on Sacha who yelled for help and was saved by my TV boyfriend Hugh Laurie, AKA Dr. House. See, people, he really is a super hero, I've known it all along.

Ed Bradley's hour had come. On Sunday night, 60 Minutes returned it to him in full with a tribute to his public and personal life.

"I don't have enough years left myself to ever get over missing Ed Bradley. Not ever," said Andy Rooney, 87. Bradley was 65 when he died of leukemia Thursday.

His quarter-century at 60 Minutes, for which he did 500 stories, made Bradley one of television's most enduring and important newsmen. He also ranks among the medium's all-time most influential African-Americans. As 60 Minutes showed, Bradley ranged far and wide. He covered wars, exposed corruption and sat down with some very big names in the world of crime, entertainment and athletics. They included Timothy McVeigh, Michael Jordan, Bob Dylan, George Burns, Laurence Olivier, Muhammad Ali and his favorite subject of all, Lena Horne.

Off camera he was a music buff and an onstage ham. Two of his very best friends were Jimmy Buffet and Wynton Marsalis.

"I got so much joy out of watching him attempt to be a shameless performer," said Buffet, who rushed to Bradley's bedside from Hawaii to be with him near the end.

Trumpeter Marsalis played Bradley off at the end of Sunday's 60 Minutes. "How could you not love him?" he asked rhetorically. "You couldn't help it."

Bradley wasn't much of a self-promoter. He didn't do many interviews with reporters. Nor did he let his colleagues at 60 Minutes know that he had been diagnosed with leukemia years ago.

I'll never forget my one up-close experience with Bradley. It was in 1976, and I was a political reporter for The Capital Times in Madison, Wis. For a half-day I got to travel with the national press corps covering Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign. By early evening we were flying from a stop in Illinois to Milwaukee, where Carter would be making a nighttime address.

Just before touchdown at Billy Mitchell Field, Bradley donned a gas mask and led a small V-formation of reporters onto the airport tarmac. He did so in support of a colleague who'd had his arm broken when a Milwaukee cop slammed a door on it during an earlier campaign visit. Bradley now approached a very unamused officer to inform him that this time the reporters were ready for action. Point made and lasting impression imparted.

Bradley always stayed his own man, wearing an earring on the air in later years just because he damn well wanted to do it. His sudden and very unexpected death also made me think about where he belongs on a list of television's 10 most influential African-Americans. As you might deduce, Bradley ranks pretty high.

Here's how it came out:

This leg of the race was all about illusions. The illusions that come along with making an alliance with people you’re ultimately competing against. The illusions that makes one misjudge another, thinking you can out smart them, only to find out that you’ve been out smarted by them, leaving you all crazy and confused. And the illusions that you’ve made it to a place called there, when in reality you haven’t quite made it anywhere, at least not yet.

What’s more fun than watching people be fooled or fool themselves? Ah yes, watching their reaction when they uncover the trick. …

Break out the bottles of champagne, and put on your party hats. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is sticking around. Well, at least for the rest of the season.

Forget those meager ratings and that volatile critical climate because NBC announced last night that the quasi-hit drama ain't going anywhere.

According to The New York Times, Kevin Reilly, prez of NBC Entertainment, just ordered another nine episodes, which will last until May.

Apparently, NBC is happy with the ratings. They have been dropping steadily from the 13-odd million from the first episode, but lately, the found stable footing and have kept 7.7 million viewers this past Monday.

But don't get too comfortable just yet. The Monday 10 p.m. ET time slot is a popular one, and Matthew and Brad might not be cool enough to follow time travelers and cheerleaders who feel no pain (Heroes, which is NBC's actual "hit" show, needs a better encore, NBC execs say). Stay tuned, as Reilly will announce a new primetime show schedule next week.

For a game that sparked so much controversy before the first episode even aired, lately it’s just been predictably chugging along, making me wish for one big elimination of all the inconsequential people who we know are not going to win anyway (i.e. Brad, Jenny, Sundra, Rebecca, Becky and Nate), and let the real players have at it. If you watched last week’s episode and/or read this recap, you can take a wild guess at who got the boot this time. And my guess is that your guess is probably right. Of course if they wouldn’t have merged so soon they wouldn’t have the problem of all these excess lackluster players. You know I had to go there. But honestly, there were twenty of them this season, with only one or two so far that I’ve been sorry to see go.

