'X Factor' Swap: Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland Switch in the Works?

'X Factor' Swap: Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland Switch in the Works?

THR investigates reports out of England which suggest that show creator Simon Cowell is contemplating some big casting moves.

Leave it to the British tabs to cook up another X Factor fantasy, this time involving U.S. judge Nicole Scherzinger and U.K. judge Kelly Rowland.

According to Now Magazine, the show, and creator Simon Cowell specifically, is contemplating a possible swap that would send Scherzinger to London and bring Rowland to Los Angeles. The weekly quotes a source who says, “Simon thinks [Rowland] will be amazing on the US show” and notes that Scherzinger has had a “mixed reaction in the U.S.”

While it’s true that some lingering resentment remains over the audition phase dismissal of UK X Factor import Cheryl Cole in favor of Scherzinger, who was initially hired as a co-host, as the competition has progressed, the sassy Pussycat Dolls singer, along with her popular “over 30s” contestants, which include Stacy Francis, LeRoy Bell and last man standing Josh Krajcik, has built a supportive audience all her own.

On the other hand, Scherzinger has had a successful single (“Don’t Hold Your Breath”) and album (Killer Love) chart in the UK where she is a bonafide solo star, while the album’s U.S. release has been marred by repeated delays. Rowland has seen moderate solo success on both sides of the pond, but after she received harsh criticism for calling out sick on UK X Factor (she was legitimately and severely ill, her doctor later revealed), perhaps she would get a warmer welcome on American shores. In other words, a swap might not be such a crazy idea.

An insider denies that any conversations of the sort have taken place and insists that all players are happy and focused on the season at hand. This week, that means Michael Jackson songs, the theme for Wednesday night.


An X Factor spokesman tells the tab that, “no decisions of cast changes will be made until the show ends next month.”

Preteens Watch More TV This Fall, But Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network Drop

Preteens Watch More TV This Fall, But Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network Drop

Viewership by kids ages 2-11 is up 1.7 percent season-to-date, but Viacom’s and Time Warner’s kids networks have slipped in the ratings.

More preteen children have been watching TV so far this fall season, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing data from TV ratings firm Nielsen.

But it highlighted that Viacom’s Nickelodeon and Time Warner’s Cartoon Network have seen ratings declines among children between the ages of two and 11, while Walt Disney’s networks have shown diverging trends.

The Journal said that the data shows an accelerating decline at Nickelodeon in recent weeks, raising questions about Viacom's recent suggestion that a glitch caused a sharp drop in fall ratings for Nickelodeon.

For the TV season through Nov. 20, an average of 5.8 million kids 2-11 have been watching TV, including broadcast and cable - live and recorded TV, the Journal cited Nielsen data as showing. That is up 1.7 percent from a year earlier. Slightly fewer preteens are watching TV during the day, and more are watching non-kids networks, the Journal said.

For Nickelodeon, Nielsen's data shows that 969,000 kids between the ages of two and 11 watched in September, down 11 percent from the year-ago period. But the data shows a 17 percent drop for October, and a 19 percent decline in the first three weeks of November.

Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman during his company’s latest earnings conference call said the ratings drop since September has been "inexplicable" and that it has been working with Nielsen to explain it.

Nielsen in a statement told the Journal that "the review process confirms that our measurement methodology, operations and related reporting processes are working as expected."

The Media Rating Council, which has been working with the two parties, said it expects to complete its work by early December, but plans to release its findings only to Nielsen and Viacom.

Meanwhile, Cartoon Network averaged 479,000 preteen viewers between Aug. 29 and Nov. 20, down 12 percent from the year-ago period, the Journal said. A Cartoon Network spokesman pointed to a year-ago ratings boost from a movie.

Walt Disney’s Disney XD averaged 149,000 in the period, down 1 percent, but its Disney Channel has drawn an average of  924,000, up 5.9 percent.

The Hub, a joint venture channel of Hasbro and Discovery Communications, said its audience among kids 2-11 rose more than 50 percent to 46,000 compared with the year-ago period.

'Happy Endings' Pairs Up Michael McKean and Megan Mullally

'Happy Endings' Pairs Up Michael McKean and Megan Mullally

Michael McKean and Megan Mullally are dating ... on 'Happy Endings.'

According to TVLine, McKean has been cast as Dave's dad. When he comes to town, he'll be joined by Penny's Mom, Dana, played by Megan Mullally. Could Dave and Penny become step-siblings!?

The episode is set to air in early 2012. This is Mullally's second guest appearance on the series. Her character made her debut in an early October episode. Dana and Penny performed a mother-daughter duet to 'Torn.'

The very busy 'Will and Grace' veteran also recently joined the cast of Fox's 'Breaking In.' Don't worry, she'll continue her recurring role on 'Parks and Recreation' and Adult Swim's 'Children's Hospital.'

To recap: McKean. Mullally. 'Happy Endings.' We're so there.

Melissa McCarthy: There Are Other Things to Worry About Besides My Weight

Melissa McCarthy: There Are Other Things to Worry About Besides My Weight

Melissa McCarthy has had one incredible year. The star of 'Mike and Molly' took home the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy, besting Edie Falco, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Laura Linney and Martha Plimpton, and received rave reviews for her scene-stealing role in the hit film 'Bridesmaids.'

She followed all that success up with her first guest host gig on 'Saturday Night Live.' That's an impressive body of work for one year. However, she still can't escape talking about her real body.

"I've been up and down," McCarthy told Anderson Cooper during an appearance 'Anderson,' Cooper's daytime talk show. "I've been much thinner since my second baby. I'm still working on it. It's a work in progress."

On 'Mike and Molly,' McCarthy plays Molly, one part of an overweight couple that meets at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. In addition to all her career success -- McCarthy also recently sold several projects, including a movie and TV script -- the 'Gilmore Girls' veteran is launching a plus-sized clothing line. Yet the actress said she's still working on her body, but it's not exactly a priority.

"I hope I wake up at, like, 94 pounds," she said with a laugh. "But I don't think that's going to happen ... There's so many other things to worry about. I still worry about it, but I think, my kids are healthy, I've got a great husband, and I go to work every day and do what I want. I'll keep working on the other, I just can't put any time to worrying about it."

'Gossip Girl': This isn't the Ivy you're looking for

'Gossip Girl': This isn't the Ivy you're looking for

It was just a matter of time until Charlie/Ivy's (Kaylee DeFer) double life on "Gossip Girl" caught up with her. It appears that time pretty much ended on Monday (Nov. 28).

[Spoiler Alert]

The mess all starts when C/I's ex-BF Max decides to up the ante on his blackmailing efforts. Rather than attempting to sell his silence for a measly $50,000, he bumps it up to $500,000. This marks the tipping point. So like extravagantly lined up dominoes (including Serena and Lily), they all fall culminating with Grandma CeCe fainting. But this isn't the best part. C/I then pulls a Jedi mind trick that even Obi-Wan Kenobi would be proud of.

In other news, now that Nate (Chace Crawford) is running the NY Spectator, he's immediately stuck with a editorial conundrum. It may be that the wife of his cousin Trip van der Bilt (Aaron Tveit) is having an extra-marital dalliance. So Nate is faced with the conflict of running this new found dirt or honoring his family ties. Lucky for everyone, Nate has strong instinct for investigating all his sources first. The outcome is a surprise only DC and Hollywood could dream up.

And what would a "Gossip Girl" recap be without some Blair (Leighton Meester) and Chuck (Ed Westwick) drama. Blair is busy trying to figure out the new Chuck so that she can impart this wisdom onto Louis. But Chuck's not offering the quick fix she's looking for. Never one to be patient on such matters, she resorts to dragging him to see his therapist for additional insight. It is here that he admits exactly what the cause of his change is. And it's not something she wants to hear.

When Chuck recaps the therapy session for Nate, Mr. Archibald asks Mr. Bass whether he's still in love with Blair. "I can't imagine the day I won't," he says.

Uh oh. Uh oh.

Is TV Too Gory?

Is TV Too Gory?

When you absolutely, positively have to determine whether a zombie has devoured a missing girl, there's only one thing to do: Shoot it in the head and disembowel what's left of the flesh-eater's rotting corpse.

Yuck? Perhaps, but it's that kind of occasional carnage that has fans rabid for AMC's The Walking Dead. The zombie series continues to unearth big ratings as it ushers in a new age of horror and thriller series — and the accompanying gore — on TV. The trend began with Showtime's Dexter and the titular killer's plastic-wrapped human-carving station, as well as HBO's True Blood and its flesh-ripping, neck-biting vamps. Then came The Walking Dead, and more recently, FX's American Horror Story and NBC's Grimm, both of which have scared up sizable audiences.

