Kelsey McNeal/FOX One of the more interesting bits of strike fallout news: 24 co-creator Joel Surnow is leaving the show to develop new projects. Surnow, students of 24 know, is a rare Hollywood conservative, and the chief point of ire for critics who say the show is a shill for a hard-right, torture-em-all-let-God-sort-em-out view of [...]

The 24 semifinalists will be unmasked tonight. / Timothy White/FOX American Idol decided to retool its Hollywood-audition round this season, eliminating the singing-group competitions. I always liked the model-U.N. vibe of these episodes, with the contestants pulling all-nighters with strangers and working out harmony and choreography, but it was a strange way to winnow down [...]

Skeet Ulrich (with Esai Morales) again saves America by staring really hard at it. / Patrick Wymore/CBS * The strike is almost over, but Jericho still stands to be one of its biggest beneficiaries, since the aftereffects have wiped some of the competition off the schedule for the seven-episode second season, saved by the efforts [...]

If all goes according to plan, the writers will go pencils-up and return to work tomorrow. What may come as a surprise to the casual viewer, though, is that the coming months on TV will in many ways look strike-ier than the months when there actually was a strike. That’s because it will be March [...]

Michael Becker/FOX REALITY CHANNEL “Are you watching porn?” Mrs. Tuned In had walked in the living room to see, on the big screen, a young gentleman in a bathing suit sort of, well, crawling on top of a young lady on a hotel bed. No, I was in fact watching My Network TV’s Paradise Hotel [...]

I have been at this job long enough–or have just gotten old and senile enough–that I constantly come across articles I forgot I had ever written. While searching time.com for an old essay to link to in my Wire Watch, the site threw me a link to an article about women presidents in pop culture. [...]

Carcetti meets the press. / HBO: Paul Schiraldi SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched last night’s Wire yet, jump out the window now, while you still have the chance. “Don’t seem possible. That’s some Spiderman sh_t there.” If you’d forgotten how funny The Wire can be, the manhunt of Marlo’s crew for Omar had to [...]