I’m with all the Lost fans who decided not to spoil tonight’s sixth season premiere (9PM ET, ABC), despite the availability of the leaked footage from the first hour of tonight’s episode. We’ve waited this long, right? The premiere, and its promise of answers to old questions (and, undoubtedly, new questions to ponder), is event viewing, so why spoil the fun of what is the last season of the greatest watercooler series ever?

But, for those looking to avoid spoilers while still doing something Lost-worthy on the Web today, check out Dispatches from the Island, the personal blog of one of my favorite Lost-ies, Jorge Garcia. Garcia, a.k.a. Hurley, shares photos, details on his household projects, travel scoop and random musings on his life and his adventures with his girlfriend, and in general provides yet more proof – if his charming interviews and the fact that he’s a fan of Ace of Cakes didn’t already seal it – that he’s probably the Lost star you’d most want to be stranded on a desert island with.

Josh Holloway‘s killer abs aside, of course …

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• Filed in Lost
• Tags: Hurley Lost, Jorge Garcia blog, Lost, Lost final season, Lost season 6, Lost season 6 premiere

Actually, eight minutes and 15 seconds, but still, this is a pretty pithy catch-up for the first five seasons of Lost, meaning there’s plenty of time to watch this quickie clip and still check out a few actual episodes before the show’s sixth – and final – season premiere on Feb. 2.

PS – If you’re still on the fence about trying to jump into the Lost universe before the final season, I highly recommend watching the series pilot, which still gets my vote as the all-time best drama series premiere (yes, even better than Alias or Felicity – J.J. Abrams is the pilot king). If you watch that action-packed pilot – which is as good as and better than most big-screen movies – and aren’t hooked, Lost probably just isn’t the show for you.

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• Filed in Lost, Ya Gotta See This!
• Tags: Lost, Lost final season, Lost recap, Lost season 6, Lost series finale, Lost video

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– The New York Post claims Simon Cowell has been offered around $144 million per season – more than triple his current salary – to return as an American Idol judge. Is he worth it? Is anyone worth that much money for any job? Still, I don’t think I could sit through the show every week if it were Simon-less.

– Discovery Channel will go ahead with its plans for a Pitchmen marathon on July 1 (beginning at 11AM ET), leading up to the show’s season finale at 10PM. The show, of course, stars the late Billy Mays and shines the light on how his $1 billion business, with partner and fellow pitchman Anthony Sullivan, works.

– Mays, by the way, apparently suffered a heart attack and died in his sleep.

– Law & Order: Special Victims Unit stars Mariska Hargitay and Chris Meloni, who had been in reportedly contentious salary negotiations, have both signed on to return to the NBC drama next season. Christine Lahti is also joining the show as an ADA for four episodes.

– Former Saturday Night Live star Chris Kattan has signed on to be a regular on the new ABC comedy The Middle, which stars Patricia Heaton and Scrubs‘ Neil Flynn.

– CBS will premiere its reality series There Goes the Neighborhood on Aug. 9. American Idol alum Matt Rogers will host the show, which finds eight families stuck behind a 20-foot wall in their ‘hood, without electronic communication or entertainment (No TV! No videogames! No Internet!). The fams have to work together and compete against the other fams to win the $250,000 grand prize.

– Among VH1’s upcoming series: Reality shows starring Chili from TLC, Pepa from Salt n’ Pepa and Frank “The Entertainer” Moresco, the I Love New York and I Love Money alum who currently lives with his parents. The Entertainer will find Moresco looking for love. Line up, ladies … it’s not every day you get the chance to hook up with a 32-year-old who lives in Mom and Dad’s basement. I hope it isn’t, anyway.

– It’s official: the sixth, and final, season of Lost will include 18 hours of island drama.

And tonight in primetime:
– Fox is showing Legally Blonde (8PM ET), one of my all-time fave chick flicks
– Stars Reflect on the Man in the Mirror (8PM, TV Guide Channel), features celebs talking about Michael Jackson‘s impact on music and pop culture
– Catch Farrah Fawcett‘s chilling, Emmy-nominated performance in the 1984 TV flick The Burning Bed on Encore Drama (9:35PM)
– There’s more bratty teen drama on Bravo’s “real-life Gossip Girl” docudrama NYC Prep (9PM)
– Sean gets a surprise visitor in the hospital on Rescue Me (10PM, FX)
– More early auditions on America’s Got Talent (9PM, NBC)
– Linda has to move into Ted’s office after some toxic substance runs amuck on Better Off Ted (9:30PM, ABC)
– The BET Awards repeat (6:30PM, BET) in case you missed all the Michael Jackson tributes
– William’s father/son bonding weekend is interrupted when a pair of alcoholics need William’s help on The Cleaner (10PM, A&E)
– One smokin’ dude gets a cigar lounge on a new ep of Man Caves (9PM, DIY)
– And Dr. Mike tests leech therapy in India on Bite Me with Dr. Mike (10PM, Travel Channel)

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• Filed in Celebreality, Lost, Reality, TV News
• Tags: American Idol, Billy Mays, Chris Kattan, Chris Meloni, Christine Lahti, Farrah Fawcett, Frank "The Entertainer" Moresco, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Lost, Mariska Hargitay, Matt Rogers, Neil Flynn, Patricia Heaton, Pitchmen, Saturday Night Live, Simon Cowell, The Middle Chris Kattan, There Goes the Neighborhood

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Among the TV shows that will host panels at the San Diego Comic-Con in July: Chuck, Dexter, Dollhouse, Lost, MythBusters, Psych, True Blood, Supernatural and Smallville.

