On Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. retained his welterweight championship by knocking out Ricky Hatton. Floyd was accompanied to the ring at the start of the match by his fellow Dancing with the Stars contestants, Helio Castroneves and Wayne Newton.

Strike talks came to a halt on Friday, with both parties becoming more publicly vocal about their frustrations with the pace of negotiations.

The strike has already rendered as effectively meaningless network ratings numbers for the season. Late night talk shows seem to be suffering the most, with viewership of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno down by 40%.

TV Guide’s Matt Roush is concerned about enduring a winter with little new to watch, apart from reality shows.

I’m a little more optimistic, now that I know that The Amazing Race will be back for a thirteenth season. And, since I’m a sucker for obstacle courses, I’m looking forward to ABC’s Wipeout, which the network describes as "Fear Factor with none of the gross."

The Amazing Race 12 was turned on its head in Croatia, as two favorites were sent home and an unlikely powerhouse duo finished in first.

The finish order for this leg of the race was decided largely in airports, as teams tried to book flights to Dubrovnik, Croatia, from Vilnius International Airport.

TK & Rachel and Nick & Don got on the first flight out, but they missed their connecting flight in Prague. There, they caught alternative flights to Croatia, though they’d be delayed several hours.

Back in Vilnius, Azaria was so busy haranguing Hendekea that neither of them noticed that their ticket agent had booked them in business class — violating one of the rules of TAR — until they tried to board the plane with the other three teams.

Azaria & Hendekea ran back to the ticket agent, but they weren’t able to switch tickets in time. They wound up on the last flight scheduled to arrive in Dubrovnik.

Meanwhile, Ronald & Christina, Nate & Jen and Kynt & Vyxsin played it safe — and smart — catching a flight that arrived quickly and allowed them plenty of time to make their connection in Warsaw. Ron & Christine managed to stay stay calm after arriving in Croatia, and they finished a rock-stacking Roadblock before the other teams had even found the first clue.

The father-daughter duo was rowing a boat through the harbor as part of the Detour when Nate & Jen made a move to catch up. But their haste only caused friction between the dating couple, prompting Jen to tell Nate as they rowed, "I hate you with a passion."

Both pairs emerged from the sea at nearly the same time, but Nate & Jen’s clothes were wet and no taxis would drive them to the location of the Pit Stop. Ronald & Christina and their dry clothes zipped by Nate & Jen in a taxi, leaving Jen crying and ranting along the roadside, blaming everything that had gone wrong that day on Nate.

Ronald & Christina ran up some stairs flanked by costumed soldiers holding muskets on their way to the finish mat. When they reached the top stair, one of the soldiers fired his musket, prompting both team members to shriek and duck. The musket was fired every time a team approached the mat, always with the same results.

Ronald & Christina finished in first place, winning a 12-foot catamaran that’s probably already available for purchase on Ebay.

Rather than waiting for their clothes to dry, Nate & Jen asked a friendly driver if he would take them to the nearby Pit Stop, even though he wasn’t officially a cabbie. They ignored a rule in the clue that stated that they must reach the Pit Stop by taxi.

They reached the mat in second place, only to be told by host Phil Keoghan that they needed to go back to the clue box and find a cab to bring them back up to the Pit Stop.

When they reached the mat the second time, Nate & Jen learned that Kynt & Vxysin had checked in while they were redoing the task, and that they were now in third place. Instead of hugging, Jen shook Nate’s hand in congratulations, which was a pretty clear signal that the two had not made up from their earlier fight.

TK & Rachel arrived in Croatia next, and they finished in fourth place. They were followed by Nick & Don, and Azaria & Hendekea. While the brother and sister were in sight of the Nick & Don during the rowing part of the Detour, they weren’t able to close the gap.

Nick & Don finished in fifth place, and Azaria & Hendekea were eliminated. They may not be $1 million richer, but at least the siblings can enjoy those romantic vacations they won together.

The Amazing Race will be off next week due to the Survivor: China finale.

