TV Crap

DIANE KEATON needs to censor herself when she makes TV appearances to promote her new movie, Mad Money. Yesterday on ABC's Good Morning America, she inadvertently used the 'f' word while complimenting DIANE SAWYER's lips. Specifically, she said if she had lips like Sawyer's, she wouldn't have worked on her "f****** personality" and would be married. She apologized for her use of the swear word, which aired uncensored on the East Coast, and Sawyer replied that her mom would wash Keaton's mouth with soap. The word was bleeped in the other U.S. time zones...

MAILA NURMI, who hosted horror movie broadcasts on Los Angeles TV in the mid-1950s as the goth character Vampira, died last Thursday. The cause of death is currently unknown. She may have been one of the inspirations for the character of Morticia Addams on TV's The Addams Family, and at one time unsuccessfully sued CASSANDRA PETERSON, aka ELVIRA, for allegedly stealing her act. Nurmi was 85 years old...

Nielsen Ratings

America has football fever and the networks couldn't be happier. The top three programs in last week's Nielsen ratings were all gridiron-related, with the post-game show for the New York Giants' win over the Dallas Cowboys pacing the field with 32.5 million viewers. For the first time in recent memory, the New England Patriots didn't win something -- their victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars took second place, earning just shy of 30 million viewers. Meanwhile, the college football national championship between Ohio State and LSU landed in third place.

Elsewhere in last week's Nielsens:

* We don't know if it's a really good show of if the public is just starved for new programming, but Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles debuted in fourth place with more than 18 million viewers. On the other hand..,

* The premiere of ABC's Cashmere Mafia proved the public may not be all that hungry for new shows. It only scored 6.2 million viewers.

CBS was the top-rated network for the week, followed by Fox, NBC, ABC, Univision, the CW, My Network TV and Telemundo.

Here are the top 10 primetime programs for the week of Monday, January 7th-Sunday, January 13th:

1. Fox NFC Playoff: New York Giants at Dallas Cowboys Post-Game (Sunday), Fox, 32.51 million viewers.

2. AFC Divisional Playoff: Jacksonville Jaguars at New England Patriots, CBS, 30.90 million viewers.

3. Allstate BCS National Championship, Fox, 23.07 million viewers.

4. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Fox, 18.36 million viewers.

5. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 18.19 million viewers.

6. Grey's Anatomy (Thursday), ABC, 17.68 million viewers.

7. Comanche Moon 1, CBS, 15.76 million viewers.

8. Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit, 15.15 million viewers.

9. Criminal Minds, CBS, 14.30 million viewers.

10. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Sunday), ABC, 14 million viewers.

TV Tonight (1/14)

ABC: Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann (NEW), Notes From the Underbelly (NEW), October Road (NEW)

CBS: How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, CSI: Miami (NEW)

NBC: American Gladiators (NEW), Deal or No Deal (NEW), Medium (NEW)

FOX: Prison Break (NEW), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (NEW)

CW: Everybody Hates Chris, Aliens in America, Girlfriends, The Game

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

Baby, Baby

NICOLE RICHIE and CHRISTINA AGUILERA aren't the only stars who welcomed little bundles of joy over the weekend. Forty-year-old According to Jim star COURTNEY THORNE-SMITH and husband ROGER FISHMAN became the parents of a boy named JACOB EMERSON FISHMAN Friday in Los Angeles. It's the first child for the couple.

Meanwhile, People magazine reportsformer 52-year-old In Living Color star DAVID ALAN GRIER became a father last Thursday when wife CHRISTINE KIM gave birth to a girl they named LUISA DANBI-KIM.

Thorne-Smith and Grier each welcomed the addition to their broods at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the same hospital where Nicole Richie became a mommy on Friday.

