Well this week's pretty much all about the election isn't it? And just to get us all worked up, NBC presents Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2008 tonight at 9 p.m. Speaking of SNL, the funniest thing on TV last Saturday night was John McCain's and Sarah Palin's (Tina Fey's) SNL opener. Apparently, McCain just doesn't have the bucks to schedule the network airtime that Barack Obama has, so the duo ended up on QVC, hawing election themed items. View it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPWBY-zmnKk

Last night, Fox presented the 19th (?) Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror episode and it featured a hilarious send-up of AMC's Mad Men. AMC is so pleased with "How To Get Ahead in Deadvertising" that they're showing it on their site today. Take the time to enjoy it here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcmM7Jh2Y3k

Over on CBS, the Amazing Race continued season 13 with episode 6, "Please Hold While I Singe My Skull." The teams departed the Pit Stop and traveled to Delhi, India. Everyone got on the same flight, evening up. After Dallas and Starr secured seats on the plane, they turned their focus to a more important issue: each other. However, Dallas is having a hard time making time with Starr with his mom around.

Nick & Starr took an early lead in Delhi to get to Moonlight Motors for the first Roadblock. Contestants had to paint an auto rickshaw green, after masking the yellow exterior and interior with newspaper. Ken & Tina had troubles with a lost taxi driver, and the tensions started mounting. They were the last to arrive at the Roadblock.

Frat boys Dan & Andrew completed the task first and headed off to the Ambassador Hotel, but immediately lost their lead to Nick & Starr when they couldn't find a taxi.

A Detour ensued at the hotel where teams had to choose between two "Launder" tasks, either making a wedding necklace or ironing clothes. After finishing the Roadblock, Ken & Tina's taxi driver continued to be lost, dropping them once again to last place.

Nick & Starr managed to come in first place again, followed by Kelly & Christy, Toni & Dallas, Terence & Sarah and Andrew & Dan. After more taxi troubles, Ken snapped at Tina when she refused to get back in the taxi until Ken moved his backpack, shouting "Please, get in!!"

The separated couple came in last but were told by host Phil Koeghan that it was a non-elimination leg. However, during the next leg, the couple will encounter a Speed Bump, a task that only they will have to perform before embarking on the rest of the race (thus costing them more time). To watch or for info visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/

Over in Bon Temps, La., the vampires on HBO's True Blood were out for blood. Literally. Last week's show ended with vamp sheriff Eric using Sookie's mind-reading abilities to find who's been stealing from him. Sookie fingered the bartender, who immediately flew over the bar to kill her. However, Sookie's BF, vampire Bill Compton, foiled his attempt by savagely killing him. It's good to have a vampire boyfriend.

Another Good Shot of Eric!

This led up to Bill having to leave town and stand trial over his actions (trial looks to be next week's ep). In the meantime, Sookie took refuge at the only place she feels safe, Bill's house, where a dog showed up to keep her company. Only when she woke up in the middle of the night, the dog was gone and sleeping at the foot of her bed was her boss and Merlott's owner Sam (Ok, could this be a werewolf tie-in?). We'll have to wait till next week to find out. Bad news is that there's only three more episodes left to the season :( and just when it's starting to get interesting ...For more on True Blood visit http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/

Hey everybody - Welcome to Fall Sweeps. The fall ratings period that networks use to price their advertising began on October 31 and well run thru November 27. And look out, there's lots planned. I'll try to keep you up on the goods as best I can, starting with the return of Lady Heather to CSI this week (Thursday, 9 p.m.).

Other things in store are a nightclub fire on Desperate Housewives, Jennifer Love Hewitt's TV hubby possibly biting the dust on Ghost Whisperer, Jon & Kate's Hawaiian Wedding, things promise to get worse for the Walkers (Bros & Sis), several mysteries will be resolved (?) on the Nov. 10 ep of Heroes and Drs. Greene, Romano and Weaver will show up in flashbacks Nov. 13 on ER.

CSI: NY celebrates its 100th ep Nov. 19 with special guests Chris Daughtry, Rumer Willis, Scott Wolf and Julia Ormond, while CSI: Miami has a crane crashing into a building where Calleigh and Delko are protecting a witness, sending them on an emotional journey.

