Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

Apparently, season 6 (The current season is 4) will take place in LA instead of New York!

"While I love shooting in New York City, I look forward to filming season six in Los Angeles."

Trading skyscrapers for palm trees may also be a strategic move to put some distance between Trump's Apprentice and Martha Stewart's recently canceled version.

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"I think there was confusion between Martha's Apprentice and mine," he told ABC Radio in October. "And mine continues to do well and, as you know, the other one has struggled very severely."

However, according to reality guru Mark Burnett, the move is at least partially due to the amount of business Trump is currently conducting on the West Coast.

Tom Cruise has fired his publicist/sister, you know, the one that let him go totally bonkers for the last six months or so?

When Tom Cruise promoted War Of The Worlds earlier in the year, he embarked upon one of the strangest publicity campaigns the world had ever seen. He'd sacked his controlling old publicist Pat Kingsley, and under his sister he could finally be the real Tom Cruise. Only, nobody was expecting the real Tom Cruise to be such a freaking oddball.

Getting engaged to the virgin Katie Holmes, leaping all over Oprah's sofa, punching the ground in delight, signing Holmes over to Scientology, getting squirted in the face at a premiere, criticising Brooke Shields (and thousands of women who have suffered from postpartum depression), shouting Matt Lauer down about prescription drugs during a televised interview, seemingly getting his virgin fiance pregnant... for a few months, a day wouldn't go by without a story about Tom Cruise getting a little crazier.

But now he's ditched her. I must say, I'm a little surprised, after all, it was under her management that he was given UNLIMITED POWAH!!!

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In a shocking development today, CBS has ordered more seasons of Survivor.

The network said Tuesday it will air the 13th and 14th versions of "Survivor" in the 2006-07 season.

Whew! That's a relief.

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Apparently, they did an actual Zogbe poll! I think the questions included a number of things, but I'm pretty sure that the main numbers they are reporting here are essentially: "Which candidate do you want to have win the election on the show?"

Before the episode, viewers between 18 and 29 preferred Santos over Vinick, 54 percent to 37 percent. But after the debate, in which veteran Alda gutted pretty-boy Smits without him even knowing it, Vinick now leads among viewers under age 30, 56 percent to 42 percent.

(Among viewers 65 and older — or, as TV execs like to call them, the Irrelevantest Generation — Santos has a lead of 68 percent to 27 percent.)

Also switching camps were men, whom the networks have a harder time attracting than women and therefore chase harder. (The TV industry is a lot like dating: If you hang around a lot, the suits ignore you; play hard to get, they chase you with a passion.)

Among men, Vinick now leads with 55 percent to Santos's 39 percent.

Women were the only ones who did not change their minds after watching Alda fillet his opponent. Before the debate, women came out very strong for ever-so-handsome Smits/Santos; post-debate, they were just as pro-Santos, 68 percent to 23 percent.

First off, I have to resist the implication that women choose their vote entirely based on who is cuter. I would say that has no more than a 40% influence.

That said, I tend to agree that Alda came across better in the debate episode, (with the exception of that weird ANWR argument that Kevin already mentioned in the last post,) and I think what probably really did the trick is the sense that he was "leveling" with us, instead of "saying what we want to hear."

Of course, "leveling with us" can be a WAY of "saying what we want to hear" but it's a matter of perception, and I think Alan Alda's Vinnick character came off better in that regard.

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I thought it was pretty interesting, if a bit gimmicky. Although ultimately I thought it was better as a debate than as an episode of a dramatic TV show. As a result, I think that it will not bring any kind of long term ratings boost to that show.

Did anyone else see it? What did you think?

Okay, so Mike and I are experimenting with some new ways to record our phone call so that we can get some better sound quality for those podcasts, but it's not working yet, so hopefully we'll be able to record it tonight and I'll upload it as soon as it's done.

In the meantime, of course, it provides yet another opportunity for you to get involved! Leave me comments here or leave me an audio comment at 1-206-202-3280 and Mike and I can include them in our discussion tonight!

So, Brandon's gone. I'm really sorry to see him go because in the last couple of weeks he had really become one of my favorites. I think it was just as simple as the numbers thing though. There was just no way that it was in Cindy or Rafe's best interests to keep him when they could use the numbers to rid themselves of some tough competition.

And of course, as Cindy pointed out, "If you want to win, you have to get rid of everybody eventually." So the ethics of it really don't come into play as much as it might seem at the time.

Still, despite the fact that I do have some affection for Jaime just because he's a passionate guy, I think that it was a HUGE strategic mistake for him to rub the numbers situation in their faces the way he did. The Nakum members had the numbers, and everybody knew it, there wasn't any need to gloat about it the way he did, and he really hurt his long-term chances as a result I think.

And I never would have guessed that I'd be agreeing with Judd! (That said of course, Judd could stand to take his own advice.)

I was surprised that no one seemed to be concerned about Gary at all, as far as being a threat in the competitions. He won this one, so he was safe this week, but that's really the point. He WON! Why was no one even mentioning his name? They even suggested that he would be the last of the four Yaxha members to go. I think he's more of a threat than that physically, and it's a mistake for them to not realize that. Of course, maybe it's that he's still got an alliance with Stephanie and Jaime and his old Yaxha members.

What do you all think? Let me know!

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Rumors are suggesting that Jeff Probst will be leaving Survivor after next season!

Days after a wave of stories reported a trickle of rumors that Survivor host Jeff Probst is leaving his vital role escorting, instructing, tempting and generally torturing desperate, smelly, crabby, starving and rageful contestants on the CBS reality show, there's word Probst really might leave the Mark Burnett-created hit after all, Knight Ridder reports.

TVGuide.com's Michael Ausiello says the reality-TV producer-guru "basically told me that the rumors are true," ... Burnett also confirmed that the host spot will be filled by a former female Survivor survivor.

I have to say, I'm sorry to hear about this, because Jeff is such a big part of what makes the show great. He's become so talented at working out exactly what's going on and asking just the right question to provoke a response.

Anyway though, anyone care to make predictions as to who it might be to replace him? As far as female former Survivors go, Jenna Morasca is certainly front and center since she's been hosting Survivor Live on CBS.com. But who else could it be? Anyone? Anyone?

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Scroll to the end of this story describing the relative ratings for Martha's versus Trump's versions of The Apprentice and you'll find what may be a sign of the end times.

Martha Stewart is indestructable.

Seeing as how it's inevitable now, I want to go on the record right now as saying:

It's a good thing.

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