Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 1325

My pleasure. I enjoy listening to intelligent people chat without the artifical contraints of a five-minute segment and then "sorry, but we are out of time".

I know Kevin had a last-minute cancellation today. Who did he finally get?

(And don't hold back -- what was your Larry King game submissions?)

Business Notes
Fox Business Needs Help.
Could It Be Don Imus?
By Brian Stelter, The New York Times, August 17, 2009

The News Corporation needs television viewers to find the Fox Business Network, and it thinks the cowboy-hat-wearing radio host Don Imus could help.

The network is in advanced negotiations to simulcast “Imus in the Morning,” the syndicated talk show, people close to the talks say.

If a deal is reached, it would enable Mr. Imus to end his contract with RFD-TV, a little-known rural TV channel that currently televises his daily mix of political talk, interviews and wisecracks. But perhaps more important, the deal would bring a big (albeit bruised) name to Fox Business, which has struggled to gain a robust audience since it started nearly two years ago.

A Fox spokeswoman declined to comment about the negotiations, saying only that “we talk to engaging and interesting talent all the time.”

In turning to Mr. Imus to bolster Fox Business, the News Corporation is taking a page from the playbook of its sibling channel Fox News, which now drives the company’s financial growth. The 13-year-old Fox successfully translated talk radio values to TV, sometimes by directly hiring radio talkers like Sean Hannity. Already, Fox Business counts two radio veterans, Dave Ramsey and Tom Sullivan, as hosts.

Television analysts and some competitors said Mr. Imus, who reportedly reaches millions of radio listeners, would act as a one-man sampling strategy for Fox Business, motivating new viewers to turn on the sometimes hard-to-find network for the first time. In an interview last week about ratings, the executive vice president for the network, Kevin Magee, suggested that is exactly what it needs.

“We have to teach people we exist, and then convince them to find us,” Mr. Magee said. “And then once they do those two things, they have to watch us.”

Fox Business has been closely watched in the media world because when it made its debut in October 2007 it took aim squarely at NBC Universal’s CNBC, the dominant business news network.

So far the upstart’s audience is measly. Nielsen Media Research estimates that in June, Fox Business was watched by an average of 21,000 people from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., the hours Fox deems its “business day.” That month, CNBC had an average audience about 11 times that size. The country’s other business channel, Bloomberg, is not rated by Nielsen.

News Corporation executives have always cautioned that, as Mr. Magee put it last week, “it’s going to take time” to establish its financial offering as a competitor. Fox Business is not yet a full-service ratings client.

Distribution is one of the key hurdles. Fox Business is viewable in almost 50 million households, a far cry from CNBC’s 97 million. In most of those households, Fox Business is on the digital tier, high on the dial. “People who are desperate to find us have trouble finding us,” Mr. Magee said.

For instance, the network is on Channel 106 in Washington, Channel 144 in St. Louis and Channel 223 in Los Angeles. New York City, the country’s most important financial market, is the only exception, as Fox Business has a prime spot, Channel 43, on the analog portion of Time Warner Cable.

According to people close to the Fox talks, who requested anonymity because the deal is incomplete and could fall apart, “Imus in the Morning” could be shown from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on Fox Business. Mr. Imus would displace the network’s current morning show, “Money for Breakfast,” which is hosted by Alexis Glick, who is also a vice president at the channel.

Fox doesn’t have to worry much about irritating its current viewers with a change: its audience from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. is too small to be reported, Nielsen said. Nielsen defines the minimum threshold as being one-tenth of one percent of United States households with TV sets. Fox noted that other parts of the day have surpassed the minimum threshold on multiple occasions this summer.

The talks with Mr. Imus would have been inconceivable little more than two years ago, when he was fired from CBS Radio after he was widely criticized for joking about the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos” on the air. MSNBC, which like CNBC is a unit of NBC Universal, also canceled its simulcast of the show, saying that Mr. Imus “went so far over the line that it was time.”

About six months later, he was hired by Citadel Broadcasting to resume his radio talk show.

Mr. Imus would add a jolt of star power to Fox Business, but it is hard to tell how much. His simulcast by RFD-TV, short for Rural Free Delivery, has reached a daily average of 49,000 viewers year-to-date, according to Nielsen. RFD is available in about 40 million homes.

But RFD clearly lacks the promotional abilities of Fox. It may also lack the ability to fully compensate him. The New York Daily News said last week that RFD owes Mr. Imus “multiple millions of dollars in back pay.” Patrick Gottsch, the founder of RFD, did not respond to interview requests, and his lawyer said he had declined to comment.

Mr. Imus also declined to comment. His spokesman said “there are no financial issues” between Mr. Imus and RFD.

