OK, I confess. I'm enjoying "Desperate Housewives" in semi-regular doses this season.

The show lost me a few seasons ago with too many inane flights of fancy. Maybe I've mellowed, maybe in these turbulent times a guilty, soapy, silly pleasure is just what you need on a Sunday night. Or maybe the ABC sudser has simply gotten better after leaping five years into the future at the end of last season.

The storylines this season, from Lynette's son's affair with the soccer mom to Carlos' miracle blindness cure to the blossoming of Bree's Martha Stewart empire to Neal McDonough as Edie's hubby with the psycho-vendetta against Mike Delfino (who's now shacking up with Katherine, etc. etc.), have been fun and lightly addictive, kind of like M&Ms. Eva Longoria Parker has also been a standout this season, offering comic relief in all the right places. Felicity Huffman is unfailingly good at what she does, and earlier in the season Lily Tomlin was also a fun addition to the troupe.

I don't watch "Housewives" religiously every Sunday as I did in season one, but this season I've found myself checking in every other week or so to keep up with As Wisteria Lane Turns ...

Meanwhile, after all the fanfare and critical  hosannas showered on the series finale of "Battlestar Galactica" this past Friday, I'm feeling awful for never diving into the show.

It really makes no sense. By all rights, the remodeled "Battlestar" should be my kind of show -- smart fantasy drama with great characters, swell spaceships and scribes with a lot to say, Gene Roddenberry-style, about the state of our world by imagining the goings-on in distant galaxies. On top of all that, I'm a fan of Edward James Olmos.

Somehow, I missed Sci Fi Channel's initial boarding call for this mission when it began as a miniseries in 2003, and I just never caught up. I suppose that's what DVD box sets are for. If only spare time could be acquired as easily.

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).

Interesting to see the networks getting more aggressive about reporting their DVR numbers.

ABC today is touting "Grey's Anatomy" (pictured above) retaining its crown as the most-DVR'd show of the season so far. The medical drama's Sept. 25 season preem numbers (18.5 million viewers, 7.4 in 18-49) don't look so soft when you add in 2.7 million viewers and 1.3 demo rating points from DVR playback viewing in the week after the premiere telecast. (The premiere ratings are based on the new industry standard of Live-Plus-Same Day, which means the aud for the initial telecast plus those that watched it on the same day of the preem.)

ABC also reports that "Desperate Housewives," "Boston Legal" and "Brothers and Sisters" added 1 million viewers or more to their preem numbers through DVR viewing. "Grey's," "Boston Legal," "Ugly Betty" and "Brothers and Sisters" registered gains of 10% or more in the demo derby too, according to ABC.

CBS also sent out a bunch of info on its premiere week DVR ratings. "CSI: Miami," "NCIS," "The Mentalist" (pictured right), "Without a Trace," "Criminal Minds" and "Two and a Half Men" all padded their opening-night numbers by 1 million or more viewers.

The lag time in getting the DVR numbers out seems so incongruous in this era of non-stop, insta-information. But it's also true that success breeds success. A show that performs poorly in the old-fashioned overnights is not likely to turn the corner when the DVR numbers are factored in. But strong shows look even stronger when the ratings yardstick is stretched out to include the DVR aud.

"Desperate Housewives" fans should hop on over to the Season Pass blog for a fun, video-enhanced Q&A with Marc Cherry, conducted by Season Pass maven Kathy Lyford from questions sent in by fans.

Cherry is candid and insightful in discussing his creative process and the characters that populate Wisteria Lane. To wit:

Eva and I sort of discovered the character together. At some point I started making Gabrielle selfish and mean and self-obsessed and materialistic and Eva kind of was scared at first. She thought people wouldn’t like her. But I discovered she had the same qualities that Rue McClanahan did in “Golden Girls,” which is the ability to do unlikable things and still have the audience love you. And once I was confident in her ability to pull that kind of character off, we really went for it. It’s all about coming up with ways for Gabrielle to do just horrible, horrible things and we’re having a lot of fun with it.

Ever wanted to pose a question to "Desperate Housewives" creator Marc Cherry?

Well, Season Pass maven Kathy Lyford has a contest for you. Click here for the details.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

Marc Cherry said once again on Thursday that he'd like to set an end date for "Desperate Housewives" but the network isn't going for it. On a panel of ABC showrunners at the Television Critics Assn. tour in Beverly Hills, Cherry (pictured right) said that the series would end after seven seasons.