TV This Weekend

Friday

ABC: Grey's Anatomy, Cashmere Mafia, 20/20 (NEW)

CBS: Ghost Whisperer (NEW), Moonlight (NEW), Numbers (NEW)

NBC: 1 vs. 100 (NEW), Friday Night Lights (NEW), Las Vegas (NEW)

FOX: Bones, House

CW: WWE Friday Night Smackdown

Saturday

ABC: Pearl Harbor (2001)

CBS: Football: Jacksonville vs. New England

NBC: Dateline (NEW)

FOX: Cops (1hr), America's Most Wanted

Sunday

ABC: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (repeat), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (NEW), Brothers & Sisters (NEW)

CBS: The Amazing Race 12 (NEW), Comanche Moon (NEW)

NBC: Dateline (NEW), Golden Globe (press conference style), American Gladiators

FOX: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (NEW), Family Guy (NEW), American Dad (NEW)

CW: Life is Wild (NEW), Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

Lost....

Former Lost star MICHELLE RODRIGUEZ was released from jail Wednesday in Los Angeles after serving 18 days of a six-month sentence for violating probation related to a drunken driving case.The 29-year-old actress was set free under a jail overcrowding program that allows nonviolent female inmates to serve as little as ten percent of their sentence. Rodriguez benefited from the same program two years ago when she served just one day of a two-month sentence for another probation violation.Rodriguez pleaded no contest to drunken driving and hit-and-run in L.A. in 2003 and pleaded guilty to drunken driving in Hawaii in 2005. Her most recent probation violation occurred when she failed to perform community service and was caught drinking while wearing an alcohol monitoring device. The actress appeared in season two of Lost.

TV Tonight (1/10)

ABC: Ugly Betty (NEW), Grey's Anatomy (NEW), Big Shots (NEW)

CBS: CSI: NY, CSI (NEW), Without a Trace (NEW)

NBC: My Name is Earl (NEW), 30 Rock (NEW), The Celebrity Apprentice (NEW), ER (NEW)

FOX: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (NEW), Don't Forget the Lyrics (NEW)

CW: Smallville, Supernatural

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

TV Tonight (1/9)

ABC: Wife Swap (NEW), Supernanny (NEW), Cashmere Mafia (NEW)

CBS: Power of 10 (NEW), Criminal Minds (NEW), CSI: NY (NEW)

NBC: Deal or No Deal (NEW), Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order (NEW)

FOX: Back to You, Back to You, 'Til Death

CW: Crowned: The Mother of all Pageants (NEW), Gossip Girl (NEW)

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

Hey...Rate This!

NBC scored a ratings victory last week with its Saturday coverage of the NFL playoffs. The most-watched primetime broadcast of the week was the Jacksonville Jaguars' opening-round win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, with 25.74 million viewers.

ABC's Desperate Housewives was the only non-sports program to enter the Nielsen's top five. Nearly 20 million people watched the follow-up to the show's tornado cliffhanger, which for now stands as the final episode of the season, unless the writers' strike is resolved in the near future.

NBC had a solid week of premieres, led by the return of Law & Order last Wednesday night. The first episode of the drama's 18th season was seen by 13.46 million viewers. Twelve million people toughed out the Sunday-night debut of American Gladiators, while DONALD TRUMP's Celebrity Apprentice welcomed 11 million viewers into the boardroom last Thursday.

NBC won the primetime ratings race for the week, followed by CBS, Fox, ABC, the CW, MyNetworkTV, and ION Television.

Here are the top 10 primetime programs for the week of December 31st-January 6th, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. NFL Playoff Game 2: Jacksonville at Pittsburgh, NBC, 25.74 million viewers.

2. NFL Playoff Pre-Kick, NBC, 23.87 million viewers.

3. NFL Playoff Bridge, NBC, 23.48 million viewers.

4. AFC Wildcard Post Game, CBS, 21.37 million viewers.

5. Desperate Housewives, ABC, 19.78 million viewers.

6. 60 Minutes, CBS, 18.25 million viewers.

7. Law & Order, NBC, 13.46 million viewers.

8. Deal or No Deal (Thursday), NBC, 13.41 million viewers.

9. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 13.25 million viewers.

10. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC, 12.6 million viewers

TV Tonight (1/8)

ABC: Just for Laughs (NEW) (1hr), According to Jim (NEW), Carpoolers (NEW), Cashmere Mafia

CBS: NCIS, People's Choice Awards (NEW)

NBC: The Biggest Loser: Couples (NEW), Law & Order (NEW)

FOX: Bones, House

CW: One Tree Hill (NEW), One Tree Hill (NEW)

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

TV Potpourri

Showtime's hit series Dexter is moving to the CBS Television Network. Well, sort of. The series, which stars MICHAEL C. HALL as a police forensics examiner who moonlights as a serial killer, just wrapped up its second season on Showtime. Beginning Sunday, February 17th, CBS -- which owns Showtime -- will air all 12 episodes of Dexter's first season. It replaces the JAMES WOODS legal drama Shark, which will return later in the year. This marks the first time a full season of a top cable drama series will be shown on network television. It's yet another programming move by a TV network anxious for fresh shows in the face of the ongoing writers strike...

There could be another Mole sighting on ABC this summer, thanks to the continued scramble for new content as the WGA strike wears on. According to Variety, ABC is resurrecting the reality series, even though it hasn't aired in four years. However, the new edition will not feature celebrities, as the previous two seasons had. CNN's ANDERSON COOPER and TV personality AHMAD RASHAD, who each hosted two seasons of the show, aren't expected to return...

TV This Weekend

FRIDAY

ABC: Grey's Anatomy, Women's Murder Club (NEW), 20/20 (NEW)

CBS: Ghost Whisperer, Moonlight, Numbers

NBC: 1 vs. 100 (NEW), Friday Night Lights (NEW), Las Vegas (NEW)

FOX: Bones, House CW: WWE Friday Night Smackdown!

SATURDAY

ABC: Presidential Debate

CBS: High Crimes (2002), 48 Hrs Mystery (NEW)

NBC: NFL: Jacksonville vs Pittsburgh

FOX: Cops (1hr), America's Most Wanted

SUNDAY

ABC: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (NEW), Desperate Housewives (NEW), Cashmere Mafia (NEW-Pilot)

CBS: 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race (NEW), Cold Case (NEW), Shark (NEW)

NBC: Deal or No Deal (NEW), American Gladiators (NEW)

FOX: The Simpsons (NEW), King of the Hill (NEW), Family Guy, American Dad (NEW)

CW: Life is Wild (NEW), crowned: The Mother of all Pageants

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

and thanks Dave for the Pics!

Get your local listings HERE

Nielsen Ratings

No writers? No problem for JAY LENO, at least on Wednesday night, when several major late-night TV shows ended an eight-week hiatus brought on by the writers' strike. Seven-point-two million viewers watched Leno on NBC's Tonight Show, which secured a comfortable victory over DAVID LETTERMAN and CBS' Late Show, despite Letterman's returning writing staff, thanks to a separate agreement with the Writers Guild of America.

The newly-bearded Letterman was seen by 5.5 million viewers. NBC's CONAN O'BRIEN was more popular with viewers than CBS' CRAIG FERGUSON later in the night, even though he also was without his writers. O'Brien and Late Night attracted 2.8 million viewers, while 2.2 million people watched Ferguson and Late Late Show. Ferguson went back on the air with his writers under the same agreement made by Letterman's production company.

The country was certainly curious to see how these hosts would respond to the ongoing strike. Leno, Letterman, O'Brien and Ferguson all saw a spike in ratings in comparison to their pre-strike averages, with The Tonight Show enjoying a 43-percent increase.

In other Nielsens news, the NFL regular season ended with a bang last weekend. Most notably, the New England Patriots' victory over the New York Giants Saturday night was seen by 34.5 million people. The NFL Network's telecast of the game, in which the Patriots became the first team in 35 years to finish a regular season undefeated, was simulcast on NBC and CBS.

CBS won the primetime ratings race last week, followed by NBC, Fox, ABC, the CW, MyNetworkTV and ION Television.