TV's past thrillers, such as The Twilight Zone, relied more on psychological scares than gore. Horror is a polarizing genre, which is why the networks mostly avoided it. But times have changed, content standards have loosened, and cable is able to target a niche crowd that likes a little gristle in their TV diet.

The horror genre has made a bit of a comeback in recent years, as audiences grew accustomed to more graphic thrills via the popularity of movies like Saw, Paranormal Activity and The Human Centipede (some of which have been dubbed "torture porn" because of their graphic nature). Also, dark procedurals like CSI and Criminal Minds made it safe to show brutalized corpses in prime time, paving the way for some of the gruesome images on TV's horror explosion.

"CSI took it to another level in terms of exploring gore," says AMC programming senior vice president Joel Stillerman. "Our intent was never to highlight the gore," he adds of The Walking Dead. "We do it in a way that's organic to the story. People who love that stuff can geek out, and if you don't, you can cover your eyes. We know where the limits are and we know what flies and what doesn't. If we push it, we run a disclaimer."

But TV producers say they're still more interested in scaring audiences than grossing them out. Compared to the realism on TV's forensics and autopsy shows, the worlds of The Walking Dead and American Horror Story are at least rooted in make-believe.

Fans of The Walking Dead know to expect the occasional blood and guts — like the time a zombie was sliced in half as it was pulled out of a well — which help balance quiet, more emotional moments in a story that at the core is about a family trying to survive an apocalypse. "There are certain conventions in the horror genre, and one is that dispatching zombies, or humans being attacked by zombies, will be fairly graphic," says executive producer Gale Anne Hurd. "If you aren't making a campy show, which we're not, it is something we're expected to deliver. After all, zombies are no longer alive, and the only way to 'kill' them is with a head shot."

Viewers don't appear to be turned off by the splatter. The Walking Dead's season premiere attracted the best adult 18-49 ratings ever for a cable drama. At FX, American Horror Story continues to grow its audience and was recently renewed for Season 2. FX programming executive vice president Nick Grad says American Horror Story is bringing in a large female audience that is more interested in the show's characters and its underlying theme — about a marriage in trouble — than its horror imagery (which includes a blood-thirsty demon baby). "We don't want to be gratuitous just for the sake of being gratuitous," he says. "If you're going to do something pretty extreme, there has to be a reason you're doing it."

Even though ABC's upcoming The River will contain gory elements, the show's producers say much of it will be blurred out. "We're not really fans of gore," says executive producer Michael Green. "There's a difference between horror and thriller, and we're more in the thriller camp."

That means audiences won't get a good glimpse of a gruesome dead body that The River's art department prepared for one episode — at least not yet. Just in case viewers demand more gore with their goose bumps, fellow exec producer Zack Estrin says they're mulling an uncensored DVD. After all, in Hollywood everyone's looking for that other kind of gross — profits.

Desperate Scousewives debuts with more than 500,000 viewers

Desperate Scousewives debuts with more than 500,000 viewers

E4 reality TV show performs well on its first night as it follows in the high-heeled footsteps of the The Only Way Is Essex

After The Only Way Is Essex, Made In Chelsea and Geordie Shore, the structured reality bandwagon rolled into Liverpool with Desperate Scousewives, which debuted with more than 500,000 viewers on E4.

It remains to be seen whether the new E4 series wins a Bafta, like The Only Way Is Essex, but it certainly has the most puntastic title.

Desperate Scousewives, which the Radio Times said was "about as lifelike as the terracotta tans, straightened bleached blonde locks, acrylic fingernails and foot-long eyelashes" of its stars, averaged 562,000 viewers, a 3.1% share, between 10pm and 11.05pm on Monday on E4, including the E4+1 audience.

The first of the eight-part series performed well for E4, 24% up on the channel's slot average for the past three months, but failed to hit the ratings heights of 1 million-rating TOWIE. Early days, though.

The Guardian's John Crace said it was "predictable, vacuous and with a tongue in as many cheeks as possible, Desperate Scousewives is a show that leaves you feeling just that bit grubbier for having guiltily enjoyed it".