TVSquad

Apparently, I've gone over to the dark side and have somehow morphed into a person who watches the E! network. I've commented on the Kardashians, Leave it to Lamas, and Chelsea Lately (which I love by the way). I've finally moved to the bottom of the barrel -- The Girls Next Door.

Here's the thing about this show. Who really knows what goes on when the cameras are turned off (or possibly, we don't want to know), but it seems like Hugh Hefner is a really nice guy. All of his girlfriends and ex-girlfriends have only good things to say about him, and they rave about how cool it is to live at the Playboy mansion.

And if you can get past the part where he has several girlfriends at the same time, and is, like, 103 years old creepily having sex with 19-year-old girls (if he can still have sex, that is), he just seems like a nice guy. The kindly grandfather girls have sex with. Oh, and he loves to scrapbook.

Everybody knows Kendra as one of Hugh Hefner's former girlfriends. The one-time stars of E!'s The Girls Next Door have left the mansion and moved on to their own projects. Bridget Marquardt has moved on to her own Travel Channel show, Bridget's Sexiest Beaches, while Holly Madison was just on Dancing with the Stars. It looks like E! went the right route by choosing to follow the youngest and wackiest of the bunch, Kendra Wilkinson.

Her self-titled new show premiered Sunday on E!, and Kendra set a ratings high not seen since the premiere of The Anna Nicole Show in 2002 with 2.6 million viewers. People love their former Playmates, apparently. As an admitted follower of The Girls Next Door; my wife has a thing for all things Playboy and I got sucked in despite myself; Kendra was always the girl that I found the most annoying. She was so childish and superficial... and that laugh! Oh my god, that laugh made me want to reach through the screen and strangle her! So no one was more surprised than me to find that I actually enjoyed this premiere.

Bridget Marquardt is already traveling the world showing us Bridget's Sexiest Beaches on the Travel Channel. Now it's Kendra Wilkinson's turn. Easily the most annoying of The Girls Next Door, Kendra's new E! show will premiere this fall. Now that all the girls have left the mansion, it's time to see what's next for them. And for Kendra, who was only 18 when the show premiered, it's about time she learned how to be an adult who isn't pampered by the staff at the Playboy Mansion.

And that's just what her show, cleverly called Kendra, will do as she prepares for her wedding next month. My wife is a fanatic for The Girls Next Door, so I've seen more than my fair share of them, and the show is actually much sweeter than you'd expect. One of my questions was what they would do with it now that the girls have left the nest. Apparently, the show will continue and presumably feature Hef's new girlfriends, the twins (not those twins, though I'm sure they're featured as well; they really are twins!).

I've been watching The Girls Next Door for a while and it presents such a quandary for me. I feel like I'm betraying the feminist movement every time I tune in. If I knew an old man who had relationships with multiple young girls and made them "kept women," I would think he's a sleaze ball and wouldn't want to have anything to do with him. However, I fully admit that I find The Girls Next Door fascinating.

It's probably because the life that's portrayed is so far beyond my frame of reference that I can hardly believe that it's real. In any case, I've been a semi-regular viewer and I've found myself even rooting for the girls. I want Bridget to finish school, and yes, I've even been rooting for Holly to get Hef to marry her. Well, I believe Bridget has gotten her Master's degree, and it seems like Holly may even get her wish too. Bridget was recently overheard dishing about a "huge wedding" coming up on the show.

Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Enterprises, has given his consent for Miley Cyrus to pose for the magazine that is the cornerstone of his empire. This is only once she's of legal age of course.

Miley Cyrus is the 15 year old daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus and star of the Disney Channel show Hannah Montana. She is already well on her way to becoming a billionaire and I don't think she needs the publicity.

• At 8, CBS has the special That's The Way It Is: Cronkite at 90, then another special with the horrible Dr. Phil, Caged?
• PBS has a new NOW at 8, then new episodes of Washington Week and Bill Moyers Journal.
• The CW has a new Smackdown! at 8.
• TNT has an NBA playoff game at 8.
• At 9, ABC has - are you ready? - the premiere of National Bingo Night.
• Larry King interviews Hugh Hefner on CNN at 9.
• G4 has a new X-Play at 9, focusing on Star Wars.
• At 10, CBS has the season finale of Numb3rs.
• HGTV has a new House Hunters at 10.
• At 11, HBO has a new Real Time with Bill Maher, with guests Bradley Whitford, Senator Chris Dodd, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, and Russell Simmons.

Check your local TV listings for more.

As we've mentioned before, Larry King is celebrating 50 years in the news business, and all next week CNN is going to mark the occasion with a week of special Larry King Live shows. Here's the lineup:

• Monday, April 16: Oprah Winfrey
• Tuesday, April 17: Katie Couric
• Wednesday, April 18: 50 Years of Pop Culture - a look at everything that Larry has covered over the five decades, with hosts Anderson Cooper and Ryan Seacrest
• Thursday, April 19: Former President Bill Clinton
• Friday, April 20: A special hour hosted by Bill Maher

Love will always find a way. Page Six is reporting that Hugh Hefner may be marrying girlfriend number one and star of The Girls Next Door Holly Madison. While no official announcement has been made, word is that Hef is orchestrating the wedding to capitalize on the popularity of the reality show, and of course, he loves her.

If the show is any indication, Holly is the most devoted of Hef's girlfriends. She's waged a long and hard campaign to score that ring on her finger. I don't watch this show religiously, but it is among my guilty pleasures. I've always felt bad for Holly. She clearly loves the old guy, but she has to watch him scamper about with someone like Kendra, who spends her free time having custom grillz made for her teeth. I suspect that Kendra, who Holly reportedly hates, will get the boot once Hef goes exclusive, but God only knows what "monogamy" means when you're an octogenarian playboy in the post-Viagra age.

E! Entertainment Television has given the greenlight to a third season of The Girls Next Door, a behind-the-scenes look at life inside the Playboy Mansion with Hef and his three girlfriends Holly, Bridget and Kendra. To no one's surprise, the show is the E! Network's most popular.

Unfortunately for the girls, they may have to up the ante. Former Playmate and Mansion resident Izabella St. James is on the verge of releasing a tell-all book about what really goes on inside the Playboy Mansion. Try not to be too shocked, readers, but it involves s-e-x.