Conan rushed to the hospital, forcing cancelation of Friday's "Tonight Show"
Conan O'Brien accidentally hit his head while filming a stunt for Friday's show, and was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. NBC will air a repeat tonight in place of tonight's show. But Conan is apparently OK. In a statement released by NBC, he said, “Last thing I remember I was enjoying the play with Mrs. Lincoln and the next thing I knew I was in bed being served cookies and juice.” UPDATE: Conan has a concussion, according to Teri Hatcher, who was racing O'Brien when he fell.
"The Beautiful Life" wins the season's 1st cancelation
It's late Friday before a holiday weekend, and CW has decided to let it be known that the Ashton Kutcher drama that slipped to under 1 million viewers this week is canceled, effective immediately.
Vincent D'Onofrio confirms his "CI" exit
The "Law & Order" star will say goodbye with the two-part season premiere. “After eight seasons, and with the addition of Jeff Goldblum, now is the perfect time for me to explore other acting opportunities and I leave the show knowing it is in great hands with Jeff," he says in a statement. "For all my loyal 'CI' fans, I wouldn’t be surprised if Goren pops up from time to time.”
Kenan Thompson doubts "SNL" would fire a cast member because of their weight
“I don’t believe in that at all," he says of the Casey Wilson rumors. "And not every cast member has been drop dead sexy skinny blondes. We’ve had all backgrounds.”
Report: Simon Cowell's $100M "X Factor" deal is done
Cowell is expected to earn £65million, or about $104 million, from the deal, which The Mirror says will be officially announced by his 50th birthday on October 7.
Could D.C. women with cameras in tow be "Real Housewives"?
Some prominent D.C. socialites have been raising eyebrows with cameras following them around at public events.
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Lorne Michaels: "SNL" had to "change it up"
Addressing the departures of Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson in favor of Nasim Pedrad and Jenny Slate, Michaels says, "we found two people who would help us more, perhaps, so we have to change it up." He adds that the new season, which will run a lengthy 22 episodes, will be "less dependent on hit characters," so "SNL" won't overuse them.
Is "Survivor" being hypocritical for promoting contestant brutality?
For the first time ever, Jeff Probst threw out a contestant from a challenge for getting too nasty. Yet, as James Poniewozik points out, producers have been promoting that kind of nastiness in recent seasons. Says Poniewozik, who's considering dropping the show: "Here's an idea, Survivor producers: if you're disturbed by dirty pool and ugly play, how about you stop designing challenges in which you encourage contestants to beat the holy hell out of each other? There's been a lot of this in recent seasons, and while it makes for exciting clips for the ads, and, usually, plenty of pixellated skin, these usually aren't the most entertaining or exciting challenges anyway." PLUS: Russell is still evil — and boring.
Ex-Fox reality contestant accused of killing porn star
Here we go again: Brian Lee Randone, a contestant on the 2000 Fox reality show "America's Sexiest Bachelor," is accused of torturing and killing porn star Felicia Tang Lee.
"Idol" helped inspire "Fame"
The new "Fame" remake dispenses with the "tortured artist" aspect of the original, thanks to "American Idol," according to Jennie Yabroff. "'Idol' is never referenced in the new Fame, but its spirit informs every song and dance number, and every impassioned speech about why a character wants to "make it."
"FlashForward" beats "Survivor" with 12.41M viewers, "Grey's" returns to 16.79M
"Grey's Anatomy" topped "CSI" and "Fringe" with 16.79 million viewers to their respective 15.72 million and 5.85 million. "Community," meanwhile, lost two million of "The Office's" viewers.
"Jay Leno Show" suffers its worst ratings thanks for fierce competition
Only 4.99 million viewers tuned in last night as the talk show battled "The Mentalist" and "Grey's Anatomy."
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Is Twitter and Facebook buzz exagerrating the amount of quality TV?
Are social media misleading us into thinking TV is full of quality television? David Carr thinks so: "Maybe TV hasn’t really gotten all that more exciting, but with burgeoning social networks, perhaps an increasingly lively social media universe makes it seem that way."
Jillian's guys are the 3 finalists for "The Bachelor"
According to People, the next "Bachelor" will either be Jake, Kipton or Reid.
Tonight is Letterman's 5,000th late-night broadcast
That's counting 1,810 "Late Night" shows, 3,186 "Late Show" shows and four primetime specials.