– There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but there are free TV comedy episodes to watch while you’re noshing. Thanks to Sitcoms Online.com for the heads up about iTunes’ summer sale, which includes free episodes of Arrested Development, Reno 911! and The State, 99-cent eps of The Office, 30 Rock and The Larry Sanders Show, and, best of all, the entire five-episode first season of The State for $3.96.

– Fox has announced its fall 2009 premiere dates, kicking off its season on Sept. 16 with Glee and (another) new season of So You Think You Can Dance.

– Speaking of SYTYCD, why would Katie Holmes be performing on the show? Right? Yet, the rumor persists that she’ll be shaking her moneymaker on a July episode.

– American Idol season five vet, and one of the show’s most successful artists, Chris Daughtry, talks about his second album, which will be released on July 14.

– America’s Got Talent kicks off next week on NBC (June 23, (9PM ET), but will the show find its own Susan Boyle? Even though the Internet sensation was the runner-up on the latest season of Britain’s Got Talent, she’s reportedly earning more than $160,000 for a 12-minute performance at corporate events. In comparison, former President Bill Clinton gets between $140,000-150,000.

– NPH – Neil Patrick Harris, of course – is going to be a villain called The Music Meister in a fall episode of Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Wouldn’t he be great in the next big-screen Batman, too …

– Gossip Girl is the big TV nominee at this year’s Teen Choice Awards.

– Heidi Pratt says Al Roker made her cry. So does dry shampoo … in other words, what doesn’t? Did being chastised by Whoopi Goldberg also make her shed tears?

– Dave Letterman apologizes, again, for the Palin jokes on tonight’s Late Show.

– Heroes star Sendhil Ramamurthy will guest star in the upcoming “Bollywood Homicide” episode of Psych, which premieres (not soon enough) its fourth season on Aug. 7.

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• Filed in TV News
• Tags: 30 Rock, Al Roker, America's Got Talent, American Idol, Arrested Development, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Chris Daughtry, Chuck, David Letterman, Dexter, Dollhouse, Fox fall premiere dates, Fox premiere dates, Glee, Gossip Girl, Heidi Pratt, Katie Holmes, Lost, MythBusters, Neil Patrick Harris, NPH, Psych, Reno 911!, San Diego Comic Con, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Smallville, So You Think You Can Dance, Supernatural, Susan Boyle, Teen Choice Awards, The Larry Sanders Show, The Office, The State, True Blood, Whoopi Goldberg

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Weeds premieres its fifth season tonight (10PM ET, Showtime). Check out my interview with Emmy nominee Elizabeth Perkins (also a star of one of my all-time fave movies, About Last Night) at AOL TV.

– Here’s hoping Jimmy Fallon really can pull off a Saved by the Bell reunion tonight. And PS – So happy Zach Morris clipped the ‘do.

– Is Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) alive on Lost? Okay, so then why’s he playing foosball in that new ABC promo? EW.com’s Michael Ausiello has the surprising answer. PS – IGN TV thinks the secret show is Flash Forward.

– More from Ausiello: There may be a Cagney & Lacey reunion on Burn Notice next year.

– Think you’ve got advertising skills? Put ’em to use pimping – ha – HBO’s new series Hung, about a middle-aged guy (Thomas Jane) who becomes a gigolo, and you might win $10,000.

– Cougars are all the rage on network TV, especially now that Erica Kane‘s become one.

– Go and Prison Break star William Fichtner will guest star on the upcoming sixth season of Entourage, which premieres on HBO on July 12.

– Kathy Bates, Tim Curry and Colm Meaney will star in Sci Fi’s Alice in Wonderland miniseries.

– Uncle Jesse – the Full House one, not the Dukes of Hazzard one – is itching to make a big-screen version of his cheesy, but endearing sitcom, sans Olsen twins and with, oddly, James Franco taking over his role.

– Once and Again and My So-Called Life producer Marshall Herskovitz has a plan to radically change up the way TV pilots are sold. He ain’t tellin’ what it is, though.

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• Filed in Boob Tube to Big Screen, TV News
• Tags: About Last Night, Alice in Wonderland, Burn Notice, Cagney & Lacey, Cagney & Lacey reunion, Colm Meaney, Cougars, Dominic Monaghan, Dukes of Hazzard, Elizabeth Perkins, Entourage, Erica Kane, Flash Forward, Full House, HBO, Hung, James Franco, Jimmy Fallon, John Stamos, Kathy Bates, Lost, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Marshall Herskovitz, miniseries, My So-Called Life, Olsen twins, Once and Again, Prison Break, Saved by the Bell, Saved by the Bell reunion, Sci Fi, Thomas Jane, Tim Curry, Uncle Jesse, Weeds, William Fichtner, Zach Morris