We already know that the losing team will end up sleeping in tents for this season of the Apprentice. Also changing this season is the fact that project managers will lead the teams until they get booted!

This is pretty funny, but it can also result in someone who might have otherwise gone far being booted out earlier simply because the rest of the team can’t stand his/her bossiness! And you KNOW this will be an issue of contention this season.

No word yet on how they will be initially selecting those team leaders, but it should be interesting!

A few months back, we heard that Crossing Jordan was casting a “sexy, funny and slightly cocky cop.” Well, spoilers have it that Viggo Mortensen (yes, THAT Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings fame) has been offered the role! I loved Viggo in Lord of the Rings, and would be ecstatic if he was to land on Crossing Jordan, especially in that kind of a role.

No word on whether it would be a long-term role, or for a storyline arc (or possibly just a single episode) but I’ll take Viggo any way on Crossing Jordan

Source

You know, you have to admire a guy with such {ahem} staying power after his little incident in the adult movie theatre. But Paul Reubens has sustained himself (although definitely as a C-lister!) since then with his Pee Wee Herman empire. But now comes word he will be appearing on an episode of 30 Rock, titled “Black Tie”. He apparently won’t even be recognizable to fans (or is the term fans being generous ) according to Kristen from E!Online.

30 Rock stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin and airs Thursdays at 9:30pm on NBC.

Well, they aren’t billing it as a game show, but instead as a new (and short) reality series… and its all poker! But you’ll need to either TiVo it or stay up waaaayyy late, because it airs even after the late, late talk shows. The show airs for an hour each night… at 2am!

Hosted by former World Poker Tour host Hiatt dubbed one of Maxim magazine’s “Hot 100 of 2005″ each night of original programming will feature an intimate look at one table as it develops over the week, culminating with a winner on Friday night. Saturday night’s show the “director’s cut” will recap the week’s events with Hiatt and that week’s winner offering commentary and insight into their winning strategy (airing from 1-2 a.m. ET/PT following “Saturday Night Live,” check local listings).

Set in the back room of various casinos on the Vegas strip, “Poker After Dark” gives viewers an intimate look inside a poker game usually reserved for the eyes of the professional poker players themselves. “Poker After Dark” will feature the world’s top pros, all miked during the weekly battles for the $120,000 pot including Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Erick Lindgren, Jennifer Harman and Gus Hansen fighting it out for poker supremacy.

If you want to check it out, it starts January 2nd at 2:05am on NBC

Let’s get your geek on! Beauty & the Geek has announced the reality show contestants. And you will be able to watch the socially awkward men with their pretty-but-oh-so-dumb beauty counterparts with a two hour season premiere on January 3rd.

The third season will start its eight episode run at 8-10pm on the CW on January 3rd, the return the following Wednesday airing from 8-9pm. There will also be encore airings of the episodes on Sunday nights in case you miss one.

Think you have got what it takes to be the Sole Survivor? Well, Survivor is holding open casting calls, presumably for its 15th installment (since the next one just wrapped up filming!)

First, download the application! (PDF)

Then, hit one of the open casting call locations for your personal interview and see if you make the cut for a shot at a million dollars.

WFRV
December 27th, 4-8pm
The 5th Quarter
2101 American Drive
Little Chute, WI
For more information, visit wfrv.com or call Kristin at 920-430-3621.

WLNS
Thursday January 4th
6pm-8:30pm
The Lansing Boat Show
Lansing Center
333 East Michigan Avenue
Lansing Michigan 48933
For More Information go to: wlns.com

WHP-CBS 21
Saturday January 13th
10am - 1:00pm
the Harrisburg Mall
I-83 and Paxton Street
Harrisburg, PA
More information can be found at www.whptv.com WTKR

Norfolk/Virginia Beach
Friday January 19, 2006
4:00pm - 7:00pm
During the HRADA International Auto Show
At the Virginia Beach Convention Center
1000 19th Street,
Virginia Beach, VA 23451

WBBM
Chicago
Saturday, January 20th, 10a-2p
Majestic Star Casino
One Buffington Harbor Drive
Gary, IN 46406
For more information,
please call 312-212-2422.