With any group of people a ruling class and a proletariat inevitably emerges. And if anything remains interesting in this game, it’s how much the players manage to rule, while the others just get picked off one by one, with practically no contest.

Read on and see what I mean…

Patients: A kid who swallowed a bunch of Monopoly pieces so his brother and his friends can’t play. A guy Daniel who is well on his way to turning into Donna and is getting his penis cut off much to the dismay of his wife. A pregnant lady, Jamie, who slipped and fell in the shower and will later find out her baby has died inside her.

Get Your Camping On: Sheppard invites Burke for a male bonding weekend out in the woods. Turns out Burke invited George and Richard and the next thing you know along come Alex, Joe and his boyfriend. Sheppard is pissed because all he wanted was some space and all these extra people are cramping his style. He needed time in the woods to figure out all that has happened in the past few weeks. Instead he’s got Richard with his picnic basket put together by the concierge at his hotel. In a very funny moment, the Chief realizes Joe is gay, but he’s cool with that because his cousin is gay. “Man love, I’m good, Brokeback Mountain, all of that.”

With only seven contestants remaining, it was time to trim some fat on Top Model--literally (and no, that didn’t mean Tyra was sent home, though she did learn the value of sleeves). But before we get to the elimination, let’s recap:

Hitting the Volleyball Court
The show started off with the girls meeting Gabby Reese, former model (?) and professional volleyball player. Gabby tells the girls she is going to teach them about “action modeling” and the girls change into bikinis for their lesson. At this point, you just KNOW Anchal is gonna have problems. She begins complaining about her weight and wraps a towel around her while she waits for her turn to hit a volleyball. Anchal is so unenthused that she barely even tries. Eugena summed up Anchal’s performance perfectly: “She looked like a big ‘ole blob.”

This just in: Nip/Tuck star Joely Richardson has quit the hit drama to return to England take care of her ailing teenage daughter.

That's Not A Wrap: TV Guide is reporting the Aaron Sorkin drama Studio 60 on The Sunset Strip got a full season pick-up. So much for all the speculation it was about to get cancelled.

American Idol News: One of last season’s finalists has been given the green light for her own TV show. According to Variety , Kellie Pickler will play a “naive small-town Southern girl who discovers that her biological father is the state's well-respected governor. His presidential dreams are put in jeopardy, but the two form a father-daughter relationship that winds up helping his standing in the polls.” The script is being written by my friends and former That 70’s Show colleagues Chris and Bryan. They rule.

Whoa, say it ain't so! Ok, I think we all kind of had a feeling about this one and once again, you all predicted correctly that Joey and Edyta would be the next couple to leave the ballroom. This leaves Emmitt & Cheryl and Mario & Karina to battle it out next week for the title of ultimate celebrity dance champion. Who will be the last one left dancing?

This week's encore performance went to Mario & Karina, who returned to dance their perfect ten tango. Other highlights included a professional dance to the James Bond theme, the Pet Shop Boys singing "West End Girls" and a preview of the upcoming Dancing with the Stars tour, which included Willa Ford, Lisa Rinna, Joey McIntyre and Harry Hamlin returning the to the dance floor to do the jive to "Footloose". Other celebs slated to appear in the tour line-up include Joey Lawrence and last season's winner, Drew Lachey. Anyone planning to see them in person?

What did you think of last night's show? Were you sorry to see Joey go or was he only standing in the way of your favorite dancer? Let me know your reactions and your predictions for next week!

So, um, that was awesome.

There’s not much else to say about the Lost mid-season finale. Since the Season 3 began, nearly every episode has left much to be desired -- which has left us feeling frustrated, confused and disturbed. This time, we’re still left feeling frustrated, confused and disturbed… but, man, do we love it.

So, yeah, it was awesome. But, maybe that’s just me.

Or, a better question:

Hey Beach Bums!

We got a double dose of Laguna this week, as the school year came to a close. The boys went all out with their big popping of the prom questions. Cameron asked Tara, Kyndra snagged an invite from her friend, Alex M., some dude named Matt asked Cami, and big Derek came out with the most original proposal by getting his and Lexie's name on a theater marquee. It was a bunch of random pairings, so my expectations were disappointingly low.

Alex and Rocky met up at the beach and Alex renegged on his breaking up with her. Rocky played hard-to-get for a minute but then gave him another chance. Alex laid it on thick, no? I'm sorry but he's lost me. At least Rocky
admitted to her mom that she was having trouble trusting him completely. Like I've said before, she is a smart girl. Oh, and Tess planned to take Alex's friend, Cory, as her date to prom.