CW signs on for a real-life "Gossip Girl"
Cameras will follow New York City socialite Tinsley Moritmer, who is apparently famous in wealthy circles. Mortimer last season made a guest appearance on "Gossip Girl."
Chad Ochocinco could be "Dancing" next season
The colorful Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver, who changed his name to "Ochocinco" last year, is reportedly in talks to join the next year's cast.
Paula Abdul agrees to return to "SYTYCD"
That's according to Nigel Lythgoe, who adds: "I hope she means it?"
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David Duchovny: I never thought "Californication" was about sex
"But," he says in promoting Season 3, "I can see where people might have that perception. It certainly is the publicity lead line… Weirdly, it's a show about family."
Joss Whedon on "Dollhouse's" 2nd season: "We are in it now"
"Before, it was an idea that we had a lot of trouble defining, and America got to watch that,” says Whedon. “Now we feel like it is defined, the network understands what it is, we understand what it is, we know what our cast is capable of, which is wonders… And from go, the mandate has been, ‘How far can we take this? How much can we twist the knife? Where can we find alliances that we did not have before, where can we pull people apart who seem to be together and, most importantly, how can we build Echo up from nothing — which is basically where she started last year – and really give her a sense of momentum and purpose that will ground the show in a way that it couldn’t be last year?’" PLUS: Eliza Dushku may live-tweet tonight's show and, Is the new season too newbie unfriendly?
Drea de Matteo doesn't care that "Desperate" hired her as a brassy Italian chick
"I'm definitely playing the same kind of role I've played in the past," she says. "The only kind of role I probably really play on TV, which is the brassy Italian chick. In the beginning, I didn't want to do it again because I didn't want to get typecast. But now that I am old and don't really care, and remember how much fun I had playing that character — I'd rather be playing a character like that than some straight, normal, non-accented person." PLUS: How Italian is she?
Ian Somerhalder: I studied "Vampire Diaries" script while driving from Vegas
The former "Lost" star says he "desperately" wanted the job, so he learned his lines for the audition while driving from Las Vegas to L.A. "I probably shouldn't be saying that," he says. "It wasn't dangerous. I'm a good driver. Booking this show was a crazy ordeal. They tested a lot of people for it. This was kind of the pilot to get, and it was highly competitive. Coming out of that and looking back, it was 10 days of not knowing. Ten days of mental torture."
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"The Cleveland Show" is like giving Marge Simpson her own spinoff
Cleveland is like the straight man, which leads to the problem "that Cleveland isn’t an inherently interesting, or, worse, funny, character," says Alan Sepinwall. "His presence allows the writers … to tell meta jokes about white people in Hollywood producing entertainment for a black audience, and occasionally some of the racial humor lands."
"Cleveland" sure feels like "Amos & Andy" // At least it's eccentric
It's tamer, more circumscribed and less subversive than "Family Guy"
Ken Burns' "National Parks" doc is astonishing — and very, very slow
The 12-hour documentary, which kicks off Sunday on PBS, combines a compelling subject matter with a slow pace, says Mary McNamara. "As much as one admires Burns' refusal to acknowledge the conventional wisdom that the American attention span has shrunk to a hair's breadth, there is no denying he could have picked up the pace a bit here," she writes. "(Also, fiddle and banjo music should be banned from documentary usage for the next five years.)"
Where are the people in the parks? // Warning: "Parks" may make you drowsy
"National Parks" is a phenomonel achievement, simply for its organization
"Brothers" overdoses on sibling rivalry jokes
You've gotta have a high tolerance for sibling rivalry jokes to endure the new Fox sitcom, says Matthew Gilbert. "A few minutes into 'Brothers … I learned something about myself: I am definitely not in love with sibling rivalry jokes. Watching this show was the worst kind of sitcom experience – mediocre material, piercing laugh track noise, wasted talent, and a memory-impaired father who is fascinated by the fact that some men shave their “wiggly-dos.’’ Yeah, wiggly-dos."
Dear "Brothers" writers: Give us more CCH Pounder — and the real Michael Strahan
This is a life-long dream for writer/producer/star Daryl "Chill" Mitchell
It has trouble balancing humor and pathos // Strahan: "This acting's serious!"
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