When reports of the talks with Mr. Imus surfaced this month, some people inside and outside Fox questioned whether the network would be ceding financial news turf during critical morning hours. The network would have to proceed with caution because its contracts with cable operators specify that it is a business-oriented channel.

But people close to the talks said that radio’s format lends itself to flexibility, as it includes local breaks for news and commercials that could be filled by business news updates. Fox would also presumably include business graphics on the screen.

Mr. Imus has had several Fox Business hosts as guests on his radio show in recent weeks, including Ms. Glick and Neil Cavuto. In between comments about his ongoing cancer treatments and his ranch for children, the radio host has talked repeatedly about the greed of “Wall Street crooks.”

Mr. Imus and Roger Ailes, the Fox News chief, have known each other for decades.

“This is a characteristically genius move for Roger Ailes,” said Bob Sherman, a friend of Mr. Imus’s and one of his former bosses. “He can now bank the network’s marketing dollars.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/bu...&twt=NYTimesAd

Critic’s Notes
Why all the critics are mad for "Mad Men"
(And how you can join them)
By Aaron Barnhart, The Kansas City Star TV critic,in his “TV Barn” blog
This may not be the golden age of television, but perhaps it’s the titanium age: high quality in large quantities.

There are so many good shows now that the people who watch TV for a living are being forced to specialize. For instance, I would say “Battlestar Galactica” was a very good show; my ardor for the fantasy genre simply doesn’t burn hot enough to make it a great show in my eyes.

But if you have an hour to kill, I could rank the top 20 late-night hosts of all time.

At any given time, though, there usually is one program that sweeps through the critical community so powerfully that resistance is futile. There is such a show on TV now.

And for the first time in a decade, that show is not on HBO.

“Mad Men” begins its third season at 9 p.m. CT Sunday on AMC, and those of us who love great TV — even those of us with plenty to watch this summer — have been counting the days.

Much like the critics’ previous long-term crush, “The Sopranos,” “Mad Men” pushes hard on a multitude of pressure points in the body politic, creating that satisfying feeling that reminds us why we seek solace in popular entertainment.

In 1999, as the walls of the dot-com bubble began to strain, “The Sopranos” exploited our growing suspicion that the American dream was available to only the few. Here was a show about a corporation built on shady Internet start-ups and the control of industries ranging from construction to crack, where competition was not only frowned on but rubbed out.

“The Sopranos” also hit a cultural bull’s-eye, a hilarious, single-camera comedy at a time when viewers had tired of sitcom predictability. And it tapped the audience’s knowledge of the mob genre, making “The Sopranos” one of the most referential shows to date. Both creative trends, borrowed from cinema, would prove hugely influential in reshaping the landscape of television drama.

“Mad Men” comes along at a time when our collective suspicion has reached new levels, and it has become Wal-Mart-fashionable to question everything you’re told, whether it’s the premise for foreign war or the need for health care reform.

It’s also a time of tremendous upheaval in the media industry, as consumers learn to play hide-and-seek with traditional advertising methods and cause chaos behind the scenes at the companies built on them.

It is, in short, the perfect time for a revisionist account of American persuasion, told through the eyes of a deeply flawed yet oddly sympathetic figure who understands primal needs and has mastered the black art of pretending to satisfy them.

That man is Don Draper, as sold to us by Jon Hamm. He is, his new bosses remind us, the face of Sterling Cooper, the old-school, early 1960s Madison Avenue agency that, in the mythology of “Mad Men,” has taught choosy smokers to choose Luckies and insecure husbands to preserve family memories on Kodak slides.

Sterling Cooper also urged the undecided to select Dick Nixon as the voice of a new generation — one of the more obvious clues dropped into the first two seasons that Don and company don’t have a clue as to what changes are in store for the country — or them.

(Kind of like the way Tony Soprano didn’t see the end of a way of life coming, either … but let’s not get started again comparing these two shows. Suffice it to say that one of the first to tell “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner he had a helluva script there was his boss: “Sopranos” creator David Chase.)

One of those shocks to the system happened at the end of last season, when Sterling Cooper voted to be taken over by a British agency. That action will result in someone’s head getting lopped off in Sunday’s premiere, touching off an in-house battle to succeed him.

Don missed the merger vote because he was off sowing his wild oats in California. But now he has returned home, and wife Betty (January Jones) has taken him back into their family, which is about to increase by one with her surprise pregnancy. If you thought that might cause Don to give his wandering eye a rest for, oh, 12 hours or so, you would be mistaken.

There has been lots of online speculation about what will happen when JFK dies or the Beatles arrive in the fictional world of “Mad Men.” In interviews, Weiner has suggested the answer will be: not that much.