"Some established relationships will start to show strain" over at Seattle Grace (Grey's Anatomy), and Chloe and Jimmy are getting married Nov. 20 on Smallville.

TV Tonight: James Lipton talks up Goldie Hawn over on Bravo's Inside the Actors Studio at 8 p.m.

Sci-Fi Channel continues with Season 2 of Lost, airing four episodes from 7-11 p.m.

Bros Lincoln Burrows and Michael Scofield get one step closer to Scylla on Fox's Prison Break (is anyone still watching this?) at 9 p.m., following another ep of The Sarah Connor Chronicles at 8 p.m.

More crap from The Hills on MTV at 10 p.m.

And Jon & Kate Plus 8 get one stop closer to their Hawaiian Wedding renewal at 9 p.m. on TLC. On tonight's episode, the Gosselins touch down in San Diego, Calif., for a few days of exploration. The kids get to go to Legoland, a huge theme park celebrating Legos, and embark on a Safari at San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park.

Well there's no mistaking that tonight's all about The Phillies and Game 5 of the World Series. This could be it folks, so I'm not going to go into whatever else may be on TV, will any of you be watching anything else?

Hope you all had a great weekend, here's a few of my highlights:

I'm still catching up on things I taped last week, but my fave so far was Thursday's episode of Supernatural. The Winchester boys battled a ghost demon that had infected Dean and was threatening to scare him to death if they couldn't find a way to destroy it. Of course, they did and the bros will get to kill more demons in future episodes. However, what made this ep great was a short clip at the end of Jensen Ackles (Dean) lip-synching Survivor's Eye of the Tiger ... watch it here and enjoy http://www.movieweb.com/video/V08JQZ3x2ozAt5

On Friday night, AMC hosted a 30th Anniversary Special airing of John Carpenter's classic Halloween. Wow, where did the time go?Anyway, helping Michael Myers scare the bejesus out of you was original cast member PJ Soles (Linda), who gave up some trivia tidbits along with horror meister Rob Zombie. Zombie as you might remember, directed a "new" version of Halloween last year. Not as good as the original, but a gem nonetheless. It's available on DVD.


Jon Hamm/Don Draper
I watched Saturday Night Live this weekend, mostly because the handsome Jon Hamm was the guest host. Hamm was there to promote the season finale of AMC's Mad Men, which aired last night (taped it, didn't watch it yet, but I heard it was awesome!).
Anyway, the show actually had some pretty funny moments, which, of course, included a send-up of Mad Men. Stopping by to help out were the real Peggy Olson (Elizabeth Moss) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery). I especially appreciated Don Draper's Guide to Picking Up Women. Both can be seen here http://www.hulu.com/watch/40973/saturday-night-live-a-holes-pitch-meeting

I saw Saw V this weekend too. As usual, it had me squirming in my seat (oh the torture scenes)! I can definitely recommend this flick to any fans of the Jigsaw franchise. While not as good as the first (none of them are), it was just as gripping as the other sequels, with more insight into our favorite puzzling killer (actually Jigsaw doesn't really "kill" anybody, they always have a choice). However, if you haven't seen any of the others, don't bother, it would be too confusing.
And in case you were wondering, Saw VI is definitely in the works. Over on VH1, there's another horrible reality show called Scream Queens and the prize has something to do with a part in Saw VI.

Last night on the Amazing Race, the contestants raced from New Zealand to Cambodia without too much fanfare. Bro/Sis Nick & Starr came in first at the Pit Stop and long distance dating couple Aja & Ty were the unlucky last place finishers. The only real interesting thing that happened was that Terence & Sarah were pulled over for speeding to the airport. Terence got a ticket, and we were told by Phil at the end of the show that it will cost them a 30-minute penalty at the start of the next leg.

