Peacock Tidies Midseason Schedule: "Friday" Shifts, "Studio 60" to Stay Put

It was with a bit of relief as NBC finally released its mid-season schedule... about two weeks later than promised by topper Kevin Reilly.

No word on what led to the prolonged period between the intended announcement and, er, yesterday, but some rather unexpected results did manage to turn up. Let's take a look:

MONDAY: NBC has kept its entire Monday night lineup intact, including the struggling Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which will remain at 10 pm. Many insiders had thought that the Peacock would try shifting the sinking Studio 60 in another slot, but it's staying tight for the moment, following a full season pick-up for the series, albeit at a reduced license fee. Look for a midseason drama (see below) to take over here in a few months' time.

TUESDAY: Newsmagazine Dateline NBC will take over the 8 pm timeslot vacated by struggling freshman drama Friday Night Lights. Hmmm, anyone seeing shades of Reilly's announcement a little while back about programming cheap reality shows only at 8 pm on most nights? Looks like NBC 2.0 is actually happening after all.

WEDNESDAY: Friday Night Lights still won't appear on Fridays, but will instead shift to Wednesdays at 8 pm, taking over for the comedy block formerly occupied by 30 Rock (now on Thursdays at 9:30 pm) and the cancelled Twenty Good Years. But didn't Reilly say that he wasn't doing drama at 8? Um, yeah. Nor do I see why moving Friday Night Lights from one 8 pm timeslot to another will help matters... especially once CBS's Jericho returns with new episodes. But then again, I'm not a programming exec!

THURSDAY: Will blissfully remain the same, with the single-cam comedy block of My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock. Ahhhhh.

FRIDAY: Will remain the same, though it's been indicated by several insiders that Raines will end up in the 9 pm timeslot come the spring, with Las Vegas wrapping its season a little early.

SATURDAY: No change whatsoever.

SUNDAY: Dateline will move to 7 pm on Sundays as of February 11th, followed at 8 pm by new reality series Grease: You're the One That I Want (sorry, but I refuse to make a title-related pun about its future). At 9 pm, it's the Los Angeles-based sixth edition of lost-its-edge reality series The Apprentice (which promises making the losing team sleep in a tent!) and the return of crime drama Crossing Jordan at 10 pm.

While no official word was given about where the Jeff Goldblum-led Raines or Paul Haggis' The Black Donnellys would end up, those who know claim that Raines will pop up on Fridays (see above) and The Black Donnellys will eventually take over Studio 60's Mondays at 10 pm slot in the spring. The second season of reality entry America's Got Talent has been pushed back to the summer.

No mention whatsoever was given to midseason comedies The Singles Table (which saw its order cut from 13 to 6 episodes a while back) or Andy Barker P.I. From what I am hearing, the latter's set is just a mess with constant chaos and a revolving door hiring-and-firing policy as they move to quickly churn out the 13-episode order.

Will Andy Barker ever make it on the air? That's anybody's guess.

One of those series is expected to pop up on the network's single-cam comedy lineup on Thursdays nights and my worry is that, unless 30 Rock starts to perform, The Singles Table or Andy Barker will wind up at 9:30 pm.

Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Survivor: Cook Islands (CBS); My Name is Earl/The Office (NBC); Smallville (CW); Ugly Betty (ABC); 'Til Death/'Til Death (FOX); Desire (MyNet)

9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); Scrubs/30 Rock (NBC); Supernatural (CW); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); The O.C. (FOX); Fashion House (MyNet)

10 pm: Shark (CBS); ER (NBC); Men in Trees (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: My Name is Earl.

On tonight's episode of My Name is Earl ("Born a Gamblin' Man"), Earl is reunited with a former classmate while delivering sandwiches (must have something to do with that list of his) and is tempted to help make him more of a man by teaching him how to gamble. Not quite sure what that's got to do with anything, but tune in tonight to find out.

8:30 pm: The Office.

On tonight's episode ("The Convict"), chaos ensues when Michael discovers one of the new Dunder-Mifflin employees has a prison record, in this episode written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the creators of the original UK version of The Office!

9:00 pm: Scrubs.

Finally! Scrubs is back on NBC's schedule, where it belongs. And on tonight's episode, the sixth season premiere ("My Mirror Image"), J.D. tries to see himself as a father, while Dr. Cox comes to the astounding realization that his, er, anger management issues may have consequences in the future.

9:30 pm: 30 Rock.

On tonight's episode ("Jack Meets Dennis"), after Liz returns to the arms of her ex-boyfriend (guest star Dean Winters) simply because he asked her to, Jack decides to become her mentor and teach her a thing or two about life.

10 pm: Afterlife on BBC America.

It's the premiere of the supernatural thriller Afterlife, starring Leslie Sharp and Andrew Lincoln, on BBC America. On tonight's episode, psychology lecturer Robert (Lincoln), takes his students to meet psychic Alison Mundy (Sharp) and, while initially skeptical about Alison's, um, powers, Robert begins to believe after a very personal experience.

O.R. Mishap: CBS Cuts "3 Lbs."

The diagnosis is not good for 3 Lbs.

After just three (yes, count 'em, three!) airing, CBS has yanked medical drama 3 Lbs. off the schedule, effective immediately.

The drama, which starred Stanley Tucci, Mark Feuerstein (his series kiss of death continues!), and Indira Varma, was unceremoniously canned by CBS, which rushed the midseason medical drama onto the air.

3 Lbs replaced the crime drama Smith (which CBS also cancelled after three airings) on Tuesdays at 10 pm. Like Smith, 3 Lbs. didn't deliver the audience CBS was craving, averaging a rather unhealthy 8 million viewers. Additionally, the series' ratings were 16% below Smith.

Call it a case of schadenfreude, but I can't help but smile when a cancelled cult audience series' replacement show winds up doing worse than the series it replaced. Ha-bloody-ha.

In other scheduling news, ABC will air five episodes of newsmagazine Primetime on Wednesdays at 10 pm, subbing in for freshman drama The Nine, which it put on hiatus over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Newsmag will air a limited series dubbed Primetime: Basic Instinct which will use hidden camera to document how people react to an array of frustrating/stressful situations, such as misbehaving children, annoying public cell phone use, and offensively prejudicial remarks from cab drivers.

The limited series is part of a 48-episode order for the season of Primetime, which has yet to receive a firm timeslot for the 2006-2007 season. It's unclear whether Primetime will remain in the slot as ABC has yet to release its January schedule, but given that they've yet to find a decent 10 pm companion for Lost, trying a newsmag rather than another serialized drama might be just the ticket.

Campus Cleanup: Veronica Unmasks the Serial Rapist on "Veronica Mars"

Wow.

Personally, I'm just blown away. From that killer opening scene (no pun intended) to the heart-breaking last few minutes of last night's episode ("Spit & Eggs") of Veronica Mars, I tossed and turned all night, unable to get it out of my head.

I must have watched the promo for last night's episode about 100 times while counting down the hours to the latest installment of Veronica and I never imagined that Rob Thomas, who wrote and directed last night's ep, would use that scene of Veronica fleeing an unseen assailant... as the opening scene itself before flashing back two days earlier. It certainly set the mood for the entire episode and had me on the edge of my seat.

