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Tonight on television.

By Ann Althouse

I haven't watched much TV lately, and not because of the writers' strike. I hadn't been watching any scripted shows anyway. I'm just too busy staring at my computer and ? occasionally ? out and about in the real world. (I went to the opera last night, but I'm too busy to think up a workable way to blog about the opera.)

But tonight, TV is required:

1. Michigan primary results!

2. Democratic debate!

3. New season of "American Idol"!

Or does that sound terrible? Another primary, another debate, another season of "American Idol"?

Am I really supposed to blog every episode of "American Idol" ? for the 5th year in a row? It's a tradition here on the Althouse blog. Am I up for it? Do I care? Can I find a way to blog without caring or just to care about blogging? Stay tuned.

Anyway, the Democratic debate is the subject of a hot last-minute legal battle as li'l Dennis fights for respect after MSNBC disinvited him when Biden, Dodd, and Richardson all dropped out. You've got to admit that it's absurd to have Clinton, Obama, Edwards and then just Kucinich. But a Nevada judge issued an injunction, and now there's a last minute appeal in the Nevada Supreme Court. It seems to be partly a contract dispute but partly an argument about NBC's obligation to serve the public interest under the Federal Communications Act of 1934. I don't quite understand that last part, since it's a cable network, he's not talking to the FCC, and the new format seems to suit the public interest well enough. But it does make it all sound juicier as an argument for consumption by the general public.

All this is to say that I'll do some TV-blogging tonight.

ADDED: I hope they keep Dennis out so that there will be some aesthetically pleasing symmetry to the evening: 2 panels, each consisting of a black man, a white woman, and a white man.

Full post as published by Althouse on January 15, 2008 (boomark / email).