TVSquad

It's getting closer. On Wednesday, America will crown the next Idol winner. Which David will it be? Of course, these two polar opposites have sparked some debate online as to who will win the competition.

Okay, is someone holding down Jeff Archuleta? According to E! Online, the oddmakers at BetCRIS.com have chosen David Cook to take the title Wednesday night. As per the online bookies, Cook has a 74% chance of winning this season of American Idol.

But E! Online makes a good point about Archuleta's young quick-dialing fanbase: "Of course, last we checked, Gambling 101 was not a part of a grade schooler's course load, meaning the actual voting demographic might not jibe with the oddmakers' pick and it still could be anybody's contest."

So, who are you voting for? Who do you think will win American Idol? Better yet, who do you think deserves to win American Idol this season? Check back with TV Squad for our review of the big night.

TLC has a new competition series called Master of Dance (worst title ever). The show will test dancers' skills by changing the song mid-performance to measure the breadth of their repertoire and the level of their creativity. This sounds a little too much like Freezedance but for prize money. The grand prise is $50,000 to be exact.

Joey Lawrence will host and there will be three judges: Lucinda Dickey (Solid Gold, Breakin'), Tyce Diorio (choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance), and Loni Love (comedienne voted one of Comedy Central's Top 20 Comics to Watch in 2008).

Michael Weinfeld of the Associated Press was able to sit down with television's most neurotic homemaker. Marcia Cross, who plays Bree Hodge on Desperate Housewives, dished about this Sunday's big finale event. The muffin-baking, rose bush-pruning domestic diva told all about what happens to herself and the other inhabitants of Wisteria Lane.

SPOILER ALERT: Marcia Cross talks about the Desperate Housewives finale after the jump.

Word on the street yesterday was that the 90210 spin-off executive producers were thinking of actor Rob Estes to portray Harry Mills, a father who relocates his family in Beverly Hills to take care of his alcoholic mother. The show had yet to find an actor to play the pivotal role and they were now getting ready to just hand it on a silver platter to a "name" actor.

The stars quickly aligned (read here that Rob Estes became available since ABC canceled Women's Murder Club) and the actor will join the already beautiful 90210 cast.

Here's who's on the late night shows tonight.

• Charlie Rose: Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez
• The Late Show with David Letterman: Teri Hatcher and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
• Jay Leno: Matthew Fox and Kathleen Edwards
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Ryan Seacrest and Clay Aiken
• Tavis Smiley: Barbara Walters and Daniel Beaty
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Alan Alda, John Cena, and Everest
• The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Reba McEntire and Vinnie Jones
• Last Call with Carson Daly: Daryl Hannah and Josh Kelley (repeat)

I know, I know -- a lot of you are shrugging and saying "so?"

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that if ratings don't improve for the last place network, buzz is that The CW could actually vanish next year. Ratings in the 18-49 demographic are down 28%, and the ratings for the May sweeps are down 22%. I guess Gossip Girl just isn't enough to prop up an entire network, and they just lost Friday Night Smackdown, not to mention that Smallville, Supernatural, and Reaper are probably going into their last seasons.

• ESPN has NBA Playoffs all night.
• At 8, CBS has the season finale of Ghost Whisperer, then a new Moonlight and the season finale of Numb3rs.
• ABC has the two hour season finale of America's Funniest Home Videos at 8, followed by a new 20/20.
• The CW has anew Smackdown! at 8.
• PBS has a new Washington Week at 8, then new episodes of NOW and Bill Moyers Journal.
• Sci-Fi Channel has two new episodes of The Sarah Jane Adventures, then new episodes of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica.
• At 9, Discovery has a new Man vs. Wild.
• At 10, E! has a new episode of The Soup.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Have you ever wondered if Mary Tyler Moore can still turn the world on with her smile? You'll be able to find out this Monday on Oprah.

The daytime talk show host will host a reunion of the show. Not only will she get all of the surviving cast members together (Moore, Valerie Harper, Ed Asner, Betty White, Gavin MacLeod, Cloris Leachman, and Georgia Engel), they will also have duplicates of the WJM set and the set for Mary's apartment on the stage (the link above includes a preview of the show - no idea why Oprah is crying).

I've written many times here about how much I hate the tabloid shows, whether it's Access Hollywood, TMZ, or Entertainment Tonight. One of the worst is ET's sister show, The Insider. Besides having a despicable host (Pat O'Brien -- what's with that little fake laugh he does all the time?) and the lamest writing this side of a junior high student newspaper, it's also evil and dumb.

Take last night's episode. I don't watch the show, but I didn't get to my remote quick enough to change the channel after the news ended and I caught the teaser opening. They showed singer John Mayer with a gun to his head, a rather raw photograph that looked like it was taken across the street from a bank. Was Mayer being held hostage in a holdup? Was one of Jennifer Aniston's exes there telling him not to see her anymore? OMG! Stay tuned to this breaking news!

