[Televisionary]

It's good to have an iteration of Top Chef back on television, a breath of fresh air--or the enticing aroma of cooking, at least, wafting through my TiVo. Last night's season premiere ("First Date Dinners") found the first week's six master chefs--Ana Sortun, Govind Armstrong, Jerry Traunfeld, Jimmy Bradley, Susan Feniger, and Tony Mantuano--competing for a shot at the next round and a sizable donation to the charity of their choice when they were forced to contend with a flashback Quickfire Challenge from the very first season of Top Chef and an Elimination Challenge that tested not only their skills in the kitchen but also how well they could work with their teammate to conceptualize a duo-plated dish. What's that you say? Teammate? Yes, these masters were paired together throughout the entire episode, making it even more essential that they stopped thinking of themselves as the chief and more as partner chefs if they had any hope of coming out on top. It

Get your knives ready: Top Chef Masters returns tonight with a brand-new season of culinary competition, extreme criticism, and put-upon expressions as another batch of 22 master chefs (including some familiar faces, six in number, who get another shot) return to the Top Chef kitchen to compete for charity. Be sure to stay up for tonight's fantastic season premiere of Top Chef Masters ("First Date Dinners"), airing at 11 pm ET/PT (don't worry: the series relocates to 10 pm next week), in which six master chefs--Ana Sortun, Govind Armstrong, Jerry Traunfeld, Jimmy Bradley, Susan Feniger, and Tony Mantuano--are put through their paces with a Quickfire and Elimination Challenge that will test their conceptual, execution, and time management skills while putting a charitable donation--and the ability to advance to the next round--on the line. The competition has always been fierce on Top Chef --the forebear of this series which instead features up-and-coming chef

Welcome to your Thursday morning television briefing. Elisha Cuthbert ( 24 ) has been cast as the female lead in ABC comedy pilot Happy Endings , where she will play Alex, a woman whose relationship ends at the alter and she and her would-have-been husband have to figure out how they and their friends can keep their relationship intact. Project, from writer David Caspe, directors Anthony and Joe Russo, and Sony Pictures Television, also stars Adam Pally, Casey Wilson, Eliza Coupe, and Damon Wayans, Jr. ( Hollywood Reporter ) Facebook has spoken and Lorne Michaels has listened: 88-year-old Betty White ( The Proposal ) will be hosting NBC's Saturday Night Live on May 8th. "It took on a groundswell," Michaels told USA Today 's Gary Levin. "It isn't something we would have said no to, [but the campaign] validated that... It was the outpouring of affection from fans, and we feel the same way." White's episode will also feature former SNL -ers Tina Fey, A

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Given that it's the day after a US holiday, there are precious few headlines this morning but here's what we've got. TVGuide.com's Natalie Abrams is reporting that Michael Trucco ( Battlestar Galactica ) has been cast as a guest star on ABC's sci-fi drama V . Trucco is set to appear in the April 13th episode as the enigmatic John May, the leader of the Fifth Column, a group of rebel Visitors who have been plotting to overthrow the leadership of the alien race. ( TVGuide.com ) A slew of pilot castings: Amy Smart ( Scrubs ) has been cast in CBS' untitled medical drama from executive producer John Wells ( ER ) and writer Hannah Shakespeare ( The Philanthropist ) about a mobile medical team that travels the US and helps those less fortunate yet in need of serious medical attention. Smart will play Meg Cooper, "a tough nurse who stands up to the doctors and sleeps with one of them." Elsewhere, Michelle Bo

Welcome to your Wednesday television briefing. TV Guide Magazine 's Will Keck is reporting that Weeds ' Justin Kirk has landed a guest starring role on ABC's Modern Family but says that there is potential that he could recur later this season or next. Kirk will play Lee Keizler, the "gung-ho and athletic boss" of Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Mitchell, who quits his stressful law job to become legal counsel for clothing line owned by Kirk's Lee. ( TV Guide Magazine ) Bravo has unveiled the 22 master chefs who will be competing for the top prize on Season Two of Top Chef Masters , which is set to premiere on Wednesday, April 7th. Those chefs include: Jody Adams, Govind Armstrong, Graham Elliot Bowles, Jimmy Bradley, David Burkey, Wylie Dufresne, Susan Feniger, Debbie Gold, Carmen Gonzalez, Maria Hines, Susur Lee, Ludo Lefebvre, Tony Mantuano, Rick Moonen, Mark Peel, Monica Pope, Thierry Rautureau, Marcus Samuelsson, Ana Sortun, Rick Tramonto, Jerry Traunfeld, an

