Ricky Gervais: I backed Steve Carell in his decision to quit "The Office"
"I sent him an email saying: I think you are doing the right thing," he told Piers Morgan. "As a producer, I was expected to try and stop him because he is a big part of it."
"Idol" ratings continue to take a hit; CBS and NBC shows hold up well
Last night's one-hour "American Idol" was watched by 22.6 million, a 24% drop from last year's 2nd episode.
Jim Carrey, 49, is dating a 24-year-old ex-"Top Model"
Carrey was seen last night at a Broadway play with Anchal Joseph from Cycle 7 of "America's Next Top Model."
Antoine Dodson shooting a bedroom intruder reality show
The show doesn't have a name or a network, but producers already have started filming Dodson as he moves from Alabama to West Hollywood.
"Bachelor" Brad Womack addresses his arrest record
"It was just part of my growing pains back when I was still young and naïve," he tells People. "You learn from your experiences good and bad – and you move on. It ultimately builds character."
"Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" star put in rehab after season finale
The family of Kim Richards decided to check her into rehab after her drunken shouting match.
"Pretty Wild" star Alexis Neiers pleads not guilty
The ex-Burglar Bunch member was caught up in a black tar heroin bust, which is a parole violation.
Conan introduces a black "Kennedys" sitcom
Watch "Tyler Perry's House of Kennedys."
Check out JWoww's art
Before she became, Jenni Farley was an art student at New York Institute of Technology.
Instead of starting at 12:06 AM, Kimmel's show will start at 12:00 AM and run until its usual time at 1:06 AM, starting Feb. 3. This means that "Nightline" will be shortened by six minutes, and be reformatted to accommodate the new time. "On the downside, I have to 
In a letter to the U.S Department of Justice AND the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees, the conservative watchdog complained of the MTV's show's content and counted 42 depictions and references of drugs and alcohol in the pilot. The PTC adds: "It is clear that Viacom has knowingly produced material that may well be in violation of (several anti-child pornography laws)." Meanwhile, 
It won't be all about Simon Cowell and the other judges hogging all the attention, says Mary McNamara. "Not only are they great to look at, Lopez and Tyler are long-time stars who have nothing to gain, or lose, by being part of 'American Idol,'" she says. "And after the bipolar antics of last year's woefully mismatched panel — including a zombified Ellen DeGeneres and a manically flirtatious Kara DioGuardi — their natural confidence in front of the camera was such a blessed relief that it was hard to miss even the bracing ballistics of Simon Cowell."
With Season 3, premiering tonight, the show has become a fully realized world, says James Poniewozik, and "Pawnee has become one of the most richly drawn fictional towns in a sitcom since Springfield on The Simpsons." He adds: "'Parks and Recreation' is not one of those 'challenging' cult TV shows that critics like me try to persuade you to watch because 'it's so exquisitely uncomfortable.' It is a half-hour of reliable, funny entertainment that will give you actual, unironic pleasure. It will leave you feeling better than you did before you started watching it."
"People who are into that show are into popular things," says Dan Harmon, who adds that going up against "Idol" is a "a win-win-win for me, personally. There's the version where we hold steady in the face of adversity. I'll tell you the God's honest truth — I think that's what's going to happen. Not because I think we're so awesome, but when your numbers are that small, the only thing they're measuring are people who cannot live without your show. They're not measuring people who are casually watching your show."
Her role as mediator Kate Reed on the USA series is "barely a step above boring," says Alan Sepinwall. "Most of the time," he says, "Kate winds up playing marriage counselor, or private detective, or bodyguard, or whatever that week's generic storyline calls for. And while the idea of making your hero a jack-of-all-trades fits the USA model (Mark Feuerstein is an expert on every type of medicine on 'Royal Pains,' and Jeffrey Donovan on 'Burn Notice' is an expert at everything, period), here it mainly feels like lack of conviction – like someone in the development process began to worry that actual mediation would make for boring TV."
As a result, MTV execs have ordered producers to tone down any explicit content. According to the NY Times, "They are particularly concerned about the third episode of the series, which is to be broadcast Jan. 31. In an early version, a naked 17-year-old actor is shown from behind as he runs down a street" — a remake of 
I'm not going in there to be a 
Don't expect a Guns N' Roses-themed "Glee" episode, says Slash. "It's really easy to get negative about it," he says, "but I draw the line at 'Glee.' 'Glee' is worse than 'Grease' and 'Grease' is bad enough…. When 'Grease' came out I was like, 'Oh, c'mon, give me a break.' Actually, I look at 'Grease' now and think: Between 'High School Musical' and 'Glee,' 'Grease' was a brilliant work of art."
After Reege leaves "Live," "I don't think he'll retire. Ever," says Reege's longetime former co-host Kathie Lee Gifford. "There's tons of things he can do." She adds: "I wonder what's going to happen? Kelly's still in the prime of her life… About 50 guys right now are calling their agents saying, 'I want that job!' It'll have a whole new life, hopefully. But it'll never be the same. There's only one Reege."
Liz Tigelaar expected "LUX" to last five years, but tonight's two-hour special looks like the end, even though The CW is calling it a "season finale." But she's hoping that another network picks it up, even though nobody has shown interest. "Overall, I think that our show was so inexpensive and our ratings weren’t that much lower than the other shows," she says. "I think it comes down to just 'want.' If they wanted the show, they would have kept it. If they didn’t, they won't … so …"
Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld said recently that Baltimore is still suffering from the HBO series, calling it a "smear on this city that will take decades to overcome" and the "most unfair use of literary license that we've borne witness to." Bealefeld also expressed jealousy of other TV cops: "You know what Miami gets in their crime show? They get detectives that look like models, and they drive around in sports cars. And you know what New York gets, they get these incredibly tough prosecutors, competant cops that solve the most crazy, complicated cases."
"After all that buildup, Morgan's first show turned out to be a fawning and completely unnecessary interview with a successful businesswoman named Oprah Winfrey," says Hank Stuever. "It was a droning, previously recorded hour (Morgan has said he prefers to do taped interviews) on a network in desperate need of a newsy, dynamic talk show. The goal was to replace 'Larry King Live' with something better, right? That might turn out to be harder than any of us would have guessed.
"Well, I’ve got one of those announcements to make.," Philbin, 79, said on this morning's "Live with Regis and Kelly," adding that he didn’t "want to alarm anybody … It’s going to happen. The station needs to know and Gelman needs to know and we all need to know. But this will be my last year." Reege said he would leave at the end of this summer or early fall. He finished with this: "There is a time. Everything must come to an end for certain people on camera — for certain old people." (
That's according to Stephen Merchant, Gervais' partner in crime who helped him write many of the scathing celebrity-bashing jokes. "That was the schedule of the evening," Merchant says of Gervais' unusual disappearance for an hour, which prompted speculation that he had been fired backstage. "He did every gag that we planned." Merchant says he didn't think the celebrities were that upset. "It's nice to prick the bubble," he adds."
"It seems calculated, and it is," says "Piers Tonight" exec producer Jonathan Wald, of Piers Morgan's "feud" with Madonna and giving one of Oprah's toughest interview. Piers, for his part, says: "I believe in showing viewers the goods before the show airs as often as possible." PLUS: 
