Each week, I slave over a hot laptop to bring Medium fans news, promos, and other goodies associated with the show. These are some of the highlights from the past week at Medium Dreams. Enjoy!

• Here’s the promo for this week’s episode, called “The Future’s so Bright.” In it, Allison has to wear shades. Get it??? In any case, she sees numbers on people’s heads that correspond with the number of days they have left to live. Lee has a “1″ on his head! Ack!
• As long as we’re talking about promos for this week’s episode, here are the promo photos!
• CBS has been interviewing the real Allison DuBois, and in this video, she and Medium Executive Producer Glenn Gordon Caron talk about the origins of the series.
• As Brett can attest to, I was super-excited to hear a Paula Abdul song during a key scene in last week’s episode. Here’s the song, in case you were one of the viewers who was wondering what it was. The video co-stars Keanu Reeves!
• Once again, it’s my favorite part: Dueling reviews! Here’s Brett’s take on last week’s episode, “Once in a Lifetime,” and here’s mine. We were both caught off-guard by all of the twists.

With the news that Ellen DeGeneres will be keeping the fourth judge’s chair warm on the upcoming season of American Idol (read Deb’s take on it here — I agree, Deb; it’s brilliant), I couldn’t help but ponder how Ellen and Paula Abdul are similar … or not … let’s break it down….

Hooker-Wear vs. Normal-Wear. They’re both cute as a button, but with Paula’s propensity for low-cut duds and giant earrings, I sometimes wondered if she was heading out to the nearest corner after the show. I’ll look forward to Ellen’s more normal attire … you know, like the rest of us out here wear.

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Michael Jackson’s still making news, this time ensuring that his death was a tragedy. The official report out of the LA coroner’s office was that Jackson’s death was a homicide, brought on by the mixture of drugs he was being prescribed for his sleep disorder. So he very well may not have been too frail for those London concerts … but we’ll never know.

• In related news, A&E is going forward with the Jackson family reality show. Exploitation or honor? You decide!
• The passing of Ted Kennedy brought all kinds of specials honoring this last of the dynasty. Read the rest of this entry »

Round and round and round she goes, but where Paula will land, nobody knows. Maybe she can be a zombie on AMC’s forthcoming series.

• The best news ever of the week was that AMC is working on a television adaptation of The Walking Dead. The ongoing comic series is far and away the most compelling “zombie apocalypse saga” I’ve ever seen.
• TNT announced that Saving Grace would wrap with a nine episode run in 2010, because they’re too cheap to produce a full fourth season for the monster hit.
• Comedy Central, on the other hand, yanked Reno 911 after the fact, meaning it’s done and gone.
• The Apprentice’s Omarosa is going to be a minister, and somewhere suddenly cold, Satan is chalking up another win for the home team.
• In a sign that we’ve let this reality TV crap go way too far, Kim’s sister Kourtney Kardashian’s surprise pregnancy is scandalous news.
• Paula Abdul might work on Dancing With the Stars, Ugly Betty, So You Think You Can Dance, something in Australia, a local Wendy’s, or any number of jobs. She’s keeping her options open.
• Meanwhile, Victoria Beckham helped out on American Idol during early audition rounds, and may be lobbying to join the show permanently. And with all that money they saved by not rehiring Abdul, FOX re-upped Simon Cowell for three more years.
• Apparently, the networks are burning through their ’80s and ’90s DVD collections, as now they’ve greenlit a series based on St. Elmo’s Fire. Goonies, anyone?
• Speaking of ’80s and ’90s — toy-themed cartoons proved a hit at the box office again, as G.I. Joe took the top spot at the box office, meaning that I might get my Sectaurs revival sooner than I thought … maybe?
• I refuse to mention a single thing that happened to anyone involved with the Gosselins. But if that saga isn’t train-wreck enough for you, FOX is giving airtime to Octomom.
• HOLY CRAP! STEWIE IS GAY?!?
• Oh, and now the Emmys will be live. All of it. So you’ll have to add six hours to the end of your DVR scheduled recording of it … you know, just in case.
• We get a sneak preview of the future career of Hannah Montana as little Miley Cyrus danced on a stripper pole at the Teen Choice Awards.

With the big TCA presentations going on, it’s been a pretty big week for TV news. However, all of the talk about what we can look forward to in the fall was trumped by one short little burst on Twitter, from Paula Abdul. She chose that unconventional venue to announce that she’s leaving American Idol. What does that mean for the show? With any luck, the beginning of a steady decline that ends in cancellation. Until we are visited by those glorious days, it looks like it will be business as usual.

Kara DioGuardi will be back. According to Mike Darnell, president of alternative at FOX, “Kara’s spitfire personality and sharp musical sensibility infused American Idol with a new energy last year.” Well, one man’s “spitfire personality” is another’s “bitchy haranguing.” Paula will be replaced during the auditions by a collection of pop stars. So far, that includes Katy Perry and Victoria Beckham.  I like that idea, but I hope they’re ready. Those are some awfully crazy shoes to fill. It’s unclear what will happen once the competition begins.

Lots of non-Idol news, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

American Idol pretty firmly has set the judges’ formula for every performance reality show ever. Sure, the Randy Jackson role of a wise-yet-incomprehensible black dude is sometimes rotated and a bit of a wild card, but you’ve got two roles that remain steady. First, you have the potentially psychotic yes-woman Paula Abdul type with her weird way of talking, fame from a bygone era, and rampant pills/plastic surgery/botox. And then, of course, there is the Simon Cowell — the British guy who is a giant douchebag.

Since So You Think You Can Dance is made by the same people as American Idol, they naturally follow the sacred formula, only, as if to make up for a lack of a Randy Jackson replacement, they have made their Paula Abdul, Mary Murphy, extra crazy and botoxed, and they’ve made their Simon, Nigel Lythgoe, way, way more douchey.

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We — as in, my household of two adults and two kids — love watching American Idol during the winter months. It comes on in January, just about the time we’re going stir-crazy here in the North Woods, and carries us into the spring months. I know Idol has gotten a bad rap lately, but it keeps us from killing each other during those long, cold, cabin-fever nights.

And just about the time Idol ends, we have another talent show to keep us interested into the summer: So You Think You Can Dance. I wouldn’t say it’s the life-and-death situation of American Idol, but it’s definitely a fun diversion from the hectic rush of our lives. And it’s hard not to compare the two shows, which is what I’m going to do right now.

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