Rick Ludwin has been through plenty of regime changes in his 29 years at NBC (he's been there long enough to work for two bosses named Silverman).

But nothing in his experience compares to the buzz and the scrutiny generated by a transition at the top of "The Tonight Show." The first phase of the transition from Jay Leno to Conan O'Brien began last week with O'Brien's sign off after nearly 16 years on NBC's "Late Night," and it continues on Monday with O'Brien's successor, Jimmy Fallon, making his debut at 12:35 a.m.

As much as NBC has been in the spotlight the past few months with its latenight shuffle, and Leno-at-10 decision, it's been a far, far less traumatic than the last time around, when Leno took the baton from Johnny Carson in May 1992, according to Ludwin, who is NBC's exec veep of late night and primetime series.

"This is a more peaceful transfer of power than the last time around," Ludwin says. "Nothing could surpass the intensity of the coverage of Carson, who was such a person of distinction in our country."

Ludwin and Lorne Michaels are the only two people in senior roles at NBC who were around during the Carson-Leno-Letterman scrum. This time around, Ludwin tried to prep his colleagues as best he could.

"'The Tonight Show' is an American institution. It's the gold standard of late night shows, and there's a bond between people and this show," he says. "And these transitions only happen once every ice age, so of course there's an intense interest."

Ludwin spent the past week in Gotham observing Fallon and "Late Night" exec producer Michaels at work on a week of test shows prior to Monday's on-air bow. The live aud was very receptive, and Fallon's style is already distinctive from O'Brien's, Ludwin said. The show is also very attuned to melding interactive elements into the telecast and on its website because "Jimmy is of the generation of multitasking," Ludwin says.

"Hey, I'm just a driver."

When you're Lance Reddick, you're never just an anything. You are the creepiest, spookiest, strangely compelling and "Wire"-y driver who ever prowled the streets of L.A., or Tunisia, or Santo Domingo, or Santa Monica. Gawd, he's a fantastic actor, and there wasa great pic and feature story on our man Matthew Abaddon in today's L.A. Times.

Abaddon's return to "Lost"in episode seven, "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham," was the maraschino cherry and jim-jims on top of a six-scoop (one for each of tonight's extra minutes) hot fudge sundae. What did we do in our past time travels to deserve such a wonder on Wednesday night. (Sadly, ABC has no art from last night's seg; apparently none of its photogs covered this episode.)

There's much to sort through in this seg -- delivered to us by the power trio of Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof and helmer Jack "Badass Lenser" Bender -- but let's start with some big-picture questions.

** So, who exactly is Richard Alpert aligned with? Ben? Widmore? Jacob? Captain Jack Sparrow? Someone/thing else entirely? Interesting that both Ben and Widmore sort of dismiss him to Locke.

** How did Widmore know to track Locke pre-815 crash? How'd he know to send Abaddon to work as the orderly in the hospital where he told Locke to go on the Oz walkabout, etc. Who told him about Locke? Alpert? Or did Widmore know from their 1954 meeting? I loved it when Widmore in Tunisia asked Locke "how long has it been for you" since Locke first encountered Widmore at 17. Everything we think we know is wrong.

** Caesar (c'mon, there's nothing coincidental about that name) who we first met briefly last week, is no innocent victim here. He seemed to be very deliberately and purposefully looking for something in that office space on the island in the opening shot. I don't remember a Dharma station that looked quite like that however. And Ilana, the woman who seemed to be a cop escorting Sayid on the plane in last week's seg, seemed to know Caesar as more than just a fellow castaway.

Just got home from working the early shift at Variety. Grabbed a burrito on the way and am now set up in front of my computer to live-blog my heart out. I can't wait to see what music director Michael Giacchino has up his sleeve. The Acad hasn't seen fit to give him an Oscar yet -- he was robbed last year when he was nommed for "Ratatouille" -- but Oscarcast producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon had the good sense to tap him for the show this year.

5:35: Well, it's an interesting start with host Hugh Jackman doing a song and dance medley themed to the best picture nominees. OK. Anne Hathaway singing? OK...

5:39: Jackman is having fun with stars in the front row: Frank Langella, Mickey Rourke, Brad and Angelina. It's a little Vegas-y, but ... OK.

5:41: Clips of past supporting actress winners. Audio clips of supporting actress winners being named. Interesting.

5:42: Five past supporting actress winners -- Tilda Swinton, Eva Marie Saint, Whoopi Goldberg, Anjelica Huston and Goldie Hawn -- come out to talk up each nominee. Hmmm, are they gonna do this for all categories?

