TVSquad

• Out: Law and Order: Trial By Jury, American Dreams, Medical Investigation, Committed, The Contender, Third Watch.
  
• New: The Apprentice: Martha Stuart, Three Wishes, E-Ring, Fathom, Inconceivable, My Name Is Earl, Thick and Thin, Four Kings.
• Returning: Scrubs, Fear Factor, Las Vegas, The Biggest Loser, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order, Joey, Will & Grace, The Apprentice, ER, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Crossing Jordan, Medium.
  
• Moving: The West Wing (Sundays, 8-9 p.m. EST), The Office (Tuesdays, 9:30-10 p.m. EST), Dateline NBC (Fridays 9-10 p.m. EST).

Read on for show descriptions.

The country isn't that interested in beauty pageants anymore. The Miss America pageant only drew 9.8 million viewers in 2004 leading ABC to dump the annual catwalk for 2005. Now the show is looking for a TV home and is using the William Morris agency to sell it. Fear Factor had lead-in episodes for Miss USA but those stunts have actually had higher ratings than the show itself. Some folks would rather see an end to Miss America than have the contestants eat cow intestines or hold their breath in a box filled with scorpions. We agree.

The mad scientists at Sony are - cue ominous music - coming up with a technology that will enable TV viewers and video gamers to actually smell and taste the show they are watching or the game they are playing, and not just the old fashioned see and hear combo. This opens up a lot of possibilities: you can smell the smoke after shooting someone or launching a grenade; maybe we'll be able to play Pac Man and actually taste what the little guy is munching. Of course, who knows how this technology will work with TV shows. I don't really want to smell the New York Giants' locker room or taste the goat testicles on Fear Factor. 

We joke about the stupidity of Fear Factor, but one of the show's stunts helped save a woman from drowning during a flash flood. The veteran corrections officer was caught in a flash flood in California and remembered a rerun of Fear Factor where contestants had to escape a submerged car. She knew how to roll down an automatic window instead of opening the doors. She credits the show with saving her life. And no she wasn't wearing a bathing suit.

Again I was channel surfing earlier this week and came across a babe in a bikini being drowned in some sort of contraption. What the f...oh it's “Fear Factor.” I should have known. This is one of those shows that boggles my mind. It seems to be babes and gross food every week and rarely strays from that formula. Yet the show is still extremely popular. Oh well.