'Jericho': It's never too late

Tonight's "Jericho" rerun is a perfect example of the show in top form. Even if you've never seen an episode, you'll be able to enjoy this one thanks to a self-contained central story. Then it's worth sticking around through the season finale, as the show really hit a stride in the home stretch (oddly at the exact time the ratings fell apart after its ill-advised winter hiatus).

Titled "Semper Fidelis," the installment originally aired in March and features the arrival of U.S. Marines in Jericho who bring hope and good news with them. Unfortunately, things aren't quite that simple...

But bad news for Jericho means good news for fans and newcomers. Everything in this hour works.

Spoilery details after the jump.

'Rescue Me': Stuck in a rut

Is it just me or is nothing happening on "Rescue Me" lately?

Sure, Janet is severely depressed (but not because Sheila wants her baby, Janet doesn't know that yet), Sean accidentally set fire to Mike's house, Lou's nymphomaniac girlfriend can't go without sex for a minute (even if it means sleeping with Artie Lange...ick) and Franco finally proposed to his girlfriend.

And yet everyone, and everything, feels stuck in some kind of holding pattern.

'So You Think You Can Dance': Breaking news! Pasha Kovalev likes dancing with hot girls

Up until last night, one of the best parts of "So You Think You Can Dance" was that, unlike on other results shows, drama still actually happened.  On Thursday nights, when the fallout from the audience's votes was revealed, the judges were able to intervene and make their decisions after dancers had been given one last shot to prove themselves in solos. But now, the eliminations are left entirely to the voters at home.

It's unclear what the benefit of this is at this point in the show.  Viewers have less reason to tune in to the results because the decision has been cast.  The final four dancers had one more chance to show off in their solos, but there was no point, competition-wise, because their performances wouldn't affect the outcome. 

One contestant who might have been at a disadvantage when it came to performing in the previous "dancing for your life" solos was 27-year-old ballroom/Latin dancer Pasha Kovalev, a Russian native who lives in New Jersey.  Last week, his ballroom counterpart Anya Garnis was sent home, partially because as a partner dancer she couldn't show off in her solos the way other dancers could.

Pasha talked about what it's like being the remaining ballroom dancer on the show. 

"The difference in ballroom is that you're showing off your partner more than yourself," he said. "That's how you make dance look beautiful and special, as opposed to the other guys on the show who are used to dancing by themselves.  The whole performance is about them and their tricks. We in ballroom don't really have those flips over our head or jumping splits.  Maybe it's not that appealing to the judges and they would like to see more flashy stuff.  I think ballroom dancers are strong in their performance and characterization of the dance and of the song, and it's really all about connecting to the audience and making them feel what you feel at the moment, with or without the tricks." 

Even though the dancers weren't dancing for their lives anymore, they still had to prepare their solos for the results show.  Pasha discussed what goes into a solo.

"It's all about trying to find the right piece of music," he said. "We have a short time to dance when we perform, just 30 seconds, so it's hard to tell the full story during that period of time. You just try to create beautiful pictures that people will relate to.  After I did my first dance in the bottom three contestants on the second week of the show, I decided what I'd do next and I've been preparing it since.  So far I haven't had the chance to dance it, and I hope I don't."

The New Season: Will Whoopi and Sherri bring us a whole new 'View'?

After a tumultuous season that saw the abrupt exit of Rosie O’Donnell, ABC’s daytime chatfest “The View” is moving to bring on two new outspoken co-hosts: comic Whoopi Goldberg and performer Sherri Shepherd.

Final negotiations with the duo are underway, and an announcement of their hiring is expected next week, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

ABC declined to comment. “We have nothing to announce right now,” said spokesman Karl Nilsson.

Goldberg, the irreverent comedian and Oscar-winning actress, and Shepherd, a stand-up comic who has appeared in movies like “Beauty Shop,” would bring a strong dose of brash humor to the 10-year-old program, which was buoyed by O’Donnell’s presence last season.

But after O'Donnell boosted viewership with her blunt political remarks, her tenure came to an abrupt halt in May when she had a bitter on-air fight with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck. O'Donnell exited the program nearly a month before the end of her contract.

That left “The View” with two empty seats -- former co-host Star Jones Reynolds was never permanently replaced after her own rancorous exit in 2006 -- and threatened to stall the show’s ratings gains.

With just Hasselbeck, Joy Behar and Barbara Walters remaining on the all-female panel, executive producer Bill Geddie indicated that he was looking to add at least one African American voice.

"We have, really, two positions open, I think people forget," Geddie said in June. "We got a lot of hiring to do here. So the chances of us hiring two white women ... not very likely.”

Goldberg and Shepherd are both familiar to the “View” audience after having made numerous guest appearances on the program.

O’Donnell was rooting for Goldberg as her replacement, telling readers of her blog this spring that her fellow comic “would rock.”