Lexie was adamant that she does not like Derek and would not hook up with him on the big night, as Derek told Cam he's going to try and score. I think Lexie is a big, scared prude. Why wouldn't she kiss Kelan on Spring Break and why is she so sure she would never kiss Derek? I'll tell you why - because she's terrified. I'd be surprised if this girl has ever kissed anything but her pillow. Oh, and a sidebar, how jealous was Breanna that Derek asked Lexie? So transparent. An correct me if I'm wrong about this, but did Alex ask Rocky to HER prom? I didn't think you could do that.

Lexie hosted a pre-prom party, in her ocean-front mansion, that everyone attended. Wasn't your prom just like that? Mine was - in Brooklyn.
The prom looked like a rockin' time for everyone except for Rocky and Alex, who started with the awkwardness before they even arrived. In the limo, on the way back, Lexie bailed on Derek because she "has dance really early in the morning." Um, it's PROM NIGHT! Such a lame-o.
Derek threw the after party at his house where there was lots of dancing on the coffee table. Tessa and Derek reconnected with some smooching and Alex and Rocky did some of their own making up.

Lexie's dad took the girls out on his enormous boat and they dished about the boys in Laguna. Apparently Breanna has had a lot of men and is sick of Tessa saying that Breanna steals all of her boyfriends. Ew! Breanna is gross and Tessa is much better than her.
Do you see how I turn into a 15 year old girl when I watch this show?

Chase and Kelan's band prepared for their biggest show ever at The Roxy in L.A. The kids from Laguna squeal at the thought of a road trip and all head to Los Angeles to show their support. Tessa and Derek got their kiss on while Breanna tried to make trouble. Chase's band rocked the house and the boys hoped for good things to come from the show. Soon after, the band got a call that they've been signed to Epic Records! I was almost as happy as they were. It goes to show that even rich kids can work hard and obtain their dreams. Chase shared the good news with Tessa and their chemistry just oozed out of my DVR box. What is holding them back? I almost can't take it.
Don't miss next week when we watch our kiddies walk down the aisle toward their future, filled with many MTV "Where are they now?" specials. Be here for the season finale -you know I will.

Until next time,
Trace

Are you watching Friday Night Lights for the football or for the drama or for both? (Are you watching at all?) Some stars from the show recently sat down and chatted about women and football just for readers of our sister blog, The Female Fan.

The coach's wife, Connie Britton, is joined by Zach Gilford, who plays replacement quarterback Matt Saracen, and Jess Plemons, who plays his best pal, to talk about why women should be interested in Friday Night Lights whether or not they like football. It's all about the relationships, the choreography, the drama...

For more photos and video, join the ongoing discussion at The Female Fan.

Howdy all you American Idol fans. Long time, no speak. I’m sure you’re all very eager for the show to return, as am I. So I’m happy to announce that FOX has released the date when it comes back on the schedule: January 16, 2007. It sounds super far away, but it’s really only two months and you know how fast the holidays zip by, so it’s really just around the corner.

To warm up your vocal cords for the big premiere, I have posted a publicity shot of Paula Abdul. Can someone please tell me what the hell she is doing in this pose? Is it suppsosed to be sexy, because if it is, I’m way off base to what is sexy which would explain why I'm still single.

It’s that time of year again, folks, Celebrity Jeopardy. I know you’ve probably been counting down the days, minutes and seconds since the last one. You know the drill, the two week competition, which starts tonight has celebrities competing against other celebrities to to win money for their favorite charity.

Once again there is no shortage of “celebrities,” granted some of them might be celebrities in their own minds, but here’s a sampling of who you’ll get to see putting their answers in a question form:
James Denton - Desperate Housewives, Neil Patrick Harris - How I Met Your Mother, Carson Kressley - Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Drew Lachey - Dancing With The Stars 2006 Champion, Susan Lucci - All My Children and Curt Schilling Boston Red Sox Pitcher.

We're coming down to the wire in this year's most hotly contested race -- no, I'm not talking about the U.S. Senate, I'm referring to the crucible of hot dancing power that lies delicately in the balance. Yes, Election Day may have come and gone, but we've still yet
to find out the winner of America's favorite celebrity dance show. We only have one week to go until this season's champs are revealed and I honestly don't know how we're all going to cope with the suspense!

