TVSquad

He's the Guiness World Record holder for the most time spent in front of a television camera, and now he plans to defend that title for at least three more years. I'm speaking, of course, of Emmy-winning TV host, Regis Philbin.

Regis Philbin renewed his contract with Disney through 2011, assuring that he will be sitting beside Kelly Ripa on Live with Regis & Kelly till he's 80-years-old.

Make that 80-years-young because even though Regis comes on as a curmudgeon, nobody would call him a grouchy old man. In fact, he's still a hoot to watch in the morning as he goes on about the tabloid headlines, the parties and openings he attended with Joy, and the status of the New York Yankees and Notre Dame football.

Frankly speaking, I'm glad that he's chosen to remain active. To me, ever since the day Johnny Carson retired from The Tonight Show, that show has never been the same. The Jay Leno years just don't compare. Johnny retired too soon.

Drew Carey and company recently wrapped up shooting Season 36 of The Price is Right -- Drew had pizzas delivered to the studio from his favorite place in Cleveland -- but when the crew comes back to tape Season 37 in a few weeks, they're going to be faced with a number of changes.

The first change is that Roger Dobkowitz, who's been the producer of the show since it started its run, won't be there. According to Golden-Road.net, a TPiR message board, Fremantle Media let Dobkowitz go after Season 36 wrapped up; a replacement has yet to be named.

But there may be other changes afoot, namely with the look and format of the show, whose ratings declined 15% in the first season after Bob Barker's retirement. Rumors are swirling that the changes will include new pricing games and a video wall, all the way up to a rumor -- published on a TVGuide.com fan blog but later pulled -- that the show will be completely overhauled to make it look more like Fremantle's money-making machine, American Idol (or their new money-making machine, Million Dollar Password).

CBS has ordered six more episodes of Million Dollar Password. This is probably because the show, hosted by Regis Philbin, has become extremely popular. Over four broadcasts, Million Dollar Password placed first in ratings in its time period. It also placed first among adults 18-49 and adults 25-54. The show is averaging 9.46 million viewers. Looks like CBS has the right idea with ordering up some more.

A few weeks ago, Joel talked about the appeal of Password. Perhaps, it's the celebrities they secured to come play: Neil Patrick Harris, Rachel Ray, Betty White, Tony Hawk and Rosie O'Donnell. But I think it's the power of the Regis. Everything that man touches turns to gold. Remember the craze that accompanied Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? I can't hear that theme music and envision the dramatic lights even now as I write this.

Million Dollar Password airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on CBS. Are you hooked enough to watch six more episodes?

It's no secret that the country is in severe financial straits, especially people who are caught in the real estate merry-go-round where they find themselves unable to pay their monthly mortgage. Amazingly, someone as seemingly well-heeled and secure as Ed McMahon is one of those people struggling. Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show is on the verge of losing his Beverly Hills home through foreclosure.

Published reports claim that Ed McMahon's home on Mulholland Drive, part of the gated hilltop development called The Summit, has been on the market for sale since 2006. Unfortunately, moving real estate in a depressed market is very tough. Complicating matters for McMahon is the neighborhood, in particular, one neighbor: Britney Spears.

Here's the thing about game show revivals: you have to satisfy people on two levels. For fans of the old show, you have to make the gameplay of the new show familiar enough to keep them happy and coming back. And, in order to attract new fans, you have to modernize and add touches that will suck in viewers and help build drama. That's one of the reasons why most new game shows have Who Wants to Be a Millionaire-style darkened sets with swirling lights, and depend on ominous music and tight camera angles to create drama.

Million Dollar Password, premiering Sunday at 8 PM ET, has all of that. They even nabbed Millionaire's original American host, Regis Philbin, to give it that extra bit of primetime oomph. But does it work? Well... sorta. Fans of the Allen Ludden / Tom Kennedy / Bert Convy incarnations might be dissatisfied with what they've done to their old favorite, but even an objective observer can see that the gameplay has some flaws that are going to need to be worked out for the show to succeed.

In an announcement that most who remember the older versions of Password would consider a no-brainer, it has been revealed that Betty White will be returning as a guest panelist on CBS' new Million Dollar Password series. And, really, if she wasn't even being considered would it even be Password?

White, who is 86-years-young, was a staple of the original version of Password when it started back in 1961 as well as the revived 70s and 80s versions of the show. Much of that connection came from her marriage to original Password host Allen Ludden. White and Ludden were married in 1963 and remained together until his death from stomach cancer in 1981.

Like many of its network companions, CBS is using the lazy days of summer to roll out a schedule light on original scripted fare and heavy on unscripted programming. Unlike many of its network companions, CBS is going a different route with some of its original material.

Out of the two original dramas Swingtown is probably the one readers of TV Squad will remember as it was introduced to us during the network's upfronts last year. The show will cover the social and sexual revolutions of the 1970s -- a time when gas was in short supply, inflation was skyrocketing, and the world was in political upheaval. You know, nothing like it is now in the 2000s. The other scripted show will be Flashpoint. This cop drama will follow the adventures of SRU, a task force that is sent out to diffuse emergency situations.

A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.

The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.

This time we have Million Dollar Password, Dress My Nest, Grill It!, Divorce Court, Whose Wedding is it Anyway? and several new shows.