KLAS Las Vegas
January 20, 2007, 12N - 5P
Planet Nissan
5850 Centennial Center Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89149

January 27th from 10am-1pm
Ala Moana Shopping Center-Center-stage
1450 Ala Moana Blvd
Honolulu, HI 96814
For more information, email Sheryl at sferido@kgmb9.com.

KUTV
Salt Lake City
January 12th & 13th, 3-8pm
South Towne Expo Center
9575 South State St.
Sandy, UT

WHBF-TV
Quad Cities, IA/IL
Saturday, January 20th, 10a-6p
The Great Escape
2119 Kimberly Road
Bettendorf, IA
For questions, please call Steve Garman at 309-786-5441.

WAFB
Baton Rouge, LA
Gerry Lane Hummer-Saab (I-10 at Siegen)
Saturday, January 20th
10am – Noon
10945 Reiger Road
Baton Rouge, LA
For questions, please call 225-383-9999.

WLTX- TV
Columbia, SC
Saturday, January 20th, 12n-4pm
WLTX-TV
6027 Garners Ferry Road
Columbia, SC
For more information, viewers can call the station
at 803-776-3600 or visit www.wltx.com.

Survivor’s ready

I guess it is called fixing what ain’t broke. American Idol producers have revealed they will have a mid-season surprise this season that will blow America away.

“American Idol” executive producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz promises a big event midway through the coming season of the red-hot talent show - but she won’t say what it is.
“If there’s one thing that makes ‘American Idol’ so big, it’s a huge event,” she told the Daily News.

“Something we’re working on is a big-event show, sometime in the middle of the season, something that will blow America away,” she added.

So what could it be? A show featuring the all of the previous Idol winners? Not sure that exactly qualifies as blowing American away. And with the show being live, details might not even leak out until days (or even only hours) beforehand. But I’ll do my best to bring you the Spoiler Buzz on it before then!

Well, you have to admire a tired reality series with trying to shake things up. It works for Survivor, so why not the Apprentice too? This season, the losing team won’t be sleeping in comfy beds, they will be sleeping in tents and sleeping bags instead!

From the press release:

In a compelling social experiment of haves and have nots, contestants this season will have to earn the right to live like Trump. Each week, the contestants on the winning team will get to live in a luxurious mansion. But contestants on the losing team will have to sleep outside in tents in the back yard of the mansion with outdoor showers and port-a-potties, giving contestants more incentive than ever to win their tasks each week.

I admit, it will be pretty funny when the typical beauty queen type that is always on the show ends up roughing it in a tent. Let the social experiment begin!

Look who is showing up just in time for February sweeps on Brothers & Sisters? Marion Ross of Happy Days fame has been cast in the role as Nora’s mother.

Michael Ausiello has the (unconfirmed by ABC) scoop.

Care to guess who’s been cast as Sally Field’s mom on Brothers & Sisters? Here’s a hint:

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days,
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days,
Saturday, what a day,
Rockin’ all week with you.

If you guessed Marion Cunningham Ross, you’re right! Although unconfirmed by ABC, sources tell me that Ross has landed the one-episode gig and will show up in February. Her character is described as “tough, obstinate, judgmental, direct and uncompromising.” Happy days, indeed!

And ABC has now confirmed the news with their own press release:

Beloved actress Marion Ross (Happy Days) will guest star as Nora and Sauls not-so-loving mother, Ida, who makes an unwelcome visit to celebrate a milestone in her daughters life in the hit freshman drama series, Brothers & Sisters. The episode, entitled Something Ida This Way Comes, will air Sunday, January 21 (10:01-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.

Definitely looking forward to this one. And I wonder if she is possibly committed to future episodes as well.

All signs point to J.T. Yorke (Ryan Cooley) as the character who dies on Degrassi next month. Here’s why.

First, from the press release:

Finally, Degrassi fans are in for the shock of their lives on Friday, January 26 as they prepare to say good bye to one of their most beloved characters when tragedy ensues on campus.

Then the following episode, the Bitterest Pill has the following description:

Toby in shock over losing a friend, with Liberty’s help, tries to plan a funeral that reflects his late friend’s enthusiasm for life. While planning the funeral they draw comfort from one another and begin to form a closer relationship.

We all know Toby and J.T. are good friends, so it makes sense, and J.T. definitely had “enthusiasm” for life.

And lastly, J.T.’s name doesn’t appear for any of the future episode summaries for the season.

