When "American Idol" contestants aren't on stage in front of the cameras dazzling the nation with their vocal talents, they live communally in a Los Angeles mansion. But it turns out in the same room where the young hopefuls are now singing, not so long ago it's where couples were swinging for a racy Playboy TV reality show. more ›

Katrina Darrell, who you might remember as the girl who deigned to wear a bikini to her American Idol audition a few years back, has gotten into a little bit of trouble with the law. Police arrested the singer/model/whatever on suspicion of running a red light, fleeing the scene of a car crash and driving under the influence of alcohol. more ›

It's just like the old adage says: if you're a celebrity, don't make a sex tape.The latest Hollywood star to find this out the hard way is none other than Jennifer Lopez, reports MSN.com. Lopez' first husband, Ojani Noa, to whom she was married for just 11 months, has won the legal right, courtesy of an LA judge, to sell a tape of he and Lopez getting down to the highest bidder. more ›

Looks like Simon Cowell doesn't have anything to worry about when it comes to his post-"American Idol" TV career. According to Entertainment Weekly, 15,000 people came out to the LA Sports Arena yesterday to audition for the acid-tongued judge's new show, "The X-Factor." The contest is a spin-off of the British show of the same name, which Cowell also judges. more ›

Titillating titans of musical industry Jackie Tohn and Jes Hudak teamed up last year to form the superpower vocal duo Powerfox & Ponymane. Since then, the local singer/songwriters have amassed a wicked covers catalogue of vocal badassery taking on today's hits, American Idol, Saturday morning... more ›

Many, if not most of the films nominated for Academy Awards in yesterday's ceremony are available via Movies On Demand. Check them out at home if they've already left the theatre _or_ if they never even made it to a theatre near you. --- We're disgusted with the disgust we're now seeing about TV shows that have always been disgusting. Please add to our list of shows to be disgusted with. Also check out our TV Junkie Must-Watch Plan for tonight to avoid disgust. more ›

If you're on the way to the Forum, a funny thing is happening there -- American Idol tryouts. Registration wraps up at 8AM and wristbanded hopefuls will start auditioning later today. But who's going to judge their outpouring of tired anthems, screeching bird calls, limp falsettos and heinous pitch problems? Simon and Kara are out, and speculation points to Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler as possible AI X contenders. Ryan Seacreast will be making the official announcement. more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "Attack of the Show", "Burn Notice", "Boston Med", Letterman, Fallon (Christina Hendricks). Friday AM - Tour de France more ›

Jimmy Fallon did something pretty cool last night, he Ustreamed a live session of him and almost his entire staff while "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" was being broadcast on the East Coast in an online service called "Watch Jimmy With Jimmy". more ›

"The Vampire Diaries" has its season premiere on The CW and it seems a little too late, too teenagery, and too lame to even consider turning on (and lookit how white everyone is). We think that, someday, most folks will realize that Twilight was crap also - David Duchovny's Hank Moody in the upcoming season of "Californication" succinctly guts the genre and it's well worth watching when it premieres later this month. more ›

Oh, this is good. FOX has landed a deal with talk show host and comedian Ellen DeGeneres to become the newest American Idol judge, replacing Paula Abdul who quit the reality show this summer over salary issues. “I’m thrilled to be the new judge on American Idol,” said DeGeneres in Fox's news release, via The Wrap. ”I’ve watched since the beginning, and I’ve always been a huge fan. So getting this job is a dream come true, and think of all the money I’ll save from not having to text in my vote.” Har, har, Ellen, har... har. more ›

"American Idol" fans listen up, your favorite judge, Paula Abdul, might not be returning according to her new manager. It would be a real tragedy for late night TV as about 50% of their material seems to be based on her during the "American Idol" season, and it would be a real tragedy for Paula Abdul as it seems unlikely that she has any other employment prospects other than to be the butt of late night TV jokes. more ›

The TV Junkie Plan: "Deadliest Catch", "Out of the Wild", "Modern Toss", Letterman, Fallon. more ›

We know it's a couple days away but we couldn't help talk up this Thursday night's NBC lineup: "The Office" will be back with 2 brand new episodes at 8pm and 9pm with the series premiere of Amy Poehler's highly anticipated "Parks and Recreation" sandwiched in between the two at 8:30pm. Check out the website of Pawnee, Indiana, the location of "Parks and Recreation" and of course the video snippets. more ›