With all the election night hijinks, it was apparently a good time to revisit all our favorite special performances, like Tom Jones singing "It's Not Unusual, or the group jive to "Rebel Yell" or, yes, you guessed it -- Rod Stewart's horrific man gut peeking out from under his puffy shirt. We just can't seem to escape!

Last night's performances mirrored the format of the past few weeks, with each couple dancing two dances. This time, however, the couples were allowed to choose the dances they were to perform, instead of having them assigned. For all three couples this seemed to work out pretty well, as the routines were probably the best they've been all season and the judges doling out 10s like they were mini Kit Kat bars. Before we get to the recap, it’s time to cast your vote in our weekly poll:

Drama for your mama. This episode was packed full of it!

Patient of the Week: Totally huge obese guy who had to be cut out of his apartment when the fire department was going in there because they thought he was dead. Turns out he wasn’t dead, he was just an obese guy in a coma, common mistake, no hard feelings.

House sits in a jail cell. He gets up to yell for someone and holds up his pants, my guess is they took his belt when they booked him, but I was wishing his pants would fall down because I’m in love with Hugh Laurie… perhaps I’ve mentioned that before.

Wilson bails out House for the bargain price of $15,000. When Wilson is all "What the hell?" House says Tritter trumped up all these charges against him to get back for last week’s rectal thermometer frat boy joke.

Chase, Foreman and Cameron are waiting for House, who is now hours late to work. When House arrives, they comment that he looks like crap, I personally think he’s never looked hotter, but really I’m demented over that man, so I’m wearing Hugh Laurie blinders. But tell me you didn’t enjoy that perfectly sculpted, albeit small ish, bicep poking out from his black t-shirt, damn that man is perfect.

The gang asks him what happened to him and he says:

House: If you ever end up in a bar with the Cambridge women’s heavy weight eight do no accept an offer for an upside down kamikaze.

That’s a rowing reference people, a little nod to Hugh’s real life, he rowed at Cambridge. Yeah, hot AND smart, he’s the total package.

This week’s episode kept the drama to a minimum, but the anticipation was full speed ahead. Could David & Mary defy the odds again? Would they defy it again and arrive first? Or would they be eliminated? However as the race went on, the question of whether or not the twice spared team would come in first quickly changed to one of would their penalty be too much to overcome.

The beauty queens were first to rip open their clue revealing their next destination Madagascar. All teams caught up at the airport where everyone ended up on the same flight. Needless to say, things were looking pretty good for David & Mary who were marked for elimination and had to come in first if they didn’t want to get slapped with a 30 minute penalty. Next the teams set out on a hunt for a black angel which had been recently painted white. The only catch is the clue just so happened to leave out the minor detail of the paint job, and caused the six pack who had taken an early lead to trail behind.

When NBC made episodes of The Office available on itunes last year, the show really took off. Ripping a page from that playbook, they have decided to release an exclusive extended episode of The Office on NBC.com Thursday night.

NBC is calling it a "producer’s cut," which is just a longer version of the show you will see Thursday night but with more content including extra scenes. I have to imagine there is so much funny in The Office that gets cut every week because the show is just hilarious that it will be really interesting to see what they cut out. You can check it out on NBC.com immediately after the show airs.

Our TV Cocktail BFF Ed Bark weighs in on election night coverage....

Katie Couric will make more history Tuesday by becoming the first woman to solo anchor prime-time election coverage. She'll have ample help on CBS from old hand Bob Schieffer.

Meanwhile, the deposed Dan Rather, is set to sit out his first election night since the Paleolithic period, although he will appear with fake news anchor Jon Stewart in the first half of Comedy Central's one-hour Indecision 2006 special (10 central, 11 eastern). Rather otherwise is waiting until Nov. 14 to debut the weekly Dan Rather Reports on Mark Cuban's HDNet.

Cuban hasn't returned an email inquiry as to why he didn't put Rather back in the saddle on election night instead. All he'd really need is a desk and a computer hookup. Dan then could take it from there with a fresh crop of all-purpose "Dan-isms," some of which he might be able to aim at Stewart. Greasing the skiddle, unclebarky.com has thrown together this Top 10 list of personal favorites from election nights past:

10. "His lead is as thin as turnip soup."
9. "We need Billy Crystal to Analyze This."
8. "This presidential race is still hotter than a Laredo parking lot."
7. "This situation in Ohio would give aspirin a headache."
6. "This race is as tight as the rusted lug nuts on a '55 Ford."
5. "The election is closer than Lassie and Timmy."
4. "This race is shakier than cafeteria Jell-O."
3. "If a frog had sidepockets, he'd carry a handgun."
2. "When the going gets weird, anchormen punt."
1. "Frankly, we don't know whether to wind the watch or to bark at the moon."

