The Week In Clack – Paula quits, Paris on Supernatural, and Anna engaged

With the big TCA presentations going on, it’s been a pretty big week for TV news. However, all of the talk about what we can look forward to in the fall was trumped by one short little burst on Twitter, from Paula Abdul. She chose that unconventional venue to announce that she’s leaving American Idol. What does that mean for the show? With any luck, the beginning of a steady decline that ends in cancellation. Until we are visited by those glorious days, it looks like it will be business as usual.

Kara DioGuardi will be back. According to Mike Darnell, president of alternative at FOX, “Kara’s spitfire personality and sharp musical sensibility infused American Idol with a new energy last year.” Well, one man’s “spitfire personality” is another’s “bitchy haranguing.” Paula will be replaced during the auditions by a collection of pop stars. So far, that includes Katy Perry and Victoria Beckham.  I like that idea, but I hope they’re ready. Those are some awfully crazy shoes to fill. It’s unclear what will happen once the competition begins.

Lots of non-Idol news, after the jump.

• So You Think You Can Dance has a winner. I won’t spoil who it is, because it was just last night. You’ll have to click through the link to see, but you should click this link anyway. Liane Bonin at Hitfix does the best SYTYCD recaps.
• Paris Hilton is going to guest star on Supernatural. Crap. I know, I know, you have to trust Kripke. And he’ll probably find a way to make it not suck out loud. But still….
• Joss Whedon has a story for the next Dr. Horrible adventure. There’s not much more info available, but confirmation that the sequel is being worked on is good.
• Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer went and got engaged. If that’s not enough, their show, True Blood, also hit another ratings high this week.
• Laurence Fishburne’s character on CSI is getting a “makeover”. Yeah, that’ll do it. Unless that makeover includes some kind of Freaky Friday body swap with William Petersen, don’t look for a return to the Grissom numbers.
• Bryan Singer is making a miniseries for Syfy. It’s a six hour tale revolving around doomsday prophesies involving the Mayan calendar and the year 2012. I love crazy Mayan conspiracy, so this one has potential.
• NBC had a rough week at the TCAs. They spent most of their time talking in circles and avoiding actually answering questions. It prompted one critic to begin his inquiry with, “We’re sorry we keep asking questions that apparently we’re asking to the wrong people.”
• Battlestar Galactica was named Program of the Year at the TCA awards. Big Bang Theory, Mad Men, Bryan Cranston, and Jim Parsons also took home awards.
• “Good news everyone.” The OG Futurama cast has come to an agreement with the studio and will be part of the new episodes set to air next year.

Finally, the picture? That’s Katie Cassidy from the Melrose Place reboot coming this fall on CW. It has nothing to do with the news really, but isn’t it better than a picture of Paula Abdul?

Clacked by Brett Love
on Aug 07, 2009 @ 13:00 EST5EDT