TVSquad

Via Toon Zone comes news that Noggin and its evening version, The N, will be splitting into two separate, twenty four-hour networks on December 31.

Noggin will continue with programming aimed at the preschool set with programs like Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Oobi, Jack's Big Music Show, and Nick Jr. properties like Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues and The Backyardigans.

The N, originally the evening version of Noggin aimed at teens (and "tweens" to use a meaningless marketing term), will expand to 24 hours with TEENick programming during the day (All That, The Amanda Show, etc) and original programming at night: Degrassi: The Next Generation, South of Nowhere, and Beyond the Break. The N also acquired rights to air reruns of That '70s Show starting June 2008.

Is it possible for a TV show to jump the shark before its first season is even over? TV writer Lee Goldberg thinks that it may have. The L.A. Times has a story about how a lot of people in the medical profession think that the popular ABC medical drama has already gone way over the top. Specifically, they're talking about the season finale and the plot about an intern getting involved with a patient.

I've never seen the show, so I can't say that it has jumped the shark or not. But I guess my first question is: people are actually still using the term "jumping the shark?" That's soooo 2001.

Scrubs is finally returning to television tonight! And guess what? The writers, directors, and actors have all been locked in a hospital in the San Fernando valley, thinking that this could the last season, so they're doing it all for us, the fans. You know what that means? Extra wacky voiceovers, imaginary sequences, Mandy Moore, and an homage to The Wizard of Oz (100th episode, airing Jan. 24th). In several recent interviews, Zach Braff has said that everyone on the show went no-holds-barred on the scripts because they had no idea whether anyone would ever see the show. NBC inexplicably kept them off the schedule for the first half of the season. So, as Braff says in the Indianapolis Star, "It's about going, OK-- these are our hardcore fans, let's make shows for them." They are producing a full season of 24 episodes, which means that we will be treated to back-to-back episodes of Scrubs for the rest of the season. The season premiere airs tonight at 9 pm, followed by another new episode at 9:30 pm.

[Thanks for the reminder, Ryan M.!]

The next new episode of Lost isn't until Wednesday, January 11th, so ABC is kindly airing a recap of the season so far. It airs at 8 pm on January 11th, and is called "Revelations," and then the new episode about Eko and his stick, called "The 23rd Psalm", airs at 9 pm the same night. By then, we will have gone for six whole weeks without a new episode of Lost! If you've never seen Lost, but you want to get in on the excitement, I would recommend watching the DVDs for Season One and then watching the recap. You can also read recaps of all this season's episodes here.

And, if you're like Ryan, and you're wondering what all the excitment is over Grey's Anatomy, ABC is also airing a recap episode of that show on Sunday, Jan. 8th at 10 pm. The next new episode of Grey's is a week later. This won't be nearly as hard to catch up on as it will be to catch up on Lost. Basically, Meredith Grey is a really skinny surgical intern in Seattle who had an affair with another surgeon who is married. She has pretty much spent this whole season pouting about it. Yet, I can't stop watching...