If the show’s depiction of election night 1960 is any precedent, recall that several Sterling Cooper minions barely paid attention to the Kennedy-Nixon vote drama. They were too busy getting drunk and hitting on each other. And yet, that same episode featured one of the show’s most dramatic developments, as Don’s dark secret was discovered by a jealous rival at the firm, Pete Campbell (Vincent Kartheiser).

“Mad Men,” in other words, is not a 1960s Hertz ad where characters fly into a car speeding down the fast lane of history. The show pursues the more intriguing alternative strategy of shaking up the characters’ little worlds at work and home. Even the Cuban missile crisis — the backdrop for Season 2’s final episode — couldn’t hold the office’s attention as the merger date of Sterling Cooper approached.

In that same episode, Betty Draper goes horseback riding after learning she's pregnant. Her doctor even tells her, "No riding." We don't see the ride, only her dismounting from the horse, but the intent is clear. And the viewer — well, the obsessive "Mad Men" viewer — might contemplate whether that's always how women dealt with unwanted pregnancies pre-Roe ... or whether it took a million women like Betty to bring about Roe.

While there is the underlying assumption that the squares at Sterling Cooper won’t know what hit them when the seminal ’60s events unfold, I wouldn’t be so sure. In fact, it’s safe to assume that some Eisenhower-era types there will learn to be groovy, just as they did in the 1960s America that “Mad Men” tries so strenuously to replicate. That is one of my anticipations for the third season — that some characters will start to let their hair down.

Honestly, though, the cast is so superb, the dramas of each episode so exquisitely told, that if I were Matt Weiner I would slow down the clock as much as possible. We’re in no hurry here to get to the moon landing. The endless possibilities for “Mad Men” are a product both of its large, appealing ensemble and the X-factor of history.

That’s one way in which it is not like “The Sopranos,” a show that revolved around one man whose incapacity for change finally exhausted the show’s creative potential. I’m not sure “Mad Men” will be as creatively influential as HBO’s signature series was; period dramas are not exactly popping up all over TV.

(Another way it's not like "Sopranos" is audience size. The Season 2 finale drew just 1.75 million viewers, or one-eighth a typical audience for "The Sopranos." Still, that’s almost twice the number watching “Mad Men’s” first season finale, and Season 3 numbers should grow as new viewers catch up on DVD.)

If I were to handicap its legacy, I would say it could be twofold: “Mad Men” has shown that you cannot overload an audience’s craving for information (check AMC’s hugely detailed Web site and the scores of fan blogs if you don’t believe me).

And, last but not least, “Mad Men” proves it is possible to shock 21st-century TV watchers without dropping a single frontal bra cup or F-bomb.

WHO’S WHO IN THE MADIVERSE

DON DRAPER (JON HAMM) In Season 3, the adman will have a vision that gives more detail behind his mysterious upbringing. He’ll also have to assure an old client that the takeover of Sterling Cooper won’t change a thing in their relationship. (The ’60s are another matter.) And Don will show again why he’s TV’s successor to Tony Soprano as the Great Philanderer.

BETTY DRAPER (JANUARY JONES) Expecting a third child and eager for a happy home to bring the baby into, she has welcomed back Don despite his infidelity. Everything seems like old times. She has kept emotions in check, until she needed to take her frustrations out on the neighbor’s pigeons.

PEGGY OLSON (ELISABETH MOSS) The fastest-rising woman in Sterling Cooper history has to deal with a corporate takeover and Pete’s confession that he loves her more than his wife.

PETE CAMPBELL (VINCENT KARTHEISER) The British invasion of Sterling Cooper could be a huge boost to his career or a huge road bump. It’s all in how he plays his cards. Given his history, that doesn’t bode well.

JOAN HOLLOWAY (CHRISTINA HENDRICKS) The queen bee of the secretaries, Joan reacts only as Joan can when a young executive begins taking liberties around the office.

ROGER STERLING (JOHN SLATTERY) The son of the firm’s founder has left his wife for a young secretary, but he might be the one jettisoned now that Sterling Cooper has new owners.

SAL ROMANO (BRYAN BATT) “Closeted gay man” is redundant in 1963. Acting straight was an unfortunate part of the bargain for career men, and Sal’s resolve will be tested on Sunday.

BERT COOPER (ROBERT MORSE) Regretting the merger that brought “British rule,” co-founder Bert continues to bring an old-soul perspective to the agency.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2009/08/madmen.html

TV Notes
No ‘Ugly Betty’ for Paula?
Talks with ABC collapse
By Denise Martin, Los Angeles Times staff writer, in the “ShowTracker” blog, August 16, 2009

Two steps forward, two steps back: Turns out a role on "Ugly Betty" is not in Paula Abdul's future.

