TVSquad

Tonight marks the "fall finale" of Jericho. It's a term we've been hearing a lot this season (Lost has used it in their advertising too), and it looks like the web and web surfers are the reason shows are taking a break.

CBS' David Poltrack says the reason why Jericho can afford to take a break for two months right in the middle of the season is because they're able to put up enough original content online to satisfy fans and keep things going. Besides being able to watch episodes of the show online, fans can also see interviews with the cast and crew, as well as a special video series titled "Countdown," which gives viewers info about what would happen if a real attack occurred.

What do you think of the break that shows like Jericho and Lost are taking? Do you think it's a good idea? Is it a good idea only because these are serial shows and the break might be a good thing? Would you accept a break like this if it was The Office or CSI? I think we'll see more of this because of the web. I even wonder that someday, the networks might put an episode of a series exclusively online, right in the middle of the season, so they can run a special or something in the show's time slot. That might be an interesting experiment too.

Katie Couric just broke into CBS programming with the shocking news that longtime 60 Minutes journalist Ed Bradley died this morning of leukemia. He was 65.

I use the word shocking because I don't think there was any public indication that Bradley was sick from leukemia.

At the time of his death, Bradley was still working on 60 Minutes, and stories that he was working on still remain to be aired at a later date. He had been with 60 Minutes for 26 years and won several awards, including an Emmy, a Polk, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and a duPont citation.

Bradley was married to artist Patricia Blanchet.

Sure, he's slowed down a bit (he turns 88 tomorrow!), but Wallace says he has no intention of packing up his awards and leaving his CBS office. NBC even wanted him, but he decided to stay at CBS:

"I'm going to stay here ... there's an understanding that I'm not going to be getting on airplanes and flying all over the world, but there are going to be certain important interviews I will do for 60 Minutes."

The one interview he really wants? President George Bush, who has never agreed to talk to him. Wallace has interviewed every President since JFK, and has written a note to new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow in hopes of getting one with Bush.

I don't think there's anything I look forward to less than this two week period in March when CBS subjects us to non-stop college basketball action. Not the Olympics, not root canal surgery. And it's not even the basketball that bothers me, it's that it's college basketball. I mean, unless you go to the school or went to the school, who gives a *&#%?

And it's one of those events where people who ordinarily have no interest in college basketball all suddenly join in and bet money in various pools. They become pseudo experts, and become obsessed with scores and matchups and who's playing who and when and what happened and what the score is and everything else. And all the other networks have news stories about the games, my local paper covers it as if it's the Super Bowl (it's not, sorry), and everyone just sort of tries to force it down our throats. Ugh.

It's funny, but I don't even watch that much on CBS, now that I think of it (Letterman, maybe one of the Monday night comedies, Survivor), but this two week interruption still bothers me.