5:47: Penelope Cruz (pictured right) wins supporting actress for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." "Has anybody ever fainted here? I might be the first one." She goes on a bit but brings it home in telling us about staying up late as a kid in Spain to watch the show, and what it meant to her: "This ceremony was a moment of unity for the world." Film and the arts are a universal language, she said, "and we should do everything we can to protect its survival." Gawd, she's gorgeous.

5:52: Original screenplay award, presented by Tina Fey and Steve Martin. Is there an awards show that Fey hasn't made in this awards cycle? There's a stylized touch to the presentation of the nominees that's kinda cool.

5:55: Dustin Lance Black's ascent is complete. He wins for "Milk." Good for him. Learning of the Harvey Milk story gave him the hope to "live my life openly as who I am, and maybe even fall in love and one day get married." And Black (pictured left) has a message for gay and lesbian youth: "Very soon, I promise you you will have equal rights, federally, across this great nation of ours."

6:01: Simon Beaufoy wins adapted screenplay for "Slumdog Millionaire." Lots of thank yous. His year is complete too.

6:03: Jack Black and Jennifer Aniston are on stage presenting the first of what are called "Movie Yearbook" clips. Black gets off the first line that made me laugh out loud: "I make more money doing animation than live action...Each year I do one DreamWorks project, and I take all the money to the Oscars and bet it on Pixar." Cut to a shot of Jeffrey Katzenberg laughing like a good sport. But really, after all the MPTF madness of the past few weeks, I actually feel a little sorry for him.

6:06: "Wall-E" takes animated picture. No surprise. Black roars with approval. His fee for "Kung Fu Panda 2" just went down. "Wall-E" helmer Andrew Stanton thanks the usual suspects and then adds a shout-out to his high school drama teacher for casting him as Barnaby in "Hello Dolly." Hey, that's a cool tidbit. (At left is a pic of the "Slumdog" kids, just because.)

6:10: Glamour quotient on Oscar ads is definitely down: JC Penney. Hyundai. "We're all in this together" Jeff Bridges (I think) tells us in the voice-over of the Hyundai spot. I feel a little better. Now Gwenyth Paltrow and Dave Matthews and Brian Grazer and Tina Turner are shilling for American Express. Carl's Jr. Vons.

6:14: Music on the intros and outros is cool. Swingy, bouncy.

6:15: Sarah Jessica Parker and Daniel Craig are doing the set up for art direction award. Band's still noodling, giving it a nightclub kind of feel. I like this. "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" wins. Big shout-out to David Fincher for being "a wonderful human being."

6:19: Parker and Craig stick around for the costume design award. "The Duchess" wins. Tight bodices and hoops get 'em every time.

6:23: "Button" takes the makeup award. Winner Greg Cannom thanks litany of people and "New Orleans."

6:25: The "Movie Yearbook" clip package for romantic pics. A way of getting more popcorn fare into the telecast? Lost of kissing in the rain, and we end on a "Wall-E" shot of Wall-E and Eve. Sweet.

6:29: Commercial break. Wonder when we'll get the first movie ad?

6:30: "Good Morning America" plug. Followed by "Dancing With the Stars" plug. Always interesting to see what ABC tubthumps on the telecast.

6:31: Ben Stiller doing the Joaquin Phoenix joke, with paste-on mountain man beard as he presents the cinematography award with Natalie Portman. "I just want to retire from being a funny guy." Portman: "You look like you work at a Hasidic meth lab."

6:34: Anthony Dod Mantle wins for "Slumdog Millionaire." He's a little subdued.

6:37: Commercial break. MasterCard and JC Penney. Where's the movie ads?

6:38: Jessica Biel doing the Sci-Tech roundup clip package. She needs tech support for her dress, it's pretty awful.

6:40: More commercials. Aha! "The Soloist" gets the first blurb. And now Audi. I feel better when Oscars are advertising things out of my price range.

6:43: Judd Apatow-directed short with Seth Rogen and James Franco recapping the year's comedy pics. Cute but not uproarious. It is broadcast TV, after all.

6:51: "Castle" gets first ABC primetime series promo. They're selling the Nathan Fillion starrer more as a rom-com than they have been in the past few weeks.

6:52: Another number from Hugh Jackman, noting the revival of musicals. Beyonce joins him. It's a medley, but it's pretty good. Beyonce can sing anything. Wait, here comes Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and a couple from "Mamma Mia." "The musical is back!" Jackman declares after the rave-up ending with "Somewhere." Baz Luhrmann gave us that number, Jackman informs us.

6:58: Second movie spot. The Sandra Bullock comedy "The Proposal." Hey, it's got Betty White in it, it must be good.

