BY TOM GLIATTO
The announcement last fall that Ellen DeGeneres would host this year's Oscars (ABC, Feb. 25, 8 p.m. ET) earned an instant put-down from awards blog Gold Derby. And I quote: "Zzzzzzzzzz." I for one would like to thank the Academy for hiring a comic who understands that sometimes it's enough to unreel a string of small, pointed jokes. To see DeGeneres in action is like watching a kite launched in a summer breeze: How light and charming. Light charm can be underrated in a world in which the big ambition is to lasso a new demographic by hiring a cutting-edge satirist like last year's host, Jon Stewart (who didn't improve the ratings). The idea this time apparently is to go with a host who, like Johnny Carson of old, is lean, pleasant, uncluttering—who matches all those thin Plexiglas sheets that serve as sets. Okay by me. Billy Crystal's tsunami-scale opening numbers, the Oscar gold standard, usually left me feeling both entertained and pummeled. Will Ellen be memorable? Does she have to be? After all, the most unforgettable moment in recent Oscar history was David Letterman chanting "Uma" and "Oprah" in 1995. Ellen'll be fun; she'll be good.
VH1 (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. ET)
REALITY
The Wilhelmina modeling agency is run by a pack of angry hyenas dressed in agents' clothing. They spend their days snarling at each other and nipping at the ankles of the slender, beautiful young things who trip gazelle-like through their Manhattan offices. At least that's the impression I get from this entertaining, surprisingly warts-and-all series—produced – oddly enough, by Wilhelmina itself. The agents, one of them a large man known as Pink, get all worked up over the widening hips of a model named Chloe. They also convince a dude named Tyler to change his surfer-blond hair. Important stuff! The show lacks the relaxed balminess of VH1's earlier models-in-Miami show 8th & Ocean, but I like the keen sense of fear and loathing behind the runway.
CBS (Thursdays, 8 p.m. ET)
REALITY
Fiji kicked off with a fun gimmick with lots of potential: One team, after winning the first challenge, has been given supplies to set up a deluxe camp. They have lumber, pipes, a toilet with a seat. All that's lacking to make this a Survivor Four Seasons is Jeff Probst behind a concierge's desk. Of the initial 19 players—a 20th skedaddled before shooting began because of anxiety problems—Sylvia Kwan is my kind of castaway: Sylvia took charge of getting the camp going, and she was resolutely chipper even when Probst exiled her to an island where the only welcome was from snakes.
HBO (Feb. 17, 8 p.m. ET)
DRAMA
Peter Morgan, whose Oscar-nominated script for The Queen is a model of how to shape history into drama, does it again. This extraordinary British film is about Frank Aungier Pakenham, Earl of Longford. A Catholic convert, an eccentric, a bit of a holy fool, he campaigned for years for the parole and rehabilitation of notorious child-killer Myra Hindley. People loathed him and mocked him for it. Jim Broadbent plays this strange, admirable old bird with blue eyes still wide with innocence. Samantha Morton is Hindley, vulnerable yet heartless. The relationship of saint to sinner has seldom been so moving.
>DAVID LETTERMAN Year hosted: 1995 48 million viewers
BILLY CRYSTAL Hosted: Eight times Peak: 55 million viewers, '90
JON STEWART Year hosted: 2006 39 million viewers
>Jericho (CBS, Feb. 21, 8 p.m. ET) The apocalyptic drama starring Skeet Ulrich is back from break with a flashback episode set before everything went kablooey.
Heroes (NBC, Feb. 19, 9 p.m. ET) Another new character! Hana Gitelman (Stana Katic) can pick up wireless communication mentally. So she doesn't need a Blackberry.
The Amazing Race: All-Stars (CBS, Feb. 18, 8 p.m. ET) Eleven teams from the past 10 seasons compete anew. They include Rob and Amber Mariano and little person Charla Baklayan Faddoul and her cousin Mirna Hindoyan.
The O.C. (FOX, Feb. 22, 9 p.m. ET) It's goodbye to Rachel Bilson, Adam Brody and Benjamin McKenzie. They had the potency of sex and youth, but their show ends here, tonight.
Desperate Housewives (ABC, Feb. 18, 9 p.m. ET) Tom's pizzeria opens—finally—and the network hints that someone may end up toast.
>John Tartaglia
A Sesame Street puppeteer at 16, Tartaglia, now 29, grew up to star with puppets onstage (Avenue Q) and on Disney Channel's Johnny and the Sprites, about a guy befriending magical creatures.
PUPPET MASTER When I was 16, I wrote down this idea about woodland creatures. It's amazing to think of something at that age and have it happen as a show.
DOUBLE DUTY I'm on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast as Lumiere. What's wonderful is I've always been a huge Disney fan. I'm kind of a theme-park geek.
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