No way dawg . . . what's the twist coming up on 'American Idol'

Okay before we get to today's column, I would like to pause for a moment to have a brief tête-à-tête with the producers of American Idol.

On yesterday's show, Simon said that there would be a big twist announced tonight and I recently heard it is a twist that they have already tried out in France. So there are a few possibilities -- in France, the results are given immediately at the end of the performance. I don't see that happening since FOX isn't going to give up on the choke hold the show has on its schedule. Also in France, lights are in front of the judges so they can indicate immediately by the color light they choose if they think a performance is good or bad. I could possibly see American Idol doing that since they are clearly having trouble dealing with all the judges' comments. I could live with lights. But I don't think that's what producers have in store for us.

Here's what they absolutely cannot do but I fear that they will because let's be honest the show has done some crazy things this season (I mean they let Paula wear feathers last night). In France, the judges get a veto power to exercise once a season on any given contestant they don't think should be eliminated and that contestant is spared from elimination.

Um, no. Again I think this is an implicit contract between the viewers and the show. I vote -- to pick an example -- 20 times for Anoop Desai because he had a rough night and my votes counts. You don't get to overrule my vote. There shouldn't be a nonelimination round in American Idol. And if great contestants get eliminated too soon, that's part of the show's allure as unfair as that may be.

I hope I'm wrong. But I fear I may not be. What do you think the twist will be on tonight's American Idol? Would you like it if judges had the veto power to "save" a contestant? Talk about it below.

Ask TV Gal

It's that season......to play is it alive or is it dead. Just trying to find out the status of a few shows -- Crusoe, Life on Mars, The Unit. Thanks for your help. JBD

I'm concerned about the future of some of my favorite shows. Have you heard anything about the fate of Bones, Life, Chuck or Friday Night Lights? Thanks, Katie

I was wondering if you knew whether Privileged has been picked up for another season or not? Let me know. Thanks. Shazia

Okay let's run through what we know so far. Life on Mars has been cancelled and will have its series finale on April 1 (alas this is not a joke). But executive producers promise we will have closure and find out what is going on with Sam and that no he hasn't been in a coma. And my friend Korbi had some great news to share about Friday Night Lights -- it appears NBC arrangement with DirectTV has made the show profitable so we could see much more of the Dillon Panthers and (sigh) Tim Riggins. (Let's all pause to let out a "whoo-hoo!") The rest of the shows you all mention haven't been officially cancelled but they haven't been picked up for another season yet either. I would say Crusoe is as good as gone and we should be officially concerned about Life and Chuck. I think Bones, which FOX bounces around the schedule, will be back (because the show has been having a great season) and I have to think the same is true for The Unit. I'm extremely worried about Privileged. The CW picked up a bunch of shows last week and Privileged was not on the list. I promise to keep you posted as I learn things as we all know this is a stressful time in the world of television.

Where Have I Seen Them Before?

Matthew Glave was the man pretending to be an astronaut on My Name is Earl. Glave is the scheming Lt. Colonel Evan Connors on Army Wives, Dr. Dale on ER, and Colonel Paul Emerson on Stargate SG-1. Curtis Armstrong was the actual astronaut. I remember him most as Herbert Viola on Moonlighting.

Sure we all recognized Taylor Swift as the murdered teen Haley on CSI but there were a slew of other familiar faces. Michael Trevino was the jock who drugged his girlfriend. We've seen him most recently as the suddenly disappeared Ozzie on 90210. He was also Jaime on Cane and Brent on The Riches. Colton James was the student stalker. He was T-Bone on 7th Heaven. Lisa Darr was Haley's mom. She was Annie on life as we know it, Jane on Popular and, fun fact, T-Bone's mom on 7th Heaven.

Kathie recognized Christopher Rich was the publisher looking for a marketing executive on Desperate Housewives. He was Attorney Melvin Palmer on Boston Legal and Brock on Reba.

Jay Karnes was Nick, the patient who said whatever he was thinking on House. Karnes was Dutch on The Shield, Agent Scott Kohn on The Sons of Anarchy and we just saw him on Burn Notice. Darcy Rose Byrnes was his daughter Marika. She was Nick's daughter Kiki on Dirty Sexy Money and Stella's daughter Lucy on How I Met Your Mother. I think this officially makes her TV's go-to daughter. And it was driving me crazy because I couldn't figure out how I knew Nick's author, the one he insulted at the beginning of the episode. He was Devon Michaels and he played Bill, one of the people at the Yale Daily News, on Gilmore Girls.

Robin recognized Vanessa Lengies, Roxanne on American Dreams, as Zoey the girl who was persuaded to think the world had ended on Medium.

Some Fun Links

I'll be talking about the second season of Breaking Bad on Friday but you can hear series creator Vince Gilligan talk about it be clicking here and here's a sneak peek at this Sunday's episode

It's his world, we just watch it but now you can explore Chuck Bartowski's world by clicking here

And Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) will give you a tour of the city of Pawnee here. That's, of course, to promote the new series Parks & Recreation. 

And finally Will Arnett and Jason Bateman talk about each other and their new series Sit Down, Shut Up here. Such good times.

That's all for today. I'm back on Friday with this week's quotes and thoughts on the new season of Breaking Bad, a review of the new NBC series Kings (sorry I dozed off) and much, much more. Have a question? Seen a familiar face? Want to nominate a quote of the week? Write me at amytvgal@zap2it.com. Talk to you on Friday.

E-mail

• Digg
• Facebook
• Fark
• Yahoo Buzz
• Stumbleupon