SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

All CBS wanted was to get viewers to take a taste of their evening news with Katie Couric and that’s what they got.

Tuesday night’s debut of “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” more than doubled the broadcast’s average rating for the last four weeks. And it became the highest rated “CBS Evening News” broadcast since Feb. 23, 1998, which occurred during CBS

I’m getting a little tired of Katie Couric having to defend herself for having a sharp fashion sense.

Guess what people? You can be a serious journalist and rock the runway.

Unlike ABC’s Charlie Gibson, who prides himself on wearing “whatever is on the left when I reach into the closet,” La Couric always looks chic. As a person who generally picks out what I’m going to wear based on if I did laundry the night before, I admire that.

When she debuted on Tuesday, Katie looked smashing in her little white jacket and black dress. She showed off the legs a bit too much, however, to ever win the respect of hard news junkies. When she went for the pre-taped interview with the New York Times guy, the camera kept going back for the gam-shot.

Even Charlie Gibson could be distracting if he put on a pair of shorts to do an interview.

Of course, that might make for a more interesting broadcast.

Anyone hoping to get a second look at those Vanity Fair pictures of TomKat’s little dumpling Suri Cruise shown on Katie Couric’s evening news show on Tuesday were disappointed.

The network had been hyping the fact that if you couldn’t get home by 5:30 p.m., which is when the broadcast airs in the Bay Area, you could just click on the ol’ www.cbs.com news site and see the broadcast in its entirety.

Apparently, that didn’t include little Suri.

We’re wondering if it had anything to do with people being able to grab it to put out on the Internet. But we don’t know enough about those things to know for sure.

All we know is, where was YouTube when we needed them???

Oh, those wacky “Lost” people.

Today, an Apollo candy bar came in the mail from the Apollo Candy Company. Which is, of course, a subsidiary of The Hanso Group.

Stay with us.

As “Losties” all know, Hanso is behind the whole island experiments. Don’t tell us Hanso’s the evil empire. They saved the Apollo Candy Company from financial ruin.

The first Apollo Bars were distributed in San Francisco, but this is the last place to get the bars. They will be distributed on Sept. 20.

For people who want to get some free chocolate, and trust me it’s pretty yummy, and go to the official site and find out when the free giveaways will happen in your hometown.

And, as always, for more information on The Hanso Foundation, visit www.thehansofoundation.org.

Finally, Britney’s boy has a role he can really get into: a mouthy punk.

Kevin Federline’s been tapped for an upcoming episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” He’ll be playing Cole Tritt, an arrogant teen who hassles Nick and Warrick while they work a crime scene.

I’m still trying to figure out where the acting comes into play.

She may be a little frail, but the first lady of TV comedy Carol Burnett still knows how to rock the house.
Burnett was honored by the Television Critics Association on Sunday night at the annual TCA awards for Career Achievement. She got a standing ovation from an audience that included producers and stars from “House,” “Lost,” “The Office,” “My Name is Earl,” “West Wing,” “High School Musical” and “Grey’s Anatomy.”
When she accepted the award, Burnett says she’s still open to playing other TV roles after a great experience on “Desperate Housewives.”
“So, if you have anything for me at ‘The Office,’ ” she said, looking over at the elated cast and crew.
After the ceremony, Steve Carell and the producers went over to talk some business with Burnett.
But it was in the queue to get their cars after the event that the stakes went up. “Grey’s Anatomy” creator Shonda Rhimes and producer Betsy Beers took the opportunity to tell Burnett how much she had meant to them.
“You are the reason we are in this business,” Beers said. “Really. You have been my inspiration.”
Beers and Rhimes said that after her speech, they already started thinking about at least one episode written just with Burnett in mind.
I think she was talking to “The Office” people, I told them.
“Not if we get her first,” says Rhimes.

