DeAnna Pappas got married to Stephen Stagliano, photo from DeAnna's Twitter profile page

Newnan realtor DeAnna Pappas charmed ABC viewers in 2007 and 2008, first on “The Bachelor,” then “The Bachelorette.”

This past weekend, she got married in Palmetto – just not with anybody related to the TV show.

Her husband is Stephen Stagliano, a high school teacher.

According to People magazine, “The bride walked down the aisle in a strapless Disney Bridal wedding gown with a birdcage veil and cowboy boots.”

She picked pro snowboarder Jesse Csincsak on “The Bachelorette” in 2008 but their engagement lasted only a few months. (As anyone who watches these shows knows, the track record for actual nuptials is abysmal.)

Stephen’s twin brother Michael is a reality show regular. Michael was on “The Bachelorette” in 2009, a year after Pappas’ season. DeAnna met Stephen at a taping of “The Bachelorette: The Men Tell All.” (Michael won “Bachelor Pad” with another contestant this past summer, …

Continue reading Newnan’s DeAnna Pappas (”The Bachelorette” from 2008) marries »

L.A. Reid didn't give us journalists much to chew on last Thursday while promoting "X Factor." CREDIT: AP

After several years as TV’s pricest TV show (as well as most popular), “American Idol” now has a competitor in NFL’s “Sunday Night Football” on NBC, according to Ad Age estimates.

An ad on “Idol” can cost from $468,100 and $502,900, the survey said, though some advertisers as the finale approaches can pay far more than $600,000. The NBC football program averages $512,367, up from $415,000 a year ago.  Ad Age says shows that people are more apt to watch live, as in reality programs like “Idol” and football, are valuable to advertisers.

Sunday night is the most expensive night to buy ads. Thursday is second.

- L.A. Reid spoke to us media folks last Thursday but honestly, he was disappointing. He refused to specifically bad mouth his other judges or their picks, even for fun, although he admitted he didn’t agree with some of the choices. Oh, well.And nobody asked him about …

Continue reading ‘Idol’ now battling ‘Sunday Night Football’ for priciest ad; Crystal Bowersox dropped from label »

Zachay Levi and Yvonne Strahovski return for the final season of NBC's "ChucK' Friday at 8 p.m. CREDIT: NBC

Like “Friday Night Lights,” NBC’s “Chuck” is a beloved show among a small group of fans but has never been a big hit. And it’s also been given a final fifth season, allowing the writers to conclude the light spy drama properly.

Sure, “Chuck” has been moved to the relative graveyard of Friday night, but it should be fun to see Morgan with the inter-sect instead of Chuck.

And for people of a certain age, watching “Beavis & Butt-head” was a rite of passage. Creator Mike Judge created an indelibly stunted pair of teens with silly giggles and snide commentary about music videos on MTV. Fourteen years later, Judge brings the two idiots back Thursday night, just as stupid as ever but now also commenting on “Jersey Shore” and “Teen Mom.”

I spoke briefly with Steve Koonin, president of Turner Entertainment, last week. He said “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns,” which returns this …

Continue reading TV best bets with returns of ‘Chuck,’ ‘Beavis & Butt-head,’ ‘Meet the Browns’ »

Garth Brooks is back in rotation at Kicks thanks to the station’s new emphasis on older songs. CREDIT: AP

 Loading …

Kicks 101.5 shifted its music mix significantly on Friday, salting in more songs from 1991 to 2005 and cutting back on newer cuts.

This means artists that hadn’t gotten much love from Kicks in years (e.g. Garth Brooks, Patty Loveless, Jo Dee Messina, Travis Tritt) are back in rotation. Miss Randy Travis’ “Forever and Ever, Amen”? It’s back!

On Thursday, Kicks played 67% songs that were two years older or newer. By Friday, that percentage had fallen to 37%, according to data from Mediabase 24/7. The average age of a song on Kicks increased five years, from 3.5 years old to 8.5 years old.

Kicks now sounds closer to what Eagle 106.7 was before it died in early 2008.

This is the first major shift in Kicks’ music mix in at least a …

Continue reading Kicks 101.5 skews older with more 1991-2005 cuts (welcome back, Garth Brooks and Travis Tritt!) »

Jane Seymour at the Phipps Plaza Wentworth Gallery October 21, 2011 with her son Sean Flynn's art work. CREDIT: Justin Murant

Jane Seymour, actress and artist, was kind enough to give me a quick tour of her art work for sale at the Wentworth Gallery at Phipps Plaza tonight.

She will also be at the Perimeter Mall Wentworth Gallery Saturday, October 22 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Seymour does sculpting and paintings with pretty beach scenes and flowers, along with some self portraits. Her son Sean Flynn’s works are also for sale.