How many of you out there were right about the identity of the Hearst College rapist? I was suspicious of creepy RA Moe at first, what with his handing out of cups of tea to women in distress and the fact that he had a massive set of keys to everybody's room, but those thoughts were quickly dropped when Moe seemed to become a fairly non-essential member of the revolving cast and blended into the background. I'll admit that I thought that TA Tim Foyle was the culprit, but it appears that he just has a fixation on the Pi Sig frat boys lining up to, um, accommodate his girlfriend Bonnie's appetites. While Mercer seemed like he had an air-tight alibi between the radio show and his little fiery display at that motel in Tijuana with Logan over the summer. But in a Carver-like twist, there were not one but two villains at work here: Moe worked as the set-up man; after Mercer dosed the unsuspecting victims, Moe drove the girls to their dorms on the Take Back the Night (under Fern's watchful eye, no less) and let Mercer into their rooms using his master set of keys. Evil.

Meanwhile, Veronica got to the bottom of the whole mystery but in order to do so she needed some help from her friends, whom she lured to the Pi Sig party with the promise of gifts (fake IDs for everyone!). It's interesting to me that Veronica can always turn to Wallace or Mac or, hell, Piz for help, but she can never do the same with boyfriend Logan. And poor Logan; the guy's clearly head-over-heels in love with our V., but can't stand to wait for her to break his heart. Their break-up has been a long time coming and I couldn't believe it when Logan so casually ended things between them. Still, when Veronica needed him most, he was there for her and ran off with Wallace to attempt to prevent the rapist from striking... if only they had had some good intel about the victim. And I LOVED the fact that at the end of the episode Logan calmly walked out into the street with a baseball bat and started smashing up the police cars... before ending up in the very same holding cell as Moe and Mercer. Classic. You could almost hear the sound of the muscles in his fist tensing up. Those boys are toast.

Kudos to Veronica for getting to the victim's unicorn-festooned room before Mercer (and for attempting to clear the building with a bomb threat, if only police had listened) and for posing as the would-be victim. Unfortunately, V's taser failed to hit its mark and Mercer savagely attacked Veronica, beating the hell out of her and throwing her around the room. But Veronica's been here before, not only as the victim of some deranged psycho killer but also as a rape survivor and it was essential that she face down the Beast himself. Plus, how can you not love a show that has its heroine stab a rapist with a unicorn statue?

Mercer is seriously one messed up dude; his whole motivation for raping these girls was that he didn't want to waste his precious time listening to them go on and on about how much they "didn't like the taste of beer" or unicorns in order to have sex with them. As for the whole shaving-their-heads thing, I'm not sure what the motivation was behind that, except to leave his mark on his victims as "damaged." And the whole Mercer-and-Moe as a team thing? Just plain icky. Obviously, they "bonded" in a master/slave relationship during the prison experiment class assignment (as seen in "My Big Fat Greek Rush Week") as Horshack and Rafe did. Yeah, I'd talk to Dan Castellaneta (a.k.a. Dr. Kinny) about removing that, er, charmingly draconian assignment from the syllabus.

Veronica manages to escape and tears off, looking for Wallace or Piz, or anyone to help... but ends up right in front of brown shoe-wearing Moe, who calmly takes her inside his room and "calls" the police, right after making Veronica a cup of tea. That damn tea again. As soon as I saw Veronica holding that drugged cup, I knew it was all over. And to complicate things, Moe locks her inside the room with no means of escape. But our fave sleuth is more clever than that and she pushes herself inside the closet and grabs a hammer from the shelf... upending a large pile of stolen hair. Ew. Obviously these boys were keeping some trophies of their victims. (Shudder.) And Veronica tries calling Papa Keith from Moe's cell phone as well, in the hopes that he'll be able to trace the call.

But in the end, with all of Veronica's tricks and gadgets and cunning stratagems, it all comes down to a rape whistle. I was happy to see Parker caught up in the whole episode and that she was the one to give Veronica the GHB-testing coasters and rape whistle at the beginning of the episode. Veronica doubts anyone would come running after hearing such a whistle, but Parker does when Veronica sounds it and it's Parker who ends up saving Veronica. Rob Thomas, you devilish genius, thank you for making things come full-circle for the two of them: Veronica unknowingly "let" Parker be raped right under her nose, but it's Parker who comes to her rescue in the end and who doesn't let a bloody Mercer just walk back into Moe's room, instead screaming rape as loud as she can. It's a fitting end to the rapist storyline and both Parker and Veronica, rape victims themselves, get to finally be heard. In the end, college is a scary place and as important as it is to watch out for yourself, it's a reminder that it's even more important to watch out for those around you as well.

Can I just say how very happy I was to finally see the return of the much-missed Mac? I know how very much she did not want to go to that Pi Sig party but, having used up all of her excuses (going to the gym, great-aunt in Bakersfield died, class project), Mac had no alternatives but participate in the plot this episode. (Though I am curious what happened to that scene from the promo that had her see something off-screen in one of the rooms.) I was rolling on the floor from the "Ask me about my STD" t-shirt she wore to the party. I can only hope that Tina Majorino has finished shooting Season Two of HBO's Big Love so she can pop up more often on the Hearst College campus. We need more Mac!

And I already miss poor Dean Cyrus O'Dell, whose time on this series was sadly too short. (Just when I was liking the guy too!) How often do you get a curmudgeonly boxing-obsessed character who admits to not never hearing the term "gaydar" before and drives a minivan? After being overjoyed at learning from Keith that his wife Mindy wasn't cheating on him during a trip to Sacremendi (work out that reference, TV addicts), Veronica is forced to tell Papa Keith that his client's wife isn't exactly off the hook and that she knows for a fact that Mindy is having an affair with Professor Landry. Enter Keith, who has to break it to O'Dell that Mindy IS cheating after all; the two end up boozing it up in O'Dell's office but O'Dell never does get to enjoy that 60 year old whiskey he was saving for a special occasion. Instead he takes his gun and books it over to the Neptune Grand, where he surprises a post-coital Mindy and Landry (stoned a la Annie Hall) with an impromptu appearance in their bedroom.

While we're not privy to what happened next, O'Dell stumbles back to his darkened office, which is (like the minivan) being pelted with eggs by anti-frat protesters (good work, O'Dell, reinstating the Greek system like that). And sure enough, there's a visitor for O'Dell now -- one that he seems to recognize, no less -- and utters a mystery-favorite line ("What are you doing here?"). Weevil shows up in the morning to install his HD and discovers a very dead O'Dell slumped over at his desk. Apparent cause of death: a bullet wound to the head.

Hmmm. Methinks that the sheriff will declare it to be a suicide, since O'Dell was not only distraught over learning about Mindy's infidelity but was obviously under a lot of pressure at work. Plus, they'll find that he was drunk as a skunk (thanks for being an enabler, Keith!) and I'm sure that the gun that killed O'Dell was registered to him and will be found right on the floor by his hand. Gee, can anyone say "perfect murder"? I only wish that the door to his office had been locked... from the inside. I love "locked room" mysteries more than anything.

So who killed O'Dell? Was it Mindy? Landry? Fern or another angry anti-Greek protester? A debtor to whom O'Dell owed some money, thanks to his gambling habit? Or TA Tim Foyle, livid at his girlfriend's frat-loving proclivities who lashes out at the dean who reinstated the Greeks? Um, probably not that last one. But I can't wait to find out whodunit.

O'Dell had it right earlier in last night's episode when he drank from a mug that read, "Life Ain't Fair." No, it certainly ain't, Cyrus. Especially as it's looking like we'll have to wait until January for a new installment of the goings-on in Neptune. It's going to be quite a long winter.

Next on Veronica Mars: it's a repeat of the third season premiere ("Welcome Wagon") where Veronica, Wallace, Logan, and Mac head to Hearst College and Veronica must solve the mystery of the disappearance behind new friend Piz's belongings. Ah, memories.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Jericho (CBS); Christmas in Rockefeller Center (NBC); America's Next Top Model (CW); Show Me the Money (ABC); Bones (FOX); Desire (MyNet)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); The Biggest Loser (NBC); One Tree Hill (CW); Day Break (ABC); Bones (FOX); Fashion House (MyNet)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Medium (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: America's Next Top Model.

