Image Credit: Trae Patton/NBC; Vivian Zink/NBCThis Just In: NBC has given a full-season pickup to rookie action drama Chase. Additionally, the net has ordered four more Undercovers scripts.
Oh, and the Chuck back-nine news I reported yesterday? It’s now official, only I’m told it’s actually a back eleven! That’s right, Chuck‘s fourth season will be 24 episodes long!
Season to date, Chase is averaging 6.5 million viewers and a 2.0 in the 18-49 demo. While those numbers are hardly spectacular, it’s an 18 percent improvement over what The Jay Leno Show was doing in the Monday-at-10 time slot last year. Undercovers, meanwhile, continues to struggle on Wednesdays at 8. NBC, however, is happy with the show creatively—as well it should be.
10-11PM | CBS 
Image Credit: Neil Jacobs/CBSSteve McGarrett started off last night’s episode of Hawaii Five-0 sleeping next to the most perfect woman ever. She’s a Navy lieutenant who catches bad guys, is a great cook, likes her steak bloody, doesn’t seem to mind if you disappear for 36 hours at a time, and is played by Michelle Borth, last seen in flagrante on Tell Me You Love Me. Steve and his dream girl were all set to skip breakfast. They rubbed noses. They kissed. “I think I’m vibrating,” says Ms. Perfect. CBS, I know it’s 10 p.m., but behave yourself! Oh, wait, no, hahaha, it was just the iPhone. The Caller ID proclaimed: “Governor Jameson.” Thanks, Uncle iPhone!
Image Credit: CBS
Stephen Colbert jokingly stormed off The View today in mock tribute to Bill “Papa Bear” O’Reilly. Why was everyone, especially Barbara, so flustered? The View ladies were as humorless as a 15-term congressman. Has no one ever seen The Colbert Report? Just play along, women of The View and Maria Shriver! Just play along.
Image Credit: ABCBristol Palin is fast becoming Dancing with the Star’s most surreal performance artist. Last night she stumbled around in a yeti-shaped monkey costume before tearing it off so she could stumble around in a pink cocktail dress. Dance pro Mark Ballas toted her around as gamely as he could, but she still looked like she’d been drugged, outfitted and dragged onstage. This comes on the heels of the pantsless suit and the bedazzled Sarah. What can it all mean? Are the show’s costumers trying to gently push her off the edge? (Read more about the episode in Annie Barrett’s recap; Yes, one write-up is not enough to outline the ridiculousness of the evening.)
(Designed by Jef Castro)
Image Credit: FoxHe may drink too much and strangle his son—and, sure, there was that time he sold his soul to the devil for a donut—but Homer Simpson seems to have the Vatican seal of approval. In an article from the Oct. 17 edition of the Vatican publication L’Osservatore Romano—which also references a story in the Italian Jesuit magazine La Civilita Cattolica—Fox’s The Simpsons is praised for covering issues of faith, family, and Christianity (plus, they say prayers before meals!). There is also mention of the animated comedy’s 2005 episode in which Homer and Bart consider converting to Catholicism after Bart befriends a Catholic priest (voiced by Liam Neeson). “Few people know it, and he does everything he can to hide it… [but] it is true: Homer J. Simpson is a Catholic,” states L’Osservatore Romano, which also tipped its papal hat to the show last year during The Simpsons’ 20th anniversary celebration. (Perhaps they didn’t see The Simpsons Movie, in which Homer mocks churchgoers as “pious morons” who are “too busy talking to their phony-baloney god.”)
Stupid scored big with an estimated $50 million opening weekend for Jackass 3D, Johnny Knoxville’s third foray into theaters. The film, which lured in 15 percent more women than Jackass 2, may break the record for highest-grossing October opening of all time, if projections hold. The R-rated laugh fest will surpass Scary Movie 3, which earned $48 million back in 2003, and a single-day opening record of $21.8 million for its opening day Friday. The film scored well with audiences, mostly young males, earning a B+ from exit pollster CinemaScore.
Image Credit: Mario Perez/ABCDamon Lindelof and Cartlon Cuse are glad that you’re finally over hating the Lost finale. “Strangely, what happened over the last couple months, is that every single person loves it. It seems like that’s actually been a change,” Cuse said on the red carpet for the Spike Scream Awards over the weekend. (There was a big tribute to Lost during the ceremony, although it did not win best TV show.)
Image Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images; Michael Yarish/CBS; Craig Sjodin/ABCSports definitely ruled in primetime on Sunday, leaving shows like Desperate Housewives and Undercover Boss to scurry after their scraps. The latter two series, in fact, posted record low-rated telecasts among adults18-49 opposite NBC’s Colts-Redskins football matchup and Fox’s baseball playoff game between the Giants and the Phillies.
Image Credit: Giovanni Rufino/The CW No Gossip Girl tonight, friends. I know; dry your eyes. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably consoling yourself by watching the preview for next week on an endless loop. (It’s embedded below in case you’ve only watched it once.) In my multiple viewings of the promo, I’ve determined I want to punch Little J in her Big, Fat F (her FACE).
Image Credit: Chris Haston/NBCAnd now for some Chucking unbelievable news: Chuck is on the verge of receiving a full-season pickup from NBC, sources confirm to me exclusively. Although a Peacock rep declined to comment, insiders tell me the network and Warner Bros. Television are ironing out the final details of the back-nine order as we speak. 
In last week’s episode of Gossip Girl — pop culture’s No. 1 reference for all things tech — nearly every character took to typing on their phones to get back at one other. Even Serena’s professor busted out a text: Curt, to-the-point, sort of inappropriate. (Do professors text their students now?) But according to a new Nielsen study, the country’s real texters aren’t old enough yet to miss office hours. They’re too busy being dextrous and unsentimental. That’s right — they’re tweens. Kids aged 13 to 17 sent out texts at a rate of six per waking hour this past spring. Girls alone exchanged 4,050 per month — the volume of a slim novella. They’re texting so prodigiously, they’re not really talking anymore, according to Nielsen, and all for a simple reason: “Because it’s fun.”
Image Credit: Kelsey McNeal/ABCWelcome back, DANCMSTRs! It’s week 5, and tonight’s theme is “TV Tunes”! I think I smell a “Here’s the story…of a lovely lady…” redux, but it could just be fumes from the can of spray tan I keep on my desk “for inspiration.” I never know. What I do know, thanks to Twitter, is that the artist formerly known as Tom Bergeron has taken on a new identity: Prince Sparkle! 
Mark Zuckerberg spoke at a startup conference this weekend, and while much of his talk was about Facebook’s growth and business-y stuff, he did weigh in on The Social Network. And he seemed pretty chill about it, even though he said the filmmakers got one major theme completely wrong: “They just can’t wrap their head around [the idea] that someone might build something because they like building things.”
Image Credit: Splash PicturesIt’s time to add Stonnington, Australia to the list of world cities I am tremendously interested in visiting. It also might be time for TLC to consider filming an episode of Kate Plus 8 down under, because the city of Stonnington has just banned all Ed Hardy clothing. If only American lawmakers would take note of this glorious signage and rid our city streets of glittering skeleton shirts once and for all. It may eliminate “T-shirt time!” from the cultural zeitgeist, but I can live with that.
Baby Derek is back, and he would like to give you a high five. HIGH FIVE HIM! Thanks to all of you who submitted questions for Dancing With the Stars‘ own Fantastic Mr. Fox last week. Below, Derek helps us rev up for Week 5 with an all-readers’ Q&A!
Randy and Evi Quaid mug shotsSanta Barbara County Sheriff's DepartmentAnother case, another missed court date.