7:02: Clips of supporting actor winners. Here comes past winners Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin, Joel Grey, Kevin Kline and Cuba Gooding Jr. Same drill as with the ladies. I suppose this is a nice way to give the nominees a little extra spotlight in the seconds before they get it, or don't.

7:07: Heath Ledger wins for "Dark Knight." The late actor's mother, father and sister accept for him. "This is ever so humbling," says his father, Kim. Says mom Sally Bell: "Tonight we are choosing to celebrate and be happy with what he has achieved." (Pictured below, Sally Bell, Kim Ledger and Kate Ledger)

7:13: Bill Maher presenting docu award, and noting that he had one this year, "You know, the one about religion that didn't get nominated."

7:15: "Man on Wire" wins for docu. Philippe Petit hams it up with a bit of sleight of hand and by balancing his Oscar on his chin. Hey, it'll make the clip packages for years, he's no fool. (See pic at the very end of the post.)

7:20: Another "Dancing With the Stars" promo. And a funny one for "Jimmy Kimmel Live" with Tom Cruise.

7:23: Will Smith follows the action movie clip package, makes a joke about how action movies may not get Oscar respect but they do have something else -- "fans." Vfx nod goes to "Button." "Dark Knight" wins for sound editing.

7:30: Smith calls sound mixers "the superheroes" of the movie industry. "Slumdog" bags it. The three winners are breathless, literally. "I dedicate this award to my country," says Resul Pookutty with emotion that should remind us that even when awards season gets old, in "Slumdog's" case the achievements are incredibly meaningful on a level that those of us Hollywood natives can't really understand. "Slumdog" also gets it for film editing.

7:39: Clever promo for ABC's upcoming comedy "In the Motherhood" playing off all the Oscar thank yous to moms.

7:41: Eddie Murphy presents the Hersholt to Jerry Lewis. No matter what, you gotta give him credit. That MDA telethon has done a lot of good, you can't take that away from him. Jerry gets a standing ovation. He's extremely low-key, by King of Comedy standards, and he's looking his age. "The humility I feel is staggering." Ah, but all's right with the world, humble Jerry does a little hamming and face stretching at the very end.

7:49: Another "Castle" promo.

7:50: Music slot. Giacchino leads the orchestra in medley of nommed scores. Very elegant.

7:53: Alicia Keys and Zac Efron present original score. "Slumdog's" AR Rahman wins. "I'm grateful to have come all the way."

7:56: Here's the slot where Peter Gabriel isn't. He'd have a hard time following the "Slumdog" dancers and drummers anyway on "O Saya," I have to say, unless perhaps he brought "Wall-E" with him. Well, John Legend is doing a good job on "Down to Earth" anyway, and he brought along the Soweto choir. And give it up - here comes "Slumdog's" "Jai Ho," with Legend chiming in at the end. Nicely done.

8:00: "Jai Ho" wins! Rahman (pictured right), whose suit is to die for, BTW, looks a little stunned. Citing the hopeful theme of the movie, he observed: "All my life I've had a choice of hate and love. I chose love, and I'm here."

8:04: Plug for "Brothers & Sisters" upcoming two-hour seg.

8:05: Wow, big surprise in the foreign film category. Japan's "Departures" bests "Waltz with Bashir" and "The Class," to win. Nobody looks more surprised than director Yojiro Takita. "I am here because of films... We'll be back, I hope," Takita said.

8:10: During the commercial break, I'm thinking, there hasn't been a lot to make fun of this year! Is that good or bad?

(OK, that was kind of a silly comment. In hindsight after thinking about it some: No. 1: The presentation of the acting awards was squirm-worthy at times, as the cameras zeroed in on each nominee trying to look modest while the past winners on stage gushed and gushed about them. At least Cuba Gooding Jr. was funny in his spiel about Robert Downey Jr. No. 2: Jackman's opening dance number was a miss -- sorry, just not funny. The outre lyrics by "Sarah Silverman Program" scribes Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab were just...not funny. Other than that and the musical medley, which was entertaining, Jackman didn't seem to make his presence felt that much. He was pleasant enough, but that's about it. Not particularly engaging. No. 3: The shtick about taking us through the steps of making a movie felt a little bit too "Sesame Street" for comfort. No. 4: The Acad doesn't have to worry. Tonight's show wasn't anywhere near as bad as last year's Emmycast. In fact, it was only really bad in small doses. Mostly it just felt looooooong.)

8:11: Here's Queen Latifah, looking beautiful and gift-wrapped with a big bow on her bright blue frock (which is different than the gown she wore on the red carpet). She's singing "I'll Be Seeing You" over the clip reel of those lost in 2008. Classy touch. Super-classy to linger on Paul Newman at the end.

8:17: Another "Jimmy Kimmel Live" post-Oscar special spot.

8:18: Acad prexy Sid Ganis gets a round of applause but no speech. Are we running late?

8:19: Reese Witherspoon doing the director honors. She's always lovely, but she's had better hair and dress days. She's just not as radiant as usual, IMHO.

8:20: Danny Boyle, natch. Jumps up and down three times, a message to his kids. Warners gets thanked for giving "Slumdog" up to Peter Rice at Fox Searchlight. Am I imagining things or does Boyle look a little bit relieved to not have to make any more acceptance speeches, at least not this week.

8:26: Best actress -- coming atcha from Shirley MacLaine, Sophia Loren, Halle Berry (who looks really fantastic), Marion Cotillard and Nicole Kidman. Kate Winslet gets the nod. Shampoo bottles, dad whistling, she's going on and on. I can imagine the producers looking at their watches and gritting their teeth.

8:35: Best actor. C'mon Sean Penn! Here comes Robert De Niro, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Hopkins, Adrien Brody and Michael Douglas to do the honors. Adrien Brody's working on his Joaquin Phoenix look. Oh boy, we are so going way over.

8:42: Mickey Rourke looks like he wants to scream: "Get on with it already."

8:43: Sean Penn gets it for "Milk." He earned it, for sure. Standing ovation. "You commie homo loving sons of guns." "I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me, often." He gets serious in referring to Prop. 8, and calling on those who voted for the same-sex marriage ban to think of the "great shame" they will one day feel. "We have got to have equal rights for everyone," Penn said. And he closes with a shout-out to Mickey Rourke, "my brother." Somebody slipped Penn a humility pill.

8:50: "Slumdog Millionaire" gets the call. Wow, look at that mob on stage. I was rooting for a "Milk" upset but looking at those faces, especially the kids, it's hard to be anything but happy for them.

8:55: Credits roll with clips of upcoming pics. Funny choice of closing credits music, Beck's remake of Dylan's "Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat" (is there a connection I'm missing?).

9:00: Clever ABC promo setting stars of their upcoming shows "Castle," "Cupid," "In the Motherhood" and "Better Off Ted" at an Oscar party.

Conan O'Brien was a class act in signing off of "Late Night" on Friday after 16 years. Hard to believe that he hosted that show longer than David Letterman did.

Conan spent the past 10 minutes of his final "Late Night" seg saying a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped him on his way, from Letterman to Jay Leno to Lorne Michaels and Jeff Ross to his family to various regimes of NBC execs (and through it all, Rick Ludwin stands tall).

Variety's Michael Schneider has the skinny on it all right here, or watch the seg for yourself courtesy of Hulu. And then click here to check out a seven-minute clip of a very different, very gawky Conan from mid-1993, doing a guest stint as "the new guy" with Letterman on the show he would soon inherit.

Nothing says success like a 200th episode cake-cutting party. "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" carved up the spoils on Tuesday with a cake big enough to feed a whole bunch of CBS and CBS Par execs, current and former cast members and producer. In the top row from left, CBS Par Network TV's David Stapf, stars Laurence Fishburne, William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, series mastermind Anthony Zuiker, who's standing just behind CBS Entertainment prexy Nina Tassler, Jerry Bruckheimer, showrunner Naren Shankar, CBS Par TV's Nancy Tellem, showrunner extraordinaire Carol Mendelsohn, whose head is just behind Tellem, Bruckheimer TV's Jonathan Littman and cast members Robert David Hall and Paul Guilfoyle.

So much for the utopian vision of ubiquitous of program syndication via Internet.

CBS Corp. and Hulu, the joint Internet vid venture of NBC Universal and News Corp., are scrapping over their Internet vid ambitions.

Hulu on Tuesday yanked all of its video off of CBS' TV.com site, saying in a statement that it was "exercising" its contractual rights to pull its vid.

CNET, TV.com's parent company, was recruited as one of Hulu's charter distribution partners when the venture was formed in 2007. But that was before CBS Corp. bought CNET last year.

CBS has a different interpretation of CNET's contract with Hulu, which undoubtedly involved some form of ad revenue sharing.

"CBS Interactive is well within its rights to stream Hulu video content on TV.com under its agreement with Hulu. We are evaluating our next steps at this time," CBS said in a statement.

Hulu's move comes on the heels of CBS' recent push to beef up TV.com beyond being a fan-centric site (clips, interviews, episode guides, etc.) to offering streaming vid of full-length episodes. Having access to Hulu's menu of NBC- and Fox-produced shows certainly didn't hurt that effort.

On the other hand, CBS has never licensed any of the content it controls (CBS, CW, Showtime) to Hulu, so maybe the Hulu folks thought "Hey, fair's fair" and "why are we helping to build up a competitor?" And yet the whole premise behind Hulu was to get the shows distribbed via the company's proprietary player as far and wide on the Internet as possible -- syndication 2.0.

