[Televisionary]

You can't watch great (or even good) TV all the time. Sometimes you have to watch things just so you can experience firsthand how truly awful they are. Yes, I am talking about The Pussycat Dolls Present the Search for the Next Doll . Many of you wrote me to ask if I had lost my mind when I mentioned I would be watching the series' premiere episode last night. But the fact is that, if the CW was going to do something as heinous as pulling Veronica Mars off the air (the only series they have left with any semblance of critical traction), then I might as well tune in to the garbage with which they replaced the show. And I'll not mince words: it is truly dreck of the lowest level. It might be executive produced by Ken Mok, one of the EPs on America's Next Top Model , but Search for the Next Doll makes that show look like a Oscar-caliber production by comparison. While ANTM focuses on the girls as they transform into runway models, presenting them with photo shoot challen

In pilot casting news, FOX's The Sarah Connor Chronicles , starring Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker, has firmed up the rest of its cast. Some of you may recall that, back in December , I alluded to the casting of "certain actress who has herself appeared on two cult genre television series." I can finally reveal who I was speaking of, as it was officially announced that Summer Glau ( Firefly , The 4400 ) has been cast as the second female lead in the pilot: a young female Terminator assigned to protect Thomas Dekker's John Connor. (I can't tell you how hard it was to keep that news a secret.) Also cast: Owain Yeoman ( The Nine , Kitchen Confidential ) who will play another Terminator, Cromartie, who appears in the pilot and is not quite as helpful as Glau's character. In fact, he'll be pursuing the Connors as the story begins. Having read the script, I can say that it is a kick-ass action/adventure series but with some grounding in the real world as well. An

Talk about some inspired casting. Every now and then there's a pilot or two that manages to snag a truly stellar cast. Dirty Sexy Money is one (Peter Krause, William Baldwin, Jill Clayburgh, Donald Sutherland, and Samaire Armstrong, etc.) and the other is The Return of Jezebel James . Lauren Ambrose ( Six Feet Under ) has been cast in the comedy pilot The Return of Jezebel James , created/written/directed/executive produced by Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls). I've already followed the previous casting announcements with a certain amount of relish: Parker Posey as children's book editor Sarah and Scott Cohen as her affirmed bachelor boyfriend Marcus. Completing the triumvirate: Ambrose, who fills the very tough role of Sarah's estranged sis Coco. Plot in a nutshell: Sarah's got a great job, great sex with no strings thanks to Marcus, and while she might still be reeling from the loss of a ten-year relationship, wakes up and realizes that she wants kids. She

Midseason replacements are generally speaking not the strongest of series: they didn't make it out of the gate with the other newbies, they're lagging behind, and usually the network doesn't have as much confidence in them to aggressively promote them when faced with strong competition. Sometimes, just sometimes, there's a pearl among the swine (I'm thinking of The Office for example), but that's a rarity rather than a rule. So it's hardly a surprise that FOX's new midseason series The Wedding Bells is more of the weak variety than the Next Big Thing. What's ironic (like rain on a wedding day) is that the series, such a throwback to the cheesefests of 1980s-era Aaron Spelling, is that it's written by and executive produced by David E. Kelley, who has in the past brought us some truly original series ( Ally McBeal , The Practice , Boston Legal ) and some duds ( Girls Club ). Sorry Kelley fans, but it's more along the lines of so-bad-FOX-yank

Eugene Gurkin and his ragtag team of amateur thieves may have wanted to rob Mick Jagger, but it looks like the only thing that's been missing is the freshman comedy itself. ABC has announced that it is yanking Knights of Prosperity off the schedule, effective immediately. This week's episode, set to begin a new story arc for the series involving Ray Romano, will be replaced by a repeat of According to Jim . George Lopez repeats will take over in the timeslot in subsequent weeks. It's possible that Knights , which has four episodes left unaired, could turn up elsewhere on the schedule and, as is usual these days, network spokespeople are being extremely careful not to say that the series has been outright cancelled. It's been a bumpy ride for the series which went through a number of title changes ( Let's Rob Mick Jagger , Let's Rob... ) before it launched in January, after it was pushed back from a fall premiere. Knights of Prosperity starred Donal Logue, Sof

Was it just me or was last night's Amazing Race one of the funniest TAR episodes in a long time? I never thought I'd say this but Rob and Amber are actually not driving me crazy this time around. They're playing smart and not paying attention to the other teams, which I think is definitely key to a long-term victory in this race. Plus, while they're being aggressive and wily, Rob isn't playing as dirty as he normally does. Finding a travel agent in the middle of the night rather than just camping at the airport was a smart move and it paid off for Rob and Amber, who managed to get on an earlier flight than most of the other teams. Good going, guys. While Team Romber might not be driving me mad, several other teams are, including Eric and Danielle, Teri and Ian, the Guidos, and Charla and Mirna. When you're hoping that nearly half of the remaining teams take a powder, it doesn't really give you many choices in who to root for (Team Cha Cha Cha, the Beauty Q

It's certainly no secret that I am a HUGE fan of NBC's The Office . So I was ecstatic, after a major snafu involving Ticketmaster and the Museum of Television & Radio last month, that I was able to snag a ticket to the Paley Festival's Office event on Friday. William S. Paley Festival events are funny things: they're either intended for the die-hard fans of the show and end up just blowing your mind with the insights you learn (I'm thinking of a J.J. Abrams/Keri Russell/Jennifer Garner "Creating Characters" event from a few years back) or they're puff pieces used more for PR than anything else (that OC event a few years ago). I was hoping that the Office event would be more of the former rather than the latter, but the the entire evening was a mixed bag, thanks to the appallingly bad moderation by The Hollywood Reporter 's Cynthia Littleton. (More on that in a bit.) If you've never attended a Paley Festival event before, there's alwa