Most Beaten Horse: Did you miss COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN in it’s 8 p.m. timeslot on new home Current? Never fear… you can catch it again at Noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 11 p.m., 2 a.m., 4 a.m. and 7 a.m. No, seriously.
 
Best Spin: In effort to stave off negative reviews from those expecting a show involving time travel and dinosaurs to be a great sci-fi adventure, FOX is warning viewers that TERRA NOVA is an “epic family drama”. In other words, 7th HEAVEN meets Jurassic Park.
 
Most Uncanny Timing: Airing live following President Obama’s address to the nation in which he announced troop withdrawls from Afghanistan, SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE coincidentally featured an intense number involving a soldier’s return from serving in that country.
 
Most Discussed Show Nobody Actually Watched: THE KILLING’s controversial season ender got so much ink everyday TV viewers might have mistaken it for a megahit as opposed to a show that drew a relatively small audience.
 
Best New Addition: Hulu began airing BBC’s sexy sci-fi series MISFITS. Expect “Monkey Slut” to become the next big catchphrase.
 
Proof That Death Is A Temporary Condition: FUTURAMA returned from its latest hiatus/cancellation. 

Most Poorly Disguised Movie-Length Advertisement: The 38th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards were so busy pimping Las Vegas that they practically forgot to hand out awards.
 
Most Obvious Failed Ploy: Having already given Oprah a Lifetime Achievement Emmy, the Emmy producers – in a desperate attempt to trick viewers into watching – made up a new award (the Crystal Pillar) to give the legend. Clearly onto their schtick, Oprah didn’t bother to show up, instead submitting a brief, pre-taped acceptance speech.
 
Some We’re Most Psyched To Groove To: Sure, most kids don’t even know what vinyl is but we’re stoked about Showtime’s series by that name which will explore the music industry of the 70’s.

Worst Date Ever: Pity the poor guy who winds up going out with octomom Nadya Suleman on CELEBRIDATE. “So, um… do you like kids?”
 
The “Glad You Asked” Award Goes To… : Row Lowe, who pondered whether or not he should return to CALIFORNICATION. Our answer? If it gets you off PARKS & REC, but all means… yes.
 
Most Ridiculous Statement Ever: As TRUE BLOOD prepares to premiere its fourth season, creator Alan Ball admitted he’s considering ending the show after the fifth year wraps. Why? He’s not sure he has “any left in him” beyond that. Dude, five seasons at, what, 12, 13 episodes each? Read more of the books upon which the show is based.
 
Reason So Many Folks At Fox Are Frowning: GLEE Creator Ryan Murphy says there will be fewer musical numbers next season. This is bad news for fans because it means more time for the show to fill with ridiculous storypoints and badly-plotted story arcs, but even worse for folks at Fox who’ve made a not-so-small fortune off sales of the show’s tunes.
 
Biggest Tease: And no, we don’t mean that in a good way. But it goes to ABC for purposely misleading viewers into thinking Bentley would show up on last week’s THE BACHELORETTE… and then ran promos indicating that “no, really, this week, he really will.”

The Business of Show
Despite the fact that it’s called show business and not show friends for a reason, there is nothing that leaves a sour taste in our mouth more than actors talking about money. Take the Hollywood Reporter’s recent Comedy Actor Emmy Roundtable for example. Did anyone really need to hear how Ed O’Neil and Rob Lowe were aghast over HBO’s insulting offer of a paltry $40,000 for what we’re sure were six long and arduous weeks of work alongside Al Pacino and Bette Middler? We sure as heck didn’t.

Rob Lowe
If the artist formerly known as Sam Seaborn is serious about taking his career to the next level he so richly believes he deserves, announcements like yesterday’s news that has Lowe signing on to play suspected wife killer Drew Peterson in an Lifetime Movie probably isn’t the best way to go about it. Oh sure, Lowe can dress up the movie all he wants (Telling EW.com, “These movies aren’t made anymore, and in the last five years, they’re not made on television either — except in very specific places. One of ‘em is Lifetime, and they do it really, really well. So I’m glad they’re makin’ stuff like this, on Lifetime.”), but the fact of the matter is that despite Lifetime’s fairly admirable job of reversing their “Mother, Mother May I Sleep with Danger” brand with high quality shows like DROP DEAD DIVA and ARMY WIVES, at the end of the day, a movie of the week is a movie of the week. A tawdry sex fuelled, scandal filled one that quite frankly, Lowe of all people should not be encouraging. We’re just sayin.

