Despite confirmation that Sarah Palin will be on Charlie Gibson's ABC show for her first interview since she was named VP nominee, the McCain camp lashed out at the media and said Palin wouldn't be talking to anyone until they can behave themselves. "Behave themselves" being code for "not mentioning anything about her children," apparently:

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Many television show producers are shaking in their boots around this time, wondering if their beloved shows will be renewed by their networks for another season. But not Oprah Winfrey. When you're Oprah Winfrey, you take it upon yourself to cancel your own show due to disappointing ratings, even if the network wants another season. Winfrey & Co. have chosen to discontinue the philanthropic reality show, Oprah's Big Give, "which never really pushed past 10 million viewers."

"We loved that show and absolutely would have loved to bring it back," said ABC entertainment president Steve McPherson. "But it was something [Oprah] didn't want to do."

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ABC News' John Quinones and his crack team of liars is back to make New Yorkers look calloused and cowardly, and to extrapolate some great truths about human instinct (but mostly just to make New Yorkers look like pussies).

For a special called em>What Would You Do? airing tonight on ABC, Quinones hired actors to portray public incidents of domestic violence. He then filmed the reactions of people who came across the scenes. The veteran newsman has done this a few times in the past, each time feigning shock when women by themselves walk right by raging men who are clearly unafraid of hurting women. But on tonight's episode, Quinones "[kicked] it up yet another notch" and made the fighting couples interracial. In one case, a white man berates a black woman, in another, a black man kicks his white girlfriend.

Watch above for specifics about what happened, but here's the gist: "As it turned out, race may have been a factor in terms of who intervened, and with which couple. Over two days of shooting, we noticed that women seemed less inclined to intervene when the abusive boyfriend was African-American and the victim white." Why? "African-Americans are stereotypically more aggressive than Caucasians … They [passersby] may have been more hesitant for that reason."

The television movie based on Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, attracted 12 million viewers when it aired on ABC Monday, giving the network its best Monday numbers since November. The Kenny Leon-directed telefilm was the first of its kind to screen at the Sundance Film Festival, and starred, as I'm sure you are more than aware, Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and Mr. Sean "Diddy" Combs. I confess it's on my DVR, but I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. If you saw it, what did you think?

He's baaaack — and richer than ever. Considering the fact that CBS had to pay Don Imus a $20 million dollar settlement for breaking his contract and now that man who popularized the phrase "nappy headed ho" is in talks for a new syndicated show with ABC Radio that could air as soon as early next year, it's safe to say that the conservatives out there boohooing over the shock jock's fate could have saved their tears. Imus is going nowhere but up.

Next stop — Sylvia's with Al Sharpton!

[Jossip]

Not only is ABC's planned sitcom version of the popular Geico caveman commercials a bad idea in general, it is also shaping up to be very questionable, racially speaking. Very.

ABC has already had to reshoot the pilot after receiving intense heat from television critics. Apparently, the cavemen are experts on the dancefloor, in the bedroom, and on the basketball court and football field. Hmmmm, are Cro-Magnuns honorary black men? Sounds incredibly offensive to me.

Wednesday's panel discussion here was the first time "Cavemen" producers have discussed the show in public, and they said people are reading too much into what they called a "fish out of water" story.

"Unfortunately, in our society, if you pick an offensive stereotype of any kind, it's going to bump into some ethnic group," said Mike Schiff, one of the executive producers. "Is the show about race relations? No. Is that a background to the show? Yes, of course."

Lawson, who wrote the original Geico commercials as well as the pilot, said that if the Cro-Magnons are an allegorical stand-in for anybody, it's not black people but outsiders.

Can I get a Hot Ghetto Mess-inspired boycott, here? Actually, I'm not sure we have that much to worry about — it can't air more than a few times before ABC pulls it and tries to pretend like it never existed.

[PDN via Racialicious]

Only in Hollywood does a leading television actor with an anger management problem, who recently has been bad-mouthing the victim of that anger problem all over town and in major magazines and newspapers, get a second chance at a a major network. If you can believe it, disgruntled Isaiah Washington is actually in talks with NBC.

The former Grey's Anatomy star, who learned June 7 that he was not being invited back for a fourth season, has reportedly been in preliminary talks with NBC regarding a future role at the network, although it isn't known whether he was being considered for an existing show or a new vehicle specifically for him.

Considering his new job prospects, one would think Isaiah Washington would just shut up and stay out of sight for a while. Or is that another "only in Hollywood" thing? Laying low would make too much sense.

[E!]

Sorry Fox, it's obviously not just you. Last week I chastised your network for airing a video of Congressman John Conyers during a story about Congressman William Jefferson. ABC's World News did almost the same thing last night when they showed footage of disgraced (but still kicking as a city councilman) ex-DC mayor Marion "Bitch Set Me Up" Barry instead of Roy L. Pearson, the man suing his dry cleaner for millions for losing his pants.

I say it's almost the same thing because John Conyers was innocent, and his likeness was being associated with scandal-plagued Jefferson. In ABC's case, they probably already had the Barry footage queued to report on the politician's DUI acquittal yesterday. Also, both Barry and Pearson are bald, DC-natives, and completely imbalanced. It happens.

[Jossip]

Football Wives, an NFL-themed drama starring Holly Robinson Peete, Gabrielle Union and Ving Rhames, was supposed to air on ABC this fall. The show, based on the wildly popular British series, Footballers Wives, about the exploits of the spouses of pro-soccer players, had great buzz, but ABC didn't deem it worthy of a place on the fall schedule. Budget issues, they said. Others think pressure from the NFL — which also caused the cancellation of sister-network ESPN's controversial Playmakers – was what did it. According to AOL Black Voices, the actual NFL players are doing far more to sully the name of the organization than any fictional television show ever can.

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