As of Thursday evening, TV.com still had links to a number of NBC series up on its "full episode" menu. But anyone hoping to watch an episode of, say, NBC's "Life" or FX's "Damages" is abruptly cut off with a black screen and a terse "video unavailable" message.

The Internet may be blazing new trails for program distribution, but it appears that old habits die hard when longtime old-media competitors are at the controls.

It might be the most glamorous EPK of the year, tubthumping the Oscars.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. -- John 3:16

This seg of "Lost," titled "316," takes the heavy-duty Christian allegory and symbolism to new heights. I'm surprised that they seem to be going that direction -- not surprised as in dismayed, quite the contrary. I didn't expect it so it makes the ride all that much more intriguing and interesting. But bear with me, people, I'm a Unitarian, and only a recent one at that, so Biblical details, imagery, iconography et al are not my strong suit. (Great Lenny Bruce line: "I know my humor is outrageous when it makes the Unitarians so mad they burn a question mark on my front lawn.")

I really shouldn't be surprised that things are getting even more spiritual and mystical for our castaways. The seeds have been sown for going on five seasons, especially this year with Mrs. Hawking doing her thang in the bowels of a church (that doubled as a Dharma station, as we've just learned!). The central philosophical tenet of the show (and "Lost" is one of the few that can claim to have such a hifalutin thing) has been the question of faith vs. science, and how much of our lives, our fates and fortunes are dictated by our battles as humans between free will and the collective subconscious.

Going back to one of the central mysteries about deal ol' Jacob, this is a show that has presented us with ecclesiastical questions and concerns. And God love 'em for it, especially our spiritual leaders, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, who wrote this seg. It was helmed by Stephen Williams, who has delivered many a fine "Lost" hour before. (And a shout-out is in order to the lighting crew. They were busy in this seg, creating mood after mood after mood.)

The path along the way has included Locke's visceral reaction to the island's higher powers and his battles with Jack, Mr. Eko and his desecration of the cloth worn by his brother, Rose's deep and abiding faith (by the way -- where the heck are Rose and Bernard?!? And Vincent??) regarding her cancer, going back to Ben's oft-repeated speech about how a spinal surgeon fell out of the sky just as he discovered he had a tumor and how "if that's not proof of God I don't know what is."

Ben demonstrates his knowledge of scripture in telling Jack the story behind the painting in Mrs. Hawking's church of Thomas the Apostle, and how he had to touch Jesus' wounds before he'd believe in the resurrection. "We're all convinced sooner or later, Jack," Ben taunts.

The John 3:16 thing didn't dawn on me until about 20 minutes in -- yes, I also thought about the rainbow wig guy who used to show up with the "John 3:16" sign at sporting events and such -- but it totally tracks with the plot that is unfolding at a gallop so far this season.

Think about it in the context of the "sacrifice" that Locke came to grips with last week, with the time travel business and the hints we've gotten about eternal life from folks like Richard Alpert, and Charles Widmore's burning motivation to find his way back to the island.

Now -- on to the granular details of this week's adventure. Once again, Jin leaves us gasping. Jin was a Dharma,or is this a time travel thing? And what happened to Aaron? Could it be that Claire paid Kate another visit and claimed him at long last?

Diane Sawyer deserves kudos for Friday's "20/20" special "Children of the Mountains," examining the life of kids who live among the poorest of the poor in central Appalachia.

It was a little showboat-y here and there for Sawyer, a Kentucky native, in some moments with her poverty-stricken subjects. But on balance "Mountains" was well reported, over a two-year period, and thoroughly heartbreaking. It reminds us that tolerating such abject poverty in the richest nation in the world is unconscionable.

ABC deserves credit for giving a big promo push to the special, which helped it deliver an impressive number by the standards of Friday nights and non-tabloid-y newsmag segs. The children of Appalachia may not be as sensational as a certain set of octuplets, but they are, IMHO, a whole lot more deserving of media attention.

At 10 p.m., "20/20" brought in 10.9 million viewers and 3.4 rating/11 share in adults 18-49, giving ABC a rare victory over CBS' "Numbers" in the hour and giving "20/20" its biggest Friday night aud in four and a half years.

A number of specifics cited in the special stood out. A 36-year-old woman with eight grandchildren. A church raising $1.85 at its Sunday offering. A 30-year-old mother (Angel, pictured above on far right with her daughters and mother) just out of rehab walking eight miles each way to attend her court-mandated GED classes. An 11-year-old girl taking care of her drug-addled mother. Young men filling up on Doritos, Red Bull and candy bars to make it through an eight-hour shift in a coal mine. An Indian doctor who works in a local clinic noting that the conditions among the mountain people are worse than he saw in his native country.