Delroy Lindo plays tough guys and once you go toe-to-toe with him, you can quickly figure out why.
The East Bay resident plays a hard-edged FBI agent in the new NBC series “Kidnapped,” and when I walked up to him he stared at me like I was a dog about to desecrate his manicured lawn.
“You look like Estelle Parsons,” he pronounces.
I’m hoping he meant the young Estelle, who is now fast approaching 79. It’s been a long tour, so I might just be flattering myself.
So, I ask, you live in Berkeley or Oakland?
“Yes,” he says, the subject to be closed to further discussion.
So, this show tapes in New York. Isn’t that going to be hard on the family life?
“We’re moving to New York for five and a half months, then we’ll be back,” he says, with the expression on his face never changing and, in fact, getting a tad more intimidating.
So I continue.
Planning on doing any theater in the Bay Area?
“I’m directing ‘The Blue Door’ at Berkeley Rep,” he says. “But this is the third time I’ve tried to do something for them and it always falls through. Maybe third time’s the charm.”
Sensing I had pressed my luck enough, I quickly made my exit.

It was the hottest party of 2006 press tour.
NBC did a barbecue-themed party out on the lawn of the Ritz-Carlton for their final night of press tour, but they found it hard to round up the talent and push those cattle out of the air-conditioned Ritz.
Temperatures soared to around 115 degrees, and no one was eager to get out.
Milo Ventigmiglia and Adrian Pasdar said they already put in more than a pound of sweat promoting their show, “Heroes” about ordinary people with extraordinary powers at San Diego’s Comic Con on Friday.

“The whole cast, except Greg Grunberg and Hayden Panettiere who had to work that day, went down to San Diego on a bus,” said Ventigmiglia. “This thing was falling apart and the air conditioning went out. So we were trapped in this thing for two hours, baking. We spent the time laughing and joking about it.

As Pasdar said, “You get to know really fast just what kind of people you are working with you get stuck in that situation. And we’ve got some great people on the show.”

The series is created and produced by Pittsburg native Tim Kring.

Somebody was watching.

A while ago, someone put up bootleg copies on www.youtube.com of a 2005 WB comedy pilot that wasn’t picked up, produced by Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs”). The innovative series is about two guys who want to become sitcom writers and end up being part of a reality series.

The series pilot, which is shown in three parts, was downloaded more than 600,000 times from the San Mateo-based YouTube Web site. People started writing about it. (see www.insidebayarea.com/TV for Susan Young’s column on it.)

On Friday, NBC announced that it will pick up the series, first airing as webisodes, then later on the network. The stars, Paul Campbell and Taran Killam, will return to their roles as best pals from the Midwest who get the call from a network to come work for them “if they think they can do a better job.”

The two try to develop a great TV sitcom, unaware that the network is actually manipulating and recording their every move for a reality series.

“This comedy pilot has generated a life of its own and we are intrigued by its potential to develop into a series,” says NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. “Sometimes, if you show it, they will come. We’ve seen how people have responded on the Internet, plus we always bet on Bill Lawrence’s work.”

Lawrence says he’s always been passionate about the project and “I think we will see more launched on the Internet in the future.”

Nothing better than getting on the set of “Grey’s Anatomy” and immediately bumping into Ellen Pompeo (Meredith Grey), Patrick Dempsey (Derek “Dr. McDreamy” Shepherd) and Emmy nominee Sandra Oh (Cristina Yang).

So, Ellen, after having your way with the very married Dr. McDreamy in the season finale, just who else might you bed?

“No one is safe,” she says smiling wickedly. “All cute boys beware.”

(We’re still pushing for a return of Eric Dane, who played the guy who almost broke up McDreamy’s marriage. Although McDreamy seems to be doing just fine all on his own now.)

As for McDreamy, or rather Dempsey, he says that the two things fans always say to him are “My mother loves you” and “Who are you picking?”

They are referring, of course, to whether the good-in-bed doctor will choose Meredith or his wife, played by San Jose native Kate Walsh.
“Well, I can tell you that the triangle gets resolved rather quickly,” says Walsh, who looks as if she’s still part of the cast. Perhaps she gives McDreamy his come-uppance finally and she can get back to that dishy Eric Dane.

Seeming every bit as socially awkward as her straightforward character, Oh watched as the critics taking the tour of the set rushed her co-stars.

“No one is going to want to talk to me, are they?” she said, looking nervously at me.

No worries. It didn’t take long for folks to zone in on her.

Sitting in a remote spot on the set was Sara Ramirez, who plays Dr. Callie Torres on the show. She says she was picked to join the show after she was seen in the Broadway smash hit “Monty Python’s Spamalot.”

“They came to me, although I don’t know what about my over-the-top performance (as Lady of the Lake) said orthopedic surgeon to them,” says Ramirez, who won a Tony for her role.