TV News

After 10 seasons, 'Dancing With the Stars' still may have a few surprise moves to draw in new viewers. And one of those might be following in the footsteps of the Israeli edition by featuring its first-ever same-sex couple.

"The show is definitely looking for a trick for its next edition that will go up against 'American Idol,'" a 'Dancing' insider told PopEater's Rob Shuter. "What better than to have a same-sex couple dancing together? That would certainly get more press than even Jennifer Lopez could drum up."

Gene Shalit is leaving NBC's 'Today.' According to Variety, Shalit, who has been with the show for 40 years, will depart the morning program on Thursday.

"It's enough already," Shalit said in a statement.

The film reviewer said he will still be active in the media scene, but focusing on publishing, Web work, radio and commercials. Look for 'Today' to air a special retrospective about Shalit's lengthy career on his last day, Nov. 11.

In other TV news ...

• Steven Weber and D.L. Hughley has been tapped to star in a new TNT pilot. Weber and Hughley will play police officers, Weber's character is newly widowed and Hughley's a newlywed. The project comes from 'Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps' writer Allan Loeb and is based on Marshall Karp's novel "The Rabbit Factory." [Deadline Hollywood]

• Shohreh Aghdashloo will guest star on 'Law & Order: SVU.' The Emmy-winner will play Sunny Qadar, an investigator in the Brooklyn district attorney's office. [Movieline]

• HBO is not going forward with 'Miraculous Year.' The star-studded pilot had Frank Langella, Lee Pace and Hope Davis attached and was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. [Deadline Hollywood]

• IFC is developing 8 new shows. The new projects vary from reality and animation to comedy. The network has tapped creators such as Thom Beers, Alan Spencer, and David Wain. Look for 'Whisker Wars,' a reality series about facial hair competitions. Yup. [Hollywood Reporter]

America's love of teen shows and TV doctors (hello, Sandra Oh!) continues with 'Glee' and 'Grey's Anatomy' topping the nominations of the 37th annual People's Choice Awards.

'Grey's Anatomy' picked up quite a few nominations, specifically in the favorite TV doctor category. 'Glee' grabbed nominations in the comedy acting category and guest stars. 'Gossip Girl' also leads TV veterans with several noms in the drama category.

The biggest surprise? Fox's struggling 'Running Wilde' picked up a nomination in the new comedy category ... but then again, so did every new comedy this season.

Check out the full list of nominees below, then head over to the People's Choice site to vote. The awards air Wed. Jan. 5 at 9PM ET on CBS.

'Sarah Palin's Alaska' finally premieres Sunday night at 9PM ET, and TLC has released another sneak peek to whet our appetites.

It's more of the same -- Palin does outdoorsy things with her family and talks about her values -- but she's charming. On getting caught while boating with her kids and husband (some of which we saw in the last promo): "We're snagged, I'm thinkin' we're gonna be stuck there, the anchor is dropped, and there's a bear comin' towards us."

Aw shucks.

If you heard a faint cheer wafting from your cubicles yesterday, it was probably the baseball fans in your office cheering that the 'ESPN Sunday Night Baseball' team of Jon Miller and Joe Morgan won't be back for a 22nd season on the Worldwide Leader.

Those cheers aren't for the dismissal of Miller, who did his usual consistent and excellent job this past season. No, those cheers were for the departure of Morgan, one of the most polarizing sportscasters since Howard Cosell.

For a lot of fans, Morgan was the symbol of all that's wrong with sports broadcasting, one of many former players who seem to coast through a high-profile analyst's job largely unprepared. For others, though, he was a comforting voice, a guy who's seen it all and can recount the stories over and over again while putting things in the context of the game at hand.

But there aren't many broadcasters who have inspired so much ire that entire websites were created to document his every misstep. And, whether you liked him or not, you have to admit that it was probably time to let the Hall of Famer go and get some fresh voices in.

Everyone expected Conan O'Brien's return to television to be a big deal, but we're not even sure TBS could have predicted it would be this huge.

'Conan' premiered to 4.2 million viewers, scoring a 2.5 in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic and a 2.8 household rating, according to a TBS press release -- meaning Coco officially beat Jay Leno in last night's ratings.

In fact, O'Brien handily outperformed all of his late night competition -- 'The Tonight Show' scored a 2.7 household rating (3.5 million) while 'Late Show' came in at 2.5 (3.4 million) and 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' at 1.7. He also landed ahead of 'Lie to Me' (1.8), 'The Event' (1.8) and the entire NBC primetime lineup last night in the demo.

'The Daily Show' was a distant 1.5 (1.3 million viewers), with 'The Colbert Report' scoring a 1.1 (1 million). These figures are based on Nielsen's 56 metered markets and could shift once national figures are in, but 'Conan' is still expected to be the late-night leader -- for this Monday, at least.

According to the latest publicity-baiting study from the Parents Television Council (mission accomplished!), primetime television has gotten a heck of a lot more foul-mouthed over the past five years.

In the study, called "A Habitat for Profanity: Broadcast TV's Sharp Increase in Foul Language," the PTC uncovered a 69 percent increase in the use of profanity during peak primetime viewing hours between 2005 and 2010, Deadline reports.