The show is about to embark on its fifth season, meaning if creator-exec produced Cherry had his wish, "Housewives" would end in 2011. An ABC representative and a high-level network exec said that there were no firm plans for the show to end at that point, and that Cherry was in no position to declare a finale for the series.

This isn't the first time Cherry has spoken to the press about his desire for the show to have a solid wrap-up date, but his discussions with the media haven't swayed the network. "Lost" exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were also on the panel, and Cherry's comments came after segment on how Lindelof and Cuse have been able to focus on their storytelling now that they know exactly when the show will end. There are two more seasons of "Lost," and it will conclude in 2010.

"Housewives" was a kudos and ratings powerhouse when it launched in 2004, receiving a nomination for best comedy. Although it hasn't been nominated since, the show continues to draw a significant amount of viewers. On the panel, Cherry said the first season of the show was very strong creatively but then dipped in season two. According to Cherry, seasons three and four have been an improvement. Cherry is currently contracted to ABC Studios until May 2011 and commented on ending the show when he signed that deal: "I think that, at the end of my deal, and after seven seasons, it will be a good time to call it quits," he said.

"I don't want anyone else to run the show, and I don't want us to fade away. But I'm serious in my intent to end it after seven years," Cherry said. "I don't want to overstay my welcome."

It was a surreal when-worlds-collide scene during the SAG solidarity rally today held outside the union's headquarters, which are conveniently located across the street from Variety.

The rally was designed to be a demonstration of SAG's resolve to fight for a "fair deal" and make it crystal clear how SAG feels about the primetime contract that its fellow actors union AFTRA just reached. The "vote no" chants and frequent cries of "AFTRA sucks" from the crowd left little doubt where SAG leaders come down on how the unions' 44,000 overlapping members should vote, as Variety's ever-laboring Dave McNary reports.

But as I made my way closer to the speakers platform where SAG's Alan Rosenberg and Doug Allen were speechifying, I was stopped dead by the presence of an Other. I started to hear the whispers. I ducked, scanned Wilshire Boulevard for signs of Smokey, and then looked up at the turquoise sky to make sure that a commercial airliner wasn't about to explode overhead.

I swung by Wisteria Lane on Sunday for the first time in months, encouraged by the positive buzz generated by "Desperate Housewives'" first-back-from-strike seg, "Sunday." I hoped to be as impressed as others have been with Dana Delany's contributions to the cul-de-sac.

As it turned out, it wasn't a huge episode for Delany's Katherine Mayfair -- though she did have one great scene with guest star Chris Carmack toward the end -- but I have to say that the whole conceit of Mayfair having deep dark secrets to hide still felt a bit tired.

The ludicrous storyline about Bree claiming her daughter's baby as her own was what made me stop watching last season, and it still bugs me to see Bree and Orson toting a baby carrier, even though they weren't much of a factor in this episode either. As always, the one ever-reliable player in the "Housewives" troupe for me is Felicity Huffman as Lynette.

Meet the damas of Calle Manzanares.

Univision and Disney have unveiled the cast of the Spanish-tongued version of "Desperate Housewives," and by the looks of it, and them, it appears they're going for a faithful translation of the ABC hit with "Amas de Casa Desesperadas."

Seasoned telenovela thesps Scarlet Ortiz, Ana Serradilla, Lorna Paz, Julieta Rosen and Gabriela Vergara are taking on the Susan, Gabrielle, Lynette, Bree and Edie roles -- or in this rendition, Susana, Gabriela, Leonor, Regina and Roxana. Lucia Mendez will take on the narrator/seen-in-flashbacks role of Mary Alice, aka Alicia. Even the male characters are adhering to their English-language counterparts, with sexy plumber Mike Delfino becoming Miguel Santini (played by Peruvian telenovela heartthrob Diego Ramos), sexy underage gardener John Rowland becoming Pedro Linares, etc. etc.

Univision's spin on "Casa Desesperadas" is lensing in Argentina and expected to bow on Univision next season.

Pictured above, from left, Ana Serradilla (Gabrielle), Lorna Paz (Lynette), Lucia Mendez (Mary Alice), Scarlet Ortiz (Susan), Julieta Rosen (Bree) and Gabriela Vergara (Edie).