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TELEVISION
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merica’s Most Put Upon Mom, Kate Gosselin, continued to spin ratings
gold as she stomped and scowled her way around the “Dancing With the Stars” floor. Meanwhile, April Fools’ Day played a cruel joke on the TV industry. Here’s a look at the rating winners and losers:
WINNERS
“Dancing With the Stars.”
Kate Gosselin’s second dance about her difficult life — a jive performed to Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” — became the most watched TV show in the country last week, attracting 23 million people. It beat both broadcasts of “American Idol” — a feat that has not been accomplished in nearly five years by any show without the help of a Super Bowl lead-in. (This week, Gosselin pasodobled to “Paparazzi” and 21 million tuned in.) We can’t wait to see how Kate will dance-interpret Jon Gosselin’s announcement that he’s going to seek primary custody of their eight kids because Kate’s “Dancing” gig proves she’s an absentee mom.
“Desperate Housewives.”
During a much-needed break,
THE TV COLUMN
Lisa de Moraes
after scoring a record-low 10.8 million viewers two weeks ago, ABC’s soap opera struck the mother lode when the show’s former vixen Nicolette Sheridan filed a lawsuit claiming creator Marc Cherry allegedly smacked her upside the head before firing her. Look for improved ratings when the show returns April 18. “V.” In hopes that fans of lame
duck “Lost” would take a fancy to the return of its aliens-are- among-us show “V” immediately afterward, ABC ran a “V” countdown during the entire “Lost” episode. Bad idea. “Lost” fans were furious and “V” clocked its smallest audience ever for an original episode (7.03million viewers).
LOSERS
April Fools’ Day
programming. ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and CBS’s “CSI” and “The Mentalist” all suffered their smallest audiences ever on Thursday night while Fox’s “Bones” logged its smallest audience this season.
“The Ten Commandments.”
KLMNO
TV NEWS ONLINE
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 7, 2010
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Kate Gosselin, ‘Dancing’ past ‘Idol’ and into the record books
The Blue Devils smote Moses on Saturday. ABC’s 30th broadcast of the Cecil B. De Mille flick, starring Charlton Heston as Moses, attracted just 5.7million viewers Saturday, which looks to be the flick’s smallest audience ever on the network. ABC notes that this year the biblical orgy of excess faced a very highly rated March Madness, including the Duke Blue Devils’ pounding of the West Virginia Mountaineers.
Really lousy streaming audio
at www.whitehouse.gov/live made it impossible for those of us stuck at our offices to appreciate the awesomeness of the “Glee” cast performance at the White House on Monday for the annual Easter Egg Roll. At our office, the
performances looked pitchy and robotic and like the singers did not know who they wanted to be: actors, singers or budding associate directors of public engagement. But “Glee” co-creator/
executive producer Ian Brennan insisted Tuesday that their multi-song set was “a total, absolute, surreal dream.” “For me, it was one of the best moments of my life, standing
POOL PHOTO BY ROGER L. WOLLENBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES
HEARTFELT: The first family listens as Amber Riley of “Glee” sings the national anthem at the White House’s Easter Egg Roll.
there by the South Portico,” Brennan gushed on a conference call with the press to plug the return of the show on April 13. The “Glee” cast, dressed in red
T-shirts and black jeans, like anarchists on Casual Friday, sleepwalked through several songs from the show at the White House event, including “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” and “Sweet Caroline” (gak!). Cast member/token diva
character Amber Riley sang the national anthem, which
Brennan insisted really impressed the first family: “Obama kept looking over to
Michelle, kind of like, eyes wide, ‘Damn, this girl is good!’ ” Brennan said, reading into Obama’s eyes. “It was absolutely, absolutely incredible,” he added. But when WaPo TeamTV
“Glee” bureau chief Emily Yahr asked if the president was a fan of the show, another “Glee” co-creator/executive producer, Brad Falchuk, claimed Obama
had told some of the cast he didn’t let his kids watch “Glee” because his daughters Malia, 11, and Sasha, 8, are too young for the Fox series.
Brennan disagreed in the
strongest terms, insisting little Sasha does watch the show, though he acknowledged it was possible Malia does not. But he was nearly certain Michelle is a “Glee” advocate. “I would encourage all four of them to get Congress to mandate it, so it’s some kind of a law that everyone in the country has to watch it,” suggested Falchuk. “Call it ‘Glee’ reform,” he added, convinced of his own hilarity.
“I think a lot of the problems
that we have would be solved if people got together and watched ‘Glee,’ ” Brennan concurred. A Chicago-based blogger on the call apologized to Brennan and Falchuk for not having seen the “Glee” cast when they came to the Windy City to perform on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” saying, “Oprah wouldn’t let me anywhere near.” “Yeah, she’s tough,” Falchuk
observed. “It was harder to get into ‘Oprah’ than it was to get into the White House.”
demoraesl@washpost.com
BROADCAST CHANNELS
4.1 WRC (NBC) 5.1 WTTG (Fox) 7.1 WJLA (ABC)
7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30
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26.4 WETA (PBS) PBS NewsHour 30.1 WNVC (MHz) Al Jazeera Journal
MONTY BRINTON/CBS
DEBUT: Forest Whitaker, left, joins Thomas Gibson on CBS at 9.