You can't watch this hour without welling up a few times. Sawyer makes the point that the spotlight that LBJ and RFK put on Appalachia in the 1960s did a lot of good for the area in terms of investments in infrastructure and education. Maybe this special will help renew a focus on the urgent needs of a new generation fighting 21st-century scourges -- prescription drug abuse, meth, incest, malnutrition, woefully inadequate schools and job training services. It's heartening that viewers turned out in the numbers they did for the initial airing. "Mountains" should get more exposure through online viewing on the ABC News website.

The ABC News site also has a list of non-profit groups trying to make a difference in the area. It's a place to start.

Monday night update: As evidenced by the comments on this post, "Children of the Mountains" has provoked strong criticism from those who know the region well for being, in their view, one-sided and overly negative. Click here for a report on the local reaction to the special from WYMT-TV, the CBS affil serving Eastern Kentucky.

I may regret saying this but ..."Eastbound and Down" has grown on me. Kenny Powers, the foul-mouthed, bellicose cretin at the center of the show, has grown on me. I can't explain why.

I pretty much sat slack-jawed through the first episode, not believing what I was seeing, or hearing. It's hard to describe specifics without giving too much away, but suffice it say that Powers, played by Danny McBride, is an ex-Major League pitcher in the mold of John Rocker. He's not just politically incorrect, he's just wrong on every level of his life.

We meet up with the mullet-headed Kenny a few years after he's been drummed out of the game for a steroid scandal, and he's hitting near rock-bottom. All he's got to his name is his truck, his jet ski and his audio book of the Kenny Powers guide to life, a relic of the brief moment when he was a big wheel in baseball.

He's now reduced to moving back to his North Carolina home town and moving in with his well-meaning older brother, his churchy sister-in-law and their three young kids, and he takes a job as the P.E. teacher at his alma mater, Jefferson Davis Middle School.

Powers' old flame from high school days now works as a teacher there, and she's engaged to the nebbishy principal, but he's determined to win her back, etc. He also reconnects with his hard-living, beer-swilling old friends, including the owner of a local dive bar, Clegg (played by series co-creator Ben Best pictured left), who helps Powers self-medicate.

The premise isn't all that unusual, but the setting is. You can tell that the show is shot North Carolina with local extras. The tweens and teens in the middle school scenes don't look like L.A. kids who are angling for their SAG cards.

Here’s a news flash: “Lost” is a hit online. But so is CW’s “Privileged.”

For the first time, Nielsen Online has released rankings for online streaming of episodes and clips.
“Lost” tops the chart for the month of December with 1.4 million unique viewers, followed by NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” with 1.1 million.

By the yardstick of the total time viewers spent with a show online, the surprise leader in December was CW’s “Privileged.” The rating-challenged dramedy drew only 29,000 unique viewers, but those that did tune in stuck around for an average of 214.6 minutes.

There’s a big caveat to these rankings, however, in that they don’t include shows streamed via Hulu because Hulu won’t breakout its numbers to Nielsen (at least if I'm reading Nielsen-ese right. A Nielsen Online rep would only say that Hulu is "not available in our syndication service.")

Nielsen’s survey includes the websites of Hulu partners NBC and Fox, as well as ABC, CBS and CW. But by all accounts, Hulu's vid streaming traffic has outpaced that of the Peacock and Fox nets' individual websites. The survey captures clips that are embedded on other websites and blogs, as long as the streams come from the network's proprietary player (but not Hulu's player).

Oh, but this show knows how to throw curve balls. I think this episode of "Lost" is jarring because the many plot developments that were just thrown at us for the most part seem so darn...straightforward. It must set a record for a "Lost" episode in the characters' use of clear and explicit language.

Before we get to the review of the Big Moments and Great Lines of this seg, "This Place is Death," let's think about some space-and-time questions. Not so much the specifics of all the time traveling we've been doing this season, but the time frame for the milestone moments of the "Lost" chronology as we know it so far.

The Dharma Initiative is a 1970s-era invention (or does it go back to late '60s?). Rousseau and her team land on the island in 1988. Desmond and Faraday meet up with each other at Oxford in 1996, which would seem to be around the same time that  Faraday runs out on Theresa Spencer. The 815 castaways arrive on the isle of mystery in September 2004. Desmond gets there a few years earlier, right? From the "Jughead" seg, we know that Richard Alpert and his band of hot-tempered followers were there in 1954. And we believe the Black Rock pirate ship goes back to the heyday of sea-farin' men in the 1800s, right?