We love comedians Jim Gaffigan and Jamie Kaler so therefore we just kind of have to like TBS' "My Boys" which has its season premiere tonight. While the show isn't any less funny than any of the big network shows, Jim Gaffigan's bits are the highlight of every episode - we wish TBS would build a show around him as the lead, c'mon already. more ›

Nielsen says that President Obama's latest press conference slipped in the ratings and that the CW series, "Reaper", gained (the implication is that Obama is suffering from overexposure). I'm not sure how many teens would be that in economics, much less everyday Americans. I guess former President Bush avoided these kind of comparisons by not doing press conferences and by spending more time on vacation than any other president. more ›

Late night news: TBS is building a late night show around comedian/actor George Lopez (whom we have loved as Mayor Hernandez on "Reno 911"). The hour-long show will air at 11pm, Monday through Fridays but we're not so sure that it's a good move to go head to head with local news. We'll see what happens when the show launches. TBS has dabbled in late night comedy, with the Frank Caliendo vehicle, "Frank TV", which has not been renewed, and the admirable "10 Items or Less", headed by John Lehr, which is up for renewal now. more ›

Ad spending in the US dropped by 2.6% in 2008, with only cable increasing ad revenue for the year. TV and cable still retained a leadership position as the preferred media, taking more than 60% of all ad dollars. more ›

Today in the web TV world, Josh Schwartz's (Gossip Girl, The O.C., Chuck) music-themed web series, "Rockville CA" premieres on TheWB.com. The show features both indie favorites and up-and-coming bands such as Eagles of Death Metal, The Broken West, and Bishop Allen. “Rockville CA” is set in a fictional Los Angeles rock club and was shot on location at The Echo, which is an actual, real rock club, that you might have heard of if you have a heartbeat. more ›

Has anyone else noticed how bad the American Idol finalists are at lip syncing? No, we don’t believe they fake the solo numbers (not yet anyway for this polished singing puppy mill) -- but the group numbers are a disaster. Why do those kids have to worry more about the fancy footwork and choreography for the group sing-along than, umm, singing? Last night’s Michael Jackson tribute medley took the cake. The burly guy was off, Jorge looked like he might have been singing in Spanish, and other people just looked like they didn’t know the words. But you know what? The sound quality was good and you didn’t hear anyone out of breath with some of the fancy footwork. No one's posted the video yet, but here's last week's example. more ›

"American Idol" fans can now shell out $1.99 for an iPhone app that will provide them with a weekly update them on the vital statistics of the remaining contenders for the rest of this season. What isn't clear from the press release is if there will be geosynchronous Ryan Seacrest hair gel monitoring. more ›

Critics are being rather forgiving of Jimmy Fallon's (only slightly shaky IMHO) "Late Night" debut: they brought out DeNiro who is always a tough interview and Fallon kind of made it work, and Timberlake kind of saved the first show - not sure why they had Van Morrison on, are they trying to reclaim the age 55-and-up demographic? more ›

Who watched the new "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" last night? How did you like it? It's on our Tivo and we will watch it later but let us know.. We'll update you with the Nielsen numbers later this week - should be interesting. more ›

Jerry Seinfeld will be returning to TV as the producer and creator of "The Marriage Ref", a new series for NBC. No premiere date or time slot has been selected. more ›

It looks like Andy Richter will be returning to the side of Conan O'Brien when he fires up his version of "The Tonight Show" starting on June 1st. Richter will be the announcer for the show and will appear in comedy sketches but it's not clear if he will be a fixture on the guest couch a la Ed McMahon. Now that the Academy Awards are over with and Conan has shut down production, late night TV is a wasteland this week other than Jimmy Kimmel. more ›

Even though the majority of eyes are focused on Sunday's Oscars, this Saturday, the Writers Guild of America will be doling out their awards and a sampling of scuttlebutt with regards to TV leaders include "Mad Men", "30 Rock", "The Office", "The Wire", and "True Blood". more ›

Today AMC launched the beginning of a series of webisodes for its excellent series, "Breaking Bad", in advance of its new season starting on March 8th. more ›

Last week we went to a sneak preview of Demetri Martin's new show on Comedy Central, "Important Things With Demetri Martin", which premiere's tonight at 10:30pm. The show has been in the works since last Spring so we are happy to see it make it on air. more ›

So "American Idol" fans, round three of the Hollywood auditions start tonight - we haven't seen a lot of chatter about this season here at LAist and wondered what your thoughts were. Has the show jumped the shark yet? Because if you're not into the show we'd just as soon not list it here. Your comment is your vote. more ›