In this week’s Reward Challenge, the contestants’ loved ones came to visit — and participate. Each Survivor and his or her sibling/spouse/parent had to navigate a maze while blindfolded. The winning team would be the pair that first found one another in the center of the maze.

Though Amanda and her sister seemed to be doing well — making various bird calls to echolocate each other — it was ultimately Denise and her husband who won the challenge.

For the victory, Denise and her hubby earned a feast on a touring boat. Denise was also given the power to choose two other Survivors (and their partners) to partake. After Peih-Gee had invited Denise on the cool Shaolin temple reward last episode, she and her father seemed like a lock to be invited. But, instead, Denise picked Todd, Amanda, and their respective sisters.

A spurned Peih-Gee focused her rage into action at the Immunity Challenge, which integrated a muddy obstacle course and Chinese trivia. Though Todd was fastest to navigate the course, he screwed up one of his trivia questions, and Peih-Gee won the Challenge. Before the merge, Peih-Gee’s tribe never won anything. But she’s been on a tear lately, winning an Immunity or Reward Challenge in each of the last three weeks.

After the challenge, Erik and Peih-Gee tried to convince Denise that, since she seemed destined for fourth place in her current alliance (with Todd, Amanda, and Courtney), her best bet was to join the two of them in a new three person alliance. Instead of the inevitability of Erik being voted out at Tribal Council, the trio could force a 3-3 tie.

The plan made sense, but Denise stuck with her initial alliance, and Erik was sent home. Enjoy fourth place, Denise. Fifth, if Peih-Gee wins Immunity again next week.

Zap2It explains some of the revenue sharing proposals being negotiated in the current round of talks aimed at ending the strike, which just claimed the staff of Jimmy Kimmel Live as its latest casualties. Fans of Guillermo the Parking Attendant needn’t worry: Jimmy is picking up the tab for his staff’s salaries.

As scripted programming runs thin, CBS may turn to its sister channel, Showtime, for help. The network is considering running episodes of the cable hits Dexter and The Tudors in its empty time slots.

The Hollywood Reporter has a list of products Donald Trump will be hawking on his celebrity edition of The Apprentice. One of the products is Dial Yogurt Body Wash, which sounds thoroughly unappetizing.

To help promote the new season of The Wire, HBO released three short prequels to provide backstory on some of the major characters.

Jen, one of the blonde pals recently eliminated from The Amazing Race, is throwing her name out as an aspiring Dancing with the Stars contestant. You’re a dozen Bachelors short and four seasons too late for that, Jen.

For anyone interested in how a pilot makes it from page to screen, Kathy Lyford of Variety recommends the 2006 comedy The TV Set. According to the industry folk Lyford watched it with, the movie is surprisingly accurate about the process, while still being funny. Plus, it stars David Duchovny.

Greg and I are taking the rest of the week off to visit our niece and nephew (and their parents) in Seattle. See you next week!

Dancing with the Stars 5 winners Helio Castroneves & Julianne Hough will join the DwtS Tour for several dates, presumably in the southeastern United States.

In an interview with TV Guide, Maksim Chmerkovskiy confirmed that he will not be back for DwtS 6.

CBS announced its winter premiere schedule, which includes reality staples like Survivor and Big Brother, set to debut February 7 and February 12, respectively.

NBC also announced the January premiere dates for Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I might have to start watching Law & Order again, now that Jeremy Sisto has joined the cast.

Shows produced by NBC Universal, which include Heroes and Battlestar Galactica, have been yanked from iTunes, after the contract between the two companies expired this weekend. NBC U wasn’t happy that iTunes was firm on its $1.99 per episode policy, but if they’d prefer me to download episodes for free from unsanctioned websites, I’m all for it.

If the writers strike lasts through February, as some fear it will, it will derail pilot season, where networks sell ad space on new fall shows. I’m sure there will be more details as to how that would affect viewers closer to that February deadline.

Conan O’Brien offered support to the striking writers via a video posted at Late Night Underground. It’s worth watching just to see the sparse "strike beard" Conan’s managed to grow in the month since the strike began. It’s certainly no Oreo Pizza Beard:

Over the weekend, Jay Leno was shamed into paying the salaries of his non-writing staff, who were fired the same day that NBC fired Conan O’Brien’s staff. O’Brien said immediately that he’d pay his staff members’ salaries through the holidays, and staff members of CBS’s two late night talk shows are being paid by their production company, Worldwide Pants.

Leno will pay his staff on a week-to-week basis in the hopes that the strike will be resolved soon. But that seems pretty optimistic, given that some insiders are predicting that the strike will drag on until March.

Variety’s Scribe Vibe blog has a list of studios where the writers will be picketing this week.

With reality shows in vogue now thanks to the strike, NBC has ordered three new documentary-style reality shows from the company that produces Ice Road Truckers and The Deadliest Catch.

HBO announced that the final season of The Wire will debut on January 6 at 9 ET. I just hope they release it on DVD in a more timely fashion than they have previous seasons.

Reality Blurred checked up on three of the restaurants featured on Kitchen Nightmares to see how they’ve fared after their Gordon Ramsey makeovers.

TV Guide has an interview with Barry Manilow, who’s promoting a new PBS special which debuts tonight in some areas (Tuesday night on Chicago’s WTTW). I have a new respect for Barry because of the way he responds when he’s walking through the airport and is mistaken for Rod Stewart: "I talk in a gruff voice and sign his autograph."

The Spice Girls tour, which kicked off last night in Vancouver, is getting kudos for its entertainment value, if not for the quality of its singing.

For fantastic entertainment that’s cheaper than the cost of a Spice Girls ticket, go see the latest Bollywood release, Aaja Nachle. If you’ve watched Dirty Dancing, Strictly Ballroom, or any other dance movie more than once, you will love this film. NowRunning.com lists theaters in the US that show Bollywood films (thanks for the link, JennyK).

Blonde buddies Shana & Jennifer had a falling out that caused their team to fall apart on the fifth leg of The Amazing Race 12.

Teams made their way from Burkina Faso to Lithuania, via Paris and one of three other European cities. A fickle travel agent told Nick & Don that the earliest flight was closed, and then booked Nathan & Jennifer on that same flight, once the grandpa and grandson left. Perhaps Don should’ve done more research on flights at the "Internet buffet" he’d visited before heading to the ticket counter.

All of the teams arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania within an hour of each other. Any advantage held by the earliest teams evened out as almost everyone had trouble driving through the confusing streets of the city, which dates back to the medieval period.

At one point, Jennifer attempted to turn her team’s vehicle around by backing out into the street in front of an oncoming bus, much to backseat passenger Shana’s horror. The near miss only exacerbated the tension between the pair, who were still feuding over Shana’s decision to use the U-Turn on the Jason & Lorena during the last leg.

A "good listener" from each team participated in a Roadblock that required them to remember verbal instructions given to them by several local people. Nick & Don, who’d arrived at the clue box in front of St. Anne’s Church first, lost ground as Nick futilely asked women for the location of an apparently unpopular hair salon.

Dreadlocked hippie TK got some help from a Lithuanian counterpart, who’d presumably just finished up a game of hacky sack on the quad at Vilnius University. The assist helped TK & Rachel complete the task in second place, behind goths Kynt & Vyxsin (who’ve quietly been doing a great job throughout the Race).

Teams then drove to the Open Air Museum of Lithuania for their Detour, where they chose between counting pickets in a fence or walking on stilts. The tasks were difficult because they had to be completed while surrounded by costumed revelers enjoying a traditional midsummer festival. The locals delighted in bugging the racers as they tried to concentrate.

Kynt & Vxysin failed to master the stilts and moved on the counting pickets. TK & Rachel, the second team to arrive at the museum, had an easier time with the stilts. They finished just minutes before the goths, and won a trip to Japan for finishing in first place.