Hey everyone, it's Tuesday, which means it's time to caption another Grey's Anatomy photo from this week's episode. What's interesting about this picture is it was most likely taken BEFORE the Isaiah Washington/Patrick Dempsey on set fight, not sure these two would be hanging around a tree so casual now, would they? Caption the photo below, I'm very curious to read what you guys come up with.

Okay, people. It’s not just me here. Even the show itself seems concerned about its probable demise as they set to make an example out of one Jordan McDeere. In a scene from tonight’s episode, Jack -- chairman of NBS -- laments that she probably won’t “make it much longer.” After all, she is fighting for a show that’s too smart for its own good. And although she’s always trying to take the high road, she’s found little support. There’s not much even the biggest of the bigwigs can do to save her from being sacked.

I mean, if Las Vegas had odds on Studio 60 lasting until the end of the first season, the entire state of Nevada would already be planning for bankruptcy.

In a blatant attempt to change the subject before I’m pummeled with West Wing DVD box sets and Mensa applications, this week’s episode is thankfully one of the best ones so far. It's the first installment in what I’m sure everyone’s hoping is a 14-part series of Tom Jeter’s run-in with the law.

Read on to find out what happens so far. But first…

What's a guy to do about Dancing with the Stars? Ed Bark visits from Texas to tell us what he thinks:

Put on your high-sneeled sneakers and join me in watching ABC's Dancing with the Stars semi-finals Tuesday night.

No? All right, be that way. Lots of male TV critics, and probably every sports talk radio show host in the land, are firmly united on one front. They don't, won't and won't ever watch Dancing with the Stars despite the presence of a burly NFL legend and an array of lithe, skin-baring women. It's a Man Law, pure and simple.

As a Dallas-based writer, I've got a built-in local angle in Emmitt Smith, the former Cowboy who's ventured all the way to the show's crunch time with partner Cheryl Burke. But here's the thing. I also willingly watched the first two editions of Dancing, and not under duress either. Maybe it's a hangover from my polka-dancing past in Racine, Wis., where you could bounce around like a pogo stick at a constant carousel of wedding receptions. That and early indelible exposure to The Lawrence Welk Show have left their marks.

More pictures and Emmitt talk after the jump.

Let me just start off by saying that Luke Perry and Shannen Doherty were not at the party, much to my disappointment. When I was 15 years old, I was in love with Dylan, the motorcycle driving, bad boy. Oh how I wish there were a Dylan in my high school.

Party Details:

I chatted for a little bit with Gabrielle Carteris, who played brainiac Andrea, and she told me that she was watching her character give birth on the show and then went into labor… hmm, not sure if I’m buying that, sounds like an awfully convenient story. Although that did segway nicely into whether or not she had any advice for her expectant former co-star, Tori Spelling. Gabrielle’s advice for Tori to “enjoy the years because they go by fast.”

My first impression of the party is how Jason Priestley, Ian Ziering and Brian Austin Green were in really good shape. Like they all looked shockingly good. Yes, even Ian Ziering, hard to imagine, right? I know for a fact that he works out regularly as I’ve taken many a treadmill class with him, but he says he also works out three times a week with a trainer and rides the bike. It shows.

Ian told me to tell the ladies at ivillage to try yoga because “it’s tranquil and it increases flexibility and if people walked through life more tranquil and flexible they would walk through life more carefree.” Yeah, I know that quote was pretty lame, that’s exactly why I had to throw it in here. Regardless, Ian played Steve Sanders. who was one of my favorite characters on 90210, even though he spread that nasty rumor that Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth) was a slut. I’m not exactly sure what is going on with Ian’s hair, it’s yellow, so that was weird

Now this is where it gets confusing. If the show does well in the Wednesday time slot, FOX might make it a permanent move especially since Lost is going on a winter hiatus and there will be some viewers looking for another show at that time. I'll let you know if the move is permanent as soon as I hear anything. Hopefullly my public service announcement will make the lives of all you O.C. viewers out there a little easier.

