The traditional television season is about to come to an end, so how does a network not know if they want to renew a TV show or not? Either the ratings are good, or they aren't. Either a show has potential, or it doesn't. Shit or get off the pot. Because tonight I'm going to watch the season finale of Life, and neither I nor the show's cast and crew know whether it's going to come back in the fall. Isn't that messed-up? How can anyone be expected to tell a story under those conditions? You're risking the possibility of either an unsatisfying series finale, thereby affecting DVD sales, or a lackluster season finale, thereby affecting next season's numbers. Rrrrraaaagge! ...Anyway, I sat in on a conference call with Life star Damian Lewis and show creator Rand Ravich and listened to them try to explain tonight's finale without spoiling it, and generally try to laugh away their worries. Man, I love Damian Lewis. If this show gets cancelled, someone better snatch him up before he starts doing plays again.

Not a lot of news items today, but there is a new, non-Jay Leno reason to be mad at NBC, so I guess that's refreshing.

This entire post is a discussion of last night's House. If you care about what happens on House, but not enough to have watched last night's episode, yet still enough to freak out on me for "spoiling" something that has already aired, do not click for the full interview. All the sane people, on the other hand, click on ahead for a much-needed explanation of that crazy ass episode by cast member Kal Penn, and executive producers David Shore and Katie Jacobs.

Holy crap, you guys watch this show last night? I have never actually seen According to Jim, but I'd imagine even that has to be better than this show. Poor Saget. There was a laugh track, you guys. There was Dan Cortese, you guys! Horrifying. And an overly precocious child, non-stop (and I mean non-effing-stop) High School Musical cross-promotion, a horny neighbor that was like the community theater improv class version of Barney Stinson, a joke about celebrities adopting babies from Africa that was imported right from 2008, and a very long bit about how precarious exchanging keys with one's neighbor is that made me want to exchange my life for not having to watch this show anymore.

A new season of The Tudors started last night, and it was pretty much as you would expect. Elegantly shot, gorgeous costumes, well-acted and a little bit boring. By all rights I should love this show. I have adored Jonathan Rhys-Meyers since Velvet Goldmine. I'm a sucker for period dramas. There's plenty of nudity and violence. All things I enjoy in a television series. But every time I sit down to watch it, I find myself struggling to stay awake.

You will never believe what the internet has! State DVD rumors! I know! So unprecedented! I apologize for not asking you to sit down first! There are other things being reported today as well, and they're probably not filthy lies, which is nice. You can read them below.

After singing a Bob Marley song, telling Simon that his opinion didn't matter and flapping her wings across stage, Simon told Megan Joy Corkrey that if she didn't care about him, he didn't care about her and sent her packing. The oddball singer with the unique voice and strange affection for all things aviary talked to reporters on Thursday night about her experience on the show and what her hopes for the future are.

So Fringe is fiiiiinally back tomorrow night, thanks to a mercifully down-sized Idol, and we all know what that means -- besides awesome gross-out sci-fi and Olivia's Turtle Wax-grade shiny hair to look at, it means we also get our always-inappropriate, junk food-obsessed, absent-minded professor Walter back! And Gene, hopefully. Gene's my girl. It's an exciting week! Despite the show's faults, I have really missed it over the past six years (estimate) it's been gone, mostly because Walter has left an indelible root beer float-shaped void in my heart during the break, which no amount of Seacrest can fill. Which got me thinking -- what other shows are elevated by their awesome sidekicks? Lots of course, but these are my favorites:

We've already put out our plea for bubble show Chuck to return next fall, but plenty more of our favorites are in danger of falling through the network programming cracks. Here's nine more series that deserve another season, but may not get one. We know, we know, wishin' and hopin' didn't do Pushing Daisies any good, but we're sending out a prayer to the TV powers-that-be anyway: when upfront time rolls around in a month or so, please let at least some of these shows reappear on your schedules.

Happy Friday, TV news fans! Welcome the weekend with these newsbites, and marvel over the fact that Jeff Probst has been wearing the same pair of shorts to the Survivor Tribal Councils for six years. I'm getting a brilliant idea: what if we got him to share with Ryan Seacrest, Howie Mandel and Tom Bergeron and then made a movie about it? We could call it The Brotherhood of the Traveling Shorts! I'd say we should try and rope Tim Gunn into this, but I get the feeling he doesn't really do cargos.