television (12 posts)

Frank Micelotta / FOX

The impending battle of the Davids put a little spring in American Idol's flagging step last night.

Fox's hit show—which, despite showing signs of deflation, still exhibits juggernaut behavior—attracted nearly 24.3 million viewers Wednesday, a 1.4 million-strong bump from last week and its largest audience since April 2, when Michael Johns and Carly Smithson were still singing for their supper and little Ramiele Malubay got the boot.

Idol also saw viewership jump by more than 4 million people in its second half-hour, ensuring that Fox would flay the competition in its time slot—although CBS' Criminal Minds put up quite a fight, averaging 12.7 million inquiring minds—and win the night in total viewers.

Although it's unlikely the expected showdown between David Archuleta and David Cook will bring the millions who have gone missing this season back in full force next week, Fox has to like the fact that its (yes, still dominant) numbers are creeping back up.

But why should you care?

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ABC / Adam Larkey

For those of you looking to cram your TiVo with dance competitions, this is some pretty great news!

TLC has tapped Joey Lawrence, fresh from either shore leave or the third season of Dancing With the Stars, to host Master of Dance, the latest edition to the show-us-your-moves canon.

Only this time, a contestant will be halfway through a dance when the powers that be switch the music, forcing the hoofer to prove he or she can really go with the flow. The person who can do that most proficiently will win $50,000 at the end of the six-part series, which premieres June 8.

"The winner of this show will be that person at the wedding or party who always has the right moves and knows every popular dance," said executive producer Craig Piligian.

Well, better that person than the guy who throws up on the bride or spills his drink on the stereo.

Looks like Dwight K. Schrute is just a heartbeet away from the Oval Office.

Rainn Wilson appeared on The Tonight Show Wednesday, reading a letter from his Dunder-Mifflin alter ego accepting presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain's televised offer to become his running mate.

As it is, JFK's legacy can rest easy—the McCain/Schrute '08 ticket won't come to pass after the fictional car-flipper asks what he can do for his country, but only after the country asks what it can do for him.

Fortunately, he has handily provided it with an itemized list of demands. (A vote for Schrute is a vote for efficiency.)

Well, at least if the nation's already going to hell in a handbasket, we can take comfort in knowing it'll be lined with the finest 8½-by-11 card stock Scranton has to offer. The disenfranchised never had it so bad.

Michael Becker / FOX

We're going to have a real humdinger next week.

With 56 million votes giving Simon Cowell the pairing he hoped for, Syesha Mercado was eliminated Wednesday, meaning David Archuleta and David Cook are left to sing it out on the seventh-season finale of American Idol.

"There's too many words...I don't know what to say," Mercado said before launching into her final song, an encore of last night's Alicia Keys cover, "If I Ain't Got You." "I just want to say thank you."

So, with that out of the way...

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George E. Holz /The CW

One of these girls is not like the other. And that's because she's America's Next Top Model. Find out who walked the walk, straight into the judges' hearts...

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ABC/KELSEY McNEAL

Marissa Jaret Winokur remains a one-time Tony winner for now.

The Broadway star and partner Tony Dovolani were eliminated from Dancing With the Stars Tuesday after failing to make the most of their hard-fought trip to the semifinals.

Despite dual 26s on their quickstep and rumba and being called an "unlikely contender" by Carrie Ann Inaba last night, their 52 left them four points out of the hunt while only one point separated the other three contestants.

"It's been incredible!" the reliably bubbly Winokur said before that final goodbye dance. "No one expected us to get this far...[Tony] has worked so hard with me. This has been such an incredible experience."

First to be declared finalists, meanwhile, were—shocker!—Kristi Yamaguchi and Mark Ballas, who've never had to sweat it out for long come results time and who regained the top of the leaderboard last night after a two-week drought.

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Frank Micelotta / FOX

Don't miss one song—or one note of British sarcasm—with our performance-show liveblog:

Three finalists, three songs apiece—you do the math. Now we find out what exactly the judges are thinking when they inform an ambitious contestant he or she has chosen the wrong tune, and it's always fun to have an endless songbook to choose from to up the surprise factor.

Some are surprised Syesha is still here, others think David A.'s had it in the bag all along, while David C. continues to do his thing, be it authentic or a bit...similar from week to week.

We start off with the mayor of David Archuleta's hometown informing him that Paula has picked Billy Joel's 1983 ballad "And So It Goes"...

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HBO

For the little kids in grown-ups who have yet to grow up, good news is on the horizon: A double helping of nostalgia will soon be making its way to screens both big and small.

Kid-friendly TV series Fraggle Rock and The Electric Company are being steamrolled back into production, the former in a live-action musical film, and the latter in an updated run on PBS.

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HBO / Craig Blankenhorn

HBO was right: It's not TV. If it were, it'd be a little cheaper.

The cable net has announced plans to make available its small-screen offerings on an even smaller screen as HBO programming finally makes its way to iTunes, albeit at a slightly higher premium.

Sex and the City, whose download debut not so coincidentally comes just in time for it to cash in on the film's buzz, will be available for the traditional $1.99 per episode fee, as will Flight of the Conchords and The Wire. But HBO has upped the ante for The Sopranos, Deadwood and Rome, charging their fans $2.99 an episode.

Guess not all shows are created—or priced—equal.

The shows debut online today, and in addition to HBO's bucking of Apple's otherwise uniform price policy, they will also break from tradition in terms of when the shows are made available for download to avoid undermining their pay cable service.

Unlike other broadcast and cable networks, HBO will not release individual episodes for iTunes download the day after they air. Their customers will have to wait until a given series' entire season is made available on DVD.

ABC/KELSEY McNEAL

Step in time with our Dancing With the Stars performance-show liveblog:

Only four stars remain and each will be performing two dances chosen at random, meaning they could wind up redoing their favorites or be forced to revisit their own personal ballroom hells. Either way, good times for us.

For some reason, the judges have reinstated the no-lift rule after allowing one per dance last week (which makes the choreography way more fun, but whatever), and expectations are high for one of the stronger semifinals in recent memory.

"Give it some welly," head judge Len Goodman reminds the group. And away we go with Jason Taylor's fox-trot...

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