Dancing with the Stars pro Edyta Sliwinska told the Palm Beach Post that her Season 6 partner, Jason Taylor, was never distracted during rehearsal by his strained relationship with the Miami Dolphins.

Another DwtS pro, Karina Smirnoff, will model an outfit designed by Project Runway 3 finalist Michael Knight for a charity fashion show to benefit UNICEF, as part of Bravo’s A-List Awards. The awards show airs next Thursday.

DwtS fans in Ohio can head to the Fred Astaire Studio in Canton on Saturday to take part in a pair of dance workshops taught by Tony Dovolani.

Joey Fatone and Mel B. are bringing a vocal competition show called The Singing Office to TLC on June 29.

Brigitte Nielsen is filming a show for German television in which she’ll undergo a series of cosmetic surgeries because, "the secretiveness in Hollywood is annoying."

Nielsen’s show actually fits in nicely with what Variety describes as the growing television trend of portraying mothers more realistically.

Jimmy Kimmel brings the first in a series of primetime specials to ABC tonight at 8 ET/CT.

Swingtown also makes its debut tonight on CBS at 10 ET. The show is set in a ficticious Chicago suburb based on the actual suburb of Winnetka, and the Chicago Tribune has a map of Winnetka locales referenced in the show. Chicago musician Liz Phair wrote Swingtown‘s score.

Apparently, I was part of a small group when I watched the season premiere of The Mole on Monday night. The show debuted to an audience of only 4.73 million people.

Ahead of tonight’s new episode of Top Chef: Chicago, People has an interview with Spike, who incidentally shares his name with a cockatiel my friend, Kelly, owned in fifth grade. Restaurateur Rick Tramanto gave the Chicago Tribune the scoop on the frozen scallops in his cooler which ultimately doomed Spike.

Original Survivor winner Richard Hatch is appealing his tax evasion conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Speaking of stars in money trouble, Ed McMahon’s $6.25 million Beverly Hills home is facing foreclosure.

At George Takei’s upcoming wedding to Brad Altman, Chekov will serve as best man and Uhura will be matron of honor.

OK! Magazine has Dancing with the Stars pro Karina Smirnoff’s makeup removal secrets.

Variety posted an article on why TV writers don’t pen shows with main characters who are writers.

Don’t read this article about cheesy ’80s TV theme songs unless you want to have the Silver Spoons theme stuck in your head for the rest of the day. You have been warned.

As shows vie for Emmy nominations, Variety listed some possible contenders in the reality TV categories. Just don’t expect to see many nominations for celebreality shows. Another Variety article proposes that the proliferation of reality shows has made viewers more discriminating about what they watch.

I’m a discriminating viewer in my own right — so long as you don’t count my regular viewings of Wheel of Fortune, It’s Me or the Dog, America’s Funniest Home Videos, and decade-old Frasier and Star Trek: Voyager reruns. Uh, anyway, I was impressed by last night’s season premiere of The Mole. I especially enjoyed when the contestants voted on who amongst them was the biggest whiner, only to have the whiner put in charge of all of the decision-making for the day. Zap2It has a recap of the episode.

Harold Perrineau spoke with EW.com to clarify some of his public comments about the Lost season finale. I hope that the show’s writers are taking his comments seriously, because he’s got some good ideas.

Billy Zane has been cast as a lawyer on the poorly-titled new ABC show Finnegan.

The Futon Critic has a list of celebrities scheduled to appear on CBS’s Password, including Dancing with the Stars veterans Shanna Moakler, Sara Evans, and Monique Coleman.

Frequent Daily Show guest and Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria debuted an international news show on CNN this weekend, aptly titled Fareed Zakaria — GPS. He spoke with TV Guide about his new program, which won’t preclude him from future appearances on The Daily Show. Here’s his most recent appearance, from January 14, 2008:

MOIB reader Deb noticed that Dancing with the Stars pros Tony Dovolani, Elena Grinenko, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Julianne Hough, Derek Hough, Mark Ballas, and Fabian Sanchez are scheduled to perform on June 12 at Dancing with Desire 2008, a competition held by Fred Astaire Studios Florida.

DwtS 6 runner-up Jason Taylor said in a press conference yesterday that he plans to play football for one more season.

As the winter TV season comes to an end and series go dark for the summer, MSN has an article on the worst series finales ever.

The Mole returns to ABC tonight at 10 ET, with a slightly revamped format that the network hopes will make the show more interactive.

The summer TV season is off to a rocky start for reality shows, most of which are earning lower ratings than last year.

Networks took another hit last week when U.K. TV show buyers looked at the few completed pilots out there and opted not to pick up any new shows planned for fall. Typically, networks film pilots and use the money made from sales to foreign markets to finance filming subsequent episodes.

NBC is already worrying that Jay Leno won’t go quietly when his contract expires in 2009. And why would he, when he consistently beats David Letterman in the ratings?

Cristian de la Fuente told USA Today that fellow Dancing with the Stars 6 competitor Steve Guttenberg brought him pizza and cupcakes to aid his recovery after arm surgery. The doctor who performed the surgery told Entertainment Tonight that Cristian should be fully recovered in three months.

Buddy TV has an informative interview with DwtS judge Carrie Ann Inaba in which she clarifies how the judges award points.

Jason Taylor spoke publicly for the first time on Wednesday about his future with the Miami Dolphins.

CMT has an interview with Julianne Hough about her new album.

Bill Cosby’s actual "Cosby sweaters" are being auctioned for charity, with bids starting at $5000.

I had to catch up on last night’s episode of So You Think You Can Dance by reading Zap2It’s recap, as I watched the Lost finale instead. Harold Perrineau, who plays Michael, gave a candid interview to TV Guide about what he thinks of his character’s story arc. Perrineau did not divulge the total number of times he’s had to yell "My boy!" or "Walt!" during his tenure on the show.

In order to keep the cast and crew from divulging what happened at the end of the season finale, Lost producers shot three possible endings. The two alternate endings were shown on today’s edition of Good Morning America.

My mom will be delighted to learn that Emmitt Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is being turned into a stage musical. Do you think they’ll encourage moshing during the performance by The Nightmare?

The New York Times has a list of the Top Twenty Shows of the 2007-08 season, in terms of numbers of viewers. It’s not clear in the Times’ list, but based on the generally lower ratings for Dancing with the Stars 6, I’m assuming that DwtS 5‘s Performance and Results shows ranked #3 and #5, respectively, and DwtS 6‘s ranked #4 and#7.

I didn’t watch So You Think You Can Dance last night; did I miss anything? Zap2It has a recap of the second audition episode.

I did catch the latest episode of Top Chef: Chicago. I think the overall level of competition dropped a bit with Dale’s elimination last week, and Tom Colicchio and Harold Dieterle agreed with me on that in their blog posts about last night’s episode.

Out of the top six contestants, I would’ve given Dale and Antonia an outside chance to win, with Stephanie and Richard being the favorites. Spike and Lisa never had a chance, and yet one of them is in the Final Four (I won’t spoil it).

BravoTV.com has blog posts about last night’s show by Gail Simmons and Ted Allen, as well as Q&A with guest judge Rick Tramonto.

In other Bravo TV news, Project Runway‘s Nick Verreos and Laura Bennett are keeping mini-blogs at MSN’s Style Studio. Laura also has a clothing line available through QVC (enter "Laura Bennett" in the search box).

Supernatural creator Eric Kripke told TV Guide that fans needn’t freak out after the dramatic season finale: they can’t do the show without Dean.

The cast list for ABC’s I Survived a Japanese Game Show was released. One of the contestants is the caretaker of weather-predicting groundhog Punxsutawney Phil.

This last link isn’t TV related, but the Telegraph has a fascinating interview with John Lydon, a.k.a. Johnny Rotten. You don’t have to be a fan of punk rock to appreciate this well-written article about the former Sex Pistols frontman.

Australia’s version of Dancing with the Stars has approached Tara Reid to compete on the show. Normally, I’d make some quip like, "Let’s hope producers of the US version don’t get the same idea," but I would absolutely love it if Tara Reid was cast for DwtS 7. In fact, the show should shoot for a whole Josie and the Pussycats reunion. Parker Posey ain’t busy.

American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe isn’t thrilled about Paula Abdul’s public campaign to be cast on Dancing with the Stars.

Maybe Laila Ali’s in such a grumpy mood lately because new episodes of American Gladiators are getting beaten in the ratings by reruns, but she told OKMagazine.com that she didn’t want her son to be a dancer; she wanted him to be "a serious athlete."

Former DwtSer Cameron Mathison will cohost the Daytime Emmy Awards on June 20 with Sherri "Flat Earth" Shepherd.

ExtraTV.com has more pictures from the Mark Ballas-Derek Hough birthday party in Vegas, in case you’re interested.

