For the ladies: a gratuitous shot of Apolo Anton Ohno shirtless. CREDIT: ABC

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When “Dancing With the Stars: All Stars” opened this season, the conventional wisdom was that the men would dominate.

But alas, we have an all-female finale instead because athletes Apolo Anton Ohno and Emmitt Smith were both cut last night.

Two former winners Kelly Monaco (season 1) and Shawn Johnson (season 8 ) join reality star Melissa Rycroft (third, season 8 ) for next week’s finale round.

Ohno has been targeted for elimination before and despite having the third-highest score among the five remaining dancers, couldn’t garner enough votes. Monaco’s soap fan base lifted her up. She was tied for last with 54 points with Smith but survived. Shawn and Melissa have the highest average scores …

Continue reading Shocking finale trio on “Dancing With the Stars” »

First Christmas song this year on 104.7/The Fish: Francesca Battistelli's "Christmas Is."

As has been the case the past few years, Christian pop station Fish 104.7 is the first local metro-wide station to go all Christmas.

At 7:37 a.m., the station opted for a new Christmas song by Christian artist Francesca Battistelli called “Christmas Is.”

This is the 11th year in a row the Fish has gone this route. Although it doesn’t really improve Fish’s ratings, the Christian pop station has stuck with the format change because its listeners now expect it. Most Christian pop stations focus on Christmas at this time of year. (Southside Christian station Joy 93.3 usually changes to Christmas at some point, too.)

Over the past few years, its primary Christmas competitor was B98.5, which has launched Christmas the same day, usually around noon but opted for fewer overtly religious Christmas songs than the Fish, which makes sense. It had gone all Christmas every year since 2004, but this …

Continue reading Fish 104.7 first to go all-Christmas this year Nov. 21; B98.5 mixes Christmas in but doesn’t go all the way »

Mark Meyer is a hot-shot auction specialist from Long Island, who comes down to Atlanta to find some treasure for himself. CREDIT: Travel Channel

Atlanta is the focal point of tonight’s “Baggage Battles” on Travel tonight at 8 p.m.

Here’s the synopsis from the network itself:

Every year in Atlanta, over half a billion trucks carry approximately 400-million tons of freight through this major southern city.  Items that are lost, damaged or undeliverable end up at Fr8Auctions.  The three teams of “Baggage Battles” auction specialists (Billy Leroy, Mark Meyer and married couple Laurence and Sally Martin) head to Atlanta to compete for the prized cargo.  As the auction gets underway, the bidding heats up with the Martins bidding against Meyer on aircraft parts manufactured by Rolls-Royce.  Then Meyer bids against Leroy for the first palate [sic] of personal effects.  The second palate [sic] of personal effects includes a well-constructed wooden crate, and all three teams …

Continue reading Atlanta focal point of Travel’s ‘Baggage Battles’ season two Nov. 21 »

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas TV season.

Three cable networks — ABC Family, Hallmark and Lifetime — embrace such holiday programming with a level of grandiosity on par with the Rockefeller Center tree. Hallmark brags about airing “more Christmas than any other network”: 1,100 hours’ worth, including 12 new Christmas-themed films. Lifetime promises 10 fresh, original films with C-grade stars such as David Hasselhoff and Ralph Macchio. ABC Family unveils yet another “Home Alone” sequel more than two decades after Kevin McCallister’s first screaming encounter with aftershave lotion.

On the broadcast networks, NBC is offering a Michael Buble Christmas special Dec. 10. Fox’s “Glee” will pay homage to “Love Actually” on Dec. 13. CBS is giving locally created “Elf on the Shelf” a second year in prime time Dec. 14. And Sugarland lead singer Jennifer Nettles hosts a new “CMA Country Christmas” special on ABC Dec. 20, …

Continue reading Need Grinch? Frosty? Ralph and his bb gun? We’ll tell you when they are coming back »

PASADENA, CA – APRIL 18: TV Personality Kim Zolciak arrives at the NBCUniversal summer press day held at The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa on April 18, 2012 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

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When “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” released a cast photo before the season started, a certain someone was missing: Kim Zolciak.

From all the evidence, she was already gone from the show before shooting had ended this fall.

In Touch says her final appearance will be the Dec. 2 episode.