Oprah is my number one TIVO season pass. Seriously, I've seen every episode in the past four years. So it pains me to have an Oprah concern I need to share with you all. Oprah loves John Travolta, like crazy in love. And Kirstie Alley has said she's John's best friend, so is this why Oprah has on Kirstie like three times a year? I'm not sure, but seriously, she's been on more times than any other guest in the past few years, with the exception of course of Oprah's resident experts in all areas, i.e. Nate the Decorator.

I hate Kirstie Alley. I'm not exactly sure why she bugs me so much, but I. Can't. Stand. Her. So a year ago while on Oprah (again!) she promised that she was going to continue to lose weight and then come back on the show in a bikini. A BIKINI?! I won't even look at myself in a bikini and I'm way skinnier than Kirstie, so why do I have to be subjected to seeing her on my favorite show? Well, the year is up and Kirstie is going to be on today's Oprah basically naked. Are you going to tune in to see her in a bikini? And why is she still relevant? Wasn't she on Cheers like a hundred years ago? How about she gets a job and then comes onto Oprah, then I might tune in, but until then, I'll see you on Tuesday, Ops. (That's what I call Oprah to my friends)

Every week it seems like someone is coming out of the closet, it's getting hard to keep up. First Lance Bass, then Grey's Anatomy star, T.R. Knight. This week's victim: Neil Patrick Harris who plays Barney on CBS's hit show How I Met Your Mother. My spies tell me that executives on the show were begging him not to come out because Neil plays a womanizer on the show and the powers that be didn't want people tuning out due to an announcement confirming his sexuality.

Snore, this is 2006, who cares who's gay. Besides didn't everyone already know he was gay, that's like me announcing the sky is blue and grass is green!

Yesterday after work, as I headed for my humble abode, I was almost tucked into the entrance of the subway when I was enticed by a sidewalk solicitor with favorite words—free. And attached to the other end of it were tickets. No sooner were the words introduced to the cold New York City air, did I stop in my tracks and like Pavlov’s dog, make an about face in the direction of the lady who released them.

“Did you say free?” I asked with bated breath.
“Yes,” she said. “Right now there’s a taping of ESPN’s Quite Frankly.”
Wow, I like that show. “How long does it last?” I implored.
“About an hour,” she said.
“That means I’ll get out around 7:30?” I pressed further.
“Yeah,” annoyed by all the questions.

Damnit, I thought, as I made my way through the scrambling nameless faces, and descended into the subway. I wouln’t get back in time enough to watch Survivor at 8pm.

An hour or so later, the much hyped seventh episode had come and gone. All I can say is even though the taping I missed was free, for watching this episode, CBS, you owe me. Last night’s episode was wack! Those of you who watched it know exactly what I mean. For those of you missed it, shout hip, hip, horray, but don’t worry, I’m still here for ya, read on…

Theme: Commitment
Patients: A pregnant woman with two uteruses, who found out that the two babies she was expecting had different fathers. Yikes! … A woman who was studying for the bar exam and purposely burned herself so that she wouldn't have to take the test.

Another Steamy Shower Scene: At the trailer, Derek came out of the shower (dripping wet and wearing a towel) and some brunette was on his bed. Totally clothed -- don't worry. Before they got down to business and revealed her identity, Mer -- who was wondering why Derek hasn't called since she told him she split with Finn -- walked in in. She saw Derek in a towel, the girl on his bed and bolted. The girl laughed and made a comment about "the intern."

Monique isn't 12 years old, she's actually 8.
Could this girl look any worse than what we saw already? Apparently. Not only did I NOT understand the logic between crushing everyone's Doritos, but repeating someone every time they speak kinda went out in the fourth grade. Hate to break it to ya, Monique.

Megg's into the wacky tabaccy.
Why else would someone be in the middle of a breakdown and declare, "I just need to play some bongos." And then, make them out of plastic bags and flower pots?

Caridee can blow some ass.
Enough said.

Ugly Betty: Like I told you last month, Salma Hayek will be guest starring on tonight’s episode of Ugly Betty. Salma is also an executive producer on the show. Muy impressivo.

The O.C.: The season premiere airs tonight on FOX. We’ll find out how everyone in Newport is dealing with the death of Marissa Cooper. I hear Summer turns into a total hippie to deal with her pain, although most hippies I know don’t wear baby doll vintage $75 Fred Segal tees.

Grey’s Anatomy: Meredith walks in on Derek who is entertaining a lady in his trailer and runs out. Turns out it’s his sister but Meredith doesn’t know that. I just hope this misunderstanding doesn’t turn into an episode of Three’s Company. Check out the photo from tonight’s episode and caption what you think Meredith and McSteamy are thinking.

