Yesterday's News

A few TV-related stories I thought were interesting:

* Oprah to appear on Dave - after years of jokes and being "totally out of town," Oprah Winfrey has finally relented to appear on Late Show with David Letterman. Not surprisingly, the musical version of The Color Purple premieres that night. I doubt they'll spend much time reading from the Oprah Log.

Please tell me that the other guest that night is Uma Thurman...

Speaking of Dave, be sure to tune in tomorrow when Dave makes his annual guesses as to what pies his mom made for Thanksgiving dessert. And if you'd like compete in the guessing rather than just watch, you can try to win a pie by submitting your own guesses.

* Simon Cowell no longer on American Idol? It's a possibility, as he's still negotiating his contract with the show and is involved in a lawsuit with show creator Simon Fuller, who claims that Cowell stole the format for his popular British talent/reality show The X Factor. The winner of this year's American Idol also won't be required to sign with Cowell's label, and he's not particularly interested in making a star for someone else.

Assuming he does leave, I'd expect Nigel Lythgoe to step in based on his work on both American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance?. Given that I found the latter show dull and its panel of five judges irritating beyond belief, I don't see such a replacement going well. Based on his performance as a guest judge, I'd rather see Mark McGrath take the spot - he wasn't as cutting as Cowell, but he's more likely to not get involved in a contestant-praising tongue bath than Lythgoe, Randy Jackson, or Paula Abdul.

* Speaking of actual news, Ted Koppel anchored his final episode of Nightline last night. There's some sort of anchor team in place to replace him, and considering that one of the members is noted Michael Jackson interviewer Martin Bashir, I don't have good feelings about the future of the program. Good night and good luck, indeed.

The House of Walgreens

The saddest thing I've seen this season of America's Next Top Model? A weekly "My Life as a Cover Girl" ad where the winner of the last "cycle," Naima Mora, spent a day signing autographs at Walgreens.

Now, I don't suppose I have much room to talk - Walgreens has never brought me in to sign things, at least outside of charge slips - but there's clearly a difference between life as a Cover Girl and life as a Top Model. Sadly, in the case of this show's winners, it doesn't appear to be all that much.

Thankfully, the remaining contestants in the current "cycle" seem like they'd be perfect appearing at mid-budget drug stores.

Cheerio, Trio

Word comes today that NBC is finally pulling the plug on Trio, an off-beat little network that you probably didn't get unless you had a dish (though DirecTV dropped it, removing about 12 million subscribers) or one of the higher-end digital cable packages. It will be re-launched on broadband via the Bravo website, retaining some of its current programming (such as the now ironically-named short-run series compendium Brilliant But Cancelled) while developing new content for its new form.

We don't get Trio on our current package, but I've had it before, and enjoyed its mix of original stuff and reruns of The Larry Sanders Show and Late Night with David Letterman. You get the sense that Trio was doomed from the start - too small to compete, too useful to NBC for other purposes once bought - but it will be missed all the same.

The hole left in the digital landscape by Trio's demise will seemingly be plugged by a mystery-themed channel called Sleuth. Not sure what the content of this will be like, but given what NBC's done with Bravo, expect one or two original series that will get run into the ground and re-runs of NBC properties.

Hey! I know her!

I rarely (OK, pretty much never) get to say such a thing when the credits are rolling during a TV show, but I did the other day when watching an episode of NBC's version of The Office. Turns out that Jennifer Celotta, who I worked with as a RA back in the day, got a supervising producer credit on that episode (and has writing credits for the show, as well as writing and/or producing credits on shows from Home Improvement to Andy Richter Controls the Universe).

I've not talked to her in well nigh a decade, but it was a happy feeling to see the name of someone I'd still consider a friend displayed on national TV. I'm sure she'll feel the same way when she Googles herself and finds her name on this dog and pony show (well, dog show, I couldn't afford to keep the pony).

As for The Office, you are now all commanded to watch it. *Clap Clap*!