Here are the top 10 primetime programs for the week of December 24th-30th, according to Nielsen Media Research:

1. NBC Sunday Night Football: Tennessee at Indianapolis, NBC, 15.8 million viewers.

2. NFL Football: New England at N.Y. Giants, CBS, 15.68 million viewers.

3. NFL Football: New England at N.Y. Giants, NBC, 13.23 million viewers.

4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 12.39 million viewers.

5. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 10.69 million viewers.

6. Without a Trace, CBS, 10.54 million viewers.

7. Sunday Night NFL Pre-Kick, NBC, 10.38 million viewers.

8. Deal Or No Deal, (Tuesday) NBC, 9.78 million viewers.

9. Amazing Race 12, CBS, 9.69 million viewers.

10. CSI: NY, (Thursday) CBS, 9.49 million viewers.

TV Tonight (1/2)

ABC: Wife Swap (NEW), Supernanny (NEW), Supernanny (NEW)

CBS: Power of 10 (NEW), Criminal Minds, CSI: NY

NBC: Deal or no Deal (NEW), Law & Order (RETURN)

FOX: Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. W. Virginia

CW: Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants (NEW), Gossip Girl (NEW)

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

They're Back! Part Deux

Several late-night hosts will celebrate the New Year tonight with new episodes, their first since the writers' strike began nearly two months ago. NBC's JAY LENO and CONAN O'BRIEN, CBS' DAVID LETTERMAN and CRAIG FERGUSON, and ABC's JIMMY KIMMEL will all make their return tonight.

Letterman and Ferguson will hold a competitive advantage over the other hosts. Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants, which owns both Late Show and Ferguson's Late Late Show, reached a deal with the Writers Guild of America last week, clearing the way for their writing staffs to return to the job. Leno, O'Brien and Kimmel will have to make do without their writers until the strike is resolved, or NBC elects to secure its own deal.

One early sign that the pact will benefit Letterman and Ferguson: the Screen Actors Guild said its members are now open to appearing on the CBS late-night programs. The WGA has announced that they'll be picketing Leno's L.A. studios and Conan's New York studios, meaning any guests booked on those shows would have to cross a picket line to do so.

Many stars have shown their solidarity with the writers since the strike began on November 5th. Letterman has already lined up one actor for tonight's show: ROBIN WILLIAMS, who will appear along with country musician SHOOTER JENNINGS. Leno's The Tonight Show will welcome Republican presidential candidate MIKE HUCKABEE tonight, while the other late-night shows had yet to announce their guests as of yesterday.

The major late-night shows have aired reruns in the last two months, with NBC's CARSON DALY having resumed production on Last Call about a month ago. Comedy Central's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will go back on the air without their writers this Monday, and Fox's Saturday-night chatfest, Talkshow With Spike Feresten, reportedly will return on January 12th.

Holiday Weekend TV Choices...

FRIDAY
ABC: Men in Trees, Women's Murder Club, 20/20 (NEW)

CBS: Ghost Whisperer, Moonlight, Numbers

NBC: The Singing Bee (NEW), Dateline (NEW)

FOX: Bruce Almighty (2003)

CW: WWE Friday Night Smackdown

SATURDAY

ABC: Samantha Who? (2hrs), Women's Murder Club

CBS: NFL Network New England vs. New York

NBC: NFL Network New England vs. New York

FOX: Cops (1hr), America's Most Wanted (NEW)

SUNDAY

ABC: The Sound of Music (1965)

CBS: The Amazing Race 12, Cold Case, Shark

NBC: Football: Kansas City/NY Jets

FOX: The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, American Dad

CW: Life is Wild, Crowned: Mother of all Pageants

MONDAY

ABC: Shrek 2 (2004), Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve 2008

CBS: How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement, CSI: Miami

NBC: Saturday Night Live in the 90's: Pop Culture Nation, Law & Order: SVU

FOX: Men in Black II (2002)

CW: Everybody Hates Chris, Aliens in America, Girlfriends, The Game

TUESDAY

ABC: Rose Bowl: Illinois vs. USC

CBS: NCIS, The Unit, 48 Hrs Mystery

NBC: The Biggest Loser: Couples, Law & Order: SVU

FOX: Sugar Bowl: Georgia vs. Hawaii

CW: Crowned: The Mother of all Pageants, One Tree Hill

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

Nielsen Ratings

Sunday Night Football topped the Nielsen ratings in the week leading up to Christmas, with the match-up of Washington and Minnesota leading the way. But even so, it only drew 14.1 million viewers.