HIGHLIGHTS
Documentary “The Buddha”
(WETA and MPT at 8), narrated by Richard Gere, looks at the 2,500-year-old story of how the Buddha meditated under a tree in India to become truly enlightened; the Dalai Lama also comments on the story. A British princess tries a
relationship with an average Joe on “Human Target” (Fox at 8), but that doesn’t work out so well when someone tries to assassinate her. Before they go to New York
City’s garment district to choose
outfits on “America’s Next Top
Model” (CW at 8), the contestants must deal with the jokes of comedian Ross Mathews (otherwise known as “Ross the Intern” from “The Tonight Show”) during a photo shoot. David Archuleta rocked the
“American Idol” (Fox at 9) stage a couple of years back with a stunning version of “Imagine,” so he’s back again on results night to perform the tune — after the Top 9 sang the John Lennon-Paul McCartney songbook on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Rihanna and Jason Derulo are on hand to perform their latest singles. Wednesday’s episode of “Criminal Minds” (CBS at 9) also serves as a handy backdoor pilot for the show’s spinoff starring Forest Whitaker, who guest-stars as Special Agent Sam Cooper as the team looks into a case involving the murders of homeless men.
“Stop the Presses” (WETA at
10) tells us what we already know: Newspapers? Not doing so well. The Post’s former executive editor Ben Bradlee and reporter Anne Hull weigh on the current state of the print media, along with the New York Times’ David Carr and syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry. Betty, Marc and Betty’s dad all
have mini-meltdowns when it comes to plus-one selections for Hilda’s wedding on “Ugly Betty” (ABC at 10), and Wilhelmina continues to turn Tyler against his newfound family. “Shear Genius” (Bravo at 10)
wraps up the season with the last three contestants helping models have the perfect hairstyles for a fashion show. Detectives Benson and Stabler panic when they realize an assumed murder victim is actually alive and well at a wedding, so they frantically hunt for the actual person killed on “Law & Order: SVU” (NBC at 10). Actor Chris Rock is a guest on
“Late Show With David Letterman”
(CBS at 11:35), along with actress Jane Lynch.
“The Tonight Show With Jay
Leno” (NBC at 11:35) hosts actor David Duchovny, reality star Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett and singer Corinne Bailey Rae. Actresses Raquel Welch and
Anna Torv stop by “Late Late Show
With Craig Ferguson” (CBS at
12:35), and comedian Brian Scott McFadden performs.
—Emily Yahr
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Called-off wedding can be a starting point, not an end
CAROLYN HAX
Dear Carolyn: Two weeks before their large
wedding, my son’s fiancee called it off with no warning. Apparently she is afraid to get married now, but wants to go with him to couples’ therapy to try to work out her fears. Neither has been married before and they are in their early 30s. Yes, I know it is better to find out
now than to divorce later, but I still do not understand why she enthusiastically planned this wedding, seemed happy, warm and loving, and then suddenly did an about-face. Leaving aside the obvious squandering of time, effort, money, and the public humiliation, etc., I am crushed and my son is even more crushed. How can I help him?
What to do? We loved this girl; she and my son appeared to be compatible and supremely happy together. I know he has to decide what to do next. Can she be trusted? Will she do this again? I don’t understand this kind of behavior. This just happened and we are reeling.
Is it possible for a situation like
this ever to result in a long, happy marriage
Virginia mom
Enthusiastic planning can be a
haven for people with doubts: The more you have to do, the less time you have for thinking uncomfortable thoughts. I hope you’ll have steadied yourselves by the time this appears, enough to see there are no solid answers to your questions. Can she be trusted, will she do this again, can this produce a successful marriage? Maybe, I don’t know, I guess you’ll find out. Here’s what can be said: As painful, expensive and humiliating as the abrupt
cancellation was, what matters most is what it tells you about the bride-not-to-be — and what your son comes to learn about himself. The answer isn’t one you can
determine out of context, or even just based on the past. Let’s say the un-bride has a history of falling passively into step with others, only to have an abrupt change of heart. Her future would still depend on what she’s doing about it now — whether she has awakened to her emotional pattern and is ready to challenge it, or whether she’s invested in avoiding responsibility. The former would mark her as someone of great courage; that’s what it takes to admit to everyone you care about, “I’m a mess,” and to make good on promises to get help. The latter would mark her as a bullet expensively and publicly dodged. For his part, your son gets to
find out how he feels about the saying “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” Is it just delusion in a can, or a pithy way of
saying: “Now that I’ve felt like roadkill, I derive new joy from times when I don’t feel like roadkill”? For your part, you can: realize
you’re not in a position to know what really happened; beat back the urge to judge the fiancee; love your son without hating the person who hurt him; believe in the transformative power of obliterating the expected outcome —even when someone else obliterates it for you. When someone feels the impulse to run, it’s best that she runs. At least now you know this for sure: A need to keep up appearances is no longer driving the bus.
Write to Tell Me About It, Style, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071,
tellme@washpost.com.
ONLINE DISCUSSION Carolyn
Hax’s weekly Web chat is at
noon Fridays at www.washingtonpost.
com/discussions.
NICK GALIFIANAKIS FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
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