Okay, I'll admit it: I've gotten hooked on this cycle of ANTM. On tonight's episode ("The Girl Who Grates"), Tyra directs the girls in a photo shoot by having them float in a pool of ice-cold water and Melrose has a nervous breakdown when her flamenco dancing is criticized during a challenge. Ah, drama.

10 pm: Top Chef on Bravo.

It's the second season of Bravo's culinary competition Top Chef. On tonight's repeat episode, relive the drama of seeing Josie and Mia prepare an entire course of a tasting menu... without actually cooking anything! Gee, I wonder who's going to be sent home.

Casting Couch: Nia Long Briefed on "Boston Legal" and Chris Gorham Suits Up on "Ugly Betty"

Looks like Ugly Betty might just be getting a long-term love interest. For now, anyway.

ABC has announced that Christopher Gorham (Popular, Jake 2.0) has joined the cast of dramedy Ugly Betty in a recurring role, after appearing as a guest star on two episodes of the hit freshman series. Gorham will play nerdy accountant Henry, who has a thing for our Guadalajara poncho-wearing protagonist.

Should the character gel with the storyline (and, one suspects, the audience), there is a possibility that Gorham could join the cast full-time as a regular next season.

Meanwhile, ABC has also announced another cast addition, as Nia Long (Big Momma's House) is set to appear in three episodes of legal drama Boston Legal as Vanessa Walker, an ambitious new associate at Crane Pool & Schmidt, who arrives in Boston looking for some help from Alan Shore (James Spader.)

While Long is only contracted for three episodes, like Gorham, there is the possibility she could be upped to a series regular next season.

Easter Egg Hunt: The Clues Begin to Add Up on "Veronica Mars"

Whew. So it's been a rather long time since last week's episode of Veronica Mars aired... well, at least for the rest of the country. For those of us in the Los Angeles area, we finally got to see "Lord of the Pi's" on Saturday night. And while the wait was worth it (there are very few series I can say that about), I'm at least glad that it was last week's episode that was pre-empted by KTLA and not what looks to be a real mind-blower of an episode tonight. More on that later.

First up, I'm heart-broken about what appears to be a full-blown chasm developing between young lovers Veronica and Logan. I understand Veronica's need to solve the serial rapist case but I also get why Logan is freaking out. For the first time in his life, he's actually in love and he doesn't want anything to happen to Veronica. Personally, I can't believe that Veronica never told Keith that the rapist actually got close enough to her to start shaving her head and, while I don't think that Logan can be the one to break that lovely bit o' news to Papa Keith, I hate that Veronica's keeping him in the dark and then running off to do solo research at the darkened, deserted, and very creepy Hearst College library in the middle of the night. Especially when there's a serial rapist about. So it's not the wisest move imaginable but it fits Logan's character that he would hire a bodyguard for Veronica... or a tough-looking guy who's meant to be keeping an eye on our favorite sleuth. But Logan, not the smartest thing to do when you and Veronica are on such thin ice (after the whole screaming at her with her dad in the next room and all). Still, I couldn't help but feel like I was kicked in the gut when I saw Veronica coolly ignore an incoming cell phone call from Logan... as Logan stands across the food court seeing the whole thing. Poor Logan. I think he and V. are definitely standing at opposite ends of a precipice. Let just hope they don't end up falling in altogether...

(Aside: how great was it to see The Nanny's Mr. Sheffield, guest star Charles Shaughnessy, pop up as the wheelchair-bound husband to the missing Hearst heiress Selma Rose... who wasn't really missing at all? Classic.)

Meanwhile, a few rather interesting developments in the rape case this week. At the beginning of this week's episode, Creepy Frat Guy (a.k.a. Chip Diller) ends up stripped, shaved, drugged, and left on the quad, with a little memento of the whole experience: an Easter egg, um, placed somewhere on his person. Or rather, somewhere inside his person, according to Dick Casablancas. And that egg contained some roman numerals which Wallace and Veronica (wow, a Veronica/Wallace scene!) puzzle over. It's clearly a message and it's no time at all before our dynamic duo puzzles out the fact that the numbers are referring to a date. But what's the significance of the date?

It's that question which leads our girl Veronica to the shadowy carrels of the Hearst library by night. Turns out that a sorority girl, Patrice Petrelli, fell off the sorority house on that very date. And Chip was involved with the motivations behind her "fall." Veronica tracks down some answers from Hallie, the mousy-voiced sorority girl tied up in the whole disappearance of Selma Rose (guest star Patty Hearst). She didn't know Patrice (the whole incident happened before she was at Hearst) but she tells her that Patrice didn't fall off the roof at all. After being humiliated by the sorority and Chip Diller's Pi Sig boys, she went up to the roof... and just kept walking. Hallie doesn't know anything else but suggests that Veronica go question Claire--the girl who faked the rape a few weeks back--as they were in the same pledge class.

And guess who she finds at Claire's? Why it's none other than ex-Hearst College paper editor-in-chief Nish, who helped fake Claire's rape in the first place, and Fern (she of the adorable, um, metal nose ring). Turns out that the two-way mirror Veronica broke into the sorority house to look for DID used to exist. Patrice was Claire's BFF and vindication for her death could be prompting not only the need for revenge against Chip (and the little, um, Easter present) but also the entire rape scenario. Except for one little thing: Patrice isn't dead (I actually assumed she was), but she IS in a mental health facility. Which means Veronica isn't likely to be questioning her tonight, but it also means that Patrice isn't behind the entire revenge plot herself. Veronica says that the fact that Claire and Nish faked Claire's rape in the first place damages the cause more than anything and leads her to believe that perhaps ALL of the rapes were faked. Which really makes no sense whatsoever as Stacy's rape definitely wasn't faked (remember Alia Shawkat, people?), nor was Parker's. But is Patrice's face-dive related to the rapist's attacks or is it just a coda to something else altogether?

Tonight on Veronica Mars ("Spit & Eggs"): Mac finally returns from what must have been the most grueling school "project" of all time, Veronica runs, Parker screams rape, and the rapist is finally unmasked... but not before one character goes to the college campus in the sky.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Friday Night Lights (NBC); Gilmore Girls (CW); A Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC); Standoff (FOX); Desire (MyNet)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); Veronica Mars (CW); Big Day/Help Me Help You (ABC); House (FOX); Fashion House (MyNet)

10 pm: 3 LBS. (CBS); Law & Order: SVU (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gilmore Girls.

I'm really ready to give up on this show now. I miss the old Gilmore Girls, and, no, I am not talking about last season. On tonight's episode ("Knit, People, Knit!"), Lorelai is forced to admit that her old friends may not accept Christopher with open arms, a fact made all the more apparent when Chris accidentally causes Stars Hollow's Knit-a-Thon (whah?) to end early.

8 pm: A Charlie Brown Christmas.

If seeing Charlie Brown and the rest of the gang gather together to make that sad little Christmas tree something beautiful doesn't tug on your heart strings, then you just haven't got a heart. Me, I've been humming the Charlie Brown Xmas music since Thanksgiving ended.

9 pm: Veronica Mars.

On tonight's episode ("Spit & Eggs"), Dean O'Dell reinstates the Greek system on Hearst College's campus, while Veronica, Wallace, and Piz test for the presence of drugs in the drinks at a campus party. This being the end of November sweeps and all, something tells me Veronica might just get to the bottom of the serial rapist mystery tonight. Call it a hunch.