You could call it bailing from a sinking ship, assuming you think the current changes on Guiding Light are something like being on the Titanic. On the other hand, it may just be a talented actress spreading her wings to take on a new challenge. However you couch it, Guiding Light star Beth Ehlers is bolting the CBS soap for ABC's All My Children. She'll be assuming the role of Liza Colby Chandler, the part most recently played by Marcy Walker (who played Tangie back on Guiding Light in 1993).

This is the second major exit from GL, and it seems that the bottom line reason for the departures is the bottom line. Cost cutting across the board at the P&G soaps -- GL and As the World Turns -- have squeezed the actors salaries. Martha Byrne and Scott Bryce left ATWT in recent months, reportedly in contract disputes, and Ricky Paull Goldin departed GL last month and was quickly snatched up by All My Children. Just like Ehlers.

And how coincidental that they were a major couple in Springfield. They even won a special Daytime Emmy in 2002 as America's Favorite Couple -- GL's Harley and Gus. Well, now they can spark that same chemistry in Pine Valley. Move over, Erica and Adam and Tad and Joe, you've got company.

So the networks have given their upfront presentations. It's not easy to pick which shows look the best. Sure, we can base our judgments on what "type" of show we usually like anyway or a producer that's involved or someone who is in the lead. But we're still just basing it on a description (or a snippet from each show). It really comes down to the writing and the execution in general.

Having said all that, here are the shows that look great to me, based on the upfront description, the cast and crew involved, and how my tastes run in general.

On today's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ellen will announce that she and long-time girlfriend Portia de Rossi are getting married.

Her announcement is in response to this week's ruling from the California Supreme Court that everybody has a "right to marry" whomever they choose. The justices ruled that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. It makes California the second state, after Massachusetts, that will allow same-sex marriage. The legal battle began in San Francisco when the mayor allowed same-sex couples to marry (Rosie O'Donnell and her partner, Kelly, married at that time).

Is it just me or are DVD releases getting announced earlier and earlier? Whatever the case, Lost fans can plan on getting the season four DVD as a Christmas/ Hanukkah/Kwanzaa present because it doesn't come out until December 9th. Which makes sense I suppose, since the show returns in early '09.

The 5-disc set (aka "The Expanded Experience") will obviously include all 14 season four eps plus a ton of goodies. As far as DVD sets go, Lost always has great extras. According to TVShowsOnDVD.com, expect to see 5 featurettes, bloopers, deleted scenes, and audio commentaries for some of the episodes. The one goodie that really has me excited? The "Oceanic Airlines Safety Guide." Hilarious. It immediately made me think of Airtoons -- all those funny and inappropriate airline safety cards.

As with season three, there will also be a BluRay release but I've got to be honest. I have the regular season three DVDs and they look pretty damn good on my HDTV set. So I'm not convinced that shelling out the extra $40 to $50 bucks is really worth it. Yet, anyway. You can pre-order both at Amazon for way less though - $38.99 for the normal DVDs and $66.95 for the BluRay.

It's the end of an era today. One of the longest running syndicated talk shows is airing its last show. The Montel Williams Show wraps today after 17 years of discussion, controversy, interviews and inspiration. But just because the show is ending, that doesn't mean Montel is going away. At the final New York City taping in March, he explained to the adoring throng, "I'm not retiring. I am stopping The Montel Williams Show, but I am not, in any way, shape or form, stopping anything else that I'm doing."

Williams' show has actually been one of the more dignified syndicated daytime talk shows, a step above Jerry Springer and Maury Povich, but not quite The View or Ellen DeGeneres. His style could be compared to Phil Donahue, especially in his desire to be a change agent. He really cared about the people who appeared on his program; it wasn't about being a ring leader to a freak show, as Jerry is, or confronting people with DNA tests like Maury does. Montel was not into that stuff.

Kelly Preston (also known as Mrs. John Travolta) has been signed to star in a new HBO pilot called Suburban Shootout. The series is a dark comedy about rival gangs of suburban housewives. Most recently, Preston had a recurring role on Medium.

Preston will be playing Camilla, the leader of one of the gangs. Other cast members include Kerri Kenney and Rachael Harris. The show is based on a British series that was picked up by the Oxygen network.

The premise of the series sounds good. It's a bit like Desperate Housewives meet Boys In The Hood. I envision a scene in which the housewives rumble like the rival gangs in The Warriors. While the premise works, its success depends on the execution of the idea.

There is one thing that can be confidently said about this new series. The show couldn't possibly be worse that one of she and her husband's previous efforts, Battlefield Earth.