All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Betty White, Tom Selleck, and now Don Johnson is headed back to primetime, making it seem like 1985 in fall pilot action.

– As much as I loved this week’s episode of Lost – it was the perfect antidote, being one of the best episodes ever of the show, to Tuesday night’s American Idol performance installment, which was, hands down, the worst episode ever of AI – the Movieline.com snarky episode recap is almost as fun as the episode itself.

– At the Movies has been canceled. Let’s be honest, it was never the same without Siskel and Ebert‘s thumbs.

– Also dunzo: The Hills, after season six, which premieres on April 27.

– And Fox has put ‘Til Death out of its (and viewers’) misery, while Scrubs is also likely to be canceled.

– Endings is becoming a theme this week: Katherine Heigl has confirmed she’s quitting (actually, has already quit) Grey’s Anatomy.

– One more: Lost producers have revealed the title of the show’s series finale. It’s “The End.”

– The New York Jets’ training camp will be the subject of next season’s edition of HBO’s Hard Knocks.

– It may not be the savviest career move, but it’s still refreshing that even Big Love star Chloe Sevigny admits the just-concluded fourth season of her HBO show was, as she says, “awful.” It was especially bad in comparison to how great the show was in season three.

– CBS is launching its own reality dance series (because that’s definitely what’s missing in primetime), and Paula Abdul is said to top the network’s wish list of judges for the new show.

– Bill Cosby has made some very kind comments about his I Spy co-star Robert Culp, who died on Tuesday.

– Those infamous White House party crashers have landed on TV, as the wife, Michaele Salahi, will be one of Bravo’s Real Housewives of D.C.

– The Office has been hit-and-miss this season. The Jim/Pam baby episode has definitely been the highlight so far, along with the increased screen time for Craig Robinson since his Darryl got promoted. The comedian, whose Hot Tub Time Machine hits movie theaters today and who’ll host NBC’s Last Comic Standing this summer, says we’ll continue to see more and more of Darryl – the sharpest and most down to earth character at Dunder Mifflin – throughout the rest of the season.

– Diddy, whose name is among the dozens of people who’ve been mentioned as possible Simon Cowell replacements on American Idol, will perform on next Wednesday’s AI results show.

– And not only will we get a Madonna-themed episode of Glee on April 20, but a CD called The Power of Madonna, featuring seven Material Girl tunes performed by the Glee cast, will also hit stores and iTunes that day.

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• Filed in American Idol, Lost, Real Housewives, The Office, TV News
• Tags: Craig Robinson, Glee Madonna CD, Glee Madonna e, Glee Madonna episode, Katherine Heigl quitting Grey's Anatomy, Lost series finale, The Hills series finale

Didja see the little Glee preview that aired during American Idol last night? If not, check it out below. The clip features a snippet of the much-anticipated Madonna episode (scheduled to air on April 20), though Glee‘s first new episode of 2010 will premiere on April 13.

And what can we expect from season 1, part 2? Glad you asked …

1. Tony Award winner (and Mrs. Taye Diggs) Idina Menzel will join the cast for the final nine episodes of season one, as the director of Vocal Adrenaline, the Glee gang’s rivals. Menzel is also a possible love interest for Mr. Schuester (Matthew Morrison) … the words “big makeout scene” have been used to describe one of her interactions with Mr. Schu.

2. Although … the preview clip seems to show Mr. Schu about to lock lips with guidance counselor Emma (Jayma Mays). Let’s hope that’s not a fantasy sequence or part of some musical number.

3. About the Madonna ep: It may include as many as 10 Madonna songs, including Sue Sylvester’s (Jane Lynch) version of “Vogue” (gotta love her in the cone bra in the preview), Rachel’s (Lea Michele) “Express Yourself,” and, very appropriately, preggers Quinn (Dianna Agron) singing “Papa Don’t Preach.” “Like a Virgin,” “Crazy for You,” “Borderline” and “Open Your Heart” are rumored to also be among the tunes.

4. Michele’s Spring Awakening co-star Jonathan Groff will guest star as Jesse, a Vocal Adrenaline-ian.

5. Best rumor: That Neil Patrick Harris will guest star in an episode of the show, which is being directed by Buffy the Vampire Slayer daddy – and NPH’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog cohort – Joss Whedon.

6. Jennifer Lopez as a cafeteria worker? Series creator Ryan Murphy says he’s talking to J. Lo about playing a cafeteria worker who gets a glam makeover and, as a result, looks like, well, J. Lo. Is it too much to hope that snippets of Adam Sandler‘s “Lunchlady Land” will fall into the mix?

7. Olivia Newton-John + Sue Sylvester = Performing Newton-John’s classic ’80s tune “Physical” … it’s happening in an April episode of Glee. “Physical,” by the way, was just named the sexiest song ever by Billboard magazine.