10 pm: Doctor Who on BBC America.

While Sci Fi might be airing Season Two of the newest incarnation of Doctor Who (complete with another new Doctor, played by David Tennant), catch up on Season One, beginning anew tonight on BBC America as the Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston) first meets Rose Tyler for the first time. On tonight's episode ("The End of the World"), the Doctor takes Rose to the actual end of the Earth as congregants gather upon a space station to watch the sun consume the planet. But a murderer is at work and none of them may make it off the station alive...

"It's So Morocco!": Teams Travel and Unravel in the North African Country on "The Amazing Race"

Ohmigod. I can't believe I am actually going to say this, but I'm now rooting for the Beauty Queens to win this thing.

There, I've said it. I know I've been on record since the start of this edition of The Amazing Race with my dislike of the Blondes, but they've far and away proven themselves to be the team to beat, even when they're dead in last place. And while I knew, based on the odds, that this would be a non-elimination leg, I nonetheless was on the edge of my seat to see whether Dustin and Kandice would be sent packing... or marked for elimination. And every iota of my very being was hoping that they wouldn't be out just yet, if only because all of the remaining teams seem to hate and fear them quite so passionately. (Guys, don't get pissed at them for taking off at the airport and trying to ditch you... and then follow them blindly.)

I've even begun to view their somewhat serpentine actions with a blend of admiration and respect; these woman want to win this thing so badly that they're willing to do just about anything to get to the finish line first. And, you know what? That's not such a bad thing in a race. In fact, that's what you're supposed to be doing. There aren't alliances or double-bluffs in a footrace and there shouldn't be one in this Race either. But at no point have Dustin and Kandice bent the rules or even broken them, nor have they been anywhere near as mean-spirited as the Rob half of Team Romber, which I cannot believe has been invited back again to run as part of The Amazing Race: All-Stars Edition. (Shudder.) And I couldn't help but applaud when they managed to not only get on that all-important connecting flight to Ouarzazate, but had somehow been able to board BEFORE all the other teams. The looks on Rob and Tyler and James' faces were absolutely bloody priceless.

The Beauty Queens are cunning, ruthless, and utterly deserve to win. Should they have Yielded Lyn and Karlyn, as they did in Morocco on this week's episode of The Amazing Race? Absolutely! I thought it completely idiotic that Tyler and James and Rob and Kimberly chose to Yield no one, especially when the Blondes were hot on their heels. Guys, this was the second of only two Yields along the Race, and you blew the opportunity to gain some time on your biggest competitors. That's just not smart Race behavior. Fortunately, the Blondes realized that being in third place meant that they needed to be sure that the fourth place team would stay behind them and Yielded Lyn and Karlyn.

Lyn and Karlyn really did not act in the most becoming way, upon discovering that they had been Yielded by the Blondes. I'd actually been quite impressed with Lyn and Karlyn this week and they seemed to be coming into their own after blindly following their misguided Six-Pack alliance for so long: they smartly found maps of Morocco ahead of time and charted out a quick route that put them in first place upon arriving in North Africa, but their behavior at the Yield quickly diminished any respect I had for them (well, for Karlyn anyway), when she flipped off the girls for Yielding them. Um, excuse me, but you can get down off of your holier-than-thou high and wise up for a second: you were planning to Yield them had you gotten there first, so drop the wounded act, girl. It doesn't play with me. Karlyn just irks me (Lyn seems to be the far nicer of the two) so her behavior just rankled me even further.

Poor Dustin and Kandice this week managed to drive right past the Detour, not a good move when there were only three stations and four teams competing to complete the the same Detour. No one chose Throw It, in which teams had to correctly throw (yes, Tyler and James, that means "make") two pieces of pottery at a local potting shop, instead opting for Grind It, a more physical task involving grinding 77 pounds of olives into a fine paste and then filling pressing sleeves with their homemade paste. Thanks to their oversight, the Beauty Queens arrived at the Detour last, even after fourth place team Lyn and Karlyn and Rob and Kimberly, who had a flat tire and had to wait for help at the side of the road. (Loved that the Blondes saw the flat and waited until literally the last second possible to "warn" Rob; even better were Lyn and Karlyn's thoughts that Rob's constant car problems had more to do with him than the cars.)

Why is it that Rob and Kimberly seem to have such a hard time locating where they are supposed to go? When they are not trying to drive right into a mine shaft, they're climbing down into some desert chasm in search of Phil. Um, guys, there are route markers pointing you in the right direction. Way to pay attention. I was hoping that the Beauty Queens could slip in there and beat them to the mat, but no such luck. Dustin and Kandice arrived in last place and, thanks to a non-elimination save by Phil, are still in the Race but are targeted for elimination next week. Will they manage to pull another first place finish? Or will they be forced to take the 30-minute penalty? Find out next week.

Next week on The Amazing Race: teams race to be a part of the all-important final three, Karlyn pushes Lyn too far on what appears to be another eating challenge, and Kim has a mental breakdown when locals start pummelling her with apples. Ah, precious memories.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: How I Met Your Mother/The Class (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); Everybody Hates Chris/All of Us (CW); Wife Swap (ABC); Prison Break (FOX); Desire (MyNet)

9 pm: Two and a Half Men/The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS); Heroes (NBC); Girlfriends/The Game (WB); The Bachelor: Rome (ABC; 9-11 pm); House (FOX); Fashion House (MyNet)

10 pm: CSI: Miami (CBS); Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC)

What I'll Be Watching

8:00 pm: Everybody Hates Chris.

Now on its new night (Mondays) and at a new time (8 pm), it's the second season of former UPN comedy Everybody Hates Chris. On tonight's episode ("Everybody Hates Superstition"), Chris discovers that everything he touches turns to gold (well, not literally, anyway) after Julius lends him a pair of lucky socks. Meanwhile, Drew and Tanya decide to pit Rochelle and Julius against one another. Uh-oh.

9:30 pm: Old Christine.

I can't tell you why I like watching this traditional sitcom, but Julia Louis-Dreyfus is like a warm blanket of coziness after a long Monday. On tonight's episode ("What About Barb?"), Christine and new partner Barb argue over how best to run the women's gym that they now co-own, while Matthew--still resolute in his decision to attend medical school--searches for a new nanny for Ritchie.

George-Michael Bluth, Meet Innertube

I guess there's no need to cue that melancholy Charlie Brown music.

CBS' Innertube has signed a deal with Arrested Development's Michael Cera (George-Michael, we miss ye!) to create and produce an original short-form series for the broadband service.

First up for Cera is The Good Life, which he will write, produce and star in. Innertube has ordered at least eight installments of the scripted series and has retained an option for further episodes; it's the first scripted series at Innertube to be ordered with a talent deal in place.

In The Good Life, Cera will star with Clark Duke as would-be television producers who are so enamoured of the project they're shopping that they're totally blind to the fact that the project is going nowhere fast.

Hmmm, a self-referential project filled to the brim with self-absorbed, oblivious characters. I could almost pretend it's Arrested Development we're talking about, but I don't want to depress myself this early in the day.

ABC's "The Nine" Taken Hostage During Sweeps

I guess fans of The Nine are going to have to wait for quite some time to find out what exactly happened in that bank.

ABC has announced that it has pulled struggling freshman series The Nine from its schedule, effective immediately. The news comes as the networks complete November sweeps and The Nine has taken an even further ratings hit since Lost disappeared off of ABC's fall schedule a few weeks back.

