Donny Osmond wins the snooziest Dancing with the Stars in a while

In the end, Donny Osmond's legions of fans and game attitude beat out the dance skill of R&B singer Mya, as the toothy '70s pop star walked away with this cycle's mirror ball trophy tonight on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

To be fair, Osmond had two advantages; besides being much more famous than Mya, he had a hardworking attitude that lead to steady improvement over this edition's episodes.

I've said before the only thing DWTS fans love more than a good dancer, is a mediocre dancer who gets good over the course of the show. (which also explains why another celebrity offspring, Kelly Osbourne, survived long enough to land third place tonight)

And it doesn't hurt that Osmond's core fan base is smack dab in the middle of the fiftysomething female demographic most likely to addicted to the show.

 Unfortunately, they may have been the only ones excited about this cycle's competition, which struggled to generate the buzz of past editions. In part, that's because the comic relief left early, as politico Tom DeLay was forced to bow out due to foot problems and despite a record number of contestants, there were no shlubby comics waiting in the wings to pick up the slack.

Here's hoping DWTS producers get the message and reinvent the show a bit, with fewer contestants, bigger stars and a more competitive field (the other thing that hurt this cycle was the fact that Mya emerged as the show's best dancer in the first few episodes).

Otherwise, the show's status as one of TV's most popular series might also be in jeopardy.

Deggans on NewsHour at 7:30 p.m. today talking Oprah's departure

For a public broadcasting nerd like myself, it's like getting asked to shag a few balls for A-Rod.

But the good folks at The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer have been very nice about inviting me onto their show today to talk about Oprah Winfrey's decision to leave her legendary talk show after 25 years on Sept. 9, 2011.

The news wires today have been filled with speculation and analysis about Winfrey's move -- to be honest, too many of these pieces feel like obituaries written for someone who won't even die for 18 months.

Here's what Winfrey herself had to say this morning: ""After much prayer and months of careful thought, I've decided the next season, season 25, will be the last season of the 'Oprah Winfrey Show.' Why walk away and make the next season the last? Here is the real reason -- I love this show. This show has been my life. And I love it enough to know when it's time to say 'goodbye.' Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It's the perfect number, the exact right time. So I hope you will take this 18-month ride with me right through to the finale show."

Check out the video below, and check out my observations on the Lehrer show in about two hours:

Nielsen delivers ratings information today, expects normal operations to resume

I've been waylaid for much of today by problems with a virus in my office computer, so apologies for the lack of posts today.

But Nielsen has begun reporting TV ratings reports again after a power outage in Oldsmar during the wee hours Wednesday morning disrupted data collection efforts. Some local data was made available to clients last night, while national ratings were rolled out today, according to spokesman Gary Holmes.

There's still no word on why a transformer blew out at about 2 a.m. Wednesday, but the failure sent a power surge through Nielsen's systems which required them to restart much of their equipment over the day Wednesday, Holmes said. The disruption left clients without ratings for the better part of a day and revealed that their backup power systems might not be enough to halt disruptions in TV ratings during an emergency. 

Nielsen says Oldsmar power outage will prevent release of TV ratings today

When I toured The Nielsen Company's $80-million, 475,000-square-foot data processing center in Oldsmar a few years ago, officials presented a facility poised to withstand just about anything the Tampa Bay area could dish out.

A fortified data collection area was built to endure a hurricane. Backup power generators were available to take over if Tampa Electric's power were interrupted. Tests had been performed to ensure lightning strikes would not disrupt service.

So how did a power transformer which blew out at 2:05 a.m. this morning, disrupt Nielsen's systems so badly that they could not release any ratings data today to clients?

"We have very good safeguards....but this was an unforeseeable, unprecedented event," said Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes. "We don't even know all the information (about what happened)."

Holmes said a blown transformer sent a surge through Nielsen's systems which knocked out power at the Oldsmar complex. About 60 customers were affected by the outage, which lasted five hours; repair crews don't know yet what caused it, according to Tampa Electric Company. Nielsen's backup generators kicked in after an hour, Holmes said.

But the delay -- which occurred early in the morning, when Nielsen generally downloads data from thousands of households in its survey samples -- pushed back the company's process enough to scuttle overnight and weekly ratings reports to be released today. And officials can't say with certainty whether the data will be available tomorrow.

Nielsen took lots of criticism back in May, when computer server problems caused a delay in releasing ratings data for days, just as the networks were deciding on which series to keep for the next TV season.

 Then, in September, 14 heavyweight media companies united to create the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, an incubator for new techniques of audience measurement that some called a less-than-subtle challenge aimed at spurring Nielsen to work harder on new innovations.

With the economics of a multi-billion-dollar industry riding on its data processing abilities, Nielsen may face additional criticism -- particularly if the release of TV ratings is delayed by more than a day.

Handling Sarah Palin week: What to do when a major newsmaker with credibility problems blitzes the media

As Sarah Palin kicks off a media blitz this week to hawk her new book, Going Rogue, you have to wonder how the national media got hornswoggled into this mess.