Bye-Bye Aja & Ty
Next week's show, however, looks pretty good. Starr and Dallas get close, while Ken finally loses it on Tina! For info or to watch visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/

Over on HBO the vampires of Bon Temps were back to business as usual. When we last left True Blood, town vigilantes burned down the home of some of Bill's vampire pals, and Sookie assumed Bill was with them. Turns out Bill was just sleeping in the dirt and emerged in the middle of the night, naked, to re-connect with Sookie again ... Sookie's crazy bro Jason is hooked up with some mystery chick who indulges in his passion for V (vampire blood, which provides some kind of halucinogenic effect on humans).

Vamp Sheriff Eric
Luckily for me, the episode ended up at Fangtasia with Eric, who Bill tells us is the Sheriff of the vampire ward, using Sookie's mind-reading powers to help find who's been stealing from the vamps. Can't wait till next week.
http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/

And on Wisteria Lane, the Desperate Housewives gave us a little insight into what has been going on for the past five years (this season jumped ahead five years for the viewers). The best one, I have to say, is Gabby's story! It was hilarious, I love the way she shoves Carlos around. We didn't really find out too much, I guess it's way to early in the season for that!For info or to watch visit http://abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/index?pn=index

TV News: The NY Post today confirms that Bravo is indeed working on its own Project Runway copycat. Speculation started last week after an ad popped up on craigslist looking for fashion designer contestants. The show is tentatively titled Fashion House and is still in the working stages.
In the meantime, www.nypost.com also reports that the original Project Runway just wrapped preliminary competition in Los Angeles. The finalists have been sent home to create their collections to be filmed during Fashion Week at Bryant Park in February.
However, there have been some changes ... apparently show judges Michael Kors and Nina Garcia are hardly in the show. More time has been devoted to guest judges as Rebecca Romijn, Eva Longoria and Lindsay Lohan. Also, fabric store Mood has been replaced. It seems that the LA store was too far from the shooting sites, so producers put a fake Mood storefront on another fabric store and shot there instead.
Before you get all bent out of shape, keep this in mind, with the current court order stopping the sale of Project Runway to Lifetime, who knows if we'll ever see this season?

Hi, everybody, sorry so late today. I'm actually enjoying a day off, but had to get on to recap last night's Survivor! Hope you watched, things are really getting good.
Over in good ole' Gabon, Africa, the Kota tribe was feeding its faces, and Randy couldn't have been happier about (Randy was constantly worried about the intake of food when he was with the Fang tribe). Apparently Kota has an abundance of fish, although Randy still fears he will be the first one out if they lose immunity.
The Fang tribe spent their morning watching an elephant across the river. Ace and Matty dared to get closer in their canoe ... oh, and Ace knows Sugar has the Immunity Idol.

The Fruit Flies Challenge
Which brings us to the Reward Challenge, a fruit toss was held and whichever tribe got the most fruit past the other tribe, weight-wise, won not only the fruit, but a live herb garden as well.
Fang got 16 lbs. of fruit across, but was agani bested by Kota, which garnered 18 lbs.
Kota elected to send Sugar back to Exile Island and stupid Dan actually told them why -- they think Sugar's got the Idol and hope to flush it out if her tribe votes for her, thus putting the idol back in play ... never give your strategy to the other tribe!
GC's fed up with everything and is letting everyone know. He disappears right before they have to leave for the immunity challenge. Ace is ticked off because everyone is expending their energy trying to find GC. He shows up in the canoe just in time ...

However, the next challenge involved throwing giant wicker balls down a slope into slots worth various amounts. Hence the tribe with the greatest numeric amount wins. Each tribe has a member blindfolded at the bottom trying to block the ball before it can score. Another tribe member has to be the "eyes" and guide them in the right direction.

Sugar was not the best choice to be the guide and Ace suffers greatly for it! Randy is the guide for Kota and in addition to doing a great job, he also yells commands to Ace, confusing him enough to lose the challenge.
Back at the Fang camp, GC tells Matty he wants to go home. Matty tells everyone else and they decide to grant his wish.
Later on, Crystal goes thru Sugar's bag and finds the immunity idol. Then she tries to get everyone to vote for Sugar, thinking it's the best time to blindside her, thus getting rid of the idol altogether.
In the end, the Fang tribe spoke and gave GC his wish. Yeah! He had to go ... he was nothing but a hinderance to the tribe and the game.