Despite airing promos for this week's installment of The Nine after Wednesday's episode, ABC has opted to replace the hostage drama with 20/20 this week. Next week, the timeslot will be filled with a new Wednesday edition of Primetime.

According to ABC, The Nine will return later in the season (ostensibly to burn off the remainder of its original 13-episode order), but seeing is believing as the network said the same thing about fellow frosher Six Degrees.

In the meantime, the few fans of The Nine better hope that the producers tied up any loose ends in those 13 produced episodes, should they turn up eventually on DVD.

"Break An Egg": No More Salad Days for Carlos on "Top Chef"

Whew. You'd think after gorging myself after not one, but two, full Thanksgiving dinners, I wouldn't have room for the latest installment of Top Chef, but alas, there's no rest for the not-so- food-weary.

I'm honestly surprised that Bravo would air an all-new episode of Top Chef (albeit a Thanksgiving-themed one) the night before Thanksgiving holidays, especially as this coming week's episode appears to be a repeat. But the minds of Bravo's programming execs are and always will remain a mystery to me, so let's leave it at that.

This week's episode was a rare bird, in the fact that the Quickfire Challenge was just so... bizarre and unlikely, made even more so by the fact that the judge was none other than Head Judge Tom Colicchio and the fact that five contestants (Sam, Cliff, Ilan, Mia, and Frank) won the challenge. The chefs' assignment: create a dish in under fifteen minutes made primarily from canned goods and ingredients from the Top Chef pantry. Pantry Cooking is really a good as a test of home chefs' skills as it is an art form: being able to put together a delicious meal from diverse ingredients is both as easy and tough as it sounds. (Check out Donna Hay's gorgeous book, Off the Shelf, for some pointers.)

In a flash, the chefs were zipping along at breakneck speeds, creating an odd assortment of dishes. Some were actually pretty impressive, such as Cliff's potato salad, with anchovies and mandarin oranges, Sam's garbanzo and beet salad with crispy anchovies and lemon dijon vinaigrette, and Ilan's spinach and cannellini bean salad with roasted potatoes and Vienna sausage. I thought that they at least stepped outside of the canned goods restriction to still make their individual marks on each of these dishes. That is, unlike Mia's 15 Minute Salad with garbanzo beans, green bean, artichoke hearts, and mint, which--even if it tasted good--seemed a really lazy way to go, even if it totally met the brief and fulfilled the "pantry cooking" challenge, as it were. I happen to love salad, especially if it's well-thought out and beautifully balanced, but this just felt, sort of... meh. I actually thought that Mike's bacon-wrapped corn and mashed potatoes with chili and chives looked absolutely gorgeous and just sounded like such divine comfort food. (Kudos to him for attempting mashed potatoes under such time constraints, as well.) I would have rather that dish been named one of the winners, rather than the puce concoction cooked up by Frank: a fruit and coconut salad with blueberry yogurt cream, which just looked and sounded vile to me.

In the end, the five losers were told by Tom that their elimination challenge would be to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner for the winners, but as always on Top Chef, there would be a twist: chefs would have to devise a menu that used the traditional flavors of the holiday but was "cutting edge" as well. It's this last fact that seemed to escape Marcel, Betty, Elia, Mike, and Carlos as they prepared a totally chaotic five-course menu that was all over the place in terms of flavors, execution, and a general lack of anything resembling an edge. No, this was one Thanksgiving feast that was as dull and unsharpened as a used butter knife.

Before getting to that, there were two moments that I couldn't wait for, based on the promos that Bravo aired for this episode, one of which turned out to be a tempest in a teacup and the other winded up being far more charged than I had imagined. First up: Elia's nervous breakdown. The promos made it seem far more exciting than what actually happened; I was waiting for a full-blown psychotic break with reality and what we got instead was a low-key, stress-induced love fest that started with Elia smearing chocolate all over her face and then Betty and Carlos joining in to partake of some childish food fighting. Sigh. Not exactly the intense freak-out it seemed like. Naughty Bravo!

Meanwhile, I was cringing when Frank confronted Marcel about his toothbrush. Was it just me or was it overkill when Frank said that he would beat up Marcel so bad his own mother wouldn't recognize him? I mean, I am not a fan of Marcel at all, but this seemed completely overboard and OTT, especially as I never saw Frank's toothbrush on the floor. If anything, it seemed in his toiletry bag, which Marcel placed on the ground, rather than on the floor itself. My thoughts: (1) why was Frank's toothbrush anywhere near the kitchen to begin with and why did he leave it there and (2) if he knew that they would be using the kitchen for the Elimination Challenge (which Tom and Padma clearly indicated) why didn't Frank clear up his personal belongings and, I don't know, put them in his bedroom or the bathroom? Color me confused.

Anyway, back to the Thanksgiving, er, feast that the chefs prepared (back in the summer heat, no less). Things started off all right with an amuse bouche created by Mike (which at least seemed tasty and somewhat redeemed him for the nasty Cheeto-meets-Snickers affair he forced Suzanne Goin to injest). I was a little concerned that Mike would want to do something "extra" but the judges, which included Anthony Bourdain himself (yes, the ever-sarcastic and caustic Tony!), seemed to enjoy it. Next up: Elia's creamy portobello and button mushroom soup with walnuts looked and tasted beautifully, even if there was nothing "cutting edge" about the recipe, per se. But it was modern, nicely presented, and tasty and the nuttiness added by the toasted walnuts seemed to go a long way; it was only natural and fitting that Elia should win the challenge. (Even after basically insulting and then badgering Tom earlier.)

Carlos' salad was a fiasco: limp, wilted lettuce underneath some roasted squash and queso fresco. Excuse me, but I've said it time and time again (and Carlos should have learned his lesson from the booted Josie and Marisa from last week), don't ever choose to make a salad on Top Chef. Ever. Unless you believe you have been inspired by divine intervention to create God's gift to salad, it's just not going to impress the judges enough to keep you around and certainly not enough to have you actually WIN the challenge. Carlos basically sat on his butt for six hours and thought that he could squeak by with a completely lame salad course that was not only not cutting edge, but had nothing new or original about it at all. Throwing in some roasted squash (wow) does not a cutting edge Thanksgiving dish make. (I make a roasted butternut squash, arugula, and goat cheese salad, from a Jamie Oliver recipe, all the time and while it's tasty, it's not cutting edge.)

For the main course, Marcel made a turkey roulade with stuffing and a cranberry gelee that looked absolutely jaw-droppingly astonishing. While the turkey ended up being way too dry (he should have left the fat on in order to keep it moist), the presentation was utterly and beyond a doubt cutting-edge. It utilized the traditional flavors of the Thanksgiving table in an unexpected and ultra-modern way. While Elia's dish may have tasted better, Marcel should have won the challenge for following the brief to the letter. Ah, well. I can't believe I'd ever admit that Marcel should win a challenge. (Did anyone catch a glimpse of his business cards from earlier in the episode which proclaimed him to be the new Top Chef? Aha.)

I will never understand why Mike decided to make a trio of side dishes as an actual course, presenting the judges with twice-baked potatoes with shrimp, parsnip mashed potatoes, and Parmesan-crusted corn. Um, what? First of all, I don't understand how three side dishes, not even served WITH the main course, comprise an actual course. Second, why serve TWO potato entries? Baked AND mashed potatoes? Blech. Everything looked white, bland, and bizarre. The twice-baked potato was thought, by many, to be the best single bite of the entire meal.