Even as major interviews with infotainment figures such as Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters air in syndicated TV and on ABC, reporters from the Associated Press have fact-checked Palin's quickly-written memoir and find it to be full of misleading, sometimes inaccurate statements.

Palin also makes claims about how she was treated by the campaign of then-running mate John McCain during their bid for the White House which have been denied by others who worked there. In particular, former officials there refute her claim that she was billed $50,000 for expenses related to her vetting at a vice presidential candidate -- saying the McCain campaign did not bill her and was not asked to help cover any expenses she might have incurred on her own. (See the St. Pete Times' fact checking Web site PolitiFact's area on Palin here)

So how will journalists treat Palin when she sits down? If, for example, Barbara Walters' pre-taped interviews don't address these issues, should ABC News feel hoodwinked? (Click here for a summation of Palin's Oprah appearance by the Chicago Sun-Times; the interview airs here at 4 p.m. on WFLA-Ch. 8)

Jonathan Martin of Politico summed up the issue in an appearance today on MSNBC: "Should we in the media treat Sarah Palin like a conventional politician, who may run for office someday, or a political personality -- somebody on par with a Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity?"

My question: What's the difference? Especially given that media personalities such as Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck are inspiring and/or promoting politically active advocacy groups and movements?

Palin seems to have avoided hard news environments in her initial interviews for the book, rightly concluding that those who love her will believe whatever she says and those who dislike her won't be swayed by an interview with a hard news reporter.

But anybody who interviews her without bringing up the numerous inconsistencies already revealed about Going Rogue risks their own credibility while furthering Palin's rather opportunistic media strategy.

My favorite example of sci fi fanboy overthink: Why V's motherships don't make sense

I'm a TV critic, so I get paid to overthink television series and concepts.

But even the guy who spent hours puzzling out the time twists in the latest Star Trek movie couldn't hope to match the level of fan boy deliberation which went into this post on the Dvice blog: Four reasons why V's motherships don't make sense.

Nevermind that V is a science fiction series about lizard-like aliens which clothe themselves in human-looking flesh, bringing 29 giant-sized spaceships to hover around Earth as they implement an as-yet-unclear plan.

It appears the fanboys have found four really outlandish reasons why the show's big motherships are too unrealistic to make sense.

The short list: Even with our inferior technology, we would see them coming; the ships are so big they would cause massive weather disruptions just by entering our atmosphere; they would require a tremendous amount of energy to stay aloft and if just one crashed, it could wipe out all life on Earth.

Read the post, because the logic backing up these arguments in unassailable, except for one thing.

When you're dissecting a show about talking lizards from space taking over the Earth, the feasiblity of their spaceships may not be the biggest sticking point..

Daily Show discovers Fox News manipulated footage while Fox News fact checks Sarah Palin

I'm not sure what's more amazing: That Fox News exposed a falsehood spread by conservative darling Sarah Palin, or that the Daily Show dug up footage suggesting the channel should be fact checking its own programs, too.

(UPDATE: Sean Hannity admitted on his show Wednesday that he used "incorrect video" in his interview with a lawmaker who attended an anti-health care change rally in the nation's capital last week. What he didn't do, was speak on the effect of what he called an "inadvertent mistake" -- which essentially suggested the rally last week drew crowds the size of a much larger rally in September.)

On Tuesday, the right-leaning cable channel presented a short report on a Palin speech last week where she groused about the phrase "in God we trust" being moved to a subordinate position on the $1 coin, implying that the current Democratic administration must have had something to do with it.

This is the kind of malarkey which normally rockets around the conservative media echo chamber for weeks, fed by pundits who have a vested interest in spreading misinformation. But Fox News offered a brief report echoing a story Saturday in Politico noting the change in the dollar coin was developed and approved under GOP president George W. Bush and reversed by Congress in 2007.

You can debate why Fox News took the time to debunk this relatively unimportant item; it's a handy response to people who accuse the channel of favoring the right, while knocking down a story which ultimately might have made Republicans look worse once the truth was known.

But the Daily Show presented footage Tuesday suggesting that pundit Sean Hannity may have cribbed images of the large Glenn Beck-inspired Sept. 12 rally in Washington D.C. and led his audience to believe it was footage of the much smaller anti-health care change rally held Thursday.

Host Jon Stewart aired a clip from Hannity's interview with a legislator who was at last week's protest, pointing out that the footage of the rally begins with a sparse crowd milling under trees with golden leaves in fall, then seems to show a much bigger crowd standing under green trees.

Comparing Hannity's footage to images of the September protests Beck aired on his show, Stewart said "If I didn't know any better, I would think they just put two different days together and acted like they didn't."

Here's Hannity admitting his "mistake":

Here's the Daily Show's original report, followed by a clip of Fox News taking Palin down a peg:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Aaron Carter leaves Dancing with the Stars -- why doesn't anyone care?

 For a show consistently ranked at the top of TV ratings lists, ABC's Dancing with the Stars isn't making a lot of noise this season.

Former teen idol Aaron Carter left the show Tuesday, clipped out of the competition just before the semi-finals more for his intensely self-absorbed attitude than any lack of dance skill (his crying after ejection was another unfortunate turn for a guy who seemed way too intense from the start).