Bye Bye G Sizzle

To watch this episode or for more info visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/


Weekend Watch: Tonight at 8 pm NBC rolls out its latest epic drama, based on explorer Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe sets sail for the New World and becomes straded on an island in the premiere of this adaptation of Daniel Defoe's classic novel.

Saturday brings great news for me over on the Food Network. Not only does Giada DeLaurentis have a new show, airing at 1 pm, called Giada at Home (c'mon guys, you all know you love Giada and her low-cut shirts), but my all-time foodie Ina Garten returns with an all new season of the Barefoot Contessa following at 1:30 pm. Just in time for lunch ... how easy was that?

The Barefoot Contessa
For those of you who don't know, Garten, former owner of the culinary store of the same name in Southampton, N.Y. -- Yes, those Hamptons -- is a best-selling author and all around entertaining guru. If you're lucky enough to count her as a friend or neighbor, your parties will be the toast of the town! And nothing's too hard to make, I have a few of her books and have made several of her dishes and they've all turned out great!


The Lovely Giada
DeLaurentis, the grand-daughter of legendary director Dino DeLaurentis (King Kong '70s remake), is a well-known chef in Los Angeles. She specializes in Italian cuisine and her dishes are almost as easy and elegant at Garten's. And she's a favorite among male Food Network viewers for more than just her cooking. See for yourself ...
For more info on either show visit http://www.foodnetwork.com/

Later Saturday at 9 pm on Lifetime, Harry Connick Jr. returns to acting in the premiere of Living Proof. It's the story of the doctor who helped develop the breast-cancer drug Herceptin. I don't know how interesting the movie will be, but I sure can stand to look at him for two hours.

Love Ya Harry

Of course, over on CMT at 9 pm it's another wacky episode of My Big Redneck Wedding, following by more auditions for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making The Team. This week, the cheerleaders start boot camp.

And you can pretty much count on seeing guest host Josh Brolin bring his recent character W. to life on Saturday Night Live, NBC 11:30 pm.
According to people.com Brolin said, "Expect a lot of fun and some surprising moments. There's a good chance the W. (himself) may appear in a skit -- you'll have to watch to find out!"

Halloween Horror Watch: Tonight over on FX it's scary incidents on the road beginning at 7 pm with Joy Ride and followed at 9 pm by Wrong Turn. Both flicks are good for some Friday night fun -- and they're free. I wouldn't have paid to see either in the theater, but what the heck ... there's a few thrills for all.

But if you really want to be scared, click on over to TNT at 8 or 10 pm for two airings of The Ring! The generic TV Guide description of this one goes "video is linked to deaths of several teens, so a reported investigates."
Well, that's pretty basic, but this movie is absolutely chilling. It's a good, solid, creepy story throughout, but what makes it great is the last 10 minutes, when you actually find out how the video kills people!
The first time I saw this (on DVD, thank God it wasn't in the theater), it was around 1 am (the ending, I mean) and I had to stay up 2 more hours before I could calm down enough to turn out the lights and go to bed! And, if you watch it on a big screen TV (which is what I have), it makes it that much worse!


In the News: Apparently, Mad Men may be on its last legs, so enjoy it while you can. After making history as the first basic cable seriesa to every win the Emmy for Best Drama, Mad Men has yet to be renewed for another season.
I already told you that I gave this show up two weeks ago. I loved the first season, but the second did nothing for me. And others must feel the same way because ratings have really slipped.
The NY Post reports today that there is no scheduled start date for shooting Season 3, no scripts are written and the creator hasn't been rehired yet. If AMC doesn't want it, there is talk that it could move to another network. We'll see ...

The Major Players of Mad Men

Also reported in the Post, Fox and Major League Baseball have agreed to a 15-minute delay in the start of a World Series Game in order to carry in informercial by Barack Obama. That's a little UnAmerican, isn't it -- interrupting America's past time during the World Series, no less, for an infomercial?
If there is a Game Six, it would start at 8:35 pm instead of the scheduled 8:20 start time to allow for this.

Have a great weekend!