So, apparently, Matt LeBlanc just won't go away. Showtime announced today that the actor's next TV foray, a cable comedy called "Episodes," will premiere on the network January 10.

It's still shocking to me that TV bigwigs are willing to drop still more money on the actor, whose batting average with post-"Friends" shows has been pathetic at best. His short-lived sitcom, "Joey," which spun his "Friends" character off into LaLa Land, was ridiculed by critics and skipped by TV audiences altogether.

But in "Episodes," the actor plays a spoof of himself, according to a network press release, as an actor who's "woefully miscast" on a sitcom. So essentially, LeBlanc is playing himself. Let's hope he can't mess that up, in the very least.

LeBlanc, like some of his other "Friends" costars, has had it rough since the long-running series ended in 2004. While Jennifer Aniston has had film success (despite personal tabloid traumas since her split with Brad Pitt) and Courteney Cox hit a homer with ABC's "Cougar Town," pals David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow have mostly coasted, doing some film work and light TV.

Kudrow, though, seems to be the next break-out of the bunch -- she produced the NBC celeb documentary series "Who Do You Think You Are?" earlier this year, and her web comedy, "Web Therapy," is also headed to Showtime. The series, which features writer-producer Kudrow as, well, a webcam therapist, will likely be used for interstertial purposes.

Would you watch another Matt LeBlanc show?

 

A couple weeks back, we gave you an inside look at USA's CIA-set new original show, "Covert Affairs," starring the above-pictured Piper Perabo.

And now we've got an even more in-depth peek at what audiences can expect "Covert" debuts tomorrow night at 10:00 following the Season 2 premiere of "White Collar," thanks to a Q & A with Perabo herself, who plays CIA operative and lead protagonist Annie Walker.


PIPER PERABO ON MONITORING THE SHOW'S ADVANCE BUZZ: "This is my first television show. I’ve never done press at the same time as we’re shooting, and in a way I think it’s really exciting because hopefully fans of the show can give us input and tell us how they’re feeling about the story and it can affect how we continue."


PIPER PERABO ON COMPARISONS TO "ALIAS": "When I first got working on the show and I was speaking to actor friends of mine about what the show was about and how I was going to create the character, people said, 'You should watch "Alias".'" I watched the pilot and I thought it was genius.  I didn’t really want to watch anymore because I don’t want to in any way imitate what Jennifer [Garner] was doing.  But I thought that what I saw was really exciting and the fight sequences were really dynamic and she was just a really powerful, smart, intuitive woman who can make decisions on the fly.  I think those parallels can be drawn to Annie. I think in our show, though, you see a lot more of the real life of a spy. If people come and watch our show because they like 'Alias,' then that’s great, but I think they’re going to get to see a much bigger world."

PIPER PERABO ON HER DAY AT THE CIA: "Doug Liman, our executive producer, was in the middle of editing 'Fair Game' when I got cast in the pilot, which is the story of Valerie Plame Wilson, so I knew he had contacts down at Langley.  And I asked him if he could get me an introduction so that I could go there and see what it’s really like and talk to real people who do this for a living.  So he did, and this sort of shows my naiveté, but I brought a notebook with me so I could take notes.  I had a lot of questions that I wanted to ask. When I got there they told me, of course, you can’t bring a notebook into the CIA.  Of course you can’t take notes out of the CIA either.  I said, 'Well, how am I supposed to keep all this information?'  He said, 'You have to be like a spy and remember it.'" 

PIPER PERABO ON THE ATMOSPHERE ON-SET: "It’s going really well on the set.  Sendhil Ramamurthy joined us for the season, and Sendhil, Chris Gorham and I really get on like a house on fire, which is good because a lot of times when we leave the CIA those are the people I’m leaving the CIA with to go abroad.  It’s really long days because the action sequences, if you’ve ever been on a set where they’re shooting action, it takes a long time., so I’m really lucky that I really love the people that I work with, and it’s not bad doing a 17 hour day with these guys.