ABC confirmed exclusively to Showtracker on Sunday that talks between Abdul and the network have fallen apart and she will not be guest-starring on "Ugly Betty," as had been rumored.

The former "Idol" judge had been in talks to play a temp who befriends Becki Newton's Amanda at Mode magazine. The episode had been scheduled to shoot in the coming week. That story leaked to the press early last week -- much like Abdul's "American Idol" negotiations -- and it now seems that she may not be working with ABC at all.

TMZ reported that part of the reason might be because Abdul is holding out on an offer to return to "American Idol" and that Abdul is also not likely to be among ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" contestants.

That lineup will be announced on the network's "Good Morning America" on Monday.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/show...-collapse.html

Te best Larry King game entry yet, AAF.

Congratulations.

TV Notes
Analysis: Summer Still Hot For Cable As Key Premieres Loom
USA on record-setting track, TNT decides originals’ fates, while broadcast sweats season
By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/16/2009

As an end-of-summer mini-wave of premieres gears up, cable continues to dominate a season that the broadcast networks are certainly sweating.

USA remains on track to post cable's most-viewed primetime in the season's history, HBO’s Sunday night originals are drawing crowds the pay-TV network hasn’t seen since The Sopranos was on the schedule, and TNT got enough spark from new entry HawthoRNe to warrant a second-season pickup.

Meantime, despite a wave of original premieres, including the usual array of reality shows, no broadcast network had any breakthrough programming. Summer staples such as So You Think You Can Dance and America’s Got Talent continue to perform reliably, but Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, which was a juggernaut on ABC when it premiered a decade ago, returned to low ratings, averaging under a 2 rating in the 18 to 49 demographic.

USA, which has the surprise new hit of the year in Royal Pains, has a number of shows near the top of the ratings list, with Burn Notice averaging over 6 million total viewers and 3 million demo viewers in its third season and season two of In Plain Sight averaging over 4 million viewers. Fueled by the finales of Burn Notice (7.6 million viewers), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (4.83 million) and In Plain Sight (4.44 million), the network delivered its best week ever in total viewers the first week of August, averaging 3.08 million total viewers, including 1.43 million 18-49s.

USA also premiered the final season of Monk and the fourth season of Psych Aug. 7.

Two other cable premieres this week have some heat around them. The third season of AMC’s lauded Mad Men debuted Aug. 16, with the promotion of its historic best drama series Emmy win at its back. And on Aug. 21 Project Runway makes its debut on Lifetime after a lengthy legal battle with the program’s original network Bravo.

HBO already has its eyes on Sept. 20, when it will premiere the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm and the new comedy Bored To Death. The pay cabler has had its best summer in years, thanks to True Blood breaking out into a full fledged hit averaging well more than 4 million viewers, with newcomer Hung and the sixth season of Entourage bringing in over 3 million people. Those numbers do not count replays or on-demand, which boost the ratings substantially when factored in.

TNT’s second-season order for the solid-performing, though not spectacularly-rated, HawthoRNe was one of a couple of somewhat surprising original programming decisions the second-place basic cable network unveiled last week. While the new medical drama will be back, TNT said Saving Grace will see its final season in summer 2010.

A report from the Los Angeles Times says that the decision to kill Grace came from Fox Television Studios, which produces the series, out of concerns that it would not be able to recoup production costs.

TNT’s The Closer (also a Fox TV Studios show) remains the top show on cable, pulling in more than 7 million viewers each week, but beyond the long-running hit drama, few other shows on the network have been able to make a major ratings impact.

TNT premiered cop drama Dark Blue in July, and it has performed admirably, pulling in around 3 million viewers an episode. Solid, but not quite as many as fellow freshman HawthoRNe or sophomores Leverage and Raising The Bar, which have brought in just over 3 million people an episode each.

USA sister network Bravo has also had a strong summer, driven largely by its increasingly potent Real Housewives franchise. Installments in New York, New Jersey and Atlanta topped one another with every subsequent premiere. The Aug. 13 edition of The Real Housewives of Atlanta was the highest rated non-finale telecast for any Real Housewives franchise and marked the first time the network drew more than 3 million viewers to a program on a Thursday, one of the network’s newer nights of original programming.

Lifetime, which is betting heavily on the return of Project Runway and the launch of spinoff series Models of the Runway, has seen a modest summer. New comedy Drop Dead Diva premiered in July with solid ratings (2.8 million viewers), but hasn’t delivered the knockout punch the network was likely hoping would lead it into Runway. Returning hit Army Wives is also down from previous seasons.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/art...ieres_Loom.php

TV Sports
PGA Championship duel, Vick interview serve CBS well
By Michael McCarthy, USA TODAY, August 17, 2009

CBS touted this weekend's PGA Championship as "Glory's Last Shot."