Betty's dessert, a duo of creme brulees with chai and ginger and pumpkin flavorings, failed to make the grade. Tom felt that the consistency was all wrong, more pumpkin pie flavoring than brulee and I'd have to agree. The consistency looked way too thick instead of being a rich, flavor-spiked custard on top of which a layer of sugar had been torched. (Adding any other ingredients to the sugar topping is always a mistake as, surprise!, they burn.) But instead of taking the blame for the dish, Betty turned and blamed Marcel and Carlos who had helped her brulee the custards. Whah? The dish was flawed from the start (there was nothing original or cutting edge about it) and there was nothing that Marcel or Carlos did to negatively impact the dish. Oh, Betty, you're losing me!

Finally, Mike brought out a cheese plate, which was complete overkill after such a heavy, rich meal with so many courses (and side dishes). Too much, too late. While Gail was a fan of the cheese plate, it was confusing to me why it was prepared the way it was (WAY too much cheese, first of all) and why it was being served at this point in the meal. Odd.

Ultimately, it was Carlos who was sent to pack his knives and go and I couldn't have agreed more with the decision. He's proven to be a weak link, week after week, and I've yet to be impressed by any of his dishes. I was hoping that Frank would have ended up in the bottom five and been sent packing, but I'll settle for Carlos now. Not sure why Betty tried to throw him under the bus for her failure, but the fact remains that they had unlimited resources at their disposal and a need to impress Tony and the judges, and he jumped at the opportunity to do a salad, even though no one was forcing him into that role. He admitted that his strategy was to sneak by in the middle of the pack rather than actually, you know, WOW the judges or anything and it showed. His salad was as lazy and uninspired as he seemed to be. And after hearing Carlos tell the remaining contestants to "break an egg," I couldn't be happier with the decision to boot him.

Next time on Top Chef: at what looks like Marina del Rey, chefs are told that they have to create a mouth-watering entree, but there's (as always) a catch. Hmmm, waterside setting, an unnamed entree, could it be something seafood-related?

Strike a Pose: The Top Contenders on "Top Model"

Confession time: I've become hopelessly addicted to this season (or cycle as they like to call it) of America's Next Top Model. I mean, seriously, seriously addicted, as in a run home from work to watch it sort of addiction. Call it a model dependency problem.

Fortunately, the only side effect of this dirty little habit is the tendency to argue over which girl will win (and maybe a tendency to sometimes get the twins confused). I thought that Bravo's Project Runway would have sated my need for a fashion fix, but it turns out that watching girls try to become top models (or, well, top print models, anyway) is much more fun than I had ever imagined.

So who are my favorites? That's easy. Personally, I'm hoping this competition comes down to a final showdown between Melrose and Caridee, but don't count out one of the twins making it to the final two either... anything can happen in this competition, especially after last week's episode, which had reward winner Caridee nearly booted and sent home. So, which girls are left standing in this competition and what are their chances of winning? Let's take a look.

First up has got to be Melrose, the girl that all the other ANTM girls love to hate. I can see why, when she's winning nearly every competition and prize and usually being bestowed with heaps of praise by the judges. Rightfully so, however, as Melrose rocks it in her own inimitable style; with maybe one exception, her photo shoots are always amazing, producing exceptionally beautiful shots that are heightened by her acting skills. Melrose is able to very easily tap into her emotions during a shoot whilst still managing to draw attention to the product or fulfill the brief, something that can't be said for a majority of the girls already sent home. Plus, she excels both in print and on the runway, presenting a walk and attitude that has both style and flair. It would have been a egregious error to make anyone but her the winner of last week's commercial shoot for Secret deodorant in Barcelona. Melrose was completely natural, totally at ease, and above all confident in both the way she moved and her attempts to speak Catalan. (Did anyone notice the way she interacted with everyone in the commercial, from the kids who ran behind her to the male models?) Melrose is definitely the one to beat.

I can't say enough great things about Caridee, who is definitely a contender, despite her abysmal performance in last week's Secret commercial challenge. (I was concerned that Tyra and the judges would send her packing, but it was way past time for Jaeda to pack her clothes and go.) She's stunningly beautiful and has the charisma and presence to even make it as a professional runway model after the season ends. Her silent movie was the only one that seemed to show any real acting chops and she's never afraid to look bad in order to fulfil a photo shoot brief (i.e., the elephant lady) or the judges' whims (ahem, her half-hour "hiding dizzily" routine). If Caridee has one flaw, it's her tendency to go too over the top, to make things nearly melodramatic in their intensity, and she doesn't always listen to direction, even when safety is an issue (the skydiving training sequence, for example). Still, I think that if Caridee reins in her OTT tendencies and takes each and every challenge as seriously as possible, I think she could be in a good position to make it all the way to the end.

Ah, Eugena. I was really amazed that Eugena managed to stick around for as long as she did, but in recent weeks, she's finally started to come alive a bit and finally get what the judges have been saying all along: her photos were vacant. Eugena has only now managed to inject some personality into her pics and make the judges see some semblance of emotion behind her normally vacuous expressions. Eugena's photos are entirely flat and, if you look at her portfolio, she seems capable of making only one facial expression. Still, she has shown some fire (though her commitment to the competition and life as a model is in question) but I don't think it's enough to keep her around much longer. Unless one of the others really messes up in the next two episodes, I see Eugena possibly being the next to go.

Then there's the twins. At first they really did seem interchangeable, but in recent weeks, they've managed to break through that feeling of them being identical to express themselves as individuals rather than a team of two. Seeing them outside of a photo shoot, it's difficult to even think of them as models as their posture and body language does not scream professional; additionally, they seem more painfully average than everything else. But get them in front of a camera and suddenly they look like couture models come to life out of Vogue magazine. The transformation is remarkable.

Of the two, Amanda seems to want this so much more than her sister Michelle, who seems at times indifferent to the entire process. I think that the two of them are both so very young and lacking the life skills to really model professionally. While, yes, most models are seriously young (younger than the twins, in fact), they seem more preternaturally mature than these two do and the twins often come across as awkward and shaky in uncomfortable situations (I'm thinking of the Fabio shoot, among others). If one of them was to be sent home, it would definitely be Michelle. I wouldn't count Amanda out of the running yet (her photos tend to be stunning) but I can't see her competing against Melrose and Caridee for the top prize.

Who do you think WILL take home the title of Top Model? And better yet, who do you think SHOULD walk off as the winner?

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Jericho (CBS); Madonna: The Confessions Tour, Live From London (NBC; 8-10 pm); America's Next Top Model (CW); Show Me the Money (ABC); Cheaper By the Dozen (FOX; 8-10 pm); Desire (MyNet)

9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); One Tree Hill (CW); Day Break (ABC); Fashion House (MyNet)

10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Medium (NBC); The Nine (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: America's Next Top Model.

Okay, I'll admit it: I've gotten hooked on this cycle of ANTM. On tonight's episode ("The Girl Who Sticks Her Foot in Her Mouth"), the models meet local designers in Barcelona, causing one to have a breakdown when she gets lost; a photo shoot forces the girls to face a rather angry bull. No, I don't mean Miss Jay.

8 pm: Jamie Oliver's Great Italian Escape on the Travel Channel.

Two back-to-back episodes of the Travel Channel's new series featuring Jamie Oliver, an old camper, and the Italian countryside. On "Puglia," Jamie cooks a birthday meal for the wife of his new friend Beppe... and thirty members of their family. On "Amalfi Coast," Jamie heads for the beautiful, well, Amalfi Coast.

10 pm: Top Chef on Bravo.

It's the second season of Bravo's culinary competition Top Chef. On tonight's episode, Anthony Bourdain shows up as the guest judge (I cannot effing wait); the chefs prepare a "cutting edge" Thanksgiving dinner; and Elia seems to descend into some kind of Kurtz in Heart of Darkness-like madness. Wow.