PIPER PERABO ON HER FIGHT TRAINING: "Doug is a real fan of close hand-to-hand combat that you shoot on a steadicam, the way that Jason Bourne fights, but you have to tailor that to a woman because obviously when I’m fighting a man---if we’re going to keep it real, which is what we’re going for---Annie Walker isn’t a super hero. You have to find styles of fighting that could give her an advantage and make it plausible that she can win or at least hold out in some of these fights.  So we ended up with Krav Maga, which is Israeli army style of street fighting, and Wing Chun, which is a martial arts that was developed for women.  So we were working for weeks and weeks on that and training on that, I was training on that before we started the pilot. 

PIPER PERABO ON SPENDING TIME WITH VALERIE PLAME: "Valerie Plame was our consultant on the pilot, which was incredible to have her insight, because since she’s no longer in the CIA and because of the way she left it, she is more willing to share things than someone who’s from the agency can’t really talk about it."

PIPER PERABO ON ANNIE WALKER: "There’s a lot about her that you don’t even know yet.  Annie’s whole family life and also what happened in her relationship is still to unfold.  And actually going back to talking about Valerie for a second, Valerie was also really generous with me about emotionally the toll that it takes keeping all those secrets from your family and your friends.  And I think that her personal story that she told me was also very helpful in kind of folding into Annie’s secret and how that plays out in her relationship with her sister and her family."

PIPER PERABO ON WHO INFLUENCED ANNIE: "The original 'La Femme Nikita' that Luc Besson did.  I thought that film was a great balance of the pressure of the job and the real emotional pull that it takes.  Also, I loved how he handled action with a woman and I just think that movie is so beautiful and she’s so strong, and it just was a big influence on me for Annie. Then Lee Miller, who was an artist and a war photographer. She was a beautiful journalist who put herself in the middle of these battles in order to take photographs."

PIPER PERABO ON TRANSITIONING TO TV: "I think there’s a lot of great writing happening in television. there seems to be a burst of new writers writing for television and writing really dynamic, complex characters.  I also think there seems to be a surge of dramas helmed by women, which wasn’t the case before, so that draws great actresses to the screen.  'Damages' is one of my favorite shows, and to watch Glenn Close and Rose Byrne do those scenes, it’s great writing. I think maybe that’s what got them there in the first place."

PIPER PERABO ON FEELING PRESSURE BEING ON A HIT NETWORK: "They have a great idea about how to create successful shows, so I put a lot of faith in network notes and ideas they have about character and also about how we’re bringing the show out.  They have such a great track record with introducing new shows that it makes me really excited, that the show that I think is really good and going really well is going to get out there."




 

                   Hmmm, I wonder if LeBron is in Miami for the celeb spoils or the gritty glory?

Remember the golden days of self-indulgent TV spectacles? When artists like Michael Jackson would block out three separate networks to debut a multi-million dollar music-video extravaganza? Or when politicians like President Clinton would interrupt our regular programming to openly discuss his sexual indiscretions?

Alas, those good times are gone, and now we're left with LeBron James slouching in what appears to be a tiny folding chair inside a sterile and empty gymnasium, floundering as he over-justifies his decision to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat.

Yes, James has finally followed up his one off-the-court transgression (a certain failure to shake hands like a man following a 2009 playoff loss) with a gesture that indicates he's not quite ready to wear the throne of a King.

But where does blame fall on ESPN in all this? After all, they are the network that dedicated countless hours of superfluous micro-analysis and breathless hype for what ultimately amounted to a fairly mundane business, and severely damaged their journalistic credibility by working with LeBron to erect the inane self-parodying spectacle that was their "Decision" special. You would have thought the sports-news giant was CNN the last month and LeBron James was an election-determining non-partisan candidate.



You could tell just from watching ESPN analyst J.A. Adande these past few weeks that he was not only at a loss for new information to impart, but came close on numerous occasions to turning toward that day's Sportscenter moderator, grabbing him by the collar and screaming, "What the hell do you want me to say at this point?!"

Bottom line is, LeBron somehow manage to usurp Tiger Woods, Mark McGwire and any other 2010 sports villain with one ill-conceived promotional pyramid. And one day, he'll probably look back and realize that ESPN was the devilishly encouraging mentor reinforcing the idea that such behavior was what it took to get ahead.

 

So one of my TV-viewing guilty pleasures is the long-running NBC soap, "Days of Our Lives."

Like all soaps, there have been rumors of its imminent demise, despite the fact that its been on the air for more than 50 years. (The same held true for the CBS soap "As the World Turns," which took a bunch of trophies at the Daytime Emmys this year despite the fact that it was uncerimoniously canceled.)

But it seems "Days" is one of the soaps that has found new ways of making money in these tough TV times.

Today, as Sami Brady (Alison Sweeney, who also host "The Biggest Loser") and EJ DiMera (James Scott) get cozy during a family picnic, they find themselves fighting over a bag of Chex Mix. Brit villain EJ apparently has never heard of the stuff, which Sami then informs him is a classic, a burst of a million different flavors mingling in your mouth. (And this is before Sami spills Newman's Own Italian Dressing on EJ's lavender Van Heusen shirt.)

Wonder if the "Days" writers were surprised to find themselves writing such blatant product placement into their storied soap?

It's not the first time "Days" or any of the other soaps have gone this route -- after all, historically, the purpose of these daily dramas was to sell, well, soap. But it certainly is funny to see it happen so obviously and so frequently. And it's amusing to see how they try to embed these advertisements directly into the storylines, albeit so un-subtly.

Wonder how long it will take before this type of blending of church and state makes its way to prime time.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us here at the first-ever TV Buzz Emmy Nominations Awards, where we recognize the finest and most dubious nominees up for that prized golden statue when the ceremony airs August 29 on NBC.

So without any superfluous sketches, dance routines or teleprompter-fed one-liners, here are our your winners for the inaugural 2010 TV Buzz EMAs:

BEST OMISSION OF AN ALLEGED DOMESTIC ABUSER

• Charlie Sheen, who was left out of the Lead Actor In A Comedy Series category for the first time in five years for "Two and a Half Men."

BEST INCLUSION OF AN UNDERRATED COMEDIC ACTRESS

• Amy Poehler, who was finally recognized in the Lead Actress In A Comedy category for "Parks and Recreation."

BEST UNEXPECTED NOMINATIONS IN ONE CATEGORY

• Outstanding Comedy Series, for giving nods to "Modern Family," "Glee" (although we'll take an individual actress win for Jane Lynch) and generally surprising Emmy contender "Nurse Jackie."

BEST DUMBING DOWN OF THE CEREMONY

• Honoring the awesome but very culty "True Blood" with a Outstanding Drama candidacy.

CATEGORY WHERE THIS IS NO COMPETITION

• Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series. Ty Burrell, aka Phil from "Modern Family," is in a class of funny all his own this year.

LEAST ESSENTIAL CATEGORY IN GENERAL

• Any of the groupings that award Miniseries. I mean, really, who watches traditional minsieries anymore?

What do you think were the highs and lows of this year's nominations? Let us know below.
 

If you're not tuning in to "The Real World: New Orleans" tonight to check out uber-sensitive Ryan's latest antics, check out BBC America's "The Choir," which premieres tonight at 10 p.m.

The BBC hit has been a major smash in the U.K. as feel-good reality fare. Its star, Gareth Malone, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, is sort of a renegade on a mission a la Jamie Oliver and school lunches -- only his cause is choirs. See, he believes music can enrich lives and bond people, so he goes from town to town starting choirs, no matter that the townsfolk have no musical inclinations or training. Here, the network knits together three seasons of the British  show into a cohesive man-on-mission challenge which bears fruitful results, building confidence and community where perhaps there was none before.

