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 Amy Pietz isn’t afraid to say what’s on her mind. Which isn't surprising, considering she’s spent the last year doing a splendidly didactic turn as Franny Tolchuck, that hyper-involved, middle-class mom on Aliens in America (Sundays at 8:30 pm/ET), the CW’s post-9/11 satire of cultural acceptance in small-town Wisconsin. As much as she would like to think herself world-wise (she did, after all, take in a Muslim exchange student), Franny is influenced by the old-line gospel according to Bill O’Reilly. Contrarily, Pietz — her political bent leaning more towards socialism — finds O’Reilly “to be really destructive to society,” says the 39-year-old actress. Her observation came only a few days before the Fox News host’s on-air comments about a famed Harlem restaurant had him la

Even after Ali Vincent and her mother, Bette-Sue Burkland, were kicked off, the plucky 234-pound hairstylist vowed to become The Biggest Loser champion. A second-chance opportunity gave the 33-year-old from Mesa, Arizona, just the leverage she needed to get back in the game and shed 112 pounds. In pink rhinestone-heeled pumps and a little black dress, the new 122-pound Vincent took home the $250,000 prize and became the first woman to beat the big boys. Minutes after being showered in confetti on the Sony soundstage where Judy Garland once clicked her glittery red heels, Vincent talks about her own fairytale ending — and new beginnings. TVGuide.com: Down 112 pounds? You've lost nearly half your 234-pound self! Ali Vincent: I actually pulled it off! I wanted it so bad. I forgot what it was like to truly go for something. TVGuide.com: What's nex

Their marriage didn't work out, but Kelly Fields and her ex-husband, Paul Marks, decided to work off their weight together on The Biggest Loser: Couples. Weighing in as the most portly pair, Kelly also ranked as the heaviest woman competing on the show at 271 pounds. But the 39-year-old nurse from Titusville, Florida, finished in third place at 162 pounds, arriving at the finale 109 lighter — and solo. TVGuide.com: Why do the show with your ex, when you'd already started dating someone new?Kelly Fields: Paul was the biggest guy I knew and a tough competitor. TVGuide.com: Good reason. But that's also why we were surprised that he didn't come to the finale. Is he really sick?Kelly: Yes, he is. He's in a hospital bed right now. TVGuide.com: What happened to him?Kelly: He is really, really sick. In the past two months he's spent six weeks in the ho

In a finale upset, eliminated 27-year-old Biggest Loser contestant Bernie Salazar won the $100,000 prize by a single pound over Massachusetts family man Mark Kruger. The Chicago teacher weighed in at 153 pounds, a loss of 130 pounds from his 283 starting weight. Calling from his cell phone on the day after the taping, Salazar was still in a state of shock. TVGuide.com: You were the surprise winner of the night, beating Mark Kruger by just one pound.Bernie Salazar: That’s an understatement. I just know that I gave everything that I could. I definitely surprised myself. To me that's what this whole show is about, surprising yourself and realizing that you can do anything that you put your mind to. TVGuide.com: What will you do with your winnings?Bernie: My mom’s [house] has been hit with flooding, so we’re going to get her set. I’ve got student l

Madea fans rejoice! Tyler Perry's buxom alter ego returns for a second appearance tonight on House of Payne (tonight at 10 pm/ET, TBS), giving "her" nemesis, Curtis "Pops" Payne, a less-than-silent night in this parody of A Christmas Carol. Pops taps into his inner Ebenezer Scrooge when Ella cancels their trip to Maui in order to stay home with CJ's kids, who are spending their first holiday without their mom. But leave it to Madea, as the attitudinal angel of Christmas past, present and future, to bring Pops back around to the true spirit of the season. "[His first thought is] that he's died and gone to hell," says LeVan Davis, who plays Pops. "Pops can't stand anybody who challenges his authority, and Madea challenges everybody's authority." Perry, who directs the episode, isn't so demanding. "He's too eager for your input

The cardinal rule of Hollywood: never spend your own money. But playwright turned actor/director Tyler Perry has built an empire bucking Tinseltown's conventions. So when the man known to millions as smack-talking grandma Madea came up with a sitcom idea, he didn't even try to convince network execs that it would make a great show. Instead he showed them, by using $5 million of his own money to shoot 10 episodes about a large and boisterous working-class family forced by a series of unlucky circumstances to squeeze into one very crowded house. His gamble paid off, and on June 6 at 9 pm/ET, new episodes of that show — Tyler Perry's House of Payne — will debut on TBS. The premiere comes less than a year after Perry made one of the most lucrative deals in TV history by selling TBS the right to air 100 still-to-be-shot

With her star-making turn in Dreamgirls, American Idol also-ran Jennifer Hudson bests Fantasia, makes Simon eat crow and stirs up some Oscar buzz. Here, her Q&A with TV Guide. TV Guide: You play Effie in Dreamgirls, based on the story of Florence Ballard, who was overshadowed by Diana Ross and pushed out of the Supremes. You were the first of American Idol 3's "Three Divas" to go. Do you see a parallel? Hudson: Between Fantasia Barrino, LaToya London and me, I was the biggest girl. The one who doesn't have the "image" alwa

TV Guide talks to Mo'Nique, the Queen of Comedy, about living large and Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance, her second-annual beauty pageant for "Fabulous and Thick" women, premiering Saturday at 8 pm/ET on Oxygen. TV Guide: Thin is in, yet you celebrate larger women. Why? Mo'Nique: People often say, "You are promoting people to be unhealthy." That's not what I'm promoting at all. I'm promoting people to be happy and healthy. Go for a walk. Do jumping jacks. Dance. Have the best sex ever! Want a healthy lifestyle. Not just to be a size 2. TV Guide: Have you been plus-size all your life? Mo'Nique: Since birth. I was 9 pounds, 13 ounces. One time, I said to my mama, "Where did I come from? I was bigger than you at birth!"