You can quit reducing comparisons between George Hamilton and Spencer Pratt to an affinity for cranking out dubious headlines and pigment-free facial hair -- the worldwide TV franchise I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here proves the two are PR wonder twins. Just as Pratt quit the American version of the series in early 2009 with wife Heidi Montag, the icon George Hamilton exited the UK version this afternoon, just days before the final episode. Hamilton voiced the possibility of leaving the show in a phone call with his girlfriend Barbara during last night's telecast, claiming that he doesn't contribute much to the challenges and wants to spend more time with his loved ones. Meanwhile, the 70-year-old actor and beady-eyed scion Pratt share yet another similarity that has less to do with kindling campfires and more to do with -- stay with me here -- utter mental illness.
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A&E presents a cautionary Hollywood tale of extra work that led to pharmaceutical excess during Intervention's season 8 premiere. Tonight's subject is Linda, an actress who was satisfied filling bit parts alongside Mr. T until she became addicted to prescription painkillers. Tune in to find out if Linda's family can save her, and whether you should stop paying for your daughter's improv classes.
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Morning shows haven't been so great at handling this Adam Lambert thing (remember CBS's blurry double-standard?), but it was probably poor form for Good Morning America to cancel Lambert's performance and line up Chris Brown shortly after. Now, after controversy broke out about the booking, GMA has decided to cancel Brown's performance, though his interview with GMA anchor Robin Roberts will simply be rolled up to 20/20 instead. (Which reminds me: Where is the Dateline tell-all with the drunk Ewoks?) [NY Post]
The Amazing Race's producers enjoyed an indulgent streak this year, casting an ex-Miss America, a World Series of Poker finalist, and two Harlem Globetrotters named Flight Time and Big Easy for its 15th season. Of all those bewildering contestants, the jocular duo were easy to like; they razzed, raced, and executed goofy lay-ups with equal elan. They were insistently all-American. And most of all, they weren't the deplorable Meghan and Cheyne. During last night's episode, Phil Keoghan sent the dribbling patriots home for a fourth-place finish, following yet another victory for the aforementioned towheads. In remembrance of the Globetrotters' service to our lives, Movieline has compiled five of their 83-year-old troop's finest moments in TV history. We'll even let you in the Mystery Machine if you cooperate.
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· Fox has landed an animated TV comedy from Matthew McConaughey, based on the life of the Sahara actor's brother. Rooster Tales charts the adventures of "a beer-swilling, redneck sheriff who marries a much younger woman from Mexico. The man soon realizes, however, that he's gained not only a wife but an entire clan -- 114 members and counting." McConaughey, who will executive produce the show through his J.K. Livin' Prods. banner, said, "My brother's life is so unbelievable, we had to animate it." [Variety]
Barry Sonnenfeld finds life after Pushing Daisies, Lifetime Movie Network taps the Amish, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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As you may have heard by now, the Obamas' first state dinner the other night was party-crashed by Michaele and Tareq Salahi, two uninvited guests who managed to sneak in, get their pictures taken with heavy-hitting politicos including Joe Biden and Rahm Emmanuel, and then immediately post the evidence to Facebook (oh, they would be those people who try to make their lives appear more fabulous through social networking). There are a lot more wrinkles to the story, but here's one of the most notable: Michaele is rumored to be a contender for Bravo's The Real Housewives of Washington DC. Will this epic breach of Secret Service security help or harm her reality TV aspirations?
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When your series is one of the lowest-rated on network television, a ratings plateau may provide cold comfort. And yet, in a way, it's good news for The Jay Leno Show, which just went a two-week stretch without slipping any further in the ratings. The more charitable among you can crack open a bottle of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider in his honor. (Sorry, we're Team Andy.) [THR]
Thanksgiving is something of a dead zone for primetime TV, and so it was that I found myself watching a repeat of The Office's one-hour Jim-and-Pam wedding and wondering, more than ever, what B.J. Novak is doing in the opening credits.
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Big Love was originally positioned to be HBO's next great drama, and though it certainly hit that high bar of quality in its second and third seasons, it hasn't quite gotten its due. Part of the problem was the epic, WGA strike-induced break that wrecked the momentum between those two seasons (Season Two premiered in 2007, but Season 3 didn't come on until this past January), while somewhere along the way, the sexier, messier True Blood usurped it in buzz. Still, it did manage an Emmy nomination for Best Drama this last fall, and the imminent Season Four might finally offer Big Love a shot at the big time. (At the very least, can it score one of its actresses an Emmy nom? Chloe Sevigny is ridiculously overdue). The arty Season Four trailer, after the jump:
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During each season of The Biggest Loser, the episodes tend to get longer (last season's finale was three hours) while the amount of time viewers see contestants sweating and grunting in the workout room slims down. Mainly, this is because NBC packs those 180 minutes with Subway advertisements, reminders to forget disposable plastic bottles, D.C. field trips and challenges ripped straight from the Make-A-Wish Foundation's playbook (A makeover by Tim Gunn? Toss a football with Jerry Rice?). But that doesn't mean that the lengths taken by the Biggest Loser to shrink some of its contestants by over 50% is any less extreme. In fact, a New York Times article published yesterday declared that instead of a weekly PSA for weight loss, the series is a ticking time bomb.
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Modern Family is ditching the Thanksgiving celebration in favor of a blow-out birthday party (moon bounce, clowns and more!) but if you're looking for some tradition on ABC, tune into Cougar Town. Each week, Bill Lawrence's latest series gets closer and closer to peak-Scrubs quality and tonight's T-Day blowout could be the event that launches Cougar Town into the next strata of sitcom.
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A wave of melancholy swept over Port Charles during this afternoon's General Hospital, mainly because Franco was conspicuously absent from its Thanksgiving activities. Good news though: the actor, who will return to daytime next week, is taking another swing at Saturday Night Live on December 19. NBC also confirmed that Blake Lively (who co-starred with Franco during an SNL sketch in September 2008), will host December 5 and New Moon star Taylor Lautner will headline the December 12 show. [EW]
Viewers of ABC's V, the sci-fi serial spun off from the legendary '80s miniseries, can rest easy during the four-month hiatus until the show's next new episode. While new footage of V's alien leader/religious icon Anna (the sexy Morena Baccarin) may be difficult to do without, Movieline stumbled across footage of an identical alien with a more devastating means of infiltration: mad woodwind skills.
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In last night's episode of The Hills (sponsored by the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, First Response, and HPV.com!) Spencer's friend/armchair psychiatrist Charlie emerged as the this week's winner in wisdom. Offering The Hills's resident villain a shoulder to panic on and a wealth of knowledge about accidental pregnancies, Charlie made viewers wish that they, too, had a Charlie in their lives. Perhaps his best moment occurred after Spencer revealed that he didn't want Heidi to get pregnant because he just knew that he's "going to have the kind of kid that grows up and tries to kill [him]." Without missing a beat, Charlie assured Spencer that he was just referring to "a little Oedipus complex -- a lot of kids do that." More on last night's winner -- and loser -- of the Fake/Real Jackpot after the jump.
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After Adam Lambert's poorly received fellatio dancing at the American Music Awards got him booted from a Good Morning America appearance, CBS's Early Show picked up the shrieker's pieces for a rousing Q&A. Just before anchor Maggie Rodriguez quizzed Lambert about the propriety of his performance, CBS aired blurred footage of the singer kissing a male dancer and immediately followed it with an uncensored clip of Britney Spears and Madonna locking lips. The layers of charming double standards unravel after the jump.
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