Who knew it would be underdog Y.E. Yang who'd emerge with the laurels as he beat world No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods and became the first Asian player to win one of golf's four major championships?

Woods lost for the first time in a major when he entered the final round with the lead. His loss will likely be CBS' gain. Woods and Yang dueled until the final hole Sunday. Many viewers who watched Woods lose to the little-known South Korean likely stayed in front of the set to watch James Brown's interview with Michael Vick on 60 Minutes.

Based on weekend numbers, CBS will probably score big. TV ratings for the network's third-round coverage Saturday rose 390% from last year's rain-interrupted third round which went up against the Summer Olympics. Among the best and worst of CBS' PGA coverage:

•Best call. It's fitting that announcer Verne Lundquist was on the microphone when Yang chipped in for eagle on the 14th hole. The old pro's made some of the most famous calls in sports TV history, including Woods' chip-in at the 2005 Masters and Christian Laettner making Duke's winning shot against Kentucky in the 1992 NCAA tournament.

Lundquist nailed it. "It's a good one. It's a really good one. It's wonderful," Lundquist said as Yang's chip rolled toward the cup. Lead analyst Nick Faldo laughed. "Verne, it's always you."

•Worst meltdown. Sometimes the world's best golfers look like weekend hackers. As they watched defending champ Padraig Harrington implode with a quintuple-bogey eight on the par-3 8th hole Sunday, CBS' team didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "That was close to a shank," Faldo said in wonderment as Harrington hit the second of two balls into the water.

The best reaction came off-camera as some quick-thinking director immediately threw up a replay of Harrington's almost identical watery meltdown at the Bridgestone Invitational last week. Both disasters dropped him out of contention against Woods.

•Say what? Faldo surprised partner Jim Nantz, and probably viewers, when he declared Saturday that golf's ruling bodies should ban players from drawing lines on their golf balls. Top golfers like Woods now use these hand-drawn lines to help align themselves on putts, Faldo said. "It's nearly an artificial aid. Nearly," Faldo said. "You serious?" Nantz asked. "I'm serious," Faldo replied.

•Best/worst analyst. Come on up, David Feherty. The quick-witted analyst was at his best Saturday as he mercilessly dissected Vijay Singh's putting yips. When Singh flubbed a short birdie putt, Feherty quipped he couldn't tell "whether that was a stroke or a heart attack."

On the other hand, Feherty (and the rest of the CBS analysts) could barely bring themselves to blame Woods for anything Sunday. Every time Tiger hit one over a green or missed a putt, it was a good try, Woods was just the victim of a bad bounce, bad luck, etc. It started on the first hole when Woods missed a makeable birdie — and Feherty said he stroked it just where he wanted. Huh? Then again, as an on-course reporter, Feherty has to stay on Tiger's good side. So discretion might be the better part of valor.

Vick: I was scared:

During his interview with Brown, Vick summed up why many sports figures lie through their teeth when caught red-handed in personal or criminal scandals. They're — what else? — terrified of losing their multimillion-dollar salaries and endorsements.

"I was scared. I knew my career was in jeopardy. I knew I had an endorsement with Nike — and I knew it was going to be a big letdown. I felt the guilt and I knew I was guilty, and I knew what I had done. And, not knowing at the time that, you know, actually telling the truth may have been better than, you know, not being honest. And it backfired on me."

Survivor guilt:

Bernard Goldberg of HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel plunges viewers into one of the worst sports tragedies in recent years Tuesday night (10 p.m., ET) with an outstanding, if harrowing, piece on Nick Schuyler, lone survivor of the February boating accident that claimed the lives of NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith and Schuyler's best friend Will Bleakley.

With a storm approaching, Cooper tried to free a stuck anchor by gunning the engine. Instead, the boat flipped over, spilling the four men into rough seas 70 miles from the Florida shore.

One by one, Schuyler watched his friends succumb to hallucinations, hypothermia and death. Disoriented Smith, for example, dove for the ocean bottom and never came up. Goldberg asked if Schuyler felt guilt. "It's impossible not to," Schuyler answered. "I mean, why am I here and three are gone?"

Boom, Bust, Hope:

As part of his new weekly sports business TV show, The $ports Take, debuting Aug. 25 on Versus, host Rick Horrow will introduce a segment dubbed "Boom, Bust, Hope."