If dancing were the only hurdle here, moppet celebrity offspring Kelly Osbourne would have taken the long walk. But her transformation into a constantly surprising competitor -- the ultimate chubby duckling-turned-leggy dancing machine -- has won over the show's audience.

And that's where we are now -- Dancing is playing to its base like never before, with a predictable list of four semi-finalists split between the best dancers (singer Mya and model Joanna Krupa) and the audience's sentimental favorites (Osbourne, Donny Osmond).

But unlike the heady early days of this season, when newspapers across the country were debating the merits of letting an indicted former political leader sashay next to a once-indicted football player, the buzz around Dancing is at its lowest ebb, leached away just as the competition has reached its height.

Blame the geniuses who packed the show's biggest cast with its most mediocre lineup of competitors, ensuring the show would be at its most boring just when the biggest audience was paying attention. Those whose corneas survived watching Tom DeLay limp through dances like your drunk uncle also had to endure non-entities such as skateboarder Louis Vito, ultimate fighter Chuck Liddell, celebrity offspring Ashley Hamilton, super-stiff model Kathy Ireland and out-of-it R&B star Macy Gray in an endless parade of awkward movement.

Now that the contest has gotten down to DWTS' central conflict -- ace dancers vs better liked celebs with slightly less ability -- many viewers have moved on. Can a showdown between an Osmond, an Osbourne a Playboy model and a singer really recapture the show's past magic?

Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch agrees with star Glenn Beck; says President Obama made racist statement

What a difference an election can make.

In May 2008, News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch sang Barack Obama's praises, calling him "a rock star" and the likely winner of November's presidential contest. That was an endorsement which meant something, given Murdoch's reputation as a supporter of conservative politics and bankroller of both the right-friendly Fox News Channel and New York Post newspaper.

Back then, punditizers like me figured Murdoch had read the tea leaves, expected Obama to win, and wanted to make sure the new administration didn't immediately take on his lengthy list of American TV stations and media outlets.

So what to make of Murdoch's recent statement agreeing with Fox News superstar Glenn Beck when he calls the president a "racist....with a deep seated hatred of white people and white culture."

(UPDATE: A spokesman for News Corp. has told Politico Murdoch does not think the President is racist.)

Murdoch made the statement in an interview with an Australian broadcaster -- which he, by the way, owns a piece of -- where he also talks about charging consumers for online content -- also an about-face for a mogul who initially tried to take down the Wall Street Journal's pay wall after he bought the company.

Slate's most-excellent media columnist Jack Shafer points out that Uncle Rupert has a long history of lying in public statements when it serves his interests, and the only thing you can really trust, is his actions.

So I'm expecting him to walk back these comments the next time he needs some kind of government exemption to keep his TV empire intact here in America.

Check out his words here; comment comes at about 18 minutes:

Wanda Sykes debut shows possibilities and pitfalls in new late night scene

This may not sound like high praise. But comic Wanda Sykes' debut Saturday of her new late night talk show on Fox was distinguished mostly by the fact that it didn't suck out loud.

If you've watched any other new talk show debut -- Jay Leno's new 10 p.m. show and Jimmy Fallon's new 12:30 a.m. show this year come to mind -- you know that's a bigger feat than it might seem. Successful talk shows most often are a painful, public trial and error exercise; a slow march from mediocrity to something more, as the performer and the format evolve over time to their fullest potential.

Debuting Saturday with a pre-taped piece making fun of conservative pundit Ann Coulter's ridiculously long eyelashes, the show's first 10 minutes offered a machine gun-quick sample of the show's strongest assets; Sykes' taste for amusing taped bits (later, she would try to recycle her used sex toys), an explicit-yet-somehow not seedy sense of humor and an unerring standup comedy style which saved a lot of borderline moments.

Noting that Obama didn't start illegal wars or torture detainees in a secret prison, Sykes promised to be the "first person on Fox not to pick on President Obama," comparing people who accuse the president of doing too much to bosses on a union job.

Later, after showing a montage of pundits downplaying the Dow Jones average crossing 10,000 points, she told them exactly what to kiss, cementing her status as the self-appointed "tell people where to go and what to kiss czar" for the Obama White House.

What worked: Sykes's monologue, the pre-taped bits -- which end when the joke is made, unlike Leno's -- Sykes' own comfort onstage and ability to segue between a blizzard of segments.

What didn't work: Sidekick Keith Robinson, who I have seen open for Sykes on tour and know is a really funny standup comic, could not find his voice, mostly looking like a lame safety net; the panel discussions with Sykes' friends at the "Wandabar," which were centered on trite topics and didn't give participants (Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan, Brothers star Darryl Mitchell and 24 co-star Mary-Lynn Rajskub) room to be funny; handing drinks to panelists, because you always think things are funnier than they are when you're tipsy -- unless the TV audience gets drinks too, it's rarely a good idea.

But Sykes made a powerful, interesting start, even getting New Adventures of Old Christine co-star Julia Louis Dreyfus to show for a quick scene. Now the challenge is to keep the party going every week, getting better enough that this debut looks like a pit stop on the way to a classic late night series.

Check it for yourself below: