'PROBST WILL REPLACE ME': REGIS
There could be a new Regis on the block.
Regis Philbin appears to be grooming "Survivor" host Jeff Probst to take over "Live with Regis & Kelly" when he one day says "adios amigos."
"This is a guy who would kill, kill to sit here every day," Philbin told viewers yesterday while priming the audience for a guest appearance by Probst, who dropped by to promote the latest season of "Survivor."
"And one of ['Live' executive producer Michael] Gelman's favorites," Regis said.
Probst has subbed as a guest host for Philbin several times in the past, when the 73-year-old TV icon has gone on vacation.
Gelman "is grooming him for the day I say adios amigos — you'll see him fighting his way in," Regis joked.
"He sits here and he looks at you — the whole thing is developing right before your eyes," Regis told his leggy co-host, Kelly Ripa.
"I think a little jealousy is what we're watching unfold," Ripa shot back.
"Regis was kidding around with a friend of the show and it's nothing more than that," a spokesperson said.
Low-Rated Series Struggle for a Future
LOS ANGELES - "Arrested Development" star Jason Bateman and the sitcom's creator, Mitchell Hurwitz, were assessing the cuddle quotient in a show that viewers may soon lose the chance to embrace.
"There are a surprising number of hugs in the show. We just make jokes about how they (the characters) never hug," said Hurwitz. "So even when Michael's mother hugs him, he says, `What are you doing? Why are you squeezing me with your body?'"
Bateman, who stars as Michael in the acerbic Fox comedy about the dysfunctional Bluth family, offers a solution: "You've got the Pax network if you want a good hug."
But he and the rest of the "Arrested Development" clan might be in need of comfort: Fox is halting production after 18 episodes, shy of the usual 22, bringing the season — and maybe the series — to a premature end April 17.
"American Dad" takes its 8:30 p.m. EST Sunday slot starting May 1. The animated comedy about a CIA agent and his family scored in a post-Super Bowl preview and Fox awarded it the premium real estate after "The Simpsons."
With the football extravaganza as launching pad, "American Dad" drew 15 million viewers. For its sophomore season to date, "Arrested Development" is averaging 6 million weekly viewers, down from last season's average audience of 6.2 million.
The lack of interest persists despite rave reviews and awards: a Golden Globe for Bateman in January and a best-comedy series Emmy last year.
It's not the only program suffering a gap between quality and ratings. "Jack & Bobby" (9 p.m. EST Wednesdays), the WB's drama about the formative years of a future U.S. president, can't stoke viewer interest despite a critically acclaimed first season.
Although a relatively new network like WB doesn't demand "American Idol"-size ratings, the 2.7 million average weekly audience for "Jack & Bobby" is scant compared to the nearly 6 million watching WB's most-watched series, "7th Heaven."
Worthy shows have come and gone many times before, but the irony is acute for the latest endangered pair. "Arrested Development," which is ferociously clever and daringly breaks the laugh-track, multicamera sitcom mold, arrived as the genre cried out for rejuvenation.
With the passing of "Friends," "Sex and the City" and (at the end of this season) "Everybody Loves Raymond," observers have lamented the mostly uninspired retreads that are left.
"Arrested Development" wasn't entirely startling — "Seinfeld" reveled in the crassness of its characters; "Curb Your Enthusiasm" saw its cynicism and raised it.
But the Fox show was asking a sitcom family to be received as something other than inherently warm and loving, and derived its dry humor from the characters' odd, morally suspect behavior.
That audiences would take awhile to adapt was understandable, Bateman said.
"If anybody says this show is not accessible, which I think is not really accurate or fair or deserved, perhaps that's what they're talking about," the actor said. "It's around the side door for laughter. You have to watch two episodes to understand what our joke is. Then, if you're in that gear, it delivers nonstop."
Adds Hurwitz: "I think people understand dealing with adult parents and adult siblings, and that's at the core of every show."
Relationships also are central to "Jack & Bobby," which stars Christine Lahti as the loving but eccentric single mother of a boy destined to be a leader (Logan Lerman) and his older brother, Jack (Matt Long).
Along with family and romantic skirmishes, the series created by Greg Berlanti explores how Bobby's childhood shapes the character and moral sense he ultimately brings to the presidency.
It's a sophisticated twist on popular youth-oriented dramas such as "Everwood" and "Smallville," and arrived in a season of renewed viewer interest in scripted shows ("Lost," "Desperate Housewives") after the reality flood.
"Jack & Bobby" also appears to have the potential to attract the somewhat older audience that WB executives have said they want to cultivate as the network focuses on 20-somethings as well as teenagers.
Berlanti knows how to make appealing dramas, with "Everwood" and "Dawson's Creek" among his credits. He searches for an answer when asked why his latest effort isn't getting traction.
Maybe there's audience fatigue from too many family dramas, he suggests. Maybe it's the political element that's putting people off.
"I'd very much be looking forward to a second season when we didn't have an election," Berlanti said. "I think it was a case of people being oversaturated with that."
He expects "Jack & Bobby" to go the full season with 22 episodes and have a fighting chance to build its audience. With the truncated run for "Arrested Development," it seems unlikely that Fox (which gets points for bringing it back after the first low-rated season) will find a reason to renew it when the 2006-05 schedule is announced in May.
Veteran actress Jessica Walter, who stars as the cold-fish Bluth mother, Lucille, is dismayed by the show's peril.