The premise pre-dates "Glee," but it can't hurt that the phenom has paved a path for the BBC show here, especially in a slow summer season. But the show, which occasionally veers into "Americal Idol" audition arenas with its cat-screeching auditions in the Middlesex town of Northolt, hardly has the razzle-dazzle of a slicked up show horse like "Glee." Instead, it stays in staid documentary territory as Malone rounds u a rag-tag group of teens with hopes of making it to the choir championships in Japan. Hmmmm, wait, that does sound familiar.

 

For a brief moment this week, it seemed that "Bachelor" Jake Pavelka had assumed the throne of biggest reality a**hole for at least as long as his phony romance with Vienna Girardi lasted.

That was until the breakup dust settled, America woke up, realized it was Wednesday, and were reminded that another episode of "Real World: Back to New Orleans" meant more of the unbearably attention-seeking Ryan.

The nonsensically inflammatory hairstylist and long-board purveyor wasted no time in last week's premiere announcing himself as the unlikely villain. After 60 minutes of his hilariously inarticulate, incoherent judgmental tangents toward virtually every roommate, it was clear that this Bieber-haired putz was already thinking ahead to his "Bad Guys" status on "The Challenge" and other reality-"star" compendium shows.

And unfortunately, tonight's second episode promises more of the same, as Ryan fakes the severity of a minor injury and goes at it once again with gentle jock-giant Knight, whom Ryan informs he doesn't "value as people." The sneak-peek above devolves from there, as Ryan eggs Knight in for a physical interaction he knows will never happen, so that his outburst is what steals headlines for the show on Thursday morning. (We beat you to the punch and did it on Wednesday afternoon, so touche!)

None of this is really of any larger consequence, except for that with "Modern Family" on hiatus, "Real World" is a hot spring in a mid-week desert of middling TV. And Ryan is not only aggravatingly calculating as a villain, but finally introduced a persona that makes the show utterly impossible to make it through.

To see our "Gay History of the 'Real World'," featuring exclusive insights from show creator Jonathan Murray, click here.
 

To audiences who have long cherished Ray Romano and Patricia Heaton's domestic foibles on "Everybody Loves Raymond," the very headline of this article probably makes me sound hilariously out of touch.

In actuality, my lengthy abstaining from "Raymond" was more a  byproduct of believing I'd been incredibly in tune all these years about what network sitcoms were formulaic fluff ("Two and Half Men" and "According to Jim" have, of course, been two of my favorite targets from the 2000s) and which represented cunning comedy despite broadcast limitations ("Seinfeld," "Arrested Development," "Modern Family" et al).

Now, perhaps it's because I'm getting married in two months, or maybe I'm just softening up toward lighthearted laughs after a hard day of work, but omnipresent "Raymond" airings on TV Land, TBS, FOX and just about every other existing station have worn me down to its charms.

The show's central structure (put-upon family man balances quick-witted wife, dopey cop brother, kids and overbearing parents) is still its Achilles Heel, often trapping the significant talents of its cast (particularly said parents, played by the late Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts) within the unforgiving restraints of broad sitcom chicanery.

Despite those constraints, "Raymond" manages to slip in several insightful, hearty laughs per episode about the disorienting world of domesti-tude, through the man-child muse of Romano himself, who's Ray Barone alter-ego is a thinly veiled exaggeration of the standup/actor's own dubious dealings with adulthood. Which, when you think about it, isn't that dissimilar a conceit from Larry David's hyper-curmudgeonly catharsis via his "Curb Your Enthusiasm" doppleganger. (Coincidentally, "Curb" co-star Cheryl Hines can be seen in the below "Raymond" excerpt.)

So for those of you who already own every box set and were devoted real-time viewers during its original run, this post does not so much apply to you. And kudos for being vastly less judgmental than myself.  But if you're a fellow committed cynic and admitted comedy elitist, and maybe even finding yourself relating more closely to couples like Romano and Heaton's "Everybody" protagonists, you may find it shocking how enjoyable (and comparatively effortless) a late-night marathon of "Raymond" can actually be.