Ahead of tonight’s new episode of Top Chef: Chicago, People.com has an interview with Dale, who was recently ousted for letting Lisa serve awful-tasting soup.

One of Top Chef‘s producers was quoted in a Hollywood Reporter article about the ways networks are trying to cut costs at reality shows, which are already notoriously cheap to produce.

The studios reached an agreement on a three-year contract with AFTRA this morning. The contract covers almost a dozen shows, including Curb Your Enthusiasm and Reaper. SAG resumes its negotiations with the studios today.

One of the issues that might be on the table during SAG’s negotiations is compensation for video game voice actors, who are paid a fee for their services, but don’t get any residuals from game sales. That means that Michael Hollick, who played the lead in Grand Theft Auto IV, won’t ever get a cut of the game’s profits, which have already exceeded $600 million.

Dancing with the Stars 6 contestant Cristian de la Fuente is recovering after successful arm surgery last Friday.

People.com has an article about Mark Ballas’s Las Vegas birthday party, as well as a picture of Karina Smirnoff & Mario Lopez frolicking on the beach.

To my dismay, colorful Dallas Cowboy’s star Terrell Owens turned down the opportunity to appear on DwtS.

Actors union AFTRA is reportedly close to reaching a deal with the studios. A deal could put pressure on the other actors union, SAG, to reach similar terms with the studios, and could go a long way toward preventing another Hollywood strike.

NBC announced premiere dates for its Fall shows.

The CW announced its upcoming slate of Sunday night shows. Recently canceled CBS vampire drama Moonlight isn’t on The CW’s schedule, putting an end to fans’ hopes that the network might bring the show back from the dead.

Yahoo! has a slideshow of TV shows that were canceled this season. It’s fascinating to see how many shows lasted just a few episodes.

Reality Blurred wrote about some new reality shows hoping to fill the voids left by those canceled shows next season.

Details have emerged about Virtuality, the new show from Battlestar Galactica‘s Ron Moore.

Sam Neill is getting all the headlines for his role in NBC’s new series, Crusoe, but I’m way more excited about one of his co-stars: Sean Bean!

Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee is getting his own animated series, which will center on a rock star whose tattoos come to life an talk to him.

A bunch of American Idol fans were disappointed when their Tivos stopped recording before the winner was announced on Wednesday night. I wish networks would go back to having their shows finish before the end of the hour, instead of this ending-two-minutes-after-the-hour nonsense.

Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League Final broke viewership records for ESPN 2.

CBS is using the next two Saturday nights to burn off a couple of TV movies it didn’t know what else to do with.

In honor of the return of So You Think You Can Dance, Zap2It has an interview with host Cat Deeley, as well as updates on the Season 3 finalists. Looks like SYTYCD is a good career move for dancers.

I did wind up watching part of the SYTYCD 4 premiere last night after all. I’d forgotten how easy it is to get sucked in to the show, particularly during the audition phase. Happily, I tuned in just in time to see my favorite dancer audition: Gold Inferno!

The Dancing with the Stars 6 Finale was watched by 19.94 million viewers, a 17 percent drop from the DwtS 5 Finale. American Idol 7‘s finale, on the other hand, was up four percent, with an average of 30.6 million viewers.

People has a What You Didn’t See report from Tuesday’s DwtS 6 Finale.

Season 6 winner Kristi Yamaguchi wrote a lengthy blog post about her post-DwtS plans, and where she’s going to display her mirrorball trophy.

Runner up Jason Taylor’s post-DwtS plans evidently don’t include attending any Miami Dolphins’ training camps this summer.

CMT is holding a contest to win a private concert by Julianne Hough.

Bravo has an interview with Top Chef 4 contestant Stephanie about last night’s Restaurant Wars challenge. Lee Ann Wong blogged about some of the production prep that went into making the episode.

Variety writes that negotiations between studios and the actors’ union AFTRA have hit a snag over the rebroadcast of material online.

Fox, recognizing this as the official week of two-hour TV events, is premiering So You Think You Can Dance 4 tonight in a — you guessed it — two-hour TV event. The MOIB chat room will be open for those interested in slamming the delusional folks (remember Sex?) who will inevitably dominate the first audition episode.

I’ve watched my quota of dancing on TV for the week, so I’ll probably just check in on the SYTYCD 4 premiere sporadically. I’d like to do some reading tonight, or maybe watch a PBS documentary about the Japanese American experience during WWII. But I confess that I’m just as likely to wind up watching Jaws on TCM.