After a day of interviews and covering press sessions at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, I had the honor of dining at Top Chef winner Michael Voltaggio's restaurant, The Dining Room at The Langham, in Pasadena. I've been dying to eat there since Top Chef ended... and what an evening it was. I was joined in this culinary adventure by several fellow television journalists/foodies including: my editor at The Daily Beast, Kate Aurthur; Denise Martin of The Los Angeles Times ; Zap2It's Hanh Nguyen; and St. Louis Post Dispatch TV columnist Gail Pennington. Arriving at the Dining Room, we were greeted with several warm welcomes by the restaurant's manager and the hotel's PR executive. We sipped on some lovely glasses of non-vintage champagne while we perused the menu and ultimately decided to go with a five-course chef's tasting menu, with the dishes to be expertly selected by Michael Voltaggio, with whom we visited in the kitchen following the

Perhaps because this season focused on the strengths of the competitors and one particular sibling rivalry rather than on any animosity between the contestants, there wasn't a hell of a lot of controversy for Andy Cohen to discuss. (Certainly no wigs were ripped off anyone's head on Top Chef this season.) So last night's Top Chef reunion was a rather low-key affair (especially compared with the histrionics seen on Real Housewives get-togethers), with the only remote sparks of controversy being those emanating from Eli's cancer comment to Robin, Ash's feeling that Padma hated him, and, well, that was about it. Hell, anyone hoping to learn who the fan favorite would be from Top Chef: Las Vegas still has to wait until tonight to find out as someone decided not to announce the fan favorite winner during the reunion special (a likely place to do so) but to wait until Andy Cohen's Thursday latenight talkfest to do so. (In other words: Grr. Though there's no do

Was I the only one on the edge of my seat last night? Last night's season finale of Top Chef ("Season Finale, Part Two") found the final three chefs going head-to-head with the title of Top Chef and a cool $125,000 cash prize on the line. It was really anyone's game as all three remaining contestants have proven themselves not only worthy competitors but also talented and accomplished chefs in their own right. As always, it would all come down to one last challenge. The task seemed simple enough: cook a fantastic meal for the judges and a panel of esteemed restaurateurs with the bounty of Napa Valley at their disposal. But this is Top Chef and these three chefs are each killer competitors, so the three-course meal at Cyrus in Healdsburg (which is in Sonoma rather than Napa Valley but I'll let this change in locale slip by) quickly turned into a twist-laden multiple-course meal with multiple hindrances and curveballs. How did the three remaining chefs perform? An

Only three chefs remain. With the season finale of Top Chef: Las Vegas set to air tonight, I'm curious to see just who you think will walk away the ultimate victor of this season of Bravo's deliciously addictive culinary competition series. (I'm still bummed that Jennifer Carroll is out of the running, however. Sigh.) Personally, my money is on Kevin. He's proven himself more than capable of not only dealing with the intense pressure of the competition but also staying true to his culinary ethos and style and his deceptively "simple" dishes have wowed the judges and diners alike throughout the course of the season. Of course, Bryan and Michael Voltaggio are both extremely talented competitors and either of them could create the winning dish. But I have a feeling that the sibling rivalry that's marked the competition so far could be their ultimate undoing. Will the Voltaggios cancel each other out? Are they more focused on beating one another than on beati

And then there were three. This week's episode of Top Chef: Las Vegas ("Season Finale: Part One") had me on the edge of my seat, not just for the inherent tension (believe me, I was on pins and needles by the end) but also because I'm a huge admirer of Napa Valley cuisine and produce. The region itself holds special meaning for me: it's where I proposed to my wife and was married (on the same spot in both cases), just a few hundred feet from Rutherford Hill Winery, where the Elimination Challenge took place. Napa is a magical place where food and wine are celebrated in the most exquisite way and this week's challenges for the final four contestants had the chefs putting local produce on a pedestal as they were tasked with creating a grape-centric dish aboard the Napa Wine Train for their Quickfire Challenge and with creating two dishes (one vegetarian, the other protein-based) with local ingredients for Rutherford Hill's annual crush celebration. I have t

Welcome to your Tuesday morning television briefing. Sorry Alex O'Loughlin fans: CBS has pulled Three Rivers from its schedule, effective immediately. Beginning this Sunday, Cold Case will move to 9 pm ET/PT with the 10 pm timeslot to be filled by a revolving door of drama repeats. According to the Hollywood Reporter 's James Hibberd, Three Rivers "is still in production and the network will complete all 13 episodes of the show's initial order." Whether or not CBS will burn off the remaining installments remains to be seen but it's clear that there's no future for the low-rated medical drama. ( Hollywood Reporter 's The Live Feed ) Could 2012 bring about the end of the world? Or at least the end of Jack Donaghy? Alec Baldwin has revealed his intentions to quit acting when his contract with NBC's 30 Rock expires in 2012 in an interview with Men's Journal . "I don't have any interest in acting anymore," said Baldwin. "I'