I'm thinking there's generational tectonic shifts going on with the island, at least in the modern era. It seems that every 10-15 years something mega happens. I wish I could place the time frame of Ben's gas attack that kills the Dharmas. Gotta be '80s, right, like maybe just before the time Rousseau arrives?

To me, the most interesting thing about this most interesting episode -- written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and helmed by Paul Edwards -- is the return of Christian Shephard. Onward Christian Shepherd. (I try hard not to overuse that one more than once a season.) He just pops up like the proverbial bad penny in the strangest places.

After revisiting most of season one last year while waiting for season five, it struck me that a case could be made that the whole crazy mess starts with Jack's courageous, principled decision to blow the whistle on his father for getting behind the scalpel after having a few too many at lunch. That incident strips Christian of his medical license, and sends him spiraling into the bender that takes him to Australia, and eventually to the pine box that his bitter progeny has to come collect. And we all know what happens on the return flight.

Dustin Lance Black couldn't have announced his arrival as a player in the feature biz if he'd worn a sandwich board to the Writers Guild Awards.

The "Milk" scribe brought the award-season jaded crowd at the Century Plaza to its feet with his heartfelt call for the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community to think "beyond Prop. 8" and demand that the federal government enact legislation affirming their equal protection under the law on a scale of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Black (who says he generally drops Dustin and goes by Lance) may not quite be old enough to run for president (he was 4 when Harvey Milk was assassinated in 1978), but he knows his history. And he knows his showbiz history. He got a laugh in accepting his first award of the night by noting that "Milk" wasn't "the easiest subject matter to get produced. If you hadn't noticed -- it's pretty gay...and it's political."

The civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s should be a template for the gay community -- and now is the hour for activism, Black says, noting how many thousands of people took to the streets of L.A. in November after California voters approved Prop. 8's same-sex marriage ban. It is painfully ironic to Black that the anti-Prop. 8 campaign failed to heed Milk's example by de-emphasizing the gay rights factor, instead of making that the central issue. He knows whereof he speaks, having grown up as a self-described "closeted kid" in a devoutly Mormon, military family in San Antonio, Texas. (No question why he became a writer on HBO's "Big Love.")

Black's life changed when his family moved to the Bay Area when he was a teen after his stepfather was transferred.

"I think America does love gay and lesbian people - a lot of them just haven't met us yet," Black said backstage, channeling his movie subject as he held a trophy in each hand. "A lot of us are invisible. We need to come out of this invisibility, we need to let people know that we're your aunts and uncles, your teachers and your truck drivers. This is not just about marriage."

As for his next moves on screen, Black is looking forward to putting his docu helming experience to the test with his feature directing debut on "What's Wrong with Virginia." Liam Neeson has signed on to the project alongside Jennifer Connelly. No distrib yet, but Christine Vachon and Eric Watson are on board as producers. Black is also adapting "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" for "Milk" helmer Gus Van Sant, and he has something percolating at Universal, but it's not ready for "talking about yet," he said, just before his team of CAA reps and praiser Lee Ginsberg of PMK/HBH gently pulled him out of the press room.

Fresh off their 9000th award win, this time for best drama series at the Writers Guild Awards, the "Mad Men" scribe team is set to report for their first day of work on season three on Monday. Among the new faces in the room this year is Davey Holmes, an alum of HBO's "In Treatment," which took best new series.

Holmes was on hand at the Century Plaza to accept his award, and after the show hung out for a bit in the ballroom lobby with Sonya Walger, ex of HBO's "Tell Me You Love Me" and now one-half of the fans' favorite couple on "Lost." Walger also chatted for a bit with "Lost's" Damon Lindelof, and the sight of them together made me smile in a ridiculously fan-feverish way.

Other friendly faces in the post-show gaggle included "Mad Men's" Robin Veith, Becky Hartman Edwards and others from "Life on Mars," Matt Nix of "Burn Notice," the ever-charming Matt Selman of "Simpsons" fame, Greg and Susanne Daniels, Kirk Ellis and his wife (who became proud grandparents four days ago), and Endeavor's Tom Wellington. The WGA ceremony itself surely dragged in parts, but the company and conversation at the end was very nearly worth the wait.

Judd Apatow makes me laugh. He makes a lot of people laugh. He kept the packed house at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills laughing Thursday night as he moderated the "Beyond Words" panel of WGA Award nommed screenwriters. It was a good group -- Simon Beaufoy ("Slumdog Millionaire"); Lance Black ("Milk"); Tom McCarthy ("The Visitor"); Jonathan Nolan ("The Dark Knight"); and Eric Roth ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") -- that reflected a range of pics.

