Yes, American Idol returned with great anticipation last night on Fox. And for those of you who are hooked, there's another two hours tonight beginning at 8! Last night's show was conducted from Phoenix, Arizona, while tonight it moves to Kansas City.


I must admit I was a little disappointed because there weren't too many trainwrecks last night. Yeah, that's why I watch baby! I love to see those people making asses out of themselves -- that's great television!!


Nothing tickles my funnybone like seenig judge Randy Jackson sitting at the table with a piece of paper in front of his face because he's cracking up over some baaaad singer!


OK, highlights: Let's start with the kid with the REALLY DEEEEEEEEP Voice!! James Earl Jones called -- he wants his voice back. I felt a little bad for this kid, because he was sweet, I'm sure he takes a beating with that voice, and the judges weren't too kind.


The crying rocker had to go though -- really man, get a band .... or hop on over to VH1, because Brett Michaels says this is his absolute last season of Rock of Love!


And let's not forget bikini girl -- like you guys could! I don't think I've ever seen Simon Cowell so excited! But girlfriend got her groove on and even sassed new judge Kara DioGuardi with this exchange:


Kara, "Honestly, you don't have the chops to sing that song, sweetie."


Bikini Girl, "But your demonstration wasn't any better."


Oh Snap!!



For those of you who enjoy rehashing Idol each week, I'm hoping to put together something interesting here. Like the Elfman, I have a couple of friends who are Die-Hard Idol watchers and each season I get emails from them that seriously critique and sarcastically comment on each episode. I've invited them to join me here. Should be informative and hilarious! Keep your fingers crossed ...


For more info on American Idol visit http://www.americanidol.com/


What else is on tonight? Glad you asked ...




Over on ABC they're re-airing last season's Lost finale -- you know the one that shows exactly how the Oceanic 6 got off the island. It was an edge-of-your-seat finish and if you missed it or ever wanted to join in the Lost discussions at work, here's your chance to get your feet wet before next week's season premiere.
The broadcast boasts a few never-before-scenes as well as pop-up commentary to get you up to speed. For more info on Lost visit http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=index




On Bravo at 10 p.m. Top Chef Season 3 Champion Hung returns to judge the cheftestants. Can't wait. Hung was the most dangerous player they ever had on the show, and he never copped to any of it. Remember the Breakfast Quick-Fire Challenge in the apartment. "Hung you just broke the truffle oil on the floor."
Hung -- "No I didn't," as he flung himself across the room. Hung was always running behind everyone else, with knife in hand. He was also one of the most interesting players. Looking forward to seeing him.

Stop back tomorrow for the Top Chef Recap.

For more information on Top Chef visit http://www.bravotv.com/Top_Chef/season/5/index.php


And on MTV, The Real World serves up another episode at 10 from Brooklyn, NY. Last week, the guests arrived to meet & greet and fight with each other. Trust me, you didn't miss anything, except MTV's first ever post-op tranny! However, I'm sure we'll be in for the usual shenanigans soon. For more info on season 17 visit http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/realworld-season17/series.jhtml


Later on, if your curious, fresh from his Golden Globe for Best Actor Drama, Mickey Rourke stops by to chat with Jimmy Kimmel at 12:05 on ABC.


In Other News:


Last night's episode of Nip/Tuck barely kept me awake. Looks like the writers are happy about their Christian-Breast Cancer storyline as most of the ep centered on that. Julia showed up briefly, as did Kimber, if only to mock Christian's circumstances, calling it "karma, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner."

Sean hooked up with the med student, but promptly blew that opportunity. Liz did sleep with Christian, but he only did it to prove he still could, which severely ticked the lesbian off! I think the best part was the androgenous couple that was staying at their practice for surgery, with the "wife" showing the 17-yr-old Indian whiz kid med student her appreciation in an x-rated way. Although "she" wasn't quite what she seemed ...




I erroneously reported Monday that Patrick Swayze would be hitting Jay Leno's Tonight Show to promote his new series on A&E, The Beast. Seems Mr. Swayze has been in the hospital since his interview with Barbara Walters aired, being treated for pneumonia. His camp says the actor is doing fine and recovering well. Best wishes to you Patrick!


And while all the glitz and glamour returned to the Golden Globe Awards Sunday night, not all the audience did. Ratings for the gala show were estimated to be 14.6 million, which was way better than the 6 million that tuned in for last year's star-deprived awards announcement, but was also down from the 15.7 million people who tuned in for the 2007 broadcast.




