'America's Next Top Model,' 'Stylista' preempted by Clippers game

As devoted television watchers surely know by now, there will be lots of preemptions tonight in prime time: Fox, NBC, CBS and Univision altered their schedules at 8 p.m. to accomodate the Obama-mercial. (ABC decided to stick with its usual Wednesday schedule.)

But Los Angeles residents should also be aware that because of a Clippers game, the CW lineup of "America's Next Top Model" and "Stylista" has been pushed out of prime time completely. And not only this week, but next week as well.

The broadcasts of the shows will instead be on Saturday, Nov. 1, at 4 p.m. for "America's Next Top Model") and 5 p.m. for "Stylista." The following week, the shows will be on Saturday at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.

— Kate Aurthur

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this post said that the shows were preempted only this week, and would be on at 11 p.m. and midnight.

Obama plans TV interview blitz as election day approaches

Television viewers who aren’t interested in watching Sen. Barack Obama’s half-hour political ad at 8 tonight will have a few other options. (“Pushing Daisies,” anyone?) But it will be hard to miss the seeing the Democratic presidential nominee in coming days.

Aside from the blizzard of ads that Obama’s campaign is running, the Illinois senator is planning to do a raft of network interviews this week. For those trying to keep track at home, here’s the schedule:

Tonight: Obama speaks with ABC anchor Charles Gibson on “World News Tonight” and makes his fourth appearance on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”

Thursday: The White House hopeful sits down with NBC anchor Brian Williams. (Portions will air on the “NBC Nightly News” Thursday and Friday.) Later, he appears on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

Friday: Obama goes one-on-one with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, who will show portions of their conversation throughout the afternoon on “The Situation Room.”

Sen. John McCain is not letting his rival have the airwaves to himself, however. Tonight, the Republican presidential nominee will talk to CNN’s Larry King, just after Obama’s political ad concludes on CBS, Fox, NBC and Univision.

-- Matea Gold

American Idol: A grass-roots groundswell for Brooke White?

As she prepares to break ground on her first post-show album, Brooke White's recording past may be rearing its head and making some ripples across the music world. 

While her next album may still be many months away, a song from her pre-"Idol "indie record has been causing a sensation on some audience-driven polls.

The track in question is titled
"Free," and was recorded for White's 2006 debut album "Songs From the Attic," which was independently published by her management company's label, New Millennium Records. Although was taken out of the retail world after White entered the "Idol" bubble, it returned to the market once she left the show.

Recently, however, the lead track has been dramatically racing up the charts, at least the charts on the IHeartMusic site, a Clear Channel entity that's also linked on the Web portals of the company's numerous stations.  Appearing under the sites' "Discover New Music" section, the exact parameters of how exactly a song gets into the top 20 is not explained on the site -- and Clear Channel representatives failed to return calls requesting explanation. 

However, the listing appears to be a chart of the songs played most often by visitors to the sites. Among the available songs are those submitted by artists who wish to have their music "considered for terrestrial broadcast" by Clear Channel programmers. However, while many of the songs on the charts come from unknown talents, many are by highly visible acts such as MIA and Ray LaMontagne.

Fans of "Idol's" smoky-voiced songstress would be delighted to find, however, that months before White's first post-show album will appear in stores, her "Free" track is dominating the IHeartMusic charts. The cut has recently been taking the pole position on both the country and adult contemporary lists, and second on the overall chart. A screenshot of the adult chart is included in this post.

Yet despite her success on the company's website, the Clear Channel stations have yet to throw open the doors to White's earlier work.  According to Neilsen BBS data, which tracks airplay at all Clear Channel station, "Free" has not received a single at bat on any Clear Channel stations. 

For reasons that obscure, White's online success has yet to force open the doors to the airwaves for her maiden effort. Again, Clear Channel representatives did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

-- Richard Rushfield

(photo courtesy of Fox)

'Dancing With the Stars': Cloris Leachman's time runs out

Well, this week, Cloris Leachman's legion of fans couldn't save her to perform another week on "Dancing With the Stars." She was gracious, if characteristically Cloris, in defeat, and if you think that either Tom Bergeron or Samantha Harris managed to get a post-elimination interview out of her, then you haven't been paying attention this season.