USA, TNT, ABC Family and DirecTV
So what exactly is our beef with four of the biggest reasons TV Addicts have — outside of HBO and Showtime — for not cutting our cable this summer? Simply put, we don’t get them. Which means no WHITE COLLAR, COVERT AFFAIRS, FALLING SKIES, SUITS, NINE LIVES OF CHLOE KING and DAMAGES among others. In other words: #FML

GAME OF THRONES Haters
Question: What’s the only thing more shocking than Sunday’s insanely unexpected ending to GAME OF THRONES penultimate episode of the season? Answer: Fans complaining about it! Seriously. Rather than crying fowl, fans should be applauding, cheering, and encouraging one of the few times Hollywood actually had the — for lack of a better word — cojones to stick to a creator’s original vision. No matter how bloody shocking it may be.

Stars Negotiation Through the Media
Memo to any media outlet and/or journalist that just ran — or is about to run — a story in which [Insert ridiculously overpaid star here] is hemming and hawing about whether or not to return to [insert aging series here] that made them a household name: You’re being played courtesy of a time honored tradition known as “negotiating through the media.” So unless you’ve thrown in the towel, along with your journalistic integrity and ethics for a percentage of the salary bump Jennifer Lopez’s is sure to see when she inevitably signs onto another season of AMERICAN IDOL,

With apologies in advance to Michael Ausiello’s future earning potential, can we all not agree that the decision by LOSTerminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse to head into the final season of the show 110% spoiler free was the best one the two showrunners have made since pitching ABC a concrete end date for the series three years ago? Seriously. Having not an iota of an idea as to what’s going to happen when the clock strikes 8PM on February 2nd has only multiplied our excitement ten-fold for what we’re confident will be an epic final season of this landmark series.

Now that we’ve caught up with CHUCK following Monday’s fantastic episode, I just wanted to take a moment to publicly apologize to actress Kristin Kreuk who I’ve spent the better part of four years blaming for having forced me off the SMALLVILLE bandwagon thanks to her morose, uninteresting and whiny (Yes, we get it, your parents died leaving you an orphan!) portrayal of one Lana Lang. Playing Hannah, a beautiful girl-next-door-type love interest for the show’s titular hero on Monday’s episode reminded me that the actress was only reading what was given to her on the page. And more to the point, free of her lame Lana Lang persona does in fact have the ability melt hearts, sparkle on screen and best of all smile!

With yesterday’s news revealing that Rob Lowe’s recent decision to exit BROTHERS & SISTERS may have in fact stemmed from co-star Calista Flockhart’s request to work a reduced schedule next season, this TV Addict thought we’d offer up our version of a win-win solution to writers who are no doubt feverishly attempting to scribble together an exit plan which we hope goes a little something like this: Mr. McCallister goes to Washington1 A move that not only will be the closest thing we get to a WEST WING spin-off, but for Flockhart who is angling for a lesser workload, the ideal guest starring role as occasional First Lady. Who’s with me?

Is it just me, or does anyone else notice that every-time a Walker member has a bad night (Nora), relationship troubles (Sara, Kitty, Kevin), sibling issues (Justin) or simply a night out partying (Rebecca) — their answer is to hit the bottle. Was there a single segment in last night’s episode that didn’t contain alcohol?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got no problem with my fictional family enjoying an adult beverage or two. I simply can’t believe how dependent each brother and sister has become on alcohol. Does the Walker clan realize that when they buy that winery, they actually have to sell the wine to make money, not drink it!

That said, last night’s BROTHERS & SISTERS had the perfect mix of light-hearted and emotional moments. Nora misreading yet another situation with a man, Sarah spending another episode hammered (I think she has a problem), Justin realizing he may not be the only Walker sibling with serious addiction problems and finally, best of all, Senator McCallister actually having [gasp!] something to hide.

Even I — a die hard WEST WING fan — was getting tired of Rob Lowe’s perfect politician. Nobody, even in the land of television, is that perfect. Thank you BROTHERS & SISTERS scribes for finally giving the senator something to hide, albeit something that I saw coming a mile away.

And while I’m on the subject of thank-you’s. How thankful was everyone that we were spared another incredibly boring and tedious Tommy story-line? At this point, Balthazar Getty is the weak link (also known as the ‘Michel’) of BROTHERS & SISTERS. And if his character doesn’t start to do something interesting, and fast — it’s me who’s going to be reaching for the bottle come Sunday night at 10PM.