ABC

Andrea Mitchell started it.

It was she who told viewers of NBC’s The Nightly News With Brian Williams on Thursday, Nov. 13, that Hillary Clinton “is under consideration to be secretary of state.”

Since then, nobody seems to have known what to think. But that hasn’t ground the Madame Secretary boomlet to a halt—on the contrary, it only accelerated it! Over the past few days, we’ve heard: Hillary is under consideration for the job. She’s been offered the job! She hasn’t been offered the job (which was only news because someone else had said she had).

Last night, we read that she had been offered the job, and not only that, she was going to accept it! More recently, it’s been “unclear,” but her husband is being vetted—that’s the news of the day for Nov.  read more »

News sites everywhere--the Times, Politico, CNN et al--are posting instant poll results. But right now on the Drudge Report, ABC News' web site is the only one linked for instant results in Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, right above Drudge's headline, "LETS COUNT 'EM."

According to a report from Variety's Michael Schneider, V, the 1983 alien invasion mini-series, is being redeveloped for television. (This comes via TVTattle.)

Writes Mr. Schneider:

ABC is developing a new adaptation of the franchise — which spawned a second mini and TV spinoff — written by "The 4400" co-creator/exec producer Scott Peters.

Warner Bros. TV, which was behind the original longform, is once again producing the project, which was sold as a spec script to the Alphabet net.

Mr. Peters is quoted as saying, "Whenever I mention 'V' to anybody, they still have a lot of good memories about the original movie and series. … Everybody has that imagery of their uniforms, or the visitor eating a hamster. It's a science fiction icon and too good to pass up."

"Good memories"? We just remember being completely terrified. But not as terrified as we were watching The Day After that same year.  read more »

Former Newsday columnist Larry Levy says if he was interviewing Sarah Palin, his first question would be, "How do you really gut a moose?"

His follow-up is more intricate.

In theory, Charlie Gibson has the power to expose Sarah Palin as the fantastically uninformed foreign policy thinker that most Democrats—and, if primed with a healthy dose of truth serum, probably more than a few Republicans—believe her to be.

The ABC newsman, who scored the first of what will surely be scant few major media sit-downs with John McCain’s running mate, could very easily do what a mischievous Boston television reporter did to George W. Bush in 1999 and spring a pop quiz on the unseasoned politician, measuring her knowledge (or lack thereof) of some elementary facts about global hotspots.

There’s no shortage of possible questions that could be asked, and while the ethics and relevancy of playing gotcha would be debated endlessly after the fact, the sight of Mrs.  read more »

Barbara Walters is sick and tired of tabloid journalism. Even though the venerable co-host of The View has been criticized, especially over the last few years, for conducting “soft” interviews with people like Michael Jackson and Monica Lewinsky, she wants to put an end to it here and now. Acknowledging that her stint on 20/20 may have actually spawned the current, frenzied climate of paparazzi-driven celebrity journalism, Ms. Walters said: “We began to do more and more celebrities and we were criticized,” she continued, “And now ... every program does it." But when her annual The 10 Most Fascinating People airs tonight on ABC, the matronly journalist will reportedly look beyond messy stars like Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. “I am not going after the tabloid stuff, I don’t do it,” Ms. Walters, 78, said, before adding that she wants no part in the “week in, week out, competition for getting the next name, the next person out of rehab.” Instead of Lindsay Lohan, her viewers can expect to see Bill Clinton, Hugo Chavez, two founders of MySpace and Don Imus.

Fox and ABC came to opposite conclusions about what to do with two popular shows with seasons left incomplete when the writers' strike begain. Fox is postponing the premiere of its popular series, 24, rather than begin to air a season that isn't finished; but ABC will go ahead and air episodes of Lost, which is also incomplete.  read more »

MONDAY

Darlene’s back! Well, sort of. It didn't take long for The Big Bang Theory (CBS, 8:30 p.m.) to reunite its star Johnny Galecki with former Roseanne co-star Sara Gilbert. The erstwhile awkward TV lovers have been reunited as … awkward lovers! And just in the nick of time. The show is only several episodes old and the flustered interplay between the two supergeeks and their hot next-door neighbor, Penny, was getting a little stale. This week, they attend Penny’s Halloween party. Let’s hope Dar—ahem—Leslie is there to add a little spice. Halle Berry attempts the same on Inside the Actor’s Studio (Bravo, 8 p.m.). Watch to hear James Lipton exclaim, “Make me feel good.”

TUESDAY

The 47th Democratic National Debate (MSNBC, 9 p.m.) of the 2008 presidential election airs tonight. Will Barack Obama make good on his promise to The Times to hold Hillary’s feet to the flames? Will Hillary show up hungover from a weeklong birthday bender? Will John Edwards appear on stage with his wife in a desperate bid for attention? What will Joe Biden say? What will Dennis Kucinich extract from his pockets? Who knows? Who cares? Brian Williams moderates. (Can’t someone at NBC get him on a show with good ratings?) If you really want to watch something you feel like you’ve seen a million times, check out It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (NBC, 8 p.m.). Or watch the Spurs annihilate the Oden-less Trail Blazers in the NBA season opener (TNT, 8 p.m.).  read more »

ABC has greenlit the comedy pilot The More Things Change, a buddy comedy from Things We Lost in the Fire scribe Allan Loeb and Old School helmer Todd Phillips, according to Variety.

The project, from Regency TV, revolves around four male pals whose friendship endures several life-altering changes.

Loeb and Phillips first kicked around the idea as they were working on the Warner Bros. feature project "Men." Loeb eventually wrote the script on spec, then showed it to Phillips, who quickly jumped aboard.

Christina Applegate’s Samantha Who? (9:30 PM, ABC) debuts tonight, sandwiched in between Dancing With the Stars and The Bachelor. She plays a woman who wakes from an eight-day coma with retrograde amnesia only to slowly come to the realization that she was a total bitch. Perhaps a little amnesia is necessary on the part of viewers, who will need to forget Surviving Christmas in order to give this show a shot. (Who am I kidding?  read more »