"I think it's awful that art or creative entertainment is made for some formula of Nielsen ratings, and I don't buy into that," she said. "I'd rather be on something good watched by 1 million people than something awful watched by 20 million."
Berlanti strikes a more philosophical note.
He and his writers are working "to tell the best stories we know how to tell and hope that some point down the line people look back on the series, whether it goes for five years or just one year, and want to buy the box (DVD) set."
Springsteen Stares Down 'Devils' on New Album
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Bruce Springsteen has re-teamed with producer Brendan O'Brien for his 19th album, "Devils & Dust," which Columbia will release on April 26.
The 12-track set follows the format of Springsteen's '90s studio work, in which he eschewed the presence of the full E Street Band and was instead surrounded by a rotating cast of collaborators.
The core band here features only Springsteen on guitar, O'Brien on bass and Steve Jordan (Steely Dan, Keith Richards) on drums. The latter also produced Springsteen's wife Patti Scialfa's 2004 Columbia studio album, "23rd Street Lullaby."
The title cut has been in Springsteen's catalog for several years, and was dusted off in soundchecks for the E Street Band's run on last fall's Vote for Change tour, but never performed at a show.
Two of the tracks -- "Long Time Comin"' and "The Hitter" -- date back at least 10 years and were performed during the tour in support of the 1995 album "The Ghost of Tom Joad."
Like much of the material on that set, the songs are both first-person narratives, using details and fragmented scenes to sketch out a life's story. The first is about a father celebrating the optimism that comes with an awaited child; the second about a street fighter nearing the end of an unenviable career.
Springsteen will tour acoustically in support of the new album, but no details have been announced as to who, if anyone, will back him or what size venues he will play.
"Devils & Dust" is the Springsteen's first studio album since 2002's O'Brien-produced "The Rising," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 2.1 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The tour in support of the set grossed $221.5 million from 121 shows reported to Billboard Boxscore.
Springsteen won a Grammy on Sunday for best solo rock vocal performance for the "Code of Silence," which was released on the 2003 collection "The Essential Bruce Springsteen."
Here is the track list for "Devils & Dust":
"Devils & Dust"
"All The Way Home"
"Reno"
"Long Time Comin"'
"Black Cowboys"
"Maria's Bed"
"Silver Palomino"
"Jesus Was an Only Son"
"Leah"
"The Hitter"
"All I'm Thinkin' About"
"Matamoras Banks"
George Michael Bids Farewell to Pop World
BERLIN (Reuters) - Singer George Michael said farewell to the world of pop music on Wednesday, using a candid documentary about his life to put the record straight before he "disappeared."
He also declared the genre that brought him fame and riches, as well as unwanted media attention, was dead.
"That genre is just dead as far as I am concerned," he told Reuters in an interview after the premiere of his documentary at the Berlin Film Festival.
"George Michael: A Different Story" traces a rags-to-riches journey that made Michael one of the biggest selling artists of the 1980s and 1990s but which was not without tragedy along the way.
"I just thought it was very important to explain myself before I disappear," the 41-year-old said. "I truly believe that there's a life for me that is not this one."
When asked what he would do next, he replied:
"Perhaps it will mean writing for other people. I have an ambition to write a truly contemporary musical, not necessarily even for the stage, but for the screen ... I have got to find ways to make music and enjoy it the way I used to."
Michael railed against the advent of manufactured bands and the music world's obsession with celebrity, explaining that he was not interested in competing with the likes of British musicians Robbie Williams or Will Young.
"Nobody want to hear about politics, or any kind of strong ideas in pop any more."
In the 100-minute film, he speaks frankly about losing a lover to AIDS and the death of his mother, of the infamous lewd act in a Beverly Hills toilet and the media fury over his anti-Iraq war stance.
CELEBRITY LIFE "UNBEARABLE"
The documentary is fascinating as much for its insight into life as a celebrity as it is for revealing some of the truth about the notoriously publicity-shy star.
"It's never suited me very well, the business of media and celebrity," Michael said. "Now I just find it unbearable."
His meteoric rise to superstardom, first with Wham! and then as a solo artist, was complicated by the fact that he was gay while widely believed to be straight.
"I thought, 'Oh my God, I'm a massive star and I think I may be a poof. This is not going to end well'," he said in the film.
Michael eventually outed himself after being charged with lewd behavior in a toilet in 1998, although he lost Brazilian boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa to an AIDS-related condition in 1993.
"I remember looking at the sky and saying: 'Don't do this to me'," Michael said, referring to the moment when Feleppa told him he was going for medical tests.
Ballads like "Careless Whisper" and "Faith" have propelled Michael to the pinnacle of the music world.
He has sold more than 70 million records, and his 1987 album "Faith" yielded six number one singles in the key American market. He has amassed a personal fortune estimated at 80 million pounds ($150 million).
But he has also had fallow years, such as when he fought a losing legal battle against his record label in the early 1990s.
He came roaring back in 1994, performing the acclaimed "Jesus to a Child" single under Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.
Elton John appears in the film and repeats his criticism of Michael that a decision not to tour was a waste of his talent.
"I find him very frustrating," said John.
John also takes a swipe at Michael's reluctance to tell the world that he was gay.
"To be busted in the toilet is not the best way to come out of the closet, is it?" John asked.
Michael said he never thought the incident would destroy his career, but he was "floored" by the media backlash triggered by his opposition to the war in Iraq.
The video for "Shoot the Dog" features cartoon figures of President Bush in bed with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife.