The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ are… the various TVLine.com staffers who insist on crafting headlines that leave readers with the incorrect impression that current shows may be “over” as a result of actors jumping on board new Fall Pilots.

Our Take: PERFECT COUPLES is not dead because star Kyle Bornheimer has agreed to join Fox’s COUNCIL OF DADS and neither is OFF THE MAP now that Rachelle Lefevre has been tapped as the female lead in NBC’s THE CROSSING. What’s more, you being highly respected journalists who have been covering this business we call show for years now, know it! Which is to say that you know full well that whether or not an actor has agreed to a new project has absolutely no bearing on the future of their current ones because their casting is completely contingent on the future of their current gig (Or, as it’s known in the biz, being in “second position.”) Which raises the slightly awkward albeit painfully obvious question: Why do you insist on continuing to insult your reader’s intelligence with these ridiculously misleading headlines? Particularly because if anything is going to ensure that PERFECT COUPLES and OFF THE MAP are “over,” it’s their lacklustre ratings. We’re just sayin’

The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ are… various TVGuide.com staffers, who may-or-may-not have gone a wee bit overboard on the eggnog while compiling their annual year end wrap up this holiday season.

Out Take: How else to explain some inexcusable anomalies found amidst their “Best (and Worst) of the Year” package that included an episode of JERSEY SHORE (No, really) among their >”Top 25 Best Episode of 2010,” and more egregious still, saw them single out of THE EVENT’s Jason Ritter, MAD MEN’s Jessica Paré and WEEDS’ Alexander Gould as three of their “Fresh Faces” of 2010. The latter of which raises the slightly awkward albeit painfully obvious question: Does TVGuide.com grasp the concept of what exactly a “fresh face is?

Just in case, here’s a little refresher. BETTER WITH YOU newcomer Jake Lacy, fresh! Veteran actors Jason Ritter (JOAN OF ARCADIA, THE CLASS), Jessica Paré (JACK & BOBBY) and Alexander Gould, who has spent the last six seasons stealing scenes on WEEDS, not fresh!

Oh, and don’t even get us started on what you guys were thinking when it came to awarding HAWAII FIVE-0 a spot on your “Top TV show of 2010″ list while spectacularly failing to recognize FRINGE.

The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… HitFix’s Alan Sepinwall, one of the country’s most prolific and popular TV critics whose reaction to today’s fantastic news that Showtime has officially renewed DEXTER for a sixth season was a little along the lines of… Why?

Our Take: Despite a shaky start to the season thanks to the introduction of the “Santa Muerte” killer — an uninspired mystery that in hindsight came across as little more than busy-work for the Miami Metro Police Department — DEXTER’s fifth season has turned out quite nicely. And while we’re the first to admit that we weren’t initially sold on the introduction of Lumen, for reasons that involve our intense dislike of actress Julia “Save the Last Dance” Stiles coupled with our inexplicable hatred of the character’s moniker (Lumen, really?), the journey she and Dexter have taken as they work glove-in-glove to avenge her rape and the tragic death of 12 other woman at the hands of Jordan Chase and his sadistic band of merry men has been nothing short of a joy to watch. Batman meets his bloody Robin! What’s more, if the show is in fact heading in the direction we hope, nay, think it’s headed — one that has sister Deb finally cluing into her brother’s extra curricular activities — this coming Sunday’s shocking closing moments have the potential to be as big of a “game changer” as last season’s killer one.

The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… AOLTV’s Mo Ryan, who in a post earlier in the week asserted that FOX’s swift cancellation of LONE STAR is a “symptom of everything that has gone wrong at the broadcast networks.”

Our Take: As much as it pains us to say this to the usually spot-on Mo Ryan fresh off her recent inclusion to the Peabody Awards Board (Seriously folks, if you’re not familiar with her work, she’s kind of a big deal), blaming the “broadcast networks” for the cancellation of LONE STAR is the TV critic equivalent of spinning-off LAW & ORDER yet again (Read: the easy way out!) If anything, FOX’s attempt to think differently by offering up a procedural-free hour-long drama starring a morally dubious protagonist should be applauded. It was a risky gamble that failed to pay off, big time.