Tonight's show led off with the longest summary segment I can remember. But my memory isn’t very good. The stars were all decked out in their hip-hop get-ups, which meant, to my delight, that the group hip-hop routine was the encore dance. Oh, but poor Susan Lucci -– nothing improved for her between last night and tonight. She may even have gotten worse. Her performance was reminiscent of what I look like in aerobics classes –- I’m always the person who’s moving the wrong direction and is noticeably off-tempo. And the choreographer did Susan no favors by placing her beside Lacey, who was flashy and excellent in true Fly Girl fashion.

'Biggest Loser': Who's the mastermind now?

There's a new game player at "The Biggest Loser" ranch. Her name is Vicky.

Bob got to the bottom of last week's shenanigans when he called Brady and Vicky on the carpet about Brady's unbelievably low weight loss: "I need to make sense of what went on [during the weigh-in]. I just don't believe this 3-pound weight loss. . . I don't believe it for a second," Bob said.

Brady and Vicky stiffly denied there was any game playing going on. Then Vicky then threw Brady under the bus, saying that the lack of weight loss must have been caused by Brady's refusal to follow Bob's diet plan. (Bob has ordered his blue team to eat every four hours to keep up their metabolism and energy for the strenuous workouts.) But Brady's lack of response to being called out by his wife seemed . . . suspicious. And then came Vicky's later interview. She kept her poker face on at first: "We really wanted to win this one. We have no idea what happened."

And then she smirked.

'90210': And they all lived happily ever after…?

Could the Wilsons be any more perfect? I mean seriously, this family drinks their morning OJ out of a carafe. But the Wilsons weren’t the only warm and fuzzy part of the show tonight. In fact, the entire episode was so heartwarming that it seemed like a series finale; by the end, there was not a single loose end left.

1. Poor Ryan Matthews has -– like everybody else in the ZIP Code -- been pining over Kelly Taylor all season. Then, after "nice guy" got dissed by the infamous blonde, he started to fall for a naughty new student in his class. Well, tonight, Ryan discovered, to his delight, that the naughty new girl was actually a 25-year old narc! Totally legal. Yay!

2. When we left former besties Naomi Clark and Adrianna Duncan, they were in a very, very bad place. After narrowly surviving an overdose, Adrianna implicated innocent Naomi in her drug bust. Tonight, the twosome ended in a tearful, conciliatory embrace. Even Adrianna's bangs looked nice again.

3. Which brings us to Adrianna, an insecure, wannabe actress with a drug-habit and a stage mom. Well, tonight, we found out that lovable goof Navid has been secretly pining over Adrianna all these years, while she was too coked up to notice. He rode in on his white horse, took a punch from her dealer, and saved Adrianna from herself.

4. And then there's wet noodle daddy Harry Wilson, whose long-lost baby mama threatened his perfect marriage tonght. Well, fear not. Aunt Becky –- er -– Debbie Wilson had the answer: She threatened to "knock [baby mama's] teeth out" unless she stayed away. Problem solved.

5. Even awkward Annie threw caution to the wind and laid one on long-time crush Ethan Ward tonight.

6. Oh, and as for Erin Silver and Dixon Wilson, after a brief misunderstanding, the two attended the homecoming dance together, as madly in love as ever.

What is this, "Leave it to Beaver?" Okay, so there was a heaping spoonful of sugar this episode, but don't worry, "9-0"-devotees. I have a feeling all that love and happiness was setting up for something truly sinister to come! If you look closely enough, the signs were all around us.

Just think about it; once Naomi hears about li'l Annie's smooch with Ethan, it's only a matter of time before she goes Blair Waldorf on her. And when Kelly Taylor comes back and realizes that she missed out on a good thing with Ryan, she'll be peeved about the narc that took her place. I'd say every one of these dream scenarios is about to get turned on its head next week. (*That is, aside from Dixon and Silver's ever-perfect romance. Cause when you only have one black man on a series, apparently it's your obligation to make him a saint. So far, Dixon's only missteps have been working too hard -- when he heard of his family's financial woes and took a job at the Peach Pit -- and being too "nice" -- when he passed up the homecoming dance because he didn't think Silver wanted to go.)

So, even though the sweepingly positive end of this episode was atypical, I didn't mind it. Too many weeks of drugs and sex and affairs can become exhausting. This episode showed us the pretty, wholesome side of life in Beverly Hills; so that it can all crumble anew in the coming weeks. And I can't wait.

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Michael Steger as Navid, Tristan Wilds as Dixon and Jessica Stroup as Silver courtesy The CW)

'90210': Annie and Ethan: Will they or won’t they?