"Our analysis of the first two weeks of this still-new fall television season shows a disturbing trend that shocked even us," PTC President Tim Winter said. "Profanity is far more frequent and the profanity itself is far harsher than just five years ago. Even worse, the most egregious language is being aired during the time slots when children are most likely to be in the audience."

According to a new report, Starz is not far from naming Andy Whitfield's replacement on its hit series 'Spartacus: Blood and Sand.'

Deadline reports that Stephen Amell, Aiden Turner and Liam McIntyre are the final three actors in the running from the role, which Whitfield bowed out of after his cancer returned in September. The three are flying to New Zealand for screen tests with the cast, and a new Spartacus could be named within the next week.

In other TV news ...

• Former 'ER' star Goran Visnjic will appear on the two-part season finale of 'Leverage.' The actor will play Damian Moreau, the "ruthless" international businessman the team has been chasing all season long. [TV Guide]

• Fox will air an extended promo of its new show, 'Bob's Burgers,' on Thanksgiving night. The series, about a diner owner and his family, will premiere in January. [Variety]

• The planned 'Bones' spinoff/new series launching pad has been postponed until the spring due to "creative reasons." The episode would introduce a new character, an eccentric man who's good at finding things named Walter Sherman, who would then get a new show based on the 'Locator' book series by Richard Greener. [Movieline]

Sonny Barger, a legendary member of the Hells Angel Motorcycle Club, has a cameo role in the Nov. 30 season finale of FX's biker drama 'Sons of Anarchy.'

Barger, a founding member of the Oakland chapter of the Hells Angels, plays a character called Lenny the Pimp, one of the founders of the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club. Barger, who lives in Arizona these days, said in an interview that he's a big fan of the show.

"We watch it every week," Barger said. "It's a nice show and it seems like everyone likes it. But it's nowhere near my everyday life."

Below, Sutter talks at length about the third season of the show and about how Barger's appearance came about.

All the turmoil and all those Twitter frenzies... for that?

Given a chance to reinvent himself on basic cable, Conan O'Brien offered up a standard-issue late-night show on Monday's 'Conan' debut.

He kept his post-'Tonight Show' beard, and he has a fancy new (and very blue) set. But despite the nervous energy of the host, much of 'Conan' felt very predictable. There was little of the surreal, weird or goofy humor that so endeared Conan to his loyal audience.

Let's face it, there are a lot of people out there who can interview nervous starlets. Conan O'Brien doesn't need to be one of them.

The 'One Tree Hill' wardrobe department is about to need a whole lot more eyeliner. According to Michael Ausiello, rocker Dave Navarro is set to appear as himself on the CW soap in an upcoming episode.

Musicians are no stranger to the show, since one of the main character owns a record label. In the past, musically inclined guest stars have included Pete Wentz and Michelle Branch, with Kid Cudi set to appear Nov. 30. Singer/songwriter Kate Voegele has appeared on the show for the past several seasons as Mia Catalano, and performs her own songs in the role.

In other TV news ...

• Tim Allen is headed back to TV ... maybe. Over the weekend, ABC won a bidding war for the new comedy 'Man Up,' which could potentially be a starring vehicle for Allen. [Deadline]

• Rebecca Mader will guest star on 'No Ordinary Family.' The former 'Lost' actress will play a coworker of Stephanie's with secrets of her own. [TV Guide]

• The Jonas Brothers' Disney show is (possibly) no more. 'Jonas L.A.' director Paul Hoen tweeted about the cancellation this weekend, but has since deleted his 140-character statement. [Vulture]

• Jenny McCarthy is returning to 'Two and a Half Men.' The actress will reprise her role as crazy con artist Courtney starting Nov. 22. [Hollywood Insider]

You might not have heard yet, but Conan O'Brien premieres his new show tonight.

For the uninformed -- by the way, welcome back from that rock you've been hiding under -- the first episode of 'Conan' debuts tonight at 11PM ET on TBS with guests Seth Rogen, Lea Michele, the first guest poll winner and musical guest Jack White. But what about the other guys?

After the jump, we list the celebs who are making the non-'Conan' talk show rounds this evening.

After 'The Walking Dead' premiered to monstrously good ratings last week, most observers expected a second-season order within a day or two of the show's Oct. 31 debut.

It took AMC until today, however, to officially give a green light to a second season of the show.

"The 'Dead' has spread!" AMC president Charlie Collier said in the network's press release. "No other cable series has ever attracted as many Adults 18-49 as 'The Walking Dead.' This reaffirms viewers' hunger for premium television on basic cable.

The good news? Season 2 of 'The Walking Dead' will double zombie lovers' pleasure.

This week, a long-time soap favorite has decided to leave his show for good ... or until he comes back from the dead. An actress from 'The Bold and the Beautiful' takes a dip into primetime. And it would be remiss of us not to mention that 'Days of Our Lives' is celebrating its 45th year on the air -- that's a lot of sand through the hourglass!

Also, don't forget to check out the Soap Round-Up every Saturday to find out what's been happening on screen the soap world.

Kiss the Kaye Goodbye
Actor Thorsten Kaye is leaving 'All My Children' for good. (Or not so good, considering he's an excellent actor and Zach Slater is a really popular character on the show.) However, when 'AMC' moved the entire production to Los Angeles last January, Kaye was reluctant to follow. For the past 10 months, Thorsten has popped up occasionally on the show, but not nearly enough to justify giving the character a major storyline.