
Michael Becker / FOX
After a season of standout performances, the race to crown this year's American Idol winner is tighter than ever. Luckily for the singers and viewers, mentor Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M Records, guides the contestants in song choice and arrangement. "I'm like [the Wizard of] Oz," the all-knowing Iovine jokes. "I like helping the kids. It's creative to me. It's my opinion, and I have no trouble giving it." Iovine (and the Idols themselves) shares the keys for each contestant to win...
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Britney Spears, Demi Lovato
After months of speculation, Fox officially announced that pop superstar Britney Spears and teen sensation Demi Lovato will join The X Factor's judging panel when Season 2 premieres this fall. TV Guide Magazine spoke with Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid and Lovato just hours after they made their first appearance at Monday's Fox Upfront in New York City.
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Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas
It's the best four semi-finalists we've ever seen. Graceful, powerful, athletic — and, except for one, broken. The level of competition this season on Dancing With The Stars is so high that the winner may be whoever still has two good working legs next week.
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Tim Allen
Back in the 1990s, ABC ruled Friday nights with young viewers, thanks to its TGIF-branded shows like Full House, Family Matters and Step by Step.
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Katharine McPhee and Jack Davenport
OK, Smash, we take it back. Well, some of it.
Since you showed up with that amazing pilot, things have been up and down. Mostly down. You just never seemed to get back on track after Karen's trip back to Ohio and as the weeks went by, you got weirder. Chinese babies?
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Jane Elliot
Is there a greater force of nature than Jane Elliot? The Emmy-winning suds sensation signed up to play General Hospital witch Tracy Quartermaine back in 1978 and she's still kicking ass and taking names.
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NBC logo, Fox logo
When people call the network upfronts one long song and dance, they're not kidding.
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Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition
Talk about a weighty vote of confidence: The second season of ABC's summer series Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition doesn't launch until June 3, but ABC has already given the show a third-season pickup (15 two-hour episodes) to air in summer 2013.
The early order comes out of...
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Hugh Laurie
After eight seasons and 177 episodes, House ends with an outbreak of poignant goodbyes. In the emotional run-up to the series finale — the episode, titled "Everybody Dies," airs May 21 at 9pm on Fox — each shooting day brought cheers, standing Os and misty-eyed send-offs. "A succession of daily memorial services, it was," as Hugh Laurie puts it. "Someone would yell, 'Hey, everybody, this is Omar Epps' last scene!' 'This is Jesse Spencer's last scene!' 'This is B camera operator's last scene.' The art director's. The sound technician's. It became hard to process all the finality."
It's amusing to imagine...
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