Happy Hour: This little promoted FOX sitcom is my little engine that could. I really want it to do well and it returns tonight after the long post-season baseball hiatus right before The O.C. Check it out.

Huge Sweeps Casting News: Mark your calendars for Nov. 19 because former West Wing star, Rob Lowe will be joining the cast of the ABC drama Brothers and Sisters as a love interest for Calista Flockhart. According to TV Guide , Rob will play a Republican Senator who meets Calista when he’s a guest on her talk show. I would totally vote for Rob Lowe if he ran for office, that’s how convincing he is playing a politician. I haven’t been watching Brothers and Sisters but I’ll have to check it out to see Rob who I’ve been crushing on since the 80s.

And then there were three ... Even though she and partner Louis Van Amstel were chosen for an encore performance of their Ghostbusters cha cha cha, Monique Coleman couldn't hang on and was the latest celebrity casualty on Dancing with the Stars. Other highlights included Willa Ford returning to the show to perform her rendition of "Fame", operatic singing sensations Il Divo belting out "Without You" (perhaps this was dedicated to Monique?) and Monique's mom rushing the dance floor after the results were announced, then doing an impromptu interpretive dance of motherly pride. I'm not sure what that was all about. All I know is that I'm glad that Lisa Rinna didn't try pulling that stunt earlier in the season.

What did you think of the results? Are you sad to see Monique go? Who will end up on top? Chat about the show and share your reaction with the rest of us dance fans!

The minute the Lost gossip mill started churning rumors of another character being killed off in the latest episode, I started theorizing about who it might be.

Could it be Charlie? A has-been rock star really isn’t much of a back story after all.

Maybe it’ll be one of the “new” survivors -- Nikki or Paulo -- in true you’ve-got-Arzt-on-your-shirt fashion.

Or perhaps Tom, everyone’s favorite Other, will go on up to that great big island in the sky.

But Eko? Not a chance. It’s his episode. Sure, his flashbacks were interesting but never all that mysterious. (He was nothing but trouble until he became a priest who was nothing but trouble. We got it. He’s trouble.) And, yes, he does seem to make everyone on the island a wee bit uncomfortable. (I mean, who carries a Jesus stick? Really.) But it’s HIS episode. Getting rid of him now offers roughly the same amount of suspense as having the killer in the horror movie actually be the escaped homicidal maniac.

But, alas, Mr. Eko -- nay, Father Eko -- is dead.

Read on to find out what happened after the 10-odd minutes of “Previously on Lost” clips finally gave way to the actual ep.

House is back, people. I mean it, this new episode was one great Halloween treat and I didn’t even have to get dressed up in a silly costume and knock on my neighbor’s door to get it. The old House with this witty, sarcastic and downright rude behavior to everyone he comes in contact with has returned. I’ll be honest; I was a little worried after watching the first four episodes of the season. Although that didn’t stop me from watching them on TIVO six times each over the post-season baseball hiatus… have I mentioned I’m obsessed with House?

As usual we meet the patients of the week who are Mr. And Mrs. Dawson, a young couple who get caught in the middle of an armed robbery and attempted rape at a diner. I have to say while the action was exciting and I was totally into it, when they panned passed the pie display case in the scene, I found myself wondering how good the pumpkin pie was… IN FAKE DINER LAND, yeah I’m sick in the head.

So Mr. Dawson, Jeremy, tackles one of the robbers when he gets distracted but stops bashing his head in when he realizes his wife, Tracy, is gasping for air and might be dying.

House comes into his office, as ornery as ever, which of course I love, but isn’t really interested in poor Tracy’s throat swelling as he’s spied Wilson flirting with the new peds nurse, Wendy. She’s a looker in spite of the fact that she’s wearing a pretty lame hat. I’m not sure who does wardrobe on the show, but they love putting the cast in hats.

Hey Beach Bums!

Spring Break is back and better than ever! Our Laguna-ites prepared for their Spring Break trips and we find out early that Tyler is also going to Cabo (um, he's like an old man stalker) and that Tessa and Rocky are NOT going. The girls are headed to Virginia to spend some quality time with Tessa's family. How sweet. See, these are the nice girls. Though I'm nice and I wouldn't give up a trip to Cabo. Anyway, I digress. Tessa hopes that absence will make Derek's heart grow fonder and that he'll want her back when he returns from Mexico. I don't see it going that way, Tess, as Breanna sets her sights on Derek.