Apatow joked at the start about not preparing for the event, but he'd clearly done a little bit of homework. He zeroed in on Roth to start, noting that the esteemed screenwriter had been a friend of Jim Morrison when they both attended UCLA in the mid-1960s.

"Can we talk about that all night," Apatow said.

Roth breezed over this interesting chapter in the L.A./rock'n'roll/Hollywood history with a dry mention of weird scenes ("I did get high with him a lot") and the observation that the Lizard King, in all his tight- leather-pants-whip-it-out-in-Miami-rock-god glory, really wanted to be a respected poet, or maybe even a screenwriter. "He wanted to be here," Roth said. (I think he meant Morrison would've loved being in a setting that conferred on him the status of being a really good writer.)

Apatow then warned McCarthy that the only thing he was more interested in than Jim Morrison stories was behind the scenes tales of "The Wire." (McCarthy co-starred as a really craven character -- a corrupt newspaper reporter -- in the HBO drama's final season last year. He shredded in the role. I loved HATING him.)

"So, what role as an actor pissed you off so much that you decided to write," Apatow asked, zeroing in on the heart of the question, no matter how delicately phrased, that is always asked of actors who decide to write or direct, or do both in the case of the multi-talented McCarthy.

(Pictured above, from left: Eric Roth, Lance Black, Judd Apatow, Jonathan Nolan, Tom McCarthy and Simon Beaufoy.)

Dean Pitchford, a multihyphenate tunesmith and screenwriter, has experience on the awards show circuit. He won an Oscar for original song ("Fame") and he's been nommed for two more. He's been up for a Tony (for the tuner rendition of "Footloose"; he also wrote the screenplay for the 1984 pic), and nommed for multiple Grammy Awards.

This year he's going through the Grammy festivities all over again, but he's nommed in a category that he never dreamed he'd compete in -- children's spoken word album -- and for a project that has a significance to Pitchford unlike anything else he's ever written.

Pitchford's life changed seven and a half years ago when his younger sister, Patricia Colodner, died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. He had been a devoted uncle to his sister's two children, Colby, who was 9 at the time of her mother's death, and Jordan, who was 2, but amid the unspeakable trauma of losing their mother, the bonds between Pitchford and his niece and nephew grew immeasurably stronger.

"It's OK, he's with me."

No, Jack, you're with him.You might as well have a dog collar around you're neck because you are sooooo subservient to Benjamin Linus now that it's hard to take. Just ask Kate.

For all the curve balls that tonight's "Lost" installment, "The Little Prince," threw at us -- and they were fast and furious in the last 15 minutes (JIN! ROUSSEAU! JIN! JIN! JIN! JIN!), the one big moment of clarity I had was that Jack is just a goner. He may be cleaned up a bit, having sworn off the OxyContin and the facial hair, but he most certainly has lost his mind -- the sharp, skeptical, strategic mind that helped the castaways so much in the early going of Our Great Adventure.

I saw it most particularly when Jack and Kate were sitting in Kate's car outside the motel, when Jack talked Kate into letting him go confront Claire's mother. (It's always a good "Lost" episode when there are multiple references to Claire's surname, or in this case "Mrs. Littleton," though in point of fact I am not a Mrs. Littleton, but it's still cool...)

Jack pleads: "I can fix this, Kate." So cloying. If you have to spell it out, you're doomed. Jack of old would've been up the staircase before Kate had time to react, and he would've tried to punch out the lawyer on his way down the stairs. And then he would've wigged out some more and made sure he hadn't given the guy a concussion.

In the closing scenes, Jack just sounds ridiculous trying to convince Kate "we all need to be together." Earlier in the episode he tries to convince Sayid "Ben is on our side." Can't he tell how ridiculous he sounds? Sayid wisely corrects Jack: "The only side he's on is his own." But does Jack listen? Nooooo.

On Jan. 5, moments after Don Corsini started his gig as KTLA’s president and GM, the troops knew there was a new sheriff in town.

Why aren’t we doing more news?, Corsini wanted to know. Why aren’t we more competitive on breaking news?

After a few days of studying the newsroom’s rhythms and scrutinizing KTLA’s schedule, Corsini came to assistant news director Jason Ball with the idea for the station to add a 6:30 pm newscast. It would allow KTLA to offer local headlines at a time when the Big Three O&Os were serving up national and international reports from Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric and Brian Williams.

Great idea, Ball told Corsini. Then Corsini had another surprise for his lieutenant.

“Let’s do it tomorrow,” he told Ball.

After Ball picked up his jaw off the floor, he realized that this was his real introduction to the new boss.
As a news guy, he couldn’t ask for a more supportive leader than Corsini, who is a creature of L.A. television.