Lara Flynn Boyle by Mitch Haaseth/NBC Universal Photo
Wednesday's round-up:8 pm/ETMoment of Truth dropped 30 percent of last week's après-Idol audience yet still dominated the hour with 10.58 million total viewers. Deal or No Deal placed second with 10.19 mil. Big Brother mustered up just 5.31 mill, while Top Model drew 3.65 mil.9 pmIdol drummed up 27.13 mil, followed distantly by Law & Order: Criminal Intent (7.90 mil).10 pmLaw & Order, guest-starring Lara Flynn Boyle, wowed with 11.85 million viewers, its largest audience since the Jan. 2 season-opener. Behind a CSI: NY repeat, Men in Trees matched last week's 5.67 mil.
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Lara Flynn Boyle by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com
Jeers to Lara Flynn Boyle for her ludicrous performance on Law & Order. Virtually unrecognizable from her days on another legal drama, The Practice, the puffed-up actress so overplayed the role of unscrupulous reporter Dawn Talley — who slept with not one but two murder suspects — she made Dirt's Lucy Spiller (Courteney Cox) look like Jim Lehrer. And we were supposed to believe that hard-charging ADA Michael Cutter (Linus Roache) was temporarily hoodwinked by this "lying slut" (as Alana De La Garza's ADA Connie Rubirosa called her)? That's out of Order!• For more Cheers & Jeers (and more "slut" name-calling!), check out the new vodcast.• Share your own raves and rants about other shows on the Reader Cheers & Jeers discussion board.• We may feature your Cheer or Jeer on TVGuide.com or in TV Guide magazine!
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Lara Flynn Boyle, whose past beaus have included fellow Twin Peaks vet Kyle MacLachlan, Jack Nicholson and David Spade, recently married Donald Ray Thomas in San Antonio, Texas, the actress' publicist tells the Associated Press. No details were released, other than that the wedding cake was a small salad.
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Paget Brewster, Huff
On Showtime's Huff (Sundays at 10 pm/ET), Paget Brewster plays the forlorn and fed-up wife of Hank Azaria's sad-sack psychiatrist. Could she be playing someone more different from the hottie Friends' Chandler stole from Joey? TVGuide.com spoke to the actress about her Huffing and puffing,
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Ray Wise
Tonight's two-hour 24 "event" (beginning at 8 pm/ET on Fox) will host a parade of faces new and familiar, including Elisha Cuthbert's return as Jack's beleaguered daughter and the debut of C. Thomas Howell as Kim's (overdue, if you ask me) therapist. The evening also introduces us to Vice President Hal Gardner, who has been choicely cast with Ray Wise, a star of the Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck and who is familiar to TV fans as Twin Peaks' very bad dad, Leland Palmer. TVGuide.com welcomed the chance to ask Wise about his 24 VP, working with George Clooney
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Ray Wise
Monday's two-hour 24 "event" (beginning at 8 pm/ET on Fox) will host a parade of faces new and familiar, including Elisha Cuthbert's return as Jack's beleaguered daughter and the debut of C. Thomas Howell as Kim's (overdue, if you ask me) therapist. The evening also introduces us to Vice President Hal Gardner, who has been choicely cast with Ray Wise, a star of the Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck and who is familiar to TV fans as Twin Peaks' very bad dad, Leland Palmer. TVGuide.com welcomed the chance to ask Wise about his 24 VP, working with George Clooney
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Question: Don't you find the new trend to announce the character's death (à la Las Vegas and Smallville) a cheap ploy? To me, it screams ratings rather than plot development. I still remember how my jaw dropped when Doyle (Angel), Fred (Angel), Tara (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and, hell, even Buffy herself died. Part of the emotional impact of such events is having no idea that they're coming. Not only does it seem like the pimping of a death for ratings, it also cheapens all other suspenseful moments of the show. Part of the thrill in watching a Joss Whedon show is that you are not sure that everyone will always make it out. If you know Smallville's going to make a big announcement months in advance, then you never have to worry when you're watching the show. I think that really takes away from the death of a beloved character. What are your thoughts?
Answer: First off, thanks to Michael Ausiello for this question referral. (A little-known secret among us TVGuide.com columnists is how
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Zach Braff, Scrubs
Arrested Development Blame vacation hangover, but I'm betting I missed about half of the references to AD's imminent cancellation or (please!) move to another network, and the not-desperate ratings stunts they cribbed from other shows. Of course, I don't even have to say this, but please write in with what I've left out. There was the promise before the credits that someone would die and that the show would be live, the 3-D tomato toss and the flashing SaveOurBluths.org. So as not to break the third wall, that thinly veiled plot about raising money for a new attorney opened the door for the Bluths to beg for their survival, and to discuss whether they'd received help from the Home Builders' Organization (HBO, for those of you not yet over those hangovers) or if they'd have to
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Zach Braff, Scrubs
Arrested Development Blame vacation hangover, but I'm betting I missed about half of the references to AD's imminent cancellation or (please!) move to another network, and the not-desperate ratings stunts they cribbed from other shows. Of course, I don't even have to say this, but please write in with what I've left out. There was the promise before the credits that someone would die and that the show would be live, the 3-D tomato toss and the flashing SaveOurBluths.org. So as not to break the third wall, that thinly veiled plot about raising money for a new attorney opened the door for the Bluths to beg for their survival, and to discuss whether they'd received help from the Home Builders' Organization (HBO, for those of you not yet over those hangovers) or if they'd have to
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Question: Think of all the gasp! moments there have been these past couple of weeks: Luke has a daughter on Gilmore Girls; Meg is pregnant on Veronica Mars; Shannon dies on Lost; Lara Flynn Boyle flies away on Las Vegas; and the boys don't get out on Prison Break! Should we expect any more excitement before Christmas from any of our fave shows?
Answer: Bright and Hannah are going to get naked together on Everwood tomorrow night; that's pretty major. And as if you needed another reminder, the Carver will be unmasked during the final moments of Nip/Tuck's third season finale on Dec. 20, which will be composed of two back-to-back episodes from 10 pm to midnight. And don't bother trying to guess who the Masked One is. TVGuide.com's Angel Cohn spoke to Bruno Campos on Monday and he flat-out said the Carver's identity is "not guessabl
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