SUNDAY, MAY 11
BROTHERS & SISTERS
10:02 P.M. | ABC
Season 2 ends with a fresh load of dirty laundry from the secret life of dead Mr. Walker (Tom Skerritt, in flashback).
THE SIMPSONS
8 P.M. | FOX
Glenn Close provides the voice for Homer's dying mother, Mona. And Lance Armstrong is the voice of ... himself!
MONDAY, MAY 12
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
8:30 P.M. | CBS
Ratings-booster Britney Spears (left) pays another visit as Abby, the cute but addled receptionist. Can she be on Heroes in the fall?
THE HILLS
10 P.M. | MTV
More agita for America's favorite lovebirds, Heidi (right) and Spencer: She wants to move to Vegas. It's the season finale—but the show will be back in August.
THURSDAY, MAY 15
THE OFFICE
9 P.M. | NBC
In an hour-long send-off to the season, Michael (Steve Carell) wants a big farewell party for Toby (Paul Lieberstein).
ER
10:01 P.M. | NBC
Goodbye to what's officially the next-to-last season of the long-running hit. Steve Buscemi comes in drunk, causes a ruckus.
FRIDAY, MAY 16
MOONLIGHT
9 P.M. | CBS
A vampire's intimate relations with a human end very badly—this is a surprise?—in the season 1 finale of the noirish-fangish series starring Alex O'Loughlin (left).
NEW SEASON!
American Gladiators
NBC, May 12, 8 p.m. ET
One of the better-produced reality shows to premiere during the writers' strike last year, Gladiators returns to deliver more of the same boisterous adrenaline experience: With epic challenges played out over water and above the ground, it feels something like a phys-ed class dominated by powerful androids. Throughout this season eight new gladiators, with names like Phoenix, Rocket and Jet, will be entering the arena. (It would be intriguing if anyone were named, say, Pyrrhic Victory.) And two new games will be introduced in the two-hour premiere: One has the players competing in a footrace across the tops of 30-ft.-high poles. The other involves shooting basketballs while being catapulted from launching pads. Why weren't either of those tried at a presidential debate?
1 SHE'S CLUELESS Well, her character is: Momsen plays Jenny Humphrey, a nonprivileged girl so muddled by status hunger she'll steal a Valentino and pawn it for another evening gown. Momsen, 14, rather touchingly captures her dumb pathos.
2 SHE'S COMPLEX—by Gossip standards. How far will Jenny evolve by the end of this first season (the finale is May 19)? For every descent into Upper East Side creepdom, she gets a nasty jolt of consequences and twitches back toward girlish decency.
3 SHE'S RUTHLESS Frankly, I like Momsen best at her cruelest, rejecting a boy she wrongly assumes is a dog walker. Her eyes have an appraising glint. A few years older, in a different time, she could have been Anne Boleyn.
An innocent freshman frat pledge on the ABC Family hit Greek, Zachar, 22, says he found romance on-set.
WERE YOU A NERD IN SCHOOL? I cared about my academics, but I was social. I messed around, but I was sneaky about it.
EVER JOIN A FRAT? No, I never had any experiences with rushing or pledging [at Columbia College Chicago], but we were shooting at U.C. Santa Barbara and some frat guys ended up inviting me up to some parties out there.
HOW'S THE DATING LIFE? I'm going out with Jessica Rose, who plays my girlfriend on Greek. Our first kiss was also our first onscreen one. We were both very excited to do it.
EVER HAD TROUBLE WORKING TOGETHER? I screwed up big-time early on. Before you know what [the deal] is between you, you want to go out and have your own fun. I got busted like that. I told her I was researching the role, but she didn't believe it. She's smarter than me.
When she didn't receive a rose from Brad Womack on The Bachelor last fall, DeAnna Pappas "got my heart broken." Now the Newnan, Ga., Realtor, 26, gets to do the picking on the fourth edition of ABC's Bachelorette, starting May 19.
WHY GO THROUGH THE FIRE AGAIN? I believe in this experience. I can't help that it didn't happen for Brad, but I believe in the show. How can they go around America, find 25 amazing guys and me not fall in love in that situation? I'm very confident that my husband is here.
DESCRIBE YOUR TYPE. Dark, tall guys. I like the country, scruffy-looking face. I'm a southern girl. I'm attracted to southern guys. I'm looking for someone who is very family-oriented, who can make me laugh. Most importantly, someone who knows what he wants!
DID YOU TRY DATING POST-BRAD? I went on one date with a friend, and obviously it did not go well, or I wouldn't be here right now.
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT LOVE FROM DOING THE SHOW? Being attracted to guys that I'm not typically attracted to—that's a wonderful feeling, to know that I'm not as predictable as I thought.
TRISTA SUTTER The former Trista Rehn, now 35, is the only one to ride the show all the way to marriage—and parenthood. She and Ryan Sutter welcomed a baby boy, Maxwell, in 2007.
Advice for DeAnna: "You don't want to risk [losing] that one guy because you didn't express how you felt."
MEREDITH PHILLIPS Her engagement to Ian McKee (above) ended after a year, but the model and cookbook author, 34, has since found true romance with her boyfriend of three years.
Advice for DeAnna: "It's important to be yourself [on the show]—don't focus on being on television!"
JEN SCHEFFT The PR rep, 31, whose future with Andrew Firestone (above) expired after he chose her on The Bachelor, in turn chose no one as The Bachelorette. Now she's happy in a relationship.
Advice for DeAnna: "Don't read anything they say about you online. You know what's best for you."
This year, the nights are crammed more than ever with games, stunts and out-of-the-ordinary stars
CELEBS UP CLOSE
DENISE RICHARDS: IT'S COMPLICATED (E!, MAY 26) Rejoice, voyeurs. Not only has the actress and ex-wife of Charlie Sheen landed a show—Dina Lohan's Living Lohan premieres the same night on E! The network will also have a series for Pam Anderson in August.
HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: SUMMER SESSION (ABC, JULY 20) The network hasn't revealed the prize for this Nick Lachey-hosted talent search, but it might involve a Disney musical. Expect the title to change.
THE BABY BORROWERS (NBC, JUNE 25) Five couples are put through a sociological experiment in caregiving, learning to look after everybody from an infant to a tween to a senior citizen.
CELEBRITY CIRCUS (NBC, JUNE 11) Such reality staples as Christopher Knight (left) and Rachel Hunter perform stunts under the big top. Joey Fatone is the one cracking the whip—hosting, I mean.
WEIRDEST CONCEPT!
I SURVIVED A JAPANESE GAME SHOW (ABC, JUNE 24) Ten Americans fly to Japan to play the sort of crazy, gonzo challenges that make for popular programming there.
GREATEST AMERICAN DOG (CBS, JULY 10) And American cats? Are they nothing special to you, reality producers? Rival dog owners vie to train their pets to perform new tricks. The prize is $250,000.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
