“Dancing with the Stars”
Tuesday-Wednesday 8pm, ABC
|
NEED MORE TV? Read Eric Rezsnyak’s fall television preview! |
Even juggernauts like “Dancing” need a little shaking up now and then. So look for four new dances in the mix—bolero, lambada, two-step and the Charleston (so topical!)—plus even more couples than usual (16 instead of 13). And what a crop of also-rans they are. Early favorites include former tween heartthrob Aaron Carter and erstwhile soldier of love Donny Osmond (let’s hope he doesn’t dress as a terrifying living doll like his sister did). In the failed R&B singer group we have Macy Gray and Mya. In the famous-for-no-reason bracket there’s Ashley Hamilton and Kelly Osbourne. Athletes include swimmer Natalie Coughlin, footballer Michael Irvin and IFC fighter Chuck Liddell. And in the yeah-buh-wuh? section we’ve got “Iron Chef” host Mark Dacascos and disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Cheryl Burke’s not getting anywhere near that trophy this season.
“Saturday Night Live”
Saturday 11:30pm, NBC
Megan Fox has been Hollywood’s “It” girl since the first Transformers movie a couple years ago. Interesting that she’s only now starting to capitalize on that fame. The Maxim-friendly starlet hosts the opening of the venerable late-night sketch show’s 35th season in an attempt to hype her new flick, the kind of awesome-looking Jennifer’s Body. (I’m sorry, I have a weakness for teenage succubi.) Fox has done a couple snicker-worthy faux-PSAs, but it remains to be seen whether she can do anything that doesn’t involve employing her signature purr and fuck-me eyes. Although for the boner-afflicted youth of America, that’s probably enough.
“Amazing Race”
Sunday 8pm, CBS
The 15th season of the awesome reality competition reportedly kicks off as 12 teams of two depart for, in the words of host Phil Keoghan, a racearoundtheworld. The producers are promising new twists (those almost never work out; remember that awful Merge?), and some new locales, with rumored stops in Estonia and the Czech Republic, among others. The teams have promise, with a rare father/son duo (Gary and Matt); a pair of friends (Zev and Justin), one of whom has Asperger’s Syndrome; a former Miss America and her husband (Ericka and Brian); a pair of Harlem Globetrotters (Herbert and Nathaniel); a pair of professional poker players (Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle); and a pair of gay brothers (Sam and Dan).
