[Televisionary]

Mark your calendars, culinary fans, and sharpen your knives . Bravo has officially announced the debut date of Season Two of gastronomic showdown series Top Chef , which will premiere October 18th at 11 pm ET/PT, right after the season finale of fellow Televisionary reality TV fave, Project Runway . But if you're not a night owl, don't fret. The following week, Top Chef will move into its regularly scheduled timeslot at 10 pm on October 25th once Runway wraps its third season. As previously announced, Food Network personality and cookbook author Padma Lakshmi has replaced outbound Katie Lee Joel as the Top Chef 's host and Tom Colicchio will return as a judge. While Televisionary was lucky enough to obtain some exclusive advance pics of Top Chef Season Two, the wait for next season is going to be a long one...

Plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose. The more things change, as they say... I can't believe that this season of USA's abductee drama The 4400 has come and gone already. I spent the entire summer catching up on what has now become one of my favorite shows (though I sorely miss Lily and Kyle, but more on that in a bit) and can't believe I've reached the end of the road... for now anyway . I already miss Tom Baldwin (Joel Gretsch) and Diana Skouris (Jacqueline McKenzie) and I don't know about you but that ending made me a little... weepy. (In the most manly way, of course.) Putting aside that three-hanky ending, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up some of the momentous, um, moments in this week's finale ("Fifty-Fifty"). I love the little 4400 cabal created by Jordan (Billy Campbell). Or at least its inner circle comprised of Jordan, Tess ( Firefly 's Summer Glau, here magnificently lucid), and Kevin Burkhoff (Jeffrey Combs). This little tro

So I succumbed just a little bit to the Emmy mania that was sweeping through Los Angeles last night. Just a little bit, anyway. It all started Saturday with the Fourth Annual BAFTA Emmy Tea Party at the Park Hyatt Hotel, where the red carpet was walked by some of my favorite American, British, and Commonwealth television actors (more on that to come). However, I will say that I didn't watch much of the actual Emmy telecast last night but instead stuck to my time-honored tradition of getting the winners from the internet and tuned in to some random moments whilst doing some other things (like trying to get drunk off of the drinks at a certain show's post-Emmy bash at The Highlands, where people watching the tape-delayed telecast seemed deliriously unaware of the award show's outcome). So then, which Emmy awards worked for me and which ones just didn't? Megan Mullally for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy. Gawd, seriously? Yes, it was Will & Grace 's swan song t

I can't say that I'm really all that excited about the Emmy awards this year, especially after getting all worked up about the mere possibility that traditionally undervalued shows like B attlestar Galactica , Everybody Hates Chris , Gilmore Girls , and Veronica Mars might actually be represented next to 24 , The Sopranos , and Grey's Anatomy . Instead, we all know too well how the latest voting overhaul scheme went (love that Ellen Burstyn still walked away with a nom for a 9-second performance) and it still smarts that Lost was virtually quarantined from the high-profile nominations. (I blame Dharma Foundation nomination-fixing.) Sure, I'm rooting for The Office to take home the top comedy prize, and according to those mysterious " TV pundits ," the gang at Dunder-Mifflin is the "heavy favorite" to do just that, along with Steve Carell for actor in a comedic performance. And wouldn't it would be just desserts if Lisa Kudrow walked away with

Project Runway has always had that certain sniff of authenticity. Unlike other reality shows, it seems important to the judges (and one would imagine the producers) which contestants actually have talent and which ones just don't have what it takes. But lately things have gotten a little, um, ugly on the supposedly "reality-based" fashion competition. Last week, Allison was kicked off the show without an iota of consideration about the consistent work she'd done every other week (unlike Robert who had been kept in the running because the judges saw his "talent") and then this week? Vincent wins this week's competition? Am I alone in thinking what the hell is going on over there? The fact that Vincent won this week makes me completely irate for several reasons. First, Vincent can't seem to design his way out of a crap-festooned paper bag and his designs are consistently off-the-wall or entirely lazy, showing no imagination, reach, or skill. His dre

Call it a case of Stockholm, er, Neptune Syndrome. Heiress and former kidnapping victim Patty Hearst (granddaughter of magnate William Randolph Hearst) is set to guest star in a November sweeps episode of Veronica Mars , portraying, coincidentally, the granddaughter of the founder of the show's fictional university, the conveniently named Hearst College, who vanishes the night before an important Board of Trustees vote regarding the school's future. No word on whether the Symbionese Liberation Army is involved in the heiress' disappearance this time... Veronica Mars returns to the airwaves this fall on the CW with the premiere of Season Three scheduled for October 3rd. The episode featuring Patty Hearst is slated to air November 21st. (Ten points to the first person who first correctly identifies the musical reference in this posts title. Starting... now.)

Digital cabler BBC America has announced five series which it plans to launch this fall, including one from that irascible Mr. Alan Partridge, comedian Steve Coogan ( Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story ). First up is comedy Saxondale , which stars Steve Coogan ( I'm Alan Partridge ) as Tommy Saxondale, a former roadie with anger management issues who runs a pest control business dealing with rodents and people. Ruth Jones ( Nighty Night ) co-stars as Saxondale's Welsh anarchist girlfriend Magz who owns a t-shirt business called "Smash the System" selling politically radical clothing. The series' seven-episode run premieres October 13th at 11 pm ET (8 pm PT). Rumor has it that NBC, which has a deal with Coogan's production company (Baby Cow) is developing an American version of Saxondale . Let's hope that it's along the lines of The Office and not, say, Coupling . Hell's Kitchen 's Gordon Ramsay returns to BBC America with Gordon Ramsay'