Fox reports that this will be the last season for Prison Break. Thanks! I loved this show's first season and was still intrigued during the second. The first season was brilliant, but ended with the prisoners escaping (thus, no more "prison break"). They spent the second season on the run and most ended up in a Panamanian prison for the third season -- forging another "break."

This season, however, they've been hired by someone (the gov't, maybe, who the hell knows), to recover a device called Scylla that has all "the company's" info on it. I lost interest after four episodes, but might tune in to see how it all ends.

The final episodes will air on Friday (Friday?) nights, beginning April 17. Well, if it wasn't already dead, putting it on Friday night was the final nail in the coffin.

For info on Prison Break or to catch up visit http://www.fox.com/prisonbreak/



ONLY 7 MORE DAYS TO LOST!!



Up tomorrow, Top Chef Recap, The Beast teaser and saying Goodbye to Gill Grissom

Prison Break's Michael & Linc
For reasons that I can't explain, I'm still watching Prison Break Monday nights on Fox.
Maybe it's because there's just nothing else on, however, I'm sure I would be better off watching Two and a Half Men over on CBS. Anyway, Season 4, Episode 7, "Five the Hard Way" played out like much every episode prior. The escaped convicts are still trying to find the remaining versions of Scylla (The Company's little black book) for the FBI. If they fail, of course, they are all going back to jail. So each week, the episode starts out with hope, only to drag along the way, mishap after mishap, until the viewers end up waiting till the next week, hoping that something will actually be accomplished.
And I knew this from the first episode - it was all set up that finding all the components to complete Scylla would take all season long. Why do we care - we don't even have any idea what this thing does?
Along the way, PB's best character, the infamous T-Bag is thrown into the mix to try to keep things interesting - oh and did I mention that Gretchen's back? Even having Sucre "take one for the team" this week by pretending to be gay and trying to seduce some guy named Scuderi in Las Vegas for a chance to get his version of Scylla wasn't enough to make it interesting ...To watch or just get a quick written recap, visit http://www.fox.com/prisonbreak/

Over on ABC, Misty May-Treanor confirmed that she's out for the season on Dancing with the Stars, taking beautiful partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy with her :( Misty apparently ruptured her left Achilles tendon while practicing the Jive on Friday. But at least they didn't bring back trainwreck Kim Kardashian to take her place, which leads me to believe that at the end of tonight's results show (9 p.m.) the judges will not send anybody home.

Misty & Maksim

Before Prison Break, I got a chance to catch up on the full episode from Sunday of CBS' Amazing Race. Only two episodes in and I still love this show! The cat fighting is just starting between the teams and an alliance has already formed between newly dating Terrence and Sarah and separated Ken and Tina. The action picked up where last week left off in Salvador, Brazil, where teams started off exactly 12 hours after they finished the day before. Given their first clue, all teams had to travel to Fortaleza, Brazil, where they completed a Detour by either Beach It or Docket. All but one team, best friends, Mark and Bill, chose to Beach It, with divorcees Kelly and Christy showing off their brains, by combining tasks of both challenges and totally missing the point.

Kelly & Christy
Then, after claiming that they learned from this task that it was important to "read the whole clue," they went on to the Roadblock and let their taxi go. The clue specifically said to make sure your taxi waited ...
Mother/Son team Toni and Dallas showed their true colors when they stopped to help a stranded Sarah and Terrence find their taxi. And Mark and Bill lost first place to Ken and Tina in a foot race to the Pit Stop, leading to the remark, "I'm so glad it's come down to a foot race between us and a former pro football player."

Bye-Bye Anthony & Stephanie
Dating couple Anthony and Stephanie were the last team to arrive and host Phil Koeghan delivered the news, "I'm sorry but you've been eliminated from the Race."For more info visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/

Although I mentioned watching HBO's vampire drama True Blood yesterday, I didn't take the time to comment. Maybe that's because there wasn't much to comment on. After a promising episode last week, featuring the vampire's leader, the ethereal Eric, this week's drama centered on vampire Bill addressing the "Descendents of the Glorious Dead" meeting at the local church.
Yeah, it was pretty boring. However, by the end, we at least got to see how Bill, himself, was turned into a vampire during the Civil War. To watch or read a recap, visit
http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/

