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For Lively TV, Do Not Go To 'Jail'

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A Tribune staff, wire report

Published: September 4, 2007

The networks' fall 2007 TV season begins tonight with a whimper.

The big first-night debut: the reality spinoff 'Jail' (9 p.m., MyNetwork), arriving on a broadcast network that after a full year in business most viewers probably still don't know exists.

'Jail' is 'Cops' without cars (from the same production company). Tampa deputies monitor arrested suspects in a glass-walled 'pod' by mingling among them, as the accused baddies babble drunkenly and tussle among themselves. The officers explain what they're doing at their computers, and they go through an endless supply of medical gloves to keep themselves and the evidence clean.

Later, Fort Worth, Texas, deputies shoot the breeze with the incarcerated and give their colleagues pep talks about not getting stuck with needles.

Music pounds in the background to make all this seem more exciting, but it's mostly just enervating. If nothing else, 'Jail' makes the title location look like too boring a place to let yourself end up in.

MyNetwork isn't much more interesting. This Fox-run 'sixth network' (cobbled together last summer after the merged CW took all the good WB/UPN shows and stations) remains painfully cheap-looking, filled with low-rent reality, fighting competitions, action flicks and random specials in search of an airing. (Hope you caught Saturday's beach volleyball.)

Also debuting tonight: 'The Academy' at 8, chronicling the training of L.A. police recruits.

VIDBITS: One year after Steve Irwin's death, Animal Planet presents a 'Crocs Rule!' week of prime time shows, led by the premiere of 'Secrets of the Crocodile' (9 tonight, Animal Planet), a project Irwin was working on when he died.

•Oprah Winfrey settled her 'feud' with David Letterman by appearing on his show in 2005. Now Letterman is returning the favor.

Winfrey is traveling to New York next week to tape several shows, and Letterman has agreed to be one of her guests.

The appearance will be a rare foray outside the 'Late Show' studio for Letterman, who outside of awards ceremonies generally doesn't appear on other people's shows.

The New York-based Winfrey shows, which will tape at Madison Square Garden, will also focus on the sixth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, news reports say.

She's likely to interview survivors and others affected by the attacks about how they've coped and tried to bring about positive changes since then.

•The cast for season four of 'Lost' keeps growing, with Jeremy Davies and Jeff Fahey the latest to join the ABC series.

Elsewhere, Lifetime's pilot 'Family Practice' has added several cast members, including Beau Bridges in one of the lead roles, and NBC has signed Steven Christopher Parker for a recurring part on 'ER.'

HEER THIS: CMT is expanding its pompon girl fetish with the new makeover competition show 'I Want to Look Like a High School Cheerleader Again.'

Set to premiere in October, 'IWTLLAHSCA' (as it should never be referred to) will feature Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders trainer Jay Johnson as he attempts to get 10 former high school cheerleaders to recover their lost athletic physiques. Think of it as another public service from the network that brought you Vanilla Ice getting thrown from a bull.

Johnson is already featured on CMT's 'Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team' reality series, which returns Sept. 14.

On his new show, Johnson and his team will put the contestants through 'grueling physical challenges and emotional eliminations as they vie to shed pounds, tone their bodies and fit back into their high school uniform.' The winner receives a $50,000 prize and the chance to perform again in front of a live audience.

'Every former athlete, at some point in their lives, looks back at their high school days and thinks, 'Man, if I could be in THAT kind of shape again, to have ONE crack at feeling that energy, and that rush again, I'd do it in a heartbeat,'' says Bob Kusbit, head of development at CMT.

'We're giving some lucky women a chance to change their health, their attitude, their lives and relive those cheerleading glory days all over again. And after working with Jay the last couple of years, we know he is the perfect guy to make it all happen.'

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