Known for her acerbic sense of humor, the 51-year-old has had a long career in television, beginning with HBO’s “Comic Relief,” which helped launch a prolific career. Since then, she’s done stints on shows like “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” appeared in numerous TV movies and headlined the short-lived sitcom “Whoopi.”

After spending six years writing and producing Lifetime’s “Strong Medicine,” Goldberg has most recently been hosting a syndicated morning radio show called “Wake Up With Whoopi.”

"She is exactly what the show needs,” said Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman. “She is a beloved brand name; she is outspoken; she has done this before, she is a person of color; she is as far left as Rosie; she lives in New York; and she can kick Elizabeth Hasselbeck’s ass."

Shepherd, 40, has appeared in shows like “The Wedding Bells” and “Less Than Perfect.” Her latest movie, “Who’s Your Caddy,” opens Friday.

-- Matea Gold

Times staff writer Lynn Smith contributed to this report.

'So You Think You Can Dance': A chat with Lauren Gottlieb

The top 10 dancers on "So You Think You Can Dance" performed with some format changes this week: The partners were changed around and each dancer had to perform identical solos. One of the contestants was Lauren Gottlieb, pictured, a 19-year-old from Scottsdale, Ariz., who last season was too young to audition for the show but assisted choreographer Tyce Diorio with putting together some of the routines. She was able to chat Wednesday morning between breakfast and a costume fitting about the changes, the judges and whom she think has the upper hand in the competition. 

Lauren's work in previous weeks with partner Neil Haskell, especially during last week's contemporary Mia Michaels routine (which she revealed was more about two people looking to score a fix than to fix a drain), garnered raves from the judges. However, she didn't seem to mind switching partners, especially because this week she was paired with Pasha Kovalev, who hasn't let down a partner yet. They turned out a technologically themed Shane Sparks hip-hop routine, a genre she's familiar with.

"It was my favorite performance so far. I'm still smiling from it!" Lauren gushed. "Switching up the partners was totally different, but we really clicked and I had a blast up there." She's diplomatic, however: "I would have picked anyone to dance with. I'm very familiar with the show, and in previous years the choreographers have had a hard time with some dancers. But this year everyone's doing amazing, so standing there picking our new partners' names from the hat, I had no worries. In fact, a lot of people say they wish it'd be split up from their old partners each week. It's cool to see how people vibe off different people now."

The mixed-up couples did prove as entertaining as they seemed they'd be. Sabra Johnson proved that her star can still shine without Dominic Sandoval, while Kameron Bink's days appeared to be numbered with or without previous partner Lacey Schwimmer. Lacey, meanwhile, continued to dominate the paired dancing, while Danny Tidwell could barely conceal his disdain for her larger-than-life personality.  Dominic brought a theatricality to the dance floor for Jaimie Goodwin that her previous partner Hok Konishi could not -- but too much, for the judges. Sara VonGillern's and Neil Haskell's fun disco routine proved that they're a strong couple but strong individual dancers as well, as pairs dancing isn't either of their fortes. But they sure made it look easy.

The 'Cavemen' panel: Can't we all get along? (No, we can't.)

Reporters had a message Wednesday for the producers of ABC's new comedy "Cavemen:" Ugh.

Spun off from a celebrated series of commercials for Geico insurance, "Cavemen" may have formidable built-in recognition factor for a new series. But at the TV press tour in Beverly Hills, the homo sapiens behind the show -- about three misunderstood Cro-Magnons living in the modern world -- got clubbed by questioners who felt "Cavemen" is nothing more than a primitive and not-too-funny racial allegory.

"We never saw them as a stand-in for one group," executive producer Josh Gordon said of the title protagonists.

Pressed further, executive producer Mike Schiff added that the ethnic prejudice theme was a "background to the show ... but it's not a driving force."

This explanation was not well-received among the TV critics and reporters, however, one of whom noted that all eight of "Cavemen" panelists were white men. (In their defense, the producers said that ethnic minorities and women are among the show's writers and directors).

The atmosphere grew so tense that actor Nick Kroll, who plays the sardonic caveman Nick, aimed for something between comic relief and gallows humor.

"I was told there was gonna be a laugh track here," Kroll told the mostly stone-faced press tour crowd, "but I guess that's not the case."

-- Scott Collins

(Photo: Craig Sjodin / ABC)

'Daily Show' meets YouTube debate

No surprise that “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” had a field day doing next-night satire of Monday’s CNN/YouTube Democratic debate.

“This debate will come at you in six dimensions,” Stewart said, googly-eyeing the camera to lampoon CNN’s insistence that, with this techno-political miracle, they’d not only landed on Mars but opened a coffee bar.

I’m all for the service “The Daily Show” provides at a breathtaking four-nights-a-week clip — the news for people who tangentially follow the news but nevertheless want to remain intellectually above it and thus go back to not following it.