Seymour, known as “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” and roles in films ranging from “Live & Let Die” to “Somewhere in Time” to “Wedding Crashers,”  is also finishing up an ABC Family film called “Elixir” for spring airing. She plays a choreographer who drinks a tonic that turns back the clock 25 years and turns her into Chelsea Kane playing a younger version of herself. No coincidence that the pair are both “Dancing With the Stars” alums, eh?

Join my Facebook fan …

Continue reading A tour of Jane Seymour’s art works with Jane Seymour, here in Atlanta »

Meredith Baxter will sign copies of her book "Untied" at Outwrite Books October 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Meredith Baxter admits her life has elements that would work in a Lifetime movie – or better yet, three or four Lifetime movies.

Baxter is a recovering alcoholic, a victim of domestic abuse, a breast cancer survivor and thrice divorced. Oh, and she came out as a lesbian in 2009. The 64-year-old actress, best known as Alex Keaton’s mom on “Family Ties” in the 1980s, chronicles her numerous hardships, as well as her acting triumphs, in a no-nonsense memoir “Untied.”

She is signing copies at Outwrite Books in Midtown Friday, Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m.

“I’m a hyphenate,” said Baxter, in a recent phone interview from her home in Los Angeles.

For much of her life, she didn’t see herself like this. In fact, she said she didn’t examine her actions or why she did what she did until relatively recently.

“I was very much into compartmentalizing,” she said. “It’s what enabled me to get …

Continue reading Interview with Meredith Baxter, signing her memoir ‘Untied’ at Outwrite Books October 28 »

Miss Lawrence joined Marlo Hampton at the W Hotel in Midtown at a charity event Hampton hosted called "Glam It Up" for teen girls in July, 2011. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

In July, I attended a charity event hosted by Marlo Hampton. Marlo who, you may ask?

I was intrigued because the press release stated that the former boutique owner was the newest cast member of Bravo’s hit show “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”

When I started an interview with Hampton stating that she was a new “Real Houswife,” she stopped me and said that wasn’t necessarily the case. Nonetheless, there was a lot of winking and nodding going on.

As taping of the fourth season of  “Real Housewives Of Atlanta” continued through the summer, Hampton was seen with the regular cast members quite often. Photos were taken of her and NFL player Charles Grant, who allegedly used to date NeNe Leakes.

Straight From the A, an Atlanta-based gossip news site which originally broke the news of Hampton’s arrival, last …

Continue reading Report: Marlo Hampton not a ‘Real Housewife of Atlanta’ after all »

Steve Koonin speaks to Kennesaw State University students on Oct. 18 about TBS and TNT. CREDIT: Kaitlyn Pack

The man who helped transform TBS and TNT into the powerhouse networks they are today, Steve Koonin, gave Kennesaw State University students earlier this week a taste of how the networks got to where they are.

He said a decade ago, after he arrived, the management team looked at TNT through the lens of psychographics. Those are categories of “typical” consumers of a particular product or brand. In the case of TV, he showed the students a pie chart broken into five general categories:

- 16% Cultural Highbrows (the types who watch documentaries and opera) “I don’t care much for these people,” Koonin said, semi-facetiously, since they aren’t the types who would watch TNT or TBS much.

- 20% TV worshippers (the types who watch 42 hours of TV a week and watch a variety of genres) “We love these people!” he said.

- 20% Competition lovers (mostly guys who watch sports. TBS airs …

Continue reading Turner Entertainment President Steve Koonin touts TBS/TNT successes to Kennesaw State students »

Here’s my weekly video discussing Atlanta-related TV topics, including the cancellation of “Memphis Beat,” the rise of “The Walking Dead” and “Dr. Quinn” Jane Seymour live in Atlanta this weekend:

Continue reading Video: Talking about ‘Memphis Beat,’ ‘Walking Dead,’ Jane Seymour »

Scotty and Lauren are No. 1 and 2 on the country album charts this week. CREDIT: AP

Georgia’s own Lauren Alaina debuted last week at No. 5 with a respectable 69,000 in sales for “Wildflower.’ That is about a third of what Scott McCreery opened with the week before, no surprise there.

Season 9 runner-up Crystal Bowersox (who is showing up on an upcoming episode of ABC’s “Body of “Proof”) sold about 58,000 her first week out.

Scotty’s second week sales dropped a typical 55 percent to 88,000, where he’s No. 4.  His two-week total: 285,000. In this environment, that’s pretty good.

Scotty, who sang the National Anthem last night for the World Series’ first game, is touring with Brad Paisley and the Band Perry next year. No Atlanta date in the first round of dates but I’m sure we’ll be included at some point.

In other Idol/X Factor news:

-  L.A. Reid is holding a press conference at 2:30 p.m. EST. I’ll be listening in. I’m curious to hear what he’s like in these types of calls.

- …

Continue reading Lauren Alaina debuts at No. 5 on the album charts »