Horrow asks why Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane would risk his multimillion player contracts and endorsements by allegedly assaulting a Buffalo cab driver over a puny $13.80 fare. "Each week we're going to showcase one really bad thing, one really good thing and one really creative thing — that are all driven by the economy," Horrow said.


http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colum...vick-cbs_N.htm

TV Notes
ABC Announces “Dancing With The Stars” Season Nine Cast
(ABC News Release)

August 17-2009 -- An all new cast of celebrities hits the dance floor on ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" with the highly anticipated two-hour season premiere, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) on ABC. With its biggest season yet, "Dancing with the Stars" Season Nine introduces us to 16 new stars, including an Osmond and an Osbourne, two Grammy Award® winning artists, a Cowboy, a model CEO and a former House Majority Leader.

Eight teams will strut their stuff on Monday night, while the other eight teams will show off their moves on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET). On a special night and time, two couples will learn their fate and be sent home on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET).

Following is the schedule for Season Nine (dates and times subject to change):

• "Dancing with the Stars," two-hour performance show, MONDAYS beginning, SEPTEMBER 21 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) through NOVEMBER 16
• "Dancing with the Stars the Results Show," one-hour, TUESDAYS beginning, SEPTEMBER 29 (9:00 -10:00 p.m., ET) through NOVEMBER 25
• "Dancing with the Stars," 90-minute performance show, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24 (8:30-10:00 p.m., ET)
• Season Finale, two-hours, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 (9:00-11:00 p.m., ET)

"Dancing with the Stars" returns with new surprises and all the elements viewers have come to know and love, including the Pro Dancer Competition, where world class professional dancers have the opportunity to compete live on the "Results Show" for a guaranteed spot on next season's show. "Macy's Stars of Dance," which features some of the most renowned dancers and choreographers of our time, will also be back on "Dancing with the Stars the Results Show." One of the Macy's Stars of Dance performances will be the hugely popular "Design-a-Dance," where fans have the chance to select their favorite professional dancers, dance styles and wardrobe at www.abc.com. In addition, couples will once again take part in a team formation dance, and a variety of new elements will be incorporated into routines involving all couples. Four new dance styles -- the Bolero, the Charleston, the Two Step and the Lambada -- are also going to be introduced. The middle stages of the competition feature the return of the "Dance Off," where contestants will perform a dance style of their choosing to fight for their spot in the competition, and three consecutive double eliminations promise the most dramatic period of "Dancing with the Stars."

As announced this morning on "Good Morning America," the 16 stars making their ballroom dancing debut are:

AARON CARTER -- Triple platinum selling music artist/songwriter, producer, actor and younger brother of Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter, Aaron Carter has established himself worldwide as a pop and teen sensation. Beginning his career at the age of eight, he is currently the youngest solo artist to have four Top 40 singles. He has released four studio albums since 1997, two of which have been certified platinum, and has appeared on several television series, including "Lizzie McGuire" and "7th Heaven," as well as making his Broadway debut playing JoJo the Who in "Seussical the Musical" in 2001. He sang vocals on soundtracks for Disneymania ("The Lion King"), "Ella Enchanted," "Pokemon" and "Rugrats the Movie." In 2006 Carter starred in the E! reality show, "House of Carters," which featured all five of the Carter siblings living in the same house.

NATALIE COUGHLIN -- Olympic swimming gold medalist Natalie Coughlin is the most decorated female athlete of both the 2008 Beijing and 2004 Athens Games. Coughlin has won a medal in every single Olympic event that she has ever entered, for a total of 11 Olympic medals. In 2008 she became the first American female athlete to win six medals in one Olympiad, in addition to becoming the first woman to win consecutive individual Olympic gold medals in the 100m backstroke. She is also the most decorated female swimmer in World Championship history, with 16 medals. Born and raised in northern California, Coughlin attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a BA in psychology in 2005.

MARK DACASCOS -- Famously known as "The Chairman" and host of Food Network's "Iron Chef America," Mark Dacascos is also a trained martial artist and an actor. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, his passion for martial arts began at an early age under the tutelage of his parents, who are both former national champions and teachers. After being discovered in San Francisco's Chinatown, Dacascos began to establish a film and television career playing not only martial artists but a wide arrangement of other characters before joining "Iron Chef America" in 2005. He has appeared in several feature films, including the internationally acclaimed French epic, "Brotherhood of the Wolf," the cult classic "Only the Strong," "Cradle to the Grave", opposite Jet Li, "Only the Brave," "Nomad" and "The Lost Medallion," to be released later this year.

TOM DELAY -- The former House Majority Leader is a prominent Republican and conservative firebrand. He was first elected to Congress in 1984, and when Republicans took control of the House, his colleagues elected him Majority Whip, and later Majority Leader. His leadership was characterized by his aggressive "Grow the Vote" method of party discipline, where he never lost a vote, leading the Washington Post to nickname him "The Hammer." He and his wife, Christine, also served as foster parents and founded a community in Texas that serves as a safe, permanent home for abused and neglected children. DeLay is currently president of First Principles LLC, a strategic political consulting firm based in Washington DC and Houston, Texas.

MACY GRAY -- Macy Gray first burst onto the music scene with her debut album, "On How Life Is," and the hit single "I Try," both of which went to number one. She has gone on to sell more than 20,000,000 albums worldwide and has won and been nominated for five Grammy Awards and six MTV Video Music Awards. She has collaborated on stage and in the recording studio with some of music's greatest artists, including Justin Timberlake, Carlos Santana, Erykah Badu, Fergie, will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers) Nas and Natalie Cole. Gray has also appeared in numerous films, including "Spider Man," "Training Day," "Idlewild" (with Outkast) and the award-winning HBO Film, "Lackawanna Blues."

ASHLEY HAMILTON -- Actor, songwriter, comedian and son of former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant George Hamilton, Ashley is a multi-talented, multi-hyphenate with experience in film, comedy and television. An accomplished singer, Ashley had a 2003 top 20 single released by Sony, and as a songwriter co-wrote the top 10 Robbie Williams hit entitled "Come Undone." He has writing credits for Hillary Duff among other top acts. Hamilton has made various television and film appearances in his career, including a starring role in "Sunset Beach." Since 2007 he has been performing stand-up comedy at the Laugh Factory, the Hollywood Improv, the Comedy Store and Room 5 in Los Angeles.

MELISSA JOAN HART -- Known for her starring roles in the television series "Clarissa Explains It All" and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," Melissa Joan Hart began her career at the early age of four with television commercials and various television appearances. She starred in the film "Drive Me Crazy" alongside "Entourage's" Adrian Grenier, as well as the ABC Family Original Movie "Holiday in Handcuffs," opposite "Dancing with the Stars" alumnus Mario Lopez, which was the highest rated program in the history of the network. In 2009 Hart starred in another ABC Family Original Movie, "My Fake Fiancé" that also garnered huge ratings. In 1993 she started her own production company, Hartbreak Films, and is set to release her first thriller film, "Nine Dead," to DVD in January 2010. Hart and husband Mark Wilkerson are the proud parents of two sons, Mason, age three, and Braydon, 17 months.

KATHY IRELAND -- Kathy Ireland the super model is now wife, mother of three, author, Sunday school teacher and fashion CEO of kathy ireland Worldwide® (KIWW)®. Forbes, Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal celebrate KIWW® as a $1.4 billion design empire. Ireland powerfully supports many non-profits, including the Elizabeth Taylor HIV/AIDS Foundation, Feed the Children and the Alliance for Christian Education. UCLA has named her as one of the Top Ten Women's Health Advocates in America.

MICHAEL IRVIN -- Regarded as one of the most successful wide receivers in the history of the NFL, former Dallas Cowboy Michael Irvin is a three-time Super Bowl champion and former broadcaster for ESPN's "NFL Countdown." Known as "The Playmaker" and one of "The Triplets" alongside fellow Cowboys Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith, Irvin was a recipient of the Dallas Cowboys' Ring of Honor in 2005. In 2007 he was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame and has appeared in various television shows, as well as co-starring in "The Longest Yard" with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock. Last fall Irvin executive-produced/hosted the reality TV series "4th and Long" for Spike TV, in which one football hopeful was given a shot at making the Dallas Cowboys roster. Most recently he appeared on the Hall of Fame inductions on the NFL Network, and he hosts his own radio show in Dallas for ESPN Radio.

JOANNA KRUPA -- Polish-born Joanna Krupa was born in Warsaw and raised in Chicago. After high school she moved to LA to pursue a career in modeling and acting. Her hard work and positive spirit led her to become one of the most requested models/covergirls in the world. PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign featuring Krupa became a phenomenon. She's been featured in E!'s The Sexiest as one of the sexiest women in the world. In 2009 she was selected as the cover model for Ocean Drive magazine, and Maxim voted her among their TOP 100 women in the world. Film and TV credits include "Six Days in Paradise," due in the fall, "Ripple Effect," "Las Vegas" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation." Most recently she competed in ABC's "The Superstars," teaming with Buffalo Bills NFL star Terrell Owens.

CHUCK LIDDELL -- Chuck Liddell is the face of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the icon of Mixed Martial Arts -- the fastest growing sport in America. In 1998 he won his first UFC Mixed Martial Arts fight. Soon after, Liddell rose through the ranks to become the light-heavyweight champion of the world. In July of 2009, he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. He is tied for the most wins by a UFC fighter, with 16, and also holds the most knockout wins with 10. In 2008 Liddell penned his autobiography, Iceman: My Fighting Life, which quickly became a New York Times bestseller. He has a BA in Business/Accounting from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he also wrestled.

DEBI MAZAR -- Debi Mazar's feature film debut in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" set the stage for an extensive career in both television and film. She has consistently worked with notable directors -- including Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Woody Allen, Michael Mann and Joel Schumacher -- often portraying a sharp-tongued New Yorker in both dramas and comedy. Her television credits include "Friends," "Ugly Betty" and her own sitcom, CBS' "Temporarily Yours." Mazar presently stars as publicist Shauna on HBO's hit series "Entourage." She also co-hosts "Under the Tuscan Gun," a successful internet show focused on Tuscan cuisine, with her husband. The couple have two young daughters and presently reside in both Los Angeles and Tuscany, Italy.

MYA -- Grammy Award® winning multi-platinum artist Mya, became a star at the age of 18 with her eponymous debut album which yielded three Top 10 singles. In addition to releasing five full length albums, one of which went platinum and another gold, she starred in the acclaimed film "Chicago." Since then Mya has appeared in several other movies and signed a modeling contract. Her fourth and fifth studio albums, "Liberation" and "Sugar & Spice," respectively, have been released in Japan, and her sixth studio album is due to be released on her independent label. A longtime advocate for young women, Mya founded The Mya Arts & Tech Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing disadvantaged youth growth and opportunity through arts & technology education, where she serves as both executive director and teacher.

KELLY OSBOURNE -- A singer, actress and media personality, Kelly Osbourne's father is rock icon Ozzy Osbourne, and her mother is well-known TV personality Sharon Osbourne. Kelly got her start at the age of 16 in the first-ever "celebrity reality" TV show, "The Osbournes," with her famous family, which garnered an Emmy Award® for Outstanding Reality Program in 2002. That same year, Kelly released her debut music album, "Shut Up!," which included a cover of Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach." Her second album, "Sleeping in Nothing," was released in 2005 with its first single, "One Word," hitting No. 1 on all three Billboard Dance charts simultaneously. She made her dramatic acting debut in a starring role on the ABC series "Life As We Know It". In recent years Osbourne has worked primarily in the UK, where she's done theatre (including a successful run in "Chicago" in London's West End in 2007), hosted her own weekly radio show on BBC Radio and presented numerous UK TV projects, including "Project Catwalk," the UK's version of "Project Runway."

DONNY OSMOND -- Donny Osmond won the hearts of millions as both a member of the Osmonds and, with his sister (and "Dancing with the Stars" alumna) Marie, as the youngest co-hosts in primetime history on the iconic ABC variety series, "The Donny & Marie Show." He and Marie are currently performing at the Las Vegas Flamingo Hotel through 2012. For nearly five decades, Donny has been a singer, musician, Broadway and film actor, talk show and game show host, bestselling author, and even a champion race car driver.

LOUIE VITO -- Professional snowboarder Louie Vito is among the U.S.' elite snowboarders favored to make the 2010 Olympic team. Competing in both the Pipe and Slopestyle disciplines, Vito continues to train for the Grand Prix qualifying. The 21 year-old native of Bellefontaine, OH turned pro in 2006 and has competed in multiple Winter X-Games competitions. He is also a two-time winner of the USSA Grand Prix Halfpipe Series.

Viewers may cast their votes for their favorite teams via phone on Monday and Tuesday night during and up to 30 minutes after the "Dancing with the Stars" performance shows. AT&T subscribers may also text message their votes by texting the word "VOTE" and entering the number that corresponds to the team they want to support (standard text message rates apply). Viewers may also vote online at www.abc.com starting from the opening of each episode on the East Coast and until 12:00 Noon, ET the following day.

Hosted by Tom Bergeron ("America's Funniest Home Videos") and Samantha Harris ("The Insider") the celebrities will perform choreographed dance routines which will be judged by renowned Ballroom judge Len Goodman and dancer/choreographers Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.

"Dancing with the Stars" is the U.S. version of the international smash hit series, "Strictly Come Dancing." This version is produced by BBC Worldwide Productions. Conrad Green serves as executive producer and Rob Wade is co-executive producer. Alex Rudzinski directs. "Dancing with the Stars" is broadcast in 720 Progressive (720P), ABC's selected HDTV format, with 5.1 channel surround sound and Spanish audio via SAP.