8. If you missed the cast’s big promotional tour last year before Glee premiered, get ready to purchase tickets this summer, when Gleeks everywhere — actually, in select cities — can buy tix to the Glee summer tour. Scheduled stops so far include New York, Los Angeles, Portland, Dallas and Orlando.

9. Still more guest cast news: Former Saturday Night Live star Molly Shannon will play a teacher/badminton coach/big user of pharmaceutical enhancements who tussles with Sue Sylvester. Shannon is scheduled for a May episode.

10. And re: storylines, rumored happenings include Quinn having her baby, Rachel getting romantic with Puck (Mark Salling) again, Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig) not giving up on her marriage, the revelation of some info on Puck’s home life and Sue once again torturing poor Principal Figgins (Iqbal Theba).

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• Filed in Glee, Preview
• Tags: Glee Jennifer Lopez, Glee Joss Whedon, Glee Madonna episode, Glee Neil Patrick Harris, Glee preview, Sue Sylvester

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Emmy and Oscar-winning director and producer Barry Levinson thinks TV networks should program Saturday nights with must-see-TV. Saturday nights are a repeat wasteland now, but in the past, hits like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, The Bob Newhart Show, Hill Street Blues, Golden Girls, Love Boat, Mission: Impossible, Gilligan’s Island, The Streets of San Francisco, M*A*S*H, The Carol Burnett Show, The Jeffersons, Emergency, Kung Fu, Starsky & Hutch, Get Smart, Gunsmoke, Facts of Life and Leave It to Beaver claimed primetime real estate on Saturday nights.

– An all-Madonna episode of Glee? It’s happening.

– Hulk Hogan is returning to wrestling, on Spike’s TNA iMPACT.

– George Lopez has lined up Ellen DeGeneres, Eva Longoria-Parker and Kobe Bryant for the Nov. 9 premiere of his TBS late-night talk show Lopez Tonight, and has also booked Larry David, Sandra Bullock, Ray Romano, Jessica Alba, Charlie Sheen, Queen Latifah, Ted Danson, Andy Garcia, Taylor Lautner, Oscar de la Hoya and Kathy Griffin.

– They’re dropping like flies from the ESPN payroll these days. On the heels of the firings of Steve Phillips and his mistress from the sports net, ESPN has suspended commentator Bob Griese for making an offensive comment about Colombian NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya.

– Yet another reason to love Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson: When the lights went out in his studio (and all of CBS Television City) Tuesday night while he was interviewing Alicia Silverstone, he turned on a flashlight and kept right on going with the show.

– ABC has ditched plans to promote its V remake with the giant red skywritten “V”s. The campaign was going to create quite a bit of pollution, as Washington Post critic Lisa de Moraes calculated, and it was feared that the giant red Vs might freak some people out, reports The Hollywood Reporter‘s James Hibberd.

– The Wire and The Office star Idris Elba is developing a new legal drama, with Battlestar Galactica producer David Eick, for NBC.

– TruTV’s Las Vegas Lockdown is an upcoming reality series that will follow arrestees through the Sin City county jail, including partiers who prove that what happens in Vegas, sometimes leads to the hoosegow.

– Ricky Gervais on hosting the Golden Globe Awards in January: “Everyone is sitting around and drinking. I’m going to be drunk, and I’m not going to rehearse. So, it’s the perfect gig for me.” Unless they get him to host the Oscars, too, the Globes should be, far and away, the best awards show of the year.

– Last Sunday’s episode of Dexter was the series’ highest-rated installment ever, with more than two million viewers.

– Gabourey Sidibe, the newcomer who’s the buzz-making star of the early Oscar-fave film Precious, is in talks for a role in Showtime’s upcoming Laura Linney dark cancer-themed comedy The C Word.

– Patrick Swayze‘s widow Lisa will chat with Oprah on The Big O’s Friday show.

– And tonight’s must-see-TV: Barring continuing rain (it’s an icky day here in NYC), the Yankees and Phillies kick off the 105th World Series on Fox (8PM ET); Brick (a.k.a. scene-stealing kiddie actor Atticus Shaffer) is deemed “socially challenged” at school, but proves himself to be a mechanical genius at home on The Middle (8:30PM, ABC); Jay and Gloria argue about Manny’s new school outfit on Modern Family (9PM, ABC); for those with DirecTV, it’s the fourth-season premiere of Friday Night Lights (9PM); Robert has to whip up a feast at the Rock Hall of Fame in Cleveland on Dinner: Impossible (10PM, Food Network); and Adam tackles steak and blue crab in Baltimore on Man vs. Food (10PM, Travel Channel).

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• Filed in Award shows, Dexter, TV News
• Tags: Dexter, Gabourey Sidibe Precious, Glee Madonna episode, Hulk Hogan TNA, Late Late Show Craig Ferguson, Lopez Tonight George Lopez, Ricky Gervais Golden Globes