day 182

christina applegate: will work for food 

okay, let's hope she's not that desperate.  but, it looks like the actress will be looking for work.  sources are saying that applegate's abc comedy samantha who? has been shut down and won't be returning in the fall.  while the sitcom was in the beginning stages of being retooled from a single-camera comedy to a multi-camera laugher in order to cut the budget by half a million, it looks like all systems are a no go.  the show, which premiered as the highest rated freshman sitcom in 2007, was kind of given the shaft by the alphabet net, moving from a cushy monday, post-dancing with the stars spot to thursdays at 7:30, up against nbc's comedy night and cbs' ncis, and was pulled from the air with 7 unaired episodes when new comedy in the motherhood didn't become a hit with audiences.  the network plans to air the final 7 episodes (allegedly the last one "feels" like a series finale) on friday nights this summer.  i don't understand why an emmy winning comedy with an a-list sitcom cast would be thrown into the tv wasteland, but i'm not a tv programmer.  i just hate when a show with good writing gets killed and scrubs, which has been dying a slow, painful death, gets renewed.  but that's because money is in syndication - the more shows produced by a series with 100+ episodes means more money in the future.  and, because sam who? is produced in house (by abc studios), chances of another network picking up the show are slim (scrubs is produced by warner brothers so abc could easily nab it from nbc).  hopefully the show won't be completely lost.  i feel like the networks don't understand that the sitcom isn't dead, just what you're doing with it is dead.  an official announcement from the network will come later this week. 

here's a list of tv finales this week:

monday: dancing with the stars, part 1; gossip girl; 24; csi: miami 

tuesday: dancing with the stars, part 2; american idol, part 1; 90210; ncis 

wednesday: american idol, part 2

thursday: ugly betty 

happy watching. click here to see when your other fave shows will be ending until the fall.