[Televisionary]

I was stunned to learn yesterday that more people tuned in Wednesday night to watch CBS procedural Criminal Minds than ABC's Lost . While 16.10 million viewers caught Mandy Patinkin over on the Eye, a blip less (16.07 million viewers) tuned in to find out exactly what happened to Locke, Eko, and Desmond when the hatch went kablooey. I find that downright troubling, even more worrisome than the fact that we're already halfway through Lost 's "fall season." I should mention that, thanks to the coveted 18-49 demographic, Lost still came out number one for the evening. But the fact that the two series are virtually neck and neck for viewership makes me concerned, given that Lost has seen double-digit percentage declines year-to-year. Serialized dramas as a whole have taken a hit this season with Jericho and Heroes being the only two new series able to find an audience. Meanwhile, NBC is burning off Kidnapped on Saturdays and, yesterday, Fox announced their plans...

It's funny how some people got rather turned off by the last season of ABC's Lost , but I found the circuitous plot completely engaging, even if it was tonally very different than the outstanding freshman season. That said, it's been interesting to see that the last few episodes of the new third season of Lost have featured a return to the types of stories that made the series' first season such a success. Last night's episode ("Further Instructions"), written by Carlton Cuse and Elizabeth Sarnoff, picks up the pieces of Locke's fateful decision to stop pressing the button and we're given the opportunity to see where Locke, Eko, and Desmond ended up after activating the failsafe and, you know, turning the firmament purple for a bit. I absolutely loved the opening shot of Locke's eye opening (the return of a welcome motif) and his body laying rather crumpled in the jungle; it's a nice visual echo of the opening of the series with Locke stan...

I never, ever would have seen this coming. Throughout this season of Project Runway , I was really rooting for Michael Knight to take home the top prize at the end of the day. But had you told me that the winner of Pro ject Runway 3 would have been Jeffrey, especially after the fiasco with Angela's mom and the accusations of cheating , I would have laughed in your face. And yet, here we are. Jeffrey Sebelia, he of the wackadoo hair and giraffe neck tattoos, has been given the couture crown and named the ultimate winner of Bravo's addictive fashion competition. It's been quite a rollercoaster ride these past few weeks and I'm actually more than a little sad that the season has come to a close now. I had a feeling that Jeffrey would be allowed to show his collection at Olympus Fashion Week in Bryant Park... and stay in the competition. Just a hunch. Even if producers pulled a fast one and made him present but still eliminated him, I think that would have been a little ...

Should we be planning an intervention for our favorite Neptune couple? After two episodes that showed Veronica and Logan slowly drifting apart, it was fantastic (though awfully sad) to see the repercussions that being in college would have on their relationship. And this week it very nearly seemed as though Veronica and Logan (or for you 'shippers out there, LoVe) were going to just call the whole thing off. Do these two lovebirds belong together? Does Veronica have a thing for reforming bad boys? Speaking of Veronica's thing for bad boys, it was great to see Eli "Weevil" Navarro again as he's been so far conspicuously absent from the show's third season and it was fantastic to see him, anger management issues still intact, in last night's episode of Veronica Mars ("Witchita Linebacker"). I absolutely loved the fact that Veronica emotionally blackmailed Keith into hiring Weevil at Mars Investigations and even more so that the two seemed to click ...

Just a day after fellow freshman dramas Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters received full season orders from ABC, newly minted netlet the CW has decided not to issue a reprieve to struggling family drama Runaway , cancelling the series after just three episodes. The series, from Sony Pictures TV, starred Donnie Wahlberg and 24 's Leslie Hope and was created by Chad Hodge. According to Variety , the studio had delivered six completed episodes of Runaway to the CW. The move is hardly a surprising one, given the low numbers Runaway had brought in during its first (and only) three weeks on the air, averaging only 1.7 million viewers. Originally slotted for Monday nights at 9 pm, the CW issued a bit of a switcheroo last week, relocating timeslot lead-in 7th Heaven and Runaway to Sunday nights and moving its comedy lineup to Mondays. While it resulted in a bit of an uptick for critically acclaimed comedy Everybody Hates Chris and the rest of the lineup, the move sort of sank Run...

I don't know about you but I simply can't get enough of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. From his series Hell's Kitchen and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares , he's presented a persona that is at times mercilessly cruel and passionately involved with food. It's food, of course, that the foul-mouthed Ramsay loves to talk about, reflect upon, and, well, cook up and that's the f-word in the title of Ramsay's latest television outing, Gordon Ramsay's F Word . (What did you think it should stand for, eh?) Filmed in the UK last year, Gordon Ramsay's F Word is finally making its US debut this week on BBC America and it's unlike anything that Ramsay has shown us before. It's not quite a cooking show and it's not quite a reality show; instead, it's something more analogous to a variety show, with Ramsay--quite possibly the ultimate entertainer--as the bellowing ringmaster. (P.T. Barnum would have been impressed.) While that might seem an odd anal...

Given the dismal state of this year's crop of new series, it's no wonder that the networks are looking to hold on to the few ratings standouts as they crop up. So it's no surprise then that ABC has given full season orders to two freshman dramas in its stable, Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters , picking up the back nine episodes for both... which means a full 22 episodes for fans of Mode magazine or the Walker clan. ABC's Ugly Betty has averaged the second place spot among A18-49 on Thursday nights (just behind CBS' Survivor ) and an average of 15.3 million viewers. It's also worth noting that Betty is the top freshman series among Latino viewers with an average of 1.13 million viewers. Meanwhile, Brothers & Sisters won its 10 pm timeslot this past Sunday night among the key demo, A18-49 (4.9/12), and across the board with female viewers. While no ratings behemoths along the lines of previous breakouts Lost , Desperate Housewives , or Grey's Ana...