To that end, “The Daily Show” sort of took one tack about the YouTube debate — you missed nothing, except for CNN's ridiculous hype (a comedic sweet spot, to be sure).

But here's something that nags at me: Was this a case where "The Daily Show" stoops to mocking the powerless, in this case the uploaders who participated in the YouTube debate?

Seen through the show's funhouse mirror, none of them looked any too smart--the North Carolina pastor,for instance, who was present in the audience for a follow-up to his question of Sen. John Edwards about gay marriage. 

“So, was CNN able to take the debate process and youth-anize it?” was how Stewart introduced a piece by John Oliver about the Youth of Today watching the debate as a drinking game, sipping on common references like “Bush,” gulping on less-common ones like “torture” and “gay marriage.”

Better, and less defeating, was the “gotcha” the show pulled on Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), shown reacting with evident feeling during the debate to the lesbian couple in Brooklyn who asked about gay marriage.

Except, as “The Daily Show” illustrated, he’d given the same talking point at a previous debate, saying he and his wife ask themselves, “How would I want my two daughters treated if they grew up and had a different sexual orientation [from] their parents?”

“Apparently you would like them treated as hypothetical debate lesbians,” Stewart said.

— Paul Brownfield

(Photo courtesy Comedy Central)

A love fest for ABC's 'Pushing Daisies'

ABC’s “Pushing Daisies” is the story of a young man blessed/cursed with the gift of bringing people back from the dead with a mere touch (but only if he never touches them again).  Told in high fairy-tale style, down to its narration by "Harry Potter" audio god, Jim Dale, with a candy-store color scheme and high-def characters (Swoosie Kurtz plays one-half of a former synchronized swim team and wears an eye patch), it’s poised to be the critic’s darling come fall. And everyone, including the cast and creators, knows exactly what a kiss of death that can be.

“I knew I was going to get that question,” said costar Chi McBride when a reporter at Tuesday's press tour session pointed out that he was in the cast of the previous, and short-lived, critic's pick “The Nine.”  In his answer he quoted, and did a passable impersonation of, executive producer Barry Sonnenfeld.

“Some people see the glass half empty, some people see it half full, I see a half a glass of poison," said McBride-as-Sonnenfeld.

"Chi," said Sonnenfeld himself, with a small grim laugh,  “I’ve told you over and over, live in fear.”

Michael's return: Harold Perrineau gets 'Lost' again

Stephen McPherson, the president of ABC entertainment, faced the press this morning at the Beverly Hilton. When a reporter asked him what "Lost" announcements might be made at Comic-Con later this week, he balked, saying that we would have to wait to find out.

The mood in the room turned ugly. Why were we here, reporters and critics asked, if not to break news? The question was phrased and rephrased. At one point, McPherson tried to joke about it, saying that Don Imus had been hired to appear on "Lost."  No one laughed.

Finally, Hope Hartman, from ABC's media relations department, walked out on stage and whispered in McPherson's ear.

He then announced that Harold Perrineau, who played Michael on "Lost," would be returning to the show.

Viewers last saw Michael on the mysterious island in the finale of Season 2. Having struck a deal with the Others to get him and his son, Walt (Malcolm David Kelley), off the island, Michael rescued head Other Ben. In doing so, he shot and killed fan-favorite Libby (Cynthia Watros) and fan-not-so-favorite Ana-Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez).

His remorse over his murderous misdeeds didn't stop Michael from leaving, with Walt, on a boat in the Season 2 closer, presumably to safety. But maybe not so safe after all?

Update: Reached by e-mail, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the executive producers who run "Lost," had no comment. But they are likely to officially confirm Perrineau's return as a series regular at the "Lost" panel on Thursday at Comic-Con.

-- Kate Aurthur

(Photo courtesy ABC)

'Damages': Any coincidence that 'devil' has the word 'evil' in it?

It’s obvious why crime shows have become a mainstay on television: Blood! Guts! Maniacs! Good! Evil! Redemption! But civil litigation isn’t as sexy -– how much tension can you create over someone whipping out a pen and signing papers?

As it turns out, quite a bit. Most people will be gabbing over Glenn Close’s stellar performance as a brilliant and cruel attorney on Tuesday night’s premiere of FX’s fantastic new series “Damages” –- but the show isn’t just a one-trick pony. Close plays Patty Hewes, a woman straight out of John Grisham’s “The Firm” with more than a touch of Al Pacino’s Beelzebub in “The Devil’s Advocate.” Hewes’ breezy forms of psychological manipulation are fun to watch –- she buys her just-hired associates a whole new wardrobe to get them to fit in, then promptly mandates that the dry-cleaning can be done only by her preferred provider –- but it’s the undercurrent of physical menace that really sells the show.