What's On This Week

SUNDAY, MAY 18

ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS
8 P.M. | CBS
Everyone from Kenny Chesney to Carrie Underwood (right), plus a milestone award for Garth Brooks.

MONDAY, MAY 19

GOSSIP GIRL
8 P.M. | CW
The season wraps with everyone headed to a society wedding. The vow ought to be: "You know you love me ... XOXO."

HOUSE
9 P.M. | FOX
Part 2 of the season ender: Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) is still putting his brain back in order after that bus accident.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 21

AMERICAN IDOL
8 P.M. | FOX
The winner is announced to great and glorious fanfare. But will David Archuleta (left) be in the final two, as Simon Cowell predicted at the start of the season?

THURSDAY, MAY 22

GREY'S ANATOMY
9 P.M. | ABC
In the two-hour finale to season 4, Izzie and Alex (Katherine Heigl and Justin Chambers) bond over a new crisis.

SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE
8 P.M. | FOX
The summer reality staple returns with two hours of auditions, making happy feet happier.

LAST COMIC STANDING
9:30 P.M. | NBC
Season 6 for the reality contest, with comics from 20 countries vying to be screamingly funniest.

Ugly Betty
ABC, May 22, 8 p.m. ET

LINDSAY ON BOARD!

COMEDY DRAMA

The second season of one of television's best series—a celebration of both the candy-colored diversion of fashion and the values of home and family—ends with a much publicized casting coup: Lindsay Lohan appears as a girl named Kimberly who tormented Betty (America Ferrera) back in high school. Lohan will continue into five episodes in the coming fall season. If she hooks new viewers, well, that's fabulous. But fans of the show wouldn't care if Meryl Streep were hired to come striding in from The Devil Wears Prada. Betty already has a near-perfect cast of performers who all seem to be having an infectious good time as they charge through the over-the-top soap opera plot. Chief among them, of course, is Vanessa Williams as Wilhelmina Slater, super-conniving editrix. Williams gives off the chill glamour of an orchid preserved on ice. I'll miss her in the heat of summer.

• Denise Richards: It's Complicated, premiering on E! May 26, follows the 37-year-old actress as she goes about her career and family life with Sam, 4, and Lola, 2, her daughters with ex Charlie Sheen.

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO DO THE SHOW? I just thought, "Gosh, I can't go anywhere but up from here," so I had nothing to lose. I've had every rotten thing you can imagine written and said about me, so I figured why not let people see who I really am?

WHY WOULD YOU INVOLVE YOUR DAUGHTERS IN A REALITY SHOW? I'm in a no-win situation. If I don't have the girls in it, people will think, "She's not the mom she says she is," and if they are—even for just a glimpse—I'm exploiting them. But they had to be a part of it. I'm a single mom.

DO YOU TALK ABOUT CHARLIE SHEEN IN THE SHOW? I don't say one negative word about Charlie. This show is also about me having a fresh start.

HOW ABOUT ALL THAT FUSS WHEN YOU WERE DATING RICHIE SAMBORA? I reference more the situation. I kind of have to because it's the elephant in the room.

WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT TO SEE? My mom [Joni] just passed away from cancer, so my dad moves in with me, and we're all still grieving. I'm trying to balance being a mom and working and dealing with being newly divorced. As dysfunctional as it may be, we're a real family that really loves each other.