Sci Fi Blasts "Battlestar" to a New Night

The crew of the Galactica is headed to a new destination: Sunday nights.

Sci Fi has announced that it is relocating the third season of critically acclaimed drama Battlestar Galactica to Sunday evenings at 10 pm, beginning January 21st, coinciding with the second half of Battlestar Galactica's third season and the launch of Sci Fi's newest drama, The Dresden Files. The latter series stars Paul Blackthorne (24) as Harry Dresden, a wizard turned private investigator.

It's the first time that Sci Fi has tried launching a night of original programming on Sundays, which traditionally have been a mix of low-budget movies and acquired programs. But the success of this past summer's Eureka, which aired on Tuesdays evening, showed the network that it could launch a night of originals on another night than Friday.

Not that Sundays are going to be a cake walk, either. Battlestar Galactica, which lost about .2 million viewers from last season, will now have to go head-to-head with dramas Without A Trace on CBS and Brothers & Sisters on ABC.

My Second Take on "5 Takes: USA"

As we're now several episodes into this season's 5 Takes on the Travel Channel, I thought it would be a perfect time to take a second look at the travel-on-a-budget reality series, which this time around has taken five diverse travel journalists from the Pacific Rim and thrust them on a cross-country tour of the United States.

While I've been enjoying this season of 5 Takes, I can't help but compare it a little to last season's 5 Takes: Pacific Rim. It's been interesting to see one's own country through the eyes of someone else from another culture, but there's just something missing this season and I can't help but sit through the episodes wondering what's not there this time around. It's certainly not the travel journalists themselves, who are still an absolute joy to watch. No, it's not them at all, but there's just something... off about the entire enterprise this time around.

Part of that problem is the editing this time around. I completely understand what sort of crunch these guys find themselves under, having to turn around a finished episode so quickly, but there's been a real sloppy repetitiveness to the episodes lately. Did we really need to hear ALL of the travel journalists say, one after another, that the fire dancer looked like Vin Diesel? And shouldn't someone have caught the fact that Jamie's line about how Little Havana was scented with cigars and the sounds of Spanish filled the air was repeated within 30 seconds of her uttering the line? (One time it was a cutaway to Jamie; the second was overlaid on scenes of them walking through Little Havana a few seconds later.) There's none of the taut, quick-cut imagery of last season and there's just this general feeling of repetition lurking through the episodes. This week's Disney excursion lasted far too long as well.

While I admitted earlier that I was happy that there were no forced designations for our travel journalists (i.e., adrenaline junkie, culture vulture, food and music guy, etc.), I feel now that the lack of such distinctions have allowed each episode to become more scattered and haphazard than before. Last season, each of them had a specific purpose or mission in each city that they visited and through these activities we got to know not only the travel journalists better but each city/culture better as well. You always knew that Gabe would be in search of some indigenous cuisine or off-the-beaten-track restaurant or that Renee would encounter some street artist or traditional dance troupe or that Josh would want to do something crazily death-defying. While I chafed against those restrictions initially, I do see that they were there for a reason: to act as route-markers each week and to push the travel journalists to explore deeper aspects of the culture in order to fulfil their individual "take" on the city in question.

Which is, I think, what's missing from this season: a real push to do more than scratch the surface of the places they're visiting. In this aspect, there's a sense that they are more tourists than travel journalists. I don't think that they are really delving deep to get a snapshot of these locations that won't be seen by the average tourist and, most of the time, they seem more content to have lunch or go shopping than pursue some wacky lead off the message boards. I want to see more involvement with local color, with local people, and cuisine and culture; I never get the sense that they're actively engaged with the people they're meeting. Shouldn't we have seen them meet up with the guy Bevis met who invited them to the Full Moon Party at the Raleigh? Or had the guy that Jamie met whilst drinking cafe con leche take them on an impromptu tour of Little Havana?

I do think it's hard because last season had our TJs (it pains me to no end to use that coinage) traveling around various Pacific Rim countries, encountering different cultures on a nearly weekly basis; here, they are traveling around the US, but I think there's still an opportunity to find those different cultures as well: like the Cuban community in Miami or the Inuit people of Alaska. But, again, it involves digging much deeper below just the quotidian.

So far, I found the Anchorage episode to be the most interesting of the season because all of the travel journalists showed a real appreciation and wonder for the location. Most of them had never seen snow before in their lives and the entire experience was something new and different and exciting. You could see that excitement in their eyes as they looked out into the unfamiliar, the unknown. The Other. Which is really the key to traveling, to push oneself out of their comfort zone completely. Miami, on the other hand, was a little too comfortable, as each of them repeatedly said how much it reminded them of home. When 5 Takes works, it's when the travelers find themselves in a wholly alien place, only to then connect with local culture in an unexpected way.

I also think that the old reward system enabled this much more effectively. Last season, the journalists were given the opportunity to win a fantastic reward way outside their $50 a day budget by completing a challenge, using the Internet, locals, or the message boards to find the answer to a challenging question about local culture. The very nature of the challenge forced them to interact more with locals and try to solve the conundrum at hand. Now, they're simply given a Chase Rewards card to purchase any experience they want, without having to work for it. It's taken away any sense of the reward aspect, as it's so freely given.

This week, I had to rewind the episode because I thought that their Disney World excursion was the reward, only to realize that their "tour" of the Magic Kingdom (a.k.a. a ten-minute long commercial for Disney World) had in fact been provided for FREE by Disney itself. I felt really betrayed by this: no tourist operating on $50 a day would have been able to have this experience (handed to them, no less) and it seemed so disingenuous in a program like this, especially as it wasn't even their weekly "reward" activity. It threw the whole notion of a budget right out of the window and seeing them explore a theme park, even one as exciting as Disney World must have been to them, didn't make for fascinating travel television. Sorry, producers, but this is one product placement scenario I wish I hadn't seen.

Don't get me wrong. 5 Takes is still fun to watch and Bevis & Co. are great characters, but I just miss the old format and depth of last season's 5 Takes: Pacific Rim. Fortunately, given that the show is literally produced a week ahead of airing, I'm hoping that the producers can tweak the format a bit and push our favorite journos to get off the beaten path a little more and take us to a side of these cities that we haven't seen before.

"5 Takes: USA" airs Saturday nights at 10 pm ET/PT on the Travel Channel.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Tony Bennett: An American Classic (NBC); Gilmore Girls (CW); 2006 American Music Awards (ABC; 8-11 pm); Standoff (FOX); Desire (MyNet)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); Veronica Mars (CW); House (FOX); Fashion House (MyNet)

10 pm: 3 LBS. (CBS); Law & Order: SVU (NBC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gilmore Girls*.

I'm really ready to give up on this show now. I miss the old Gilmore Girls, and, no, I am not talking about last season. On tonight's episode ("Introducing Lorelai Planetarium"), it's all about the invitations this week as Lorelai invites Rory to dinner to tell her that she and Chris tied the knot in Paris, while Logan invites Rory to the launch party for his new Internet company. That Rory, such a popular gal.

9 pm: Veronica Mars*.

On tonight's episode ("Lord of the Pi's"), Veronica investigates the disappearance of Selma Rose Hearst (guest star Patricia Hearst), the wealthy granddaughter of Hearst College's founder, who conveniently vanishes the very night before she is to cast a swing vote to determine the fate of the Greek system. Meanwhile, more problems ahead for Veronica and Logan and Veronica is terrified after her near-attack by the Hearst College rapist.

