For this week’s LDG, let’s go back to the first season and a character who promised to be very, very significant in Lost’s future: Walt. In the first season, we got a glimpse of Walt’s apparent psychic abilities, which made him a kindred spirit to Locke. (Walt, after all, was the one character who wanted to stay on the Island as much as …

We’re only one episode in, but I’m getting a better vibe from this season’s Top Chef than from season 2, with its over-the-top personality clashes, head shavings and what have you. The premiere last week was perfectly enjoyable, but it made me wish that someone had persuaded Anthony Bourdain to be a regular judge; the endlessly-quotable …

The idea of Rosie O’Donnell taking over The Price Is Right has been floated–by Rosie herself–and repeatedly knocked down in the press over the past several weeks. But it looks like Rosie is not taking no for an answer; she’s reaffirmed on her blog that she’s interested in the job, and she recently scored an endorsement from Bob Barker …

Trae Patton/ The CW

A programming note about Test Pilot. I realize that at the rate I’m doing them, it will be the 2009-10 season before I finish. There’s a good chance I won’t get around to all of them but instead focus on the ones you and I are most curious about, so keep those requests coming! (No Fox yet, because my screeners are …

Saturday mornings may never be the same. Kellogg’s has announced that it’s going to phase out the marketing of high-fat, high-sugar foods to children under 12, a step that could mean the end of characters like Toucan Sam, Shrek (as a cereal pitchman) and whatever weird creatures they use to sell Apple Jacks. Oddly, Tony the Tiger is …

Nate Fisher cleans up nice. ABC: PATRICK HARBRON

Test Pilot is a semiregular feature this summer sharing my first impressions of the pilots for next fall’s shows. These aren’t reviews, since these pilots can be rewritten, recast and retooled before airing, and the shows that eventually get on the air can prove much better or worse. …

Ana Marie beat me to a post at Swampland, but politically uninvolved readers may want to head to HillaryClinton.com to see Hill and Bill reprising the Sopranos’ final scene to announce the winner of her campaign-song contest.

You may commence reading way too much into the symbolism of the video now. Personally, I always pegged Johnny …

Margene steps up to the salad plate. HBO photo: Lacey Terrell

Unfortunately, when the Emmys get around to handing out nominations, there’s only so much HBO heat to go around. This has hurt The Wire before, and this year, it’s likely again that the big nominations will go to The Sopranos and bypass Big Love, which is probably, actor for …

I should not admit this as a professional TV watcher, but there are some shows I simply do not get. One of these is The Closer, which back in its first season I decided got far too much credit for glomming the slightest bit of character development (Kyra Sedgwick’s crime-solver-with-issues basically amounting to Jane Tennison Lite) on to …

In this morning’s HBO roundup, Tuned In habitue Chaddogg posts a question too good not to milk a whole blog post out of:

How does HBO measure the success of its shows? Is it just ratings, and if so, how does it factor in the decrease due to the number of people who don’t subscribe?

The reading of poultry entrails is involved, I think. …

Trojan, the condom maker, is launching a new ad campaign for its prophylactics this week, but on Fox and CBS, it appears the advertiser is instead going to have to, um, pull out. The New York Times reports this morning that the two networks rejected the condom ads, which will run on ABC, NBC and several cable networks. Explaining the …