It's official: "Big Bang Theory" renewed for 3 seasons
The deal is expected to cost CBS $4 million to $4.5 million per episode, which is considerably than the $1 million per episode the network is currently paying to license the show. PLUS: Kaley Cuoco buys $2.4M house.
John Goodman joins "Damages"
In a season-long role, he'll play the CEO of a shadowy military contractor who becomes a defendant in a wrongful death suit.
"SYTYCD's" Mary Murphy: I battled throat cancer
Murphy says she underwent surgery on her throat on Dec. 15 after she began to lose her voice.
"I had a tumor in my throat for three years," she says. "I know I should have taken care of it earlier but in my heart I didn't think it was cancer."
"Mike and Molly's" Melissa McCarthy plans to launch a plus-size clothing line
"I'm working on a plus-size line," she tells Parade magazine. "I'm at a size where it’s hard to find something that doesn't make me look like Ann B. Davis (Alice on 'The Brady Bunch'). God bless her. I love that woman, but I don't want to dress like her."
Dr. Phil talks Ted Williams into going to rehab
The golden-voiced homeless man taped two appearances with Dr. Phil, and now he's en route to rehab.
Camille Grammer implies to Howard Stern that Kelsey is a crossdresser
Camille — who appeared in a bikini in Stern's movie "Private Parts" — said that her soon-to-be-ex-husband isn't gay, but "when he got into 'La Cage aux Folles,' he was in the right play." PLUS: Camille hasn't decided if she's going to leave "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." (Listen to the entire interview)
J.J. Abrams: "Fringe" couldn't avoid serialization
"To not embrace that means we will fail on other people's terms," he says. "So if we're going to fail, let's go down having done the most badass, weirdest, interesting, sophisticated version of a series we can possibly do." PLUS: Abrams on "Fringe's" move to Fridays: "My first reaction was 'sh*t' followed almost immediately by 'thank you Fox.'"
Kiefer Sutherland: Webisode star
In Kiefer's "24" follow-up, he'll play a hitman on the Hulu series "The Confession."
"All in the Family" premiered 40 years ago today: Why it still matters
The groundbreaking sitcom is still relevant today, says Matt Zoller Seitz. "The Bunkers and their friends and neighbors debated war, religion, drugs, gun control, sex, sexism, gay rights, race relations, immigration, taxation, the environmental movement and everything else under the sun," he writes. "The series wasn’t just a situation comedy, it as was an ongoing national conversation rooted in well-written, well-acted, multifaceted characters."
Conan talks about his chat with Letterman, and his future on "Conan"
"My goal is not to do this forever," Conan said as TV critics visited his TBS set. "I just want to do this really well for a period of time until I have nothing left to say and then go away."
"The Good Wife" getting visits from America Ferrera and Jerry Stiller
The "Ugly Betty" vet may romance Alan Cumming in a three-episode stint, while Stiller will play a judge.
"The Kennedys" director: We complied with every History channel objection
If there originally was a scene or two "that went a little too far," says Jon Cassar, "we pulled it back." That apparently includes an early draft that included sexual misadventures in the White House. "The show is unrecognizable from the first draft, totally unrecognizable," he says, adding: "Every time the History Channel wanted a change, or a lawyer wanted a change, we did it."
"Off the Map" proves that the "Grey's Anatomy" formula is tough to copy
"What "Map' proves, as much as anything, is that Grey's is harder to mimic than it looks, even by people who work there," says Robert Bianco of the "even-lesser 'Private Practice.'" He adds: "Grey's can be too silly and playful, but it seldom lets you forget that its main characters are competent, competitive doctors with strong opinions they're willing and able to defend. They have weight, and that's what gives the romance its appeal and the drama its gravity. 'Map's' characters, in contrast, are mere outlines that barely cast a shadow."
"Lost" shooting locations too distracting // "Grey's" parallels are too hard to avoid
Actors overcome their formulaic characters // Where are the original characters?
Zach Gilford turns 29 on Friday, says: "It's so good to play an adult and a doctor"
Caroline Dhavernas: From "Wonderfalls" to "Off the Map"
Meryl Streep's daughter, Mamie Gummer: "I feel like we’re doing everything"
"Off the Map" employed wilderness medical advisers, Doctors Without Borders
"There's been a lot of talk about who's going to be the tough one," Randy Jackson told TV critics, who met with the "Idol" judges this morning. "Who will be the mean one? You will hear from all of us. If it's terrible, it's terrible and we're going to say it." As for whether Steven Tyler will need a delay? "F@!k no," says Tyler. PLUS: 
From "Raging Bull" to "Rocky," we've seen it all before. But "Lights Out" turns many boxing cliches into an extraordinary watchable piece of work, says Glenn Garvin, adding: "If many of these plot and character elements are straight off the bargain shelf at the Boxing Melodrama R Us superstore, 'Lights' nonetheless gives them new life – partly thanks to a superlative cast and partly because the show resists the biggest cliche of all: the boxer as innocent victim of poverty and circumstance."
"It was like, 'Were we all watching the same thing?'" says co-creator Mark V. Olsen. "At the end of the day, it was a really invigorating exercise for both of us. We read everything. We do. We haunt the boards, we read the blogs, we read it all." Olsen and "co-creator Will Scheffer plan to re-focus on the family for the 5th and final season. PLUS: Watch 4 seasons of 
The controversial eight-part miniseries (
"There's something fundamentally unsatisfying about 'The Cape,' NBC's new superhero show about a former cop who becomes a costumed crime fighter in the mythical Palm City," says Matt Zoller Seitz. "The problem isn't lack of ambition. The series wants nothing less than to be the ultimate tribute to comic books — an encyclopedia of modes that will satisfy everyone from young viewers weaned on graphic novels to grandparents that still pine for the days of black-and-white Saturday morning serials. No, the source of the show's downfall is more basic: It rushes through everything, pulverizing potentially engaging characters and story until the whole production starts to feel like a long trailer for itself."
"On TV, he who laughs last can be the one who makes you laugh best," says Robert Bianco. "Certainly, Matt LeBlanc had to bear the brunt of many jokes after Joey, even though he was more sinned against than sinning in that NBC-engineered flop. Now he gets his turn in 'Episodes,' a riotously, often scathingly funny showbiz satire that proves LeBlanc is smart enough to know self-mockery can be a potent weapon, and talented enough to wield it properly."
Fox's new animated comedy just isn't funny, says Hank Stuever. "Although the animation in 'Bob's Burgers' attempts a couple of alluringly simple touches (the Belchers have no chins, lending them a quirky, Beaker-from-the-Muppets quality), the script and characters exhibit a cheap emptiness interested only in exploring the ever-outwardly-shifting limits of what you can and can't say on broadcast TV," he writes.
"Though an air of sweetness and subtlety pervades the original," says Mary McNamara, "Showtime's 'Shameless' seems determined to knock viewers on the head by turns with sledgehammers of grittiness and preachiness, never a good combination. Macy is bound and determined to make Frank utterly unlovable, which is to say an actual drunk — despite what Eugene O'Neill has led us to believe, drunks are only fascinating to themselves. And while that is a brave and actorly decision, he seems to be part of another story entirely — in 'Shameless,' his ruthless narcissism makes his children's rueful fondness less about the cracked but still functioning heart of family and more like horrifying psychosis, which is never acknowledged as such."
Oprah Winfrey 
