Let's start off with the technical details on the return of Fox's "Glee" tonight on Channel 6.
The episode runs from 8:28 to 9:30 p.m. Your DVR should automatically handle that, but you may want to add a minute or two on the end in case the live edition of "American Idol" runs long.
Now that that's out of the way, we can get down to business.
What the heck was Fox thinking when it foolishly put the successful musical dramedy on hiatus?
That may be a bit harsh, because Fox wasn't expecting a dip in the ratings for "Idol." In fact, there had been a chance that the final season of chief justice Simon Cowell could have actually juiced the ratings a bit.
Maybe it's this year's lackluster bunch of "Idol" wannabes. Or it could be Ellen DeGeneres, who really isn't doing much in the chair formerly occupied by crazy Paula Abdul. It could even be that Kate Gosselin is enough of a ratings draw to boost ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" over "Idol" a couple times -- a major achievement.
Whatever it is, "Glee" has momentum on its side and is likely to return stronger than it left. It's paired with "Idol" tonight -- part of the reason for the silly start time of 8:28. It should help with the ratings.
Despite the "Idol" dip, it's still the number one TV show. Both it and "Glee" will be back next year. Don't be surprised if the shows -- which both target a similar young, female audience -- are paired more prominently next season.
Now if we could just get Ellen to actually do some judging.
On TV: Milwaukee Public TV's new "Healthful Indian Flavors with Alamelu" with Alamelu Vairavan doesn't premiere until May 15, but the Web site is already up and running.
- George Lopez says he's pleased as can be that Conan O'Brien is coming to TBS in November, and pushing his own show back an hour, to 11 p.m. Lopez tweets that he's on "Team LO-CO," playing off the self-labeled Team Coco of Conan backers.
- David Matthews, the San Antonio, Texas, guy behind the Facebook campaign to get Betty White on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," has been invited to the May 8 Mother's Day show.
- DirecTV's 101 Network will air all five seasons of HBO's "The Wire," uncut and without commercials, starting July 18.
- Access Hollywood reports that the Razzie Awards -- which honor the worst movies -- is coming to TV next year. There's no word on which network or cable channel will air the Razzies, which are given out the night before the Oscars.
Understanding HBO's "Treme": The New Orleans Times-Picayune's Dave Walker is doing some serious blogging of HBO's new drama "Treme," which debuted Sunday.
First lesson: "It’s pronounced treh-MAY. Or TREH-may. Or … oh, just watch this:"
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