True Blood's Bill and Sookie

And speaking of vampire dramas, Moonlight, last season's short-lived vampire-detective drama will be released on DVD Jan. 20. The package will include all 16 episodes. Visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/moonlight/

Cast of Moonlight

Of course, I can't mention vampires without mentioning the much-anticipated film version of the wildly popular Twilight saga. A new trailer for the film, featuring the hottest vampire ever to walk undead among us (Edward Cullen), debuts in theaters this weekend, and should be available on the Internet Thursday night. For info visit the film's official Web site at
http://www.twilightthemovie.com/

Edward Cullen

Tonight TV offers up yet another Presidential Debate (on all the major networks). This time the candidates will be discussing their platforms at Belmont University in Nashville. Enjoy ...

I will be tuning into Bravo at 9 p.m. for the season premiere of the latest in their Real Housewives series ... this time the money-grubbing, so-so fabulous vixens are in Atlanta, Georgia. Described by the NY Post's critic Linda Stasi as "the most sexist, demeaning depiction of women on TV," she goes on to say that this latest incarnation "dives to new depths." - LOVE IT!
I can't stop watching these shallow, guilt-less, broads in whichever way Bravo deems to depict them. And having seen the preview which aired over the summer, this should be interesting ...
Let's see, first we have DeShawn Snow, whose husband, Eric, is a former Philly 76er, who's now caption of the Cleveland Cavaliers. They recently moved to the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta, Ga., and into a house that's been decorated without her input.
Then there's Kim Zolciak, a self-described "black woman trapped in a white body," who lives in an exclusive gated townshouse community in Duluth, Ga. The mother of two is currently recording an album and gets all her cash from a man she calls "Big Poppa." (BP doesn't want to appear on the show, hence we never actually see him -- smart man.)
Next is Lisa Wu Hartwell. She's actually a savvy businesswoman and easily the most likable of the women. She is married to NFL player Ed and has a real estate firm, clothing lines and models. What she's doing on this show is a mystery to me - Run Lisa, while you still can.
Then there's rivals NeNe Leakes and Sheree Whitfield. NeNe is married to a real estate mogul and spends the show constantly talking about herself and how "classy" she is. She is a very active member of Atlanta society. Sheree is actually not a housewife. She's in the midst of a nasty divorce and isn't giving up until she gets what she deserves ... it remains to be see what that actually will be (be careful what you wish for Sheree). The premiere ep revolves around her birthday party "that is the talk of Atlanta!"For more info visit http://www.bravotv.com/Real_Housewives_Of_Atlanta/season/1/about/index.php

My new favorite show isn't on tonight because of the debate, but Fringe will be back next week and thereafter since Fox has officially ordered a full season of 22 episodes!

For those of you, like me, who haven't watched the Sci-Fi channel's latest series yet, an encore of the 2-hr. premiere of Sanctuary will start at 7 p.m. tonight.

And over on FX you can watch the prequel to the biggest movie of 2008 The Dark Knight. The excellent Batman Begins begins at 7 p.m.

The Biggest Loser: Families contestants continue dropping the pounds prior to the debate at 8 p.m. on NBC. And speaking of Biggest Loser, former winner David Fioravanti has been indicted for allegedly trying to scam insurance companies by repeatedly taking out expensive policies on jewelry before and after reporting it stolen.He faces seven counts of insurance fraud and attempted larceny according to the Boston Herald. A poor loser indeed.
For info on the latest season visit http://www.nbc.com/The_Biggest_Loser/

Out on DVD today: M. Night Shymalan's latest, The Happening, starring Mark Wahlberg, is on my agenda for tonight. The premise of this sci-fi flick (which sounds an awful lot like Stephen King's The Mist) and the fact that it was partially filmed in our area, wasn't enough to get me to theater to see it.


Adam Sandler's summer yawn You Don't Mess with the Zohan also bows on DVD today. I'll let you know ...

And Disney's classic Sleeping Beauty makes its Blue-Ray D debut today. Filmed 50 years ago, Sleeping Beauty is the company's first Platinum Edition title to release in the new format. I don't have a Blue-Ray player, so I really can't compare the difference between this and DVD. What do you think?

Just for fun, I couldn't resist sharing this popular youtube video with you. It's from last Friday, somewhere in Texas where news junkie Geraldo Rivera was covering Hurricane Ike. Although he's off camera when the wave hits, watch him role thru the shot, a total wipe out!! Enjoy!