*Of course, if you live in LA (like yours truly), we're out of luck tonight as KTLA has decided to preempt this very important November sweeps episode of Veronica Mars (and Gilmore Girls) for the Clippers-Lakers game tonight and shunt it over to Saturday night, so we're forced to wait four days to watch the latest installment the rest of the country got to watch tonight.

10 pm: Doctor Who on BBC America.

While Sci Fi might be airing Season Two of the newest incarnation of Doctor Who (complete with another new Doctor, played by David Tennant), catch up on Season One, beginning anew tonight on BBC America as the Doctor (played by Christopher Eccleston) first meets Rose Tyler for the first time. On tonight's episode ("Rose"), shopgirl Rose meets the Doctor and discovers that Earth is in grave danger... from living mannequins. Yes, you read that correctly.

Televisionary PSA: LA-based Fans of "Veronica Mars," Beware

Sometimes it seems like The-Powers-That-Be are against you, especially if you're a fan of Veronica Mars.

Just a few days after learning that the CW had picked up additional episodes of mystery/drama Veronica Mars (even if it had been for a back seven, rather than nine), I learned (via a tipoff from Televisionary reader Travis) that Los Angeles' CW affiliate, KTLA, would be preempting this week's episode of Veronica Mars to instead air the Clippers vs. Lakers game.

No mention of the switcheroo has appeared on-air so far and Los Angeles-based fans who anxiously watched the previews for this week's episode of Veronica Mars are sadly out of luck. KTLA is shunting this week's episode to Saturday night at 9 pm. (The same goes for Gilmore Girls as well, which is being booted this week to Saturday at 8 pm.) Which means we'll have to wait to see how Veronica reacts to her attack by the Hearst College serial rapist and the rather tongue-in-cheek kidnapping of guest star Patty Hearst.

Whah huh? But isn't this November sweeps? Won't something, you know, important happen on these crucial episodes? Aren't the CW watching Veronica's ratings with eagle-eyed precision?

Exactly. KTLA has done this before. They air NBA Basketball between November and April, I believe, and if sweeps episodes of Veronica or Gilmore Girls get in the way, so be it. Far be it for them to actually warn the fans ahead of time that their beloved shows will be seen by the rest of the country days before they reach the airwaves here in Los Angeles. Sadly, Los Angeles fans of Veronica will remember that that series got preempted more than a few times during its run on UPN...

Rumors are circulating that the chances of a fourth season of Veronica Mars are looking extremely hazy, given the fact that the network opted to order less than the traditional back nine episodes for Season Three. It's extremely imperative that the numbers for this season hold.

So, here is your Public Service Announcement from Televisionary: express your displeasure with KTLA and try to find, um, alternative means of watching show... and be ready to fight back with all your wrath when the CW tries to make it seem as though Veronica Mars didn't reach its projected numbers for sweeps. After all, it didn't end up airing in one of the largest markets when it was supposed to.

Which leads me to wonder: what would Veronica do?

"Freakin' Chernobyl": Teams Head to the Ukraine on "The Amazing Race"

So it seems like producers of The Amazing Race should have had that pit stop at the bottom of Olympic Stadium tower in Helsinki last week, after all. Pushing the teams for another whole leg before allowing them to check in could have shaken some things up, but in the end, the teams ended up more or less staying in the same exact order they did as they rappelled down the tower. Crazy, huh?

The teams left Helsinki for the Ukraine, armed only with a clue that told them to go to the capital city of the country home to the infamous Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, or as the Blondies called it, "where the atomic bomb went off" (another shining example of what's wrong with the American educational system!); teams seemed to think that it was in Russia and I was REALLY hoping that at least one team would do something rash and foolish, like board a plane to Moscow before realizing their error. No such luck. All the teams managed to learn from the somewhat helpful counter agent that (besides for the fact that there weren't any, um, non-stop flights to Chernobyl) they'd have to fly to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Apparently, the competitors had never heard of such a place (or for that matter the delicious dish of chicken Kiev) as most of them kept mispronouncing the city, even after they had arrived there.

I've definitely had a love-hate relationship with the Cho Bros over the course of the season. They've played the race according to a moral compass that while noble in its altruism, seemed wholly out of place on a reality television series. There's nothing wrong with playing nice, but there's something said for not playing stupid. And this week, the Chos were playing stupid. When you're down to the final five teams, there isn't any room in the game for misplaced and misguided alliances, nor should a team keep waiting around for another team at every single detour, roadblock, or new set of instructions. (Truth be told, you shouldn't be following other teams at this point either.) The Chos seem to be really nice guys, but they've gotten the distinctions between friends and competitors a little muddied. There was absolutely no reason for them to keep waiting around for Alabama and to keep stopping every 500 yards or so to again inquire about directions. (They had a flipping map, for god's sake!)

Likewise, there was no reason whatsoever for Lyn and Karlyn to keep following behind the Chos, especially as the Chos seemed so completely indecisive and, well, lost at every point on this leg. Ladies, sometimes you have to do what you need to do. It's a race and if you think that you have a better idea of where to go, then go. Don't just sit back in the car and complain about following these two, only to then keep on following them. Seriously.

Kiev was an odd mix of activities, including a really, really fun Roadblock in which one team member had to drive an old Soviet-era tank around an obstacle course that made me furiously jealous. It didn't seem all that difficult (well, about as difficult as driving a Soviet-era car would be) and the competitors seemed to have a blast, even James who participated in his second Roadblock in a row (gasp!) but seemed to get beaten in the tank race by Dustin, who really kicked some major ass this week. ("What's James doing? He's driving like a girl!") The Beauty Queens are definitely growing on me and increasingly I find myself rooting for them to win (and take down the Male Models in the process), becoming the first all-female team to win the Race. Still, if James and Tyler manage to keep pushing themselves as they have in recent legs, they could be a force to be reckoned with.

Rob and Kimberly on the other hand will never manage to win me over. While I think I would be satisfied if their James and Tyler or Kandice and Dustin won, I couldn't stomach this sickeningly irritating couple winning the big prize. Fortunately, I just can't see them managing to work together enough as a team to pull a win. But the Race is all about twists and turns, and dark horses have managed to come out on top before. I was positively gleeful last night watching their "vintage" Russian car break down on the side of the road as they were forced (along with the poor taxi driver they were paying) to wait for a replacement car, which then also seemed in danger of breaking down. But, hey, at least this time they didn't try to drive the car into a mine or anything.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure which Detour I would have selected this week, possibly the first time that's occurred in a long, long time (usually, it's much more obvious to me). Teams had the choice between Make the Music, where they would have to travel to a local hip hop club and write and perform a rap song using the names of all of the countries they had visited, or Find the Music, in which they would have to drive to the National Musical Academy of Ukraine and search thousands of pieces of sheet music for Tchaikovsky's Concert Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, then search the practice rooms for one of six pianists, who would then play the piece before handing them their next clue. Find the Music seemed hard (searching for things is always tricky on this show), but Tyler and James, dressed in tails no less, managed to finish extremely quickly. Scarily so. Meanwhile, Dustin and Kandice decided to opt for Make the Music and wrote up and performed a little rap that was eerie reminiscent of something from Saved by the Bell or something. But they too managed to finish pretty quickly.

Rob and Kimberly kidnapped some locals and coerced them into taking them to the club (they refused to come inside, however) and then the pit stop, managing to finish in third place. Lyn and Karlyn's rap was pretty fantastic, I have to say, and definitely the best of the bunch (especially after following on the heels of Rob and Kimberly's embarrassing effort); but what was with all of the gyrating dancers at the club? It was just... odd, to say the least.

The Chos couldn't find anyone who knew where the club was and so instead decided to head for the Academy, before arriving at