Ronald and Christina, despite having landed last in Lithuania, finished in third place. And Azaria & Hendekea placed fourth.

Nathan & Jennifer had been nearly as contentious as the blondes all day, and the couple’s problems boiled over as they tried to count pickets. Jennifer kept screwing up her count — "88, 89, 100" — and then interrupted Nate yelling hints like, "Don’t let anyone distract you!" as he tried to count.

Finally, when Jennifer interrupted Nate because she felt he was counting too slowly, he retorted, "Bitch. What are you doing?" They both got fed up with the task and moved on to the stilts, where Jennifer had a brief meltdown that seemed more directed at Nate than the stilts.

The dating couple finished in fifth place, followed by Nick & Don and, finally, Shana & Jennifer. The blondes were eliminated, though hopefully their friendship was saved as a result.

Next week, Azaria loses his patience with Hendekea, and Nathan & Jennifer have another meltdown, this time in a boat.

Julianne Hough is denying rumors of a romance with her Dancing with the Stars partner Helio Castroneves, telling People, "I love Helio like he is my brother." The two were spotted in New York, looking cozy together.

Julianne also just signed a deal with music label Univeral Music Group Nashville, as part of her budding country music career.

It’s no secret that celebrities appear on DwtS to land new jobs, and Jennie Garth is the latest to benefit from her increased visibility: she’s going to shill for Orville Redenbacher popcorn. I hope she won’t be forced to wear the creepy old man mask that the Faux-Orville has been sporting in recent commercials.

In other dance reality show news, Elizabeth Berkley’s role as a stripper in Showgirls gave her enough dance credibility to become the host of Bravo’s new show, Step It Up and Dance.

The latest couple eliminated from The Amazing Race, Jason & Lorena, offered future racers two keys to surviving the show’s grueling pace: yoga and reversible underpants.

NBC announced its revised schedule for winter, which includes nightly reality shows to ease the pressure of the writers strike. Reality Blurred has a complete schedule of reality shows debuting on the major networks and cable in the next few months.

Studios and writers continue to negotiate, but things aren’t going well. Worse, the strike could affect some networks’ holiday office party plans.

One person emerging from the gloom of the strike as a super guy is Conan O’Brien. Starting next week, O’Brien is going to use his own money to pay the salaries of the 80 people who work on his show, so they won’t be burdened during the holidays.

After urging his comrades to avoid temptation, James took a pie to the face.

When we last left Survivor, Jeff Probst told the gang that they weren’t through at Tribal Council, even though they’d just voted Frosti out of the game. The remaining competitors were going to participate in their Reward Challenge that night as well.

The challenge was a quiz about Chinese culture, and, not surprisingly, the Chinese-American member of the tribe won. Peih-Gee beat out her closest competitors, James and Todd, when she answered correctly that, in China, a red envelope usually contains money.

Peih-Gee won perhaps the coolest reward in Survivor history: an overnight stay at the Shaolin Monastery, birthplace of Kung Fu. She was able to bring two people with her, and she chose Denise and Erik.

As they toured the monastery with one of the monks, Denise revealed that she was working on her black belt in Karate. After watching some impressive martial arts demonstrations by the monks, the tour guide asked Denise to show off some of her own moves.

Denise obliged, and while she’s no Kwai Chang Caine, I’d advise the kids in the school cafeteria where she works not to criticize the Salisbury steak.

The well-rested, well-fed, and highly entertained trio returned to camp to find James, Courtney, Todd, and Amanda wet, miserable, and huddled in a cave.

They all dried out in time for the Immunity Challenge, in which the Survivors scored points by hitting targets with throwing stars. Erik, Courtney, Amanda, and James tied for first place and moved on to a sudden death round, from which Erik emerged victorious.

Erik’s victory put a target on Peih-Gee, as the only member of the original Zhan Hu tribe eligible to be voted out.