Well last night I took my own advice and decided around 7:30 p.m. to click on over to the Sci-Fi Channel and check out the pilot episode of Lost. Within minutes I was totally absorbed in one of my favorite shows and, since Sci-Fi was airing four episodes back-to-back until 11 p.m., I got totally lost in Lost and missed everything else on TV last night.

It looks like regular Monday evening programming may be off my schedule until further notice ... I mean, I even missed The Hills (horror of horrors!). It never even crossed my mind until this morning. Good thing MTV will continue to air the episode only about 1,000 more times this week. (Of course, I'm kidding, The Hills has really been going down hill, pardon the pun, this season, I'm sure I didn't miss a thing.)
I did manage to pry myself off the couch close to 9 p.m. to make sure I taped Prison Break on Fox. This is one of those shows that I used to love, but like many relationships, has been going on too long. If I didn't like the characters so much, I wouldn't still watch.

Prison Break had a great premise in the first season. Like it's name, the whole show centered around Michael Scofield getting himself sentenced to the same high security prison where his brother, Lincoln Burrows, was serving on death row, awaiting his final sentence for "murdering" the vice president's brother. I write "murdering" because the guy was alive all along.

Once inside, Michael hatched an elaborate scheme to break his brother out, over the course of the season. Along the way we met various shady characters, none more ominous than Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, who could hold his own with Hannibal Lecter any day.

Season One ended with the big break-out. Season Two followed the escapees as they ran from the feds. Season Three had most of them imprisoned in a sleazy fortress in Panama, and guess what, they broke out in the finale. So far, Season Four has the group of escapees forced back together by the government to find "Scylla" some kind of electronic black book that details the inner functions of "The Company." Oh, and Sarah (who was beheaded last season) is back, alive and well. Like I said, this show has gone on long enough, give these guys a happy ending already.

TV on DVD Tuesday: Hurray, Torchwood Season 2 comes out on DVD today. If you haven't seen Torchwood, you don't know what you're missing. I LOVE this show!! Torchwood, which I discovered on BBC America (America's fastest growing new network), is a spin-off of another popular BBC show Doctor Who. In fact, the word Torchwood is an anagram of Doctor Who (go ahead, figure it out). The show centers on Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), who heads up the super secret government agency that finds and controls aliens coming thru a rift in time in Cardiff, UK. Darker and not nearly as whacky as Doctor Who, I always describe Torchwood as sort of X-Files meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For more information check out their BBC America website at http://www.bbcamerica.com/content/262/index.jsp

And speaking of Doctor Who, Dark Horizons says that British actor David Tennant held out for a Doctor Who movie deal when signing for a 5th season of the popular show. Can't wait for that! Also, I'm glad to see Tennant coming back as the Time Lord, when previous reports had The Doctor "changing" again with Robert Carlisle taking the lead.

House is back for its fifth season tonight at 8 p.m. on Fox, followed at 9 by Fringe, JJ Abrams new thriller about disastrous happenings in our world. I highly recommend this show. If you're a fan of Lost, Heroes or even Alias, you might want to check it out.

Big Brother 10 crowns a winner tonight at 9 p.m. on CBS -- as if anyone still cares. This was definitely the dumbest season with the dumbest contestants yet. What can I say, it's impossible to top last summer's scheming Evil Dick, his slutty daughter Danielle, and masochistic Jen.

DVR Alert: Tomorrow Ellen Degeneres gets a rare sitdown with Twilight Saga author Stephenie Meyer. They'll be discussing her latest book and final in the Twilight series "Breaking Dawn." Also, on her website, Ellen promises to try her best to get Stephenie to finish writing "Midnight Sun", the anticipated retelling of "Twilight" from Edward's point of view (all the books are written from Bella's POV). An unfinished manuscript of the book was leaked on the Internet a few weeks ago, and a devastated Stephenie has put the book on hold indefniitely. Also, hopefully, they might show a clip from the upcoming "Twilight" movie.

And for all you Nip/Tuck fans, the doctors are in. Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh returned to the set yesterday to begin filming Season 9 of the popular F/X series. Nineteen episodes have been ordered for 2010/2011.But don't fret, there are still 8 or more unaired episodes from Season 8 that will debut sometime in January. Bad-boy Dr. Christian Troy, hey that rhymes, is one of my all-time hotties -- till we meet again ...