Television worth talking about

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MVP Scores in U.S.: While Canadian reviewers were lukewarm about the CBC's cancelled nighttime hockey soap, MVP, the show is getting high praise from TV writers in the United States, where its first and only season is airing on the cable channel Soapnet. The most surprising American review, arguably, appeared in a recent issue of The New Yorker, the high-brow magazine popular among the intellectual set.

The show "calls to mind such past treasures as Dynasty and almost every other nighttime soap you can think of," Nancy Franklin wrote. "I'm going to sit right down and send Canada a thank-you note." Mark A. Perigard of the Boston Herald was in agreement: "Not since the glory days of Melrose Place has a soap seemed like such a naughty pleasure." The CBC cancelled MVP in March after just a few weeks on the air because the show had failed to attract a large enough audience.

Brit Back for MTV Seconds? MTV isn't ruling out giving viewers more Britney Spears at this year's Video Music Awards. "Everyone deserves a second or third chance, right?" Van Toffler, president of MTV Networks Music Group, playfully told the Associated Press during a telephone interview Friday. When asked if he was just joking, Toffler said "sorta." Spears' out-of-it "Gimme More" comeback performance during last year's MTV Video Music Awards was one of the most talked-about televised moments of 2007.

Idol I Do: Former American Idol Ruben Studdard married Surata Zuri McCants Saturday at a church in a suburb of Birmingham, Ala. But there was no singing during the 30-minute ceremony – just an exchange of vows, prayers and music provided by a string ensemble.

She's Not Been Idol: Tara Oram may have lost last year's Canadian Idol to her boyfriend, Brian Melo, but it wasn't the end of her TV career. The Newfoundland native and budding country singer is the star of The Tara Diaries on CMT, airing July 20 at 9 p.m.

Hatcher Hatchling a Star: It was not actor Teri Hatcher who made a big impression on schoolchildren in Nairobi, Kenya. It was her 10-year-old daughter, Emerson Rose. "They loved my daughter," Hatcher, one of the stars of ABC's Desperate Housewives, said in a phone interview from Tanzania. Hatcher raised more than $35,000 (U.S.) in donations and supplies for AmericaShare, which provides education, food and housing to children and adults affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS in Nairobi.

LATE NIGHT

Strombo at 11: Cyndi Lauper

Letterman at 11:35: Julia Roberts (repeat)

Leno at 11:35: William Shatner (repeat)

Stewart at 12:05: Steve Carell (repeat)

Kimmel at 12:06: Kate Walsh (repeat)

Colbert at 12:35: Bishop N.T. Wright (repeat)

Ferguson at 12:37: Steven Wright (repeat)

Conan at 12:37: Eddie Izzard (repeat)

Daly at 1:36: Kaley Cuoco (repeat)

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