James used a biblical analogy to encourage the original Fei Long members to stick with their alliance: "The Lord said, ‘Don’t bite that apple.’ If Eve would’ve listened, they’d still be frolicking naked in heaven. I just want us to frolic naked as long as we can. So don’t be tempted by Peih-Gee and Erik. Don’t bite the apple."

However, Amanda had other ideas. She realized that, if they got rid of Peih-Gee as planned, James would be able to use his two Immunity Idols at the next two Tribal Councils and wind up in the Final Four. Riffing on James’ analogy, Amanda said, "I am not only ready to bite the apple, I am ready to make the whole frickin’ pie."

In separate conversations, Amanda pulled Courtney, Todd, and Denise aside and told them that they needed to get rid of James that night. If they were able to keep him convinced that they were voting for Peih-Gee, James wouldn’t use his one of his Immunity Idols, and he would be gone.

Meanwhile, Peih-Gee came to the same realization as Amanda. With only the fuzziest idea of a plan in mind, Peih-Gee asked Amanda if she knew about James’ Hidden Idols.

Amanda confirmed that she did, but she didn’t want to get too candid with Peih-Gee. Instead, she gave her a coded response: "You just have to trust me, and you just have to not say anything the rest of the day. It’ll be in your best interest if you don’t. Act like you’re going home and just keep it like that."

Peih-Gee consented to play along, and she told Erik that she suspected a plan to whack James was afoot. Erik didn’t want to be on the wrong side of the power players, so he decided to vote for James.

Just in case James did play an Immunity Idol, thereby voiding any of the votes cast for him, Peih-Gee decided to vote for Todd. Assuming that James was voting for her, she’d at least be assured of a tie with Todd, and might be able to avoid being kicked off.

At Tribal Council, it was apparent that the Fei Long members’ lying and Peih-Gee’s "woe is me" moping around camp had worked. James kept both of his Immunity Idols in his bag, and sat there contorting his face in agony as Jeff Probst revealed vote after vote that read "James." Jury members Jaime, Jean-Robert, and Frosti were in hysterics, knowing that James could easily have saved himself but didn’t.

James, for his part, was a good sport about his ouster: "You can’t be angry with anybody. This is a game. I rolled the dice too many times, and I just got caught up."

Next time, Amanda begins to conspire against Todd, and Denise finds herself in a position of power.

In an interview with Extra, Maksim Chmerkovskiy made it sound as though he won’t be returning to Dancing with the Stars: "If this is the limit of where I can get in a show, then let it be. I’m satisfied and moving on."

Maks’ partner, Melanie Brown, posted behind-the-scenes photos from Tuesday night’s Results Show at the Spice Girls’ website. There’s also a contest to win the fake eyelashes she wore at the finale.

Mel also told People that she’s going to miss DwtS host Tom Bergeron: "He’s so hilarious. My favorite show is America’s Funniest Home Videos, and he gave me 12 DVDs and I’m addicted."

Mark Ballas may need surgery to repair the shoulder he dislocated during Tuesday night’s Dancing with the Stars Finale. While Mark was rushed to the hospital right after the injury occurred, producers told Sabrina Bryan she’d have to stay until the show was over.

Sabrina told People: "I know I had to be here, but I’m so worried about him. I’m so mad they wouldn’t let me leave."

Mark’s dad, Corky, who went with Mark to the hospital, told TV Guide, "When Sabrina got there, he felt much better."

Another DwtS casualty is Helio Castroneves’ relationship with his fiancee, Aliette Vazquez. The morning after he won the mirrorball trophy, he told People that the two of them are "no longer together."

The Dancing with the Stars 5 finale was watched by nearly 25 million people. While it was the second most-watched telecast of the season, the numbers are lower than previous DwtS finales, and it lost in key demos to House.

Finally, as if becoming prom queen at your own high school wasn’t difficult enough, ABC Family is working on America’s Prom Queen. Even more nerve wracking for the perky cheerleaders who will no doubt compete for the title is that they will be judged by "nerds" and "misfits." What. Ever.