As far as who to blame, the cancelation of LONE STAR says a lot less about everything that is wrong at the broadcast networks — which while far from perfect continue to produce a handful of surprisingly stellar shows such as GLEE, COMMUNITY, MODERN FAMILY, THE GOOD WIFE among others — and a lot more about everything that is wrong with the viewing public. How else to explain last night’s ratings results that saw more Americans tune into $#*! MY DAD SAYS and OUTSOURCED over the likes of 30 ROCK and FRINGE. We’re just sayin’

The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… Movieline’s Julie Miller who, based on TVGuide Magazine’s just released list of “TV’s Top Earners” seems surprised that the likes of JERSEY SHORE’s Snooki gets paid as much as GLEE’s Matthew Morrison in a piece called “Matthew Morrison is Paid the Same as Snooki, and 5 Other Devastating TV Paycheck Comparisons.”

Our Take: Suffice to say, Miller’s “Devastating TV Paycheck Comparisons” are slightly less so if one has a rudimentary knowledge of how the television industry works. Indeed, there is a very good reason the likes of Matthew Morrison and Jim Parsons are making a mere $30 – $40,000 dollars per-episode. That’s the standard starting salary one receives when they’re a relative unproven television commodity versus marquee names such as Julianna Marguilies ($175,000 per episode), Ed O’Neill ($100,000 per episode) and Betty White ($75,000 per episode). Sillier still is Miller’s comparison of Jane Lynch ($50,000 per episode) and Tina Fey ($350,000 per episode) to the likes of David Boreanaz ($200,000 per episode) and original DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES Cross, Hatcher, Huffman and Longoria (Each of whom make $400,000 per episode). Lynch may be last season’s breakout star and this year’s run-away favorite to walk-away with an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy but she’s also one of 27 cast members on an incredibly pricey hour-long (GLEE), while Boreanaz is essentially 50% of one of Fox’s most successful series (BONES.) The incomparable writer/performer Tina Fey may make slightly less on 30 ROCK than those not-so-desperate-housewives, but she also attracts less than half of an audience. As for Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi walking away with $30,000 per-episode to “GTL”, well, we’re not going to lie, nothing makes us throw up in our mouth more! Except perhaps the realization that we actually know what the heck “GTL” (Gym, Tan, Laundry) stands for. That said, for better or for worse, $30,000 per-episode is commensurate with her current place in the cultural zeitgeist.

The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… Entertainment Weekly TV Critic extraordinaire Ken Tucker, who last week put forth the opinion that hot on the heels of Simon Cowell and Ellen DeGeneres’ exit, it might behoove FOX to cancel AMERICAN IDOL, “since it’s looking more and more as though it’s going to be a hollow shell of its hollow shell.”

Our Take: Despite coming off what many, including your very own TV Addict, have called AMERICAN IDOL’s least entertaining season-to-date (thanks in no small part to an overcrowded judges table and a disappointing crop of contestants) nothing says “not smarter than a fifth grader” than canceling what remains an undisputed ratings juggernaut. Case in point last May’s IDOL finale, which saw whatshisname and whatsherface square off for a Ford Fiesta the right to be called America’s next Idol still managed to attract a whopping 24.2 million viewers. Which, in today’s increasingly competitive television landscape where 10 million viewers is deemed a smash (see: MODERN FAMILY) is music to a Network executive’s ears (even more-so to a Network bean counters!) Heck, even if the show were to lose half of its audience (which we wouldn’t count on as a result of the increased interest surrounding the yet-to-be-named new panel of judges), IDOL would still would remain one of primetime’s most desirable properties courtesy of its popularity amongst the advertiser’s holy grail that is the 18-49 demographic. Plus, when Simon Cowell’s X-FACTOR does arrive next Fall and Fox invariably moves IDOL back to summer, there will be even less pressure for the aging license to print money to perform. TV Addict, Out!

The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… The Wrap writer Brent Lang who in an obvious (and we should mention very successful) attempt for page views, named Alex O’Loughlin, Mark Feuerstein and Mark Valley among “TV’s 8 Biggest Show-Killers.”

Our Take: Putting aside the obvious fact that right out of the gate, author Brent Lang completely misses the mark by failing to include notorious show-killers Eric Balfour and Paula Marshall on his list, we find ourselves with little choice but to ask the slightly awkward albeit painfully obvious question: Does Mr. Lang comprehend the meaning of the term “Show-Killer?” We only ask because it is our belief that if an actor is currently starring in a hit show — like ROYAL PAINS star Mark Feurestein who just saw his show’s second season help contribute to record ratings for USA, or Mark Valley whose action/adventure hybrid HUMAN TARGET just got picked up by FOX for a second season — they aren’t technically ‘show-killers,’ are they? Oh, and as for former MOONLIGHT and THREE RIVERS star Alex O’Loughin… how about getting back to us after you’ve had the chance to watch his work in CBS’ re-imagined HAWAII FIVE-0. Having seen it ourselves, we’re pretty confident in saying third time is most definitely the charm.