The kids arrive in Cabo and head straight to the pool. Kyndra walks right past Tyler and starts making some waves with a hot, wet Cameron. Tyler is obviously seething but plays it off to his pals. Later, Tyler parades girls in front of Kyndra, who is steaming mad at his audacity. It appears that Kyndra and Tyler's PARENTS are on this trip, as well. I know you want to know why, but I can't help you there. My parents certainly did not want to see anything I was doing on Spring Break.

Kyndra and Cami get all fired up and dance on the bar. An obviously drunk Kyndra hits on Cameron and makes him think he's going to score. As they're on their way out of the bar Tyler calls Kyndra a slut and drama ensues once again. Kyndra leaves Cam hanging and goes off to set things straight with Ty. The terrible twosome end up getting back together and making out all over the dance floor while everyone looks on and tries to keep their burritos down.

The next day, Cami rips into Kyndra for her pathetic actions from the night before. Kyndra doesn't defend herself, because she can't, and the girls move on. Cami scores points for honesty, and for having ridiculous boobs.
At the club, Derek and Breanna make out while Kelan freaks out that he and Lexie are never going to hook up. Get a backbone, Kelan! I'm even sick of your pining an we've only seen you, like twice, this whole season!

Then it happened - I actually gasped, out loud, when Kyndra saw Tyler frenching some girl on the dance floor. These two are SO dysfunctional that it's appalling and fabulous all at the same time!

And so another Cabo trip comes to a close, with hookups and breakups galore, Laguna doesn't disappoint. Have I told you lately that I love this show? Are you feeling the love too? Holler back and share your thoughts with me as I anxiously await for next Wednesday.

Until next time,
Trace

We're down to the final four and in true DWTS fashion, they pulled out all the stops to provide as much Halloween kitsch as possible. Viva la fog machine! This week the performances followed a similar format as last week with each couple dancing two dances, a ballroom style and a Latin dance. The dance floor was decorated with jack-o-lanterns, spiders and other Halloween accoutrements -- and most of the performances had some sort of spooky twist in either the music choice or costume. Sometimes this worked in the dancers' favor ... and other times, not so much.

Before we get to the recap, let me know who you think should go home tonight:

All Aboard the Madonna “I adopted a baby from Africa,” press train. Next Stop: The Today Show

She tells Mer that she doesn’t regret her decision to adopt David and believes that the controversy that has followed the adoption is just the result of uneducated people jumping to conclusions which forces the story to then take on a life of it’s own.

Madonna shares her side of the baby daddy drama. She claims that when they were in court she offered to help David’s father financially to raise David instead of going through with her adoption, but he turned it down. Madonna says this was a decision she couldn’t really understand, but she saw it as a sign.

“I don't want to judge him. And I don't know his life. And, you know, I believe he remarried and had moved to another village and was kind of getting on with his life. And I think he truly felt in his heart of hearts that-- and-- and-- and who knows if he was telling me the truth, that he would have a better life with me. So, when he said no, that was my, you know, my sign that-- that, you know, it was my responsibility to look after him."

I can’t wait to hear Madonna say “heart of hearts” in her English accent.

The show’s producers are auctioning off a walk-on role on E-bay which includes flight and hotel accommodations and travel to and from the set, fancy. Who knows where this role could lead, after Rosie O’Donnell appeared on the show, she got her own nip/tuck spin off, maybe that will happen to you. Bid on Nip/Tuck walk on role here.

Yesterday, FOX news gossip Roger Friedman caused quite a stir reporting about the imminent cancellation of NBC’s Studio 60 on The Sunset Strip despite the fact NBC had picked up three more scripts of the Aaron Sorkin drama only days before. Today NBC shot back insisting in an email, which is how everyone insists, that the show has not been cancelled and in fact is returning to its Monday night time slot next week. Yet, they did buy only three eps...

I wonder if the insistent email was sent before the ratings came out for NBC’s special Monday night airing of an episode of Friday Night Lights that not only outperformed last week's Studio 60 but also was ahead of the 6.3 million that it did in its regular time period of 8 p.m. Tuesday.

I’m not sure how to deal with this news. Must Momma and Pappa NBC force us to pick a favorite child to survive this ugly, ugly intra-network ratings battle? Why can’t we all just get along and watch both shows? What do you think is going to happen? Is FOX Gossip Roger going to get it right? Are the lights going to go down on Studio 60? Comment below.