Finally! After a two week hiatus, designed to drive me insane, “90210” returns tonight with an episode that promises to be the event of the season. Literally; the preview says, “it’s the event of the season.”

So, what can we ascertain from the 32-second teaser? The homecoming dance rolls around, and Ethan asks ex-gal pal Naomi to be his date. At the dance, however, Ethan slow-dances with small-town Annie and whispers, “You look beautiful,” while a stunned Naomi looks on.

“It’s not who you arrive with; it’s who you leave with,” announces the preview, suggesting that the virginal Annie will do more than just “leave with” Ethan.

But come now.  Anybody who watched the original “90210” knows that you don’t deflower the series virgin till she has spent at least a dozen episodes agonizing, right? What do you think?

-- Stephanie Lysaght

(Photo courtesy of The CW)

CW will develop 'Melrose Place' next

Based on the ratings success of the rebooted "90210," the CW network is developing a redo of "Melrose Place" for the 2009-10 season.

Last year, Creative Artists Agency, which manages the late producer Aaron Spelling's estate, originally approached the CW with the idea of developing either "90210" or "Melrose Place" for the then-struggling network. Because the CW's target audience is 18- to 34 year-old women, the network (along with CBS Paramount, the studio) opted for a new "90210," as The Times' Maria Elena Fernandez reported over the summer.

As we now know, "90210" attracted intense interest from nostalgic fans, who were particularly concerned with what actors from Fox's "Beverly Hills, 90210" might return. So far, Jennie Garth, Shannen Doherty and Joe E. Tata have reprised their old roles.

Expect the same hysteria to surround a new "Melrose," the '90s phenomenon that starred Heather Locklear, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Josie Bissett and Marcia Cross.

The "Beverly Hills, 90210" spinoff was launched in 1992, with Grant Show's character, Jake, bridging the gap between the two shows. At first, its creator, Darren Star, wanted the show about twentysomething neighbors in a Los Angeles apartment complex to be a realistic portrayal of struggling Angelenos. But when audiences weren't enthusiastic about that, Locklear entered the show, and it became a full-blown nighttime soap, with evil plots, wig-wearing villains and backstabbing siblings.

With the character of Matt, as played by Doug Savant, "Melrose" also had one of the first unapologetically gay characters on a prime-time drama. (Matt's same-sex kiss in the Season 2 finale was, however, famously censored.)

Savant is busy on "Desperate Housewives," as is Cross. Kristin Davis has moved on to the "Sex and the City" franchise. Locklear is having troubles, but would surely be welcomed back by fans.

Who would you most want to see on a new version of "Melrose"?

— Kate Aurthur

Weekly ratings: World Series boosts Fox

The World Series lifted Fox to victory among young adults last week, but the match-up between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays still wasn't enough to roll back CBS, which ran to its fourth straight weekly win among total viewers.

Fox surged on three prime-time baseball games for the week ending Oct. 26, with the most-watched being Sunday's Game 4, with 15.5 million viewers, according to figures published Tuesday by Nielsen Media Research.

Yet CBS still took three nights -- Tuesday, Thursday and Friday -- among total viewers. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" was the week's most-watched show (19.5 million viewers) notwithstanding competition from the World Series (12.8 million for Game 2) and ABC's "Grey's Anatomy" (14.4 million).

CBS was also the only network to grow (by 2%) in total viewers, compared with the same week last year. Its rivals were all down by double digits. 

Overall, CBS led in viewers with an average of 11.3 million, trailed by Fox (10.9 million), ABC (10 million) and NBC (6.1 million).

On basic cable, ESPN's Monday face-off between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots was week's the No. 1 program, with 10.8 million viewers.

--Scott Collins   

'Dexter': A partner in crime?

Michael C. Hall is such a good actor that his good looks sometimes are easy to look past, but in the most recent episode of "Dexter," his character was downright sexy. What made Dexter so appealing?  That he was being bad.

So OK, in real life, there's nothing attractive about a guy making the woman who is pregnant with his child cry. However, Dexter plays Mr. Nice Guy so much with his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) and her kids that it was refreshing to hear him tell her "no" so abruptly when she asked him to go house-hunting with her. Dexter was smarting from the concept of having to give up his murderous bachelor pad, but something else was going on to make him behave so coldly, and I liked it. It was even fun to see him setting up his kill room on a cruise ship and talking a wee bit psychotically to his murder victim: "I want to thank you for reminding me to take moments for oneself."