The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… Entertainment Weekly writer Margeret Lyons who following last night’s episode of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER dubbed Ted Mosby, “the biggest douche in the universe.”

Our Take: With all due respect Mrs. Lyons, have ya met Ted? For if you had, you might have clued into the fact that over the course of five plus seasons, his quest for the titular mother has a tendency to get the better of him. Thus, what you call a douchey move that had different girl to the gang’s seemingly endless parade of special events, we call a hopelessly romantic one in search of love. A search, we should add that is becoming all the more challenging when you only have four friends, two of whom (cough*Marshall*cough* Lily) spent the better part of last night’s photo-flashback-laden episode acting like petulant children.

It’s sad when someone who should be an expert on something reveals just how little they know about the genre on which they’re pontificating. Take, for example, Time magazine’s Richard Corliss, who on Sunday decided to declare that BIG LOVE had jumped the shark several weeks earlier. Unfortunately, he gets off to something of a rocky start by wrongly stating that everything from a wedding to a birth is an indication that a show has jumped the shark (as opposed to those being examples of, um, actual plot developments). But he then goes on to claim that the January 24th episode of the polygamy-in-suburbia drama jumped the shark by having Sarah take in an Indian woman and her child, Margene kiss stepson Ben, Alby begin an illicit affair and Nicki pull a gun.

Did a lot happen in the episode? You betcha. Was it a “jump-the-shark” moment? Not by a longshot.

What Corliss fails to get is that BIG LOVE is, at heart, a soap opera. As with any good sudser, there are the haves (Bill and his wives) and the have nots (the Juniper Creek crowd). There is a star-crossed romance (Margene and Ben), the slightly-unbalanced love-to-hate-her vixen (Nicki), a villain you hate to love (Alby, although he’s getting a run for the money in Zeljko Ivanek’s JJ) and a clan so intertwined that the family tree appears to suffer a bad case of root rot.

But most importantly, like any good soap, BIG LOVE is a show that knows a thing or two about plotting and pacing. To hear Corliss tell it, one might assume the events he mentioned came out of the blue when, in reality, most had been building for months and, in some cases, from the very beginning of the series. The budding attraction between Ben and Margene has been brewing since early last season, and Alby’s sexuality has been a timebomb waiting to explode since his first charged encounter with a hustler during the show’s first season.

A good writer figures out ways to have plots ripple across their canvas each week. A great writers knows how to accomplish that while at the same time laying the groundwork for episodes which bring several plots together for an episode which shakes every character on the canvas up and tilts the entire show in a new direction. That was what Roberto Aquirre-Sacassa, writer of the episode in question (titled, appropriately enough, “Strange Bedfellows”) did brilliantly, all the while introducing several new characters who would become key players in the weeks to come (including Sissy Spacek’s colorful turn as lobbyist Marilyn Densham).

Perhaps Corliss — who is a longtime movie critic for the magazine — should stick to the beat he knows best, as it appears he doesn’t understand the difference between the pace of big and small screen offerings. Then again, as the man who declared that Avatar presented an “impossible but completely plausible” world — as if those two words weren’t completely incongruous — it might just be that the plot-light, effects-heavy spectacle ruined him for, you know, actual scripted entertainment.

The subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down’ is… Newsweek writer Joshua Alston who included DEXTER in its list of “Five Failing TV Shows We Should Take Off the Respirator”

Our Take: Had this article been written last season —where Dexter learning about friendship had us learning about our PVR’s fast-forward capabilities — we’d be in total agreement. Unfortunately for the subject of this week’s ‘Blogger Beat Down,’ (and fortunately for us DEXTER fans) four episodes into the season have found ourselves rekindling our love affair with America’s favorite serial killer. Not only has saddling Dexter in suburbia with Rita, two tweens and a baby revitalized the show’s once trademark brand of dark humour, the lack of sleep facing the show’s titular character as he struggles to balance his job and family with his dark passenger has finally seemed to have caught up with him. Raising the stakes, and bringing with it two key components that have been missing from the show since Dexter took down Doakes in season two: A genuine sense of urgency and fear that Dexter might actually get caught. Plus, John Lithgow is such utter perfection as the creepy-beyond-description, seemingly amoral Trinity Killer that it more than makes up for the fact that his character’s shelf life will most likely expire by season’s end.