NBC's singing competition show Clash of the Choirs drew 8.3 million viewers for all four episodes. Low as those numbers are, the show still beat all six editions of the ABC show Duel. Despite the winner taking home nearly two million dollars, the game show failed todraw more than 7.5 million viewers on each night. The final show, which aired Sunday, had even fewer viewers: only 6.2 million, according to last week's Nielsen ratings.

CBS was once again the highest-rated network for the week, followed by NBC, ABC, Fox, the CW, My Network TV, and ION Television.

Here are the top primetime programs for the week of Monday, December 17th-Sunday, December 23rd:

1. Sunday Night Football: Washington at Minnesota, CBS, 14.1 million viewers

2. CSI: Miami, CBS, 14.01 million viewers

3. 60 Minutes, CBS, 13.52 million viewers

4. NCIS, CBS, 13.01 million viewers

5. Criminal Minds, CBS, 11.66 million viewers

6. Biggest Loser 4, NBC, 11.42 million viewers

7. Two and a Half Men (Monday, 9:30 p.m.), CBS, 11.28 million viewers

8. CSI: NY, CBS, 11.19 million viewers

9. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 11.1 million viewers

10. The Unit, CBS, 10.74 million viewers

TV Tonight (12/27)

ABC Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice

CBS: CSI: NY, CSI, Without a Trace

NBC: My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, The Office, Scrubs, ER

FOX: Ice Age (2002)

CW: Smallville, Family TV Awards

Courtesy Dave Kent @ The New 93.9 KISS FM, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill NC!

Get your local listings HERE

Duel!

Forget Deal or No Deal, or Who Wants to be a Millionaire, for that matter. Twenty-eight-year-old Florida nurse ASHLEE REGISTER survived ABC's Duel on Sunday night, winning just shy of 1.8 million dollars. The week-long, high-stakes trivia game show ended with the following question: "Which of these weighs more: (A) A gallon of water; (B) A gallon of crude oil; (C) A gallon of vegetable oil; (D) They all weigh the same." If you guessed option "A," give yourself a round of applause.

Register says she'll use the money she won to pay off debts, buy a house, and shower her family with gifts.

TV Hodgepodge

STEPHEN COLBERT of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report has been voted AP Celebrity of the Year by broadcast producers and newspaper editors who said that he had the biggest impact on pop culture in 2007. Colbert beat out Harry Potter author J.K. ROWLING and Former Vice President AL GORE, who finished second and third respectively.

One of the original KITT cars from the hit '80s TV series Knight Rider is up for auction on eBay. The talking, black 1984 Pontiac Trans Am is being sold to satisfy some 30 million dollars in debts of slain real estate developer, ANDREW KISSEL whose killing last year remains unsolved. As of yesterday, one bid for the 20 thousand dollar minimum was posted on eBay...

VINCENT MARGERA, who is known to fans of MTV's Viva La Bam show as "Don Vito", was sentenced yesterday to probation for ten years to life after he was convicted of groping young girls at an autograph signing session near Denver. The 51-year-old reality star was found guilty in October of two counts of sexual assault on a child. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender, get substance abuse treatment, undergo a mental-health evaluation, and to not to appear as his "Don Vito" character for 10 years...

ABC-TV has announced that it will move the last original episode of Grey's Anatomy from January 3rd to January 10th. The move prompted NBC-TV to reverse the premiere of Celebrity Apprentice from January 10th back to January 3rd to avoid losing a large chunk of its audience to the popular primetime medical drama