“I was eight months pregnant and there was so much drama; I just had to walk,” Kim tells In Touch about her midseason exit from the hit Bravo series. “I’ve taken on so much in the past five years, but this was the final straw. My …

Continue reading InTouch: Kim Zolciak leaves ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ in Dec. 2 episode; her dad tells TMZ his daughter is a ‘pathological liar’ »

Jeff Dauler, Kristin Klingshirn, Jenn Hobby and Bert Weiss are the heart of the Bert Show. CREDIT: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

Q100 is currently hyping a big announcement Monday during the 7 a.m. hour that “will change the face of The Bert Show.”

The last time Bert Weiss pulled something like this, it was last year when Melissa Carter said she was leaving.

Here are various possibilities of what might happen Monday and my guess in terms of whether that will actually happen. I have no direct knowledge of what’s going to occur. I’m basing this on logic and what I know of the players involved. And like pundits on cable news, I am not penalized if I”m wrong!

- Jenn Hobby, now remarried and pregnant with her first baby, is ready to move on and focus on her expanding family. This is the likeliest scenario. She’s been on the show for nearly a decade and has been a steadfast character, feeding the show’s fans celebrity news and a sweet persona that never felt forced. Then again, it has to be …

Continue reading The Bert Show promising big announcement Monday that implies a departure »

Norman Reedus plays Daryl Dixon with steely resolve. No way the producers would kill him off. Right? CREDIT: AMC

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I was talking to a colleague about “The Walking Dead” and I said that Daryl Dixon is probably the most popular character on the show. That made me wonder: who do you think is the most indispensable character on the show, the one person the producers are least likely to kill off?

Sure, they could follow the graphic novels on that front but that is clearly not a necessity. Shane lived a lot longer on the TV show than the novels. Daryl doesn’t even exist in comic books.

This is a huge ensemble cast. The show has already nixed a host of characters. Last season, they …

Continue reading So much death in ‘The Walking Dead.’ Which characters are most indispensable at the moment? »

Colton Dixon in front of the legendary Little Five Points Vortex. PHOTO CREDITS: Rodney Ho/rho@ajc.com

Colton Dixon may have finished seventh season 11 of “Idol,” but he became one of only three contestants so far to get a record deal. And he smartly took the Christian route.

The Christian music business has been kind of “Idol” contestants such as Chris Sligh, Mandisa and Jason Castro, who has a single on the charts right now.  He signed on with Sparrow Records, home to TobyMac and Mandisa.

Last month, on his 21st birthday Oct, 19, Sparrow released Colton’s single “You Are.” Several Christian pop stations have picked it up, including the one in Colton’s hometown of Nashville. It’s already at No. 25 on the Mediabase 24/7 Christian pop chart.

Fish 104.7, our local influential Christian pop station, has not placed it on its rotation, but the timing of his single wasn’t ideal since the Fish is about to switch to Christmas for a month. The station, which is pretty conservative in …

Continue reading Catching up with Colton Dixon, season 11 ‘Idol’finalist, in Little Five Points »

CineStars’ Brittany Umar and I discuss “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” “Big Rich Atlanta” and check in on Phillip Phillips and Colton Dixon.

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Continue reading Video: talking ‘Real Housewives of Atlanta,’ ‘Big Rich Atlanta,’ Phillip Phillips »

Colin Cowherd will now be on 790/The Zone

As expected, 790/The Zone has picked up ESPN radio programming from 680/The Fan and will also start airing Colin Cowherd beginning Dec. 1.

The Fan dropped its long-time affiliation with ESPN two weeks ago because sister company Cumulus is working with CBS Radio to start a competing syndicated sports talk network.

Cowherd, a syndicated talk show who was on for several years on the Fan, will return on the Zone from 10 a.m. to noon.

This means one fewer hour for Mayhem in the AM from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m instead of 6 a.m. to 11 a.m.  And The Red Zone moves from 11 to 2 p.m to noon to 2 p.m. Mike Bell and David Archer remain from  2 to 6 p.m.

Bob Richards, operations manager, said Cowherd was one of the Fan’s stronger shows and he is thrilled to have him on the Zone side.

The Zone will also have access to ESPN radio programming if it chooses to use it such as the World Series and NBA finals. And the Zone’s local shows will now be able to …

Continue reading 790/The Zone picks up ESPN Radio, Colin Cowherd »