Village Vidiot: TV

She made it official.

The queen of television, media and the world, Oprah Winfrey, is quitting her talk show to pursue her new cable network. Next stop - world domination.

That's was the big news when the president of her production company sent a memo Thursday night to all the affiliates saying in one year their ratings are going to drop in half and they will lose millions in revenue (well, it didn't really say that, but it might as well have).

During her live show today (Nov. 20), she said she made the decision after "after much prayer and careful thought." The episode will run in Salt Lake City today at 4 p.m. on KUTV Channel 2.

"I love this show, this show has been my life, and I love it enough to know when it's time to say goodbye," Winfrey said during the episode, according to ABC News. "Twenty five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It's the perfect number. It's the exact right time."

Oprah is now going to finish the transition to cable television with her new OWN network that will be run  with Discovery Communications.

Whether she starts up her own talk show when she makes the move to cable is unknown, but I suspect she will. Meanwhile, her current show runs until September of 2011.

This is just another example of how cable TV is overtaking broadcast television as a force in media.

ABC has announced that the sixth and final season of the cult show will premiere Feb. 2. From the press release:

ABC announces the premiere of the sixth and final season of “Lost,” with a special all-night event on Tuesday, February 2. A recap special will kick off the night from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET, followed by the much anticipated two-hour premiere from 9:00-11:00 p.m.

The series will then air in its regular time period – Tuesday nights from 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET – beginning the following week, on February 9.

It appears the animosity between President Obama and Fox News is starting to fade.

The president has agreed to sit down with Fox News' Major Garrett. The Most Powerful Person in the World and the right-of-center cable network news haven't been tight lately after the White House spokesperson said Fox News was essentially a communications arm of the Republican Party.

But the president will now sit down with Garrett for a 10 minute interview, which is about enough time to say "Hi."

Too bad, but it looks like former Utahn and dancing/country-singing sensation Julianne Hough won't return to ABC's show for next season, she told Ryan Seacrest the other day on his radio show.

From an Entertainment Tonight blurb:

"No, not next season," she tells Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS-FM radio show of whether she'd be back on the show. And when pressed to reveal whether she'd return the season after that she coyly replied, "We're going to cross that bridge when we get to it."

Utah's Derek Hough, brother of dancer and country singer Julianne Hough, was booted along with his celeb partner, Joanna Krupa, from Tuesday night's episode of "Dancing With the Stars."

That means the last of the Utahns on the show, Donny Osmond, got what he always wanted - to at least make it to the final three like his sister Marie did two seasons ago.

Osmond, along with fellow celebrities Kelly Osbourne and singer Mya, are going into the finale for the last sent of performances Monday.

Hough and Krupa (who also appears on the cover of this month's Playboy) got the most consistent high marks, according to judge Len Goodman. Last night, meanwhile, Osmond and his partner Kym Johnson got the lowest marks when her dress started to unravel a bit.

But you can't keep a good Osmond down, who is still getting the popular vote from the public, just like his sister did. Actually, at this point, Donny's got a good chance of taking home the mirror ball trophy.

Are Donny Osmond's days numbered on "Dancing With the Stars"?

On Monday's night's show during this season's penultimate week, his partner, Kym Johnson, had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction during their tango. The bottom of the dress started to unravel.

They did the best they could, in fact quite well that most people may not have noticed, but the judges dinged them with the lowest score.

Johnson told OK!:

I don’t know how or when my dress started coming undone but that little hiccup affected the rest of the dance. I felt terrible! Donny did admit to the judges, and later to reporters, including OK!, that seeing his sister in the audience also distracted him. He so badly wants to be in the finals, like his sister, who finished third two years ago on DWTS. But I blame my wardrobe malfunction for starting us down the wrong path! It was gut-wrenching. I mean, it’s the semifinals and it’s make or break and we only wound up with a score of 21.

Here's video of that fateful dance. The results show is tonight (Nov. 18) at 7 p.m. on KTVX Channel 4.

"Seinfeld" actor Michael Richards has made me laugh again.

The man who played Kramer, who has been more well known lately for his N-word-covered rant in a comedy club three years ago, was back on television last Sunday in an episode of HBO's hilarious "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and it was a daring, riotous occasion.

Richards may have killed or nearly killed his career with his infamous incident in which he repeatedly used the N-word on hecklers in a comedy club, but he did have the courage last episode of "Curb" to make fun of it.

Here's how it was portrayed: On this season of "Curb," star Larry David - who also was co-creator and writer of "Seinfeld" - invited all of the cast members of the classic sitcom back for a reunion show, all so he could cast his ex-wife Cheryl in one of the parts in an effort to win her back.

For several episodes, all of the "Seinfeld" stars - Jerry, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Richards - have come back playing themselves.

In last week's episode, Richards complained to Larry that he may have the fictional Groats Disease, which is distracting him while he's trying to rehearse for the reunion show.

To help him, Larry gets his roommate, Leon (a very funny J.B. Smoove), to portray a man with Groats to calm Richards down and tell him the disease will not harm him.

But in this scene below, Richards finds out about the lie and confronts Leon, who is African American. It was absolutely hilarious. I can't believe Richards agreed to do this scene, but I'm glad he did. (Warning: the clip has NSFW language in it)

The Associated Press has a great article about the horrifying trend in television of networks using those annoying popup animated ads during the broadcast of shows.

TNT and TBS in particular are huge offenders of this practice, with an ad appearing during most of a program. I've written about this many times in my columns, and I'm glad that someone is going on the offensive. I once asked former NBC president, Ben Silverman, if they can tame the use of them and all he could say is they have to make money with them.

The article mentions a Web site, stoptvpopups.com, that complains about them. Tell the networks to stop the madness now. Here's an example of what I'm talking about provided by the site.