One correction, it seems that the tragedy actually happens at Emma’s house (during a party when Snake and Spike are away) rather than on campus.

So what do you think of this turn of events and J.T. dying? Comment & share your thoughts here!

There is yet another pregnancy on a top rated drama, this time on CSI: NY. Anna Belknap, who plays CSI Lindsay Monroe, is pregnant in real life, with her due date in the new year.

The pregnancy is not being written into the show (who will be counting all the tables, lab coats and big purses she will be hiding her tummy behind?) and with there being no hiatus on the show right now, it has been go time for the actress. Lindsay will be off the series for a few episodes while the actress is on maternity leave.

TVG: Is your pregnancy being written into the show?
AB: No.

TVG: So, Lindsay will just be gone for several episodes?
AB: Yes.

TVG: What’s the reason that’s given for Lindsay leaving?
AB: She has a personal crisis, so she has to leave for awhile.

The full interview was done for TV Guide Canada, and you can read the entire interview here.

Well, you knew it was only a matter of time before Medium featured a Chuckie-like character. And it looks like the tenth episode of the season will feature just that. The episode, Very Merry Molly, seems to allude to one of those multi-functional interactive type dolls (look at little Molly pee, poop, drink her bottle, kill people…)

There is no air date yet for the episode.

Last we saw of Clavo Cruz, his father (who it turns out was not really his father) refused to allow Clavo to be protected under diplomatic immunity. But Clavo Cruz will make appearances in two upcoming CSI Miami episodes, meaning either he gets off, he breaks out, or some other interesting twist.

Clavo Cruz (Gonzalo Menendez) will appear in a two part episode, - No Man’s Land: Part 1 and No Man’s Land: Part 2. It doesn’t appear that his brother Ramon will be back though.

The first episode is set to air February 5th, 2006, with the second part airing the following week.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. And you have to wonder if this is the nemisis that will be breaking out of prison to terrorize Horatio’s team of CSIs.

Not only has Yul been named on of the Sexiest Men Alive by People magazine, is known for his brains with degrees from both Stanford and Yale, but he is also now known as the Sole Survivor of Survivor Cook Islands, and is a cool mil richer. And not only that, he had to do it by beating two others in the final vote by the jury, not just one as has been the case in all the previous Survivors.

Kwon beat Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth in a 5-4 vote. The third person in that final vote - Rebekah “Becky” Lee - didn’t even manage to score a single vote from the jury.

And in an interesting note, the season started full of controversy because of the racially divided teams, but at the end it marked the most racially diverse makeup of survivors the game had ever seen. For the first time, a caucasian was not among the final two (or three, in this case). In fact, the final four did not include any of the caucasian members - the four consisted of an African American, Mexican-born man and two Asian-Americans.

Rumor has it that Clark (Tom Welling) will share a hot and heavy kiss with a female castmate on the January 25th episode “Labyrinth”. But since Lois (Erica Durance) does not even appear in this episode, it doesn’t seem as though Lois is on the receiving end of hot and heavy.

Beauty and the Geek is coming back for the third season on the CW, and they have announced the cast members for the new season.

Beauties:

Erin — Chicago, Illinois

Cecille — Los Angeles, California

Nadia — Burr Ridge, Illinois

Megan — Boca Raton, Florida

Andrea — Kansas City, Missouri

Tori — Elk Grove, Illinois

Jennylee — Sherman Oaks, California

Sheree — Live Oak, Florida

Geeks:

Sanjay — Westminster, California

Piao — Lorton, Virginia

Alan — Cambridge, Massachusetts

Neils — Berkeley, California

Matt — Goldens Bridge, New York

Drew — Chicago, Illinois

Mario — Bridgeport, West Virginia

Nate — Evergreen, Colorado

To see the pics of the beauties and the geeks in all their glories, as well as some tidbits about each (like who stars in a Star Wars rock band??) check out the new cast page.

Word on the street - and according to Michael Ausiello - is that if One Tree Hill comes back next season for the show’s fifth season, that there will be some major changes, including one that would see the show zoom ahead four years to when the characters would all be graduating from high school.

One Tree Hill has a problem getting new demographics of viewers because of the current age group of the characters, although the true ages of the cast members more closely resembles the post-college-age.