Not a whole lot going on in the world of news today, everyone is probably busy trying to figure out just exactly how Locke is going to kill Jacob, or which of the boys is going to go home next week on Idol. That's the only explanation we've got for this tremendously slow news day.

It was announced this week that midseason sitcom Parks and Recreation earned itself a spot on the NBC lineup next fall. Which is somewhat of a shock, since the show hasn't really been all that funny, and NBC has a very limited amount of space come next season due to Jay Leno taking over five hours of valuable primetime space. The show has a good pedigree (being from the executive producers of The Office) and serious comedic potential (with Amy Poehler and Aziz Ansari) but after four episodes we're pretty bored. However, The Office's first season (which also started in the spring) was pretty dull too. It wasn't until season two when The Office finally stopped trying to be a copycat of the UK version and decided to be its own show, that it actually got funny. If Parks and Recreation decides next season to stop being an Office clone, it has a chance at improving. Here are our suggestions.

The casting was brilliant -- get perpetual nice guy Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Death at a Funeral) to play a wacky environmental engineer on Dollhouse, then have him pull a 180 and stand revealed as psychotic ex-Doll Alpha. It was a casting decision that was Whedonesque in its brilliance, and would have been one heck of a shock... if we hadn't found out about it in advance. The spoiler didn't make Tudyk's performance less hypnotic, however, and we can't wait to see where he and Echo will end up at the end of this week's season finale, "Omega." We got to talk to him on a media conference call about the finale, the leak and even the remake of V he'll be appearing in. The last one he couldn't say much about, but we're sure it will all be on the Internet soon enough.

In today's news, Paula Abdul admits she used to be a pill-popper, Kiefer goes buckwild again, there's some exciting pilot news, and Gossip Girl continues to invade every single last crevice of American culture.

It's Cinco de Mayo, so before you go out and overindulge in Mexican food and margaritas to celebrate, check out what's going on in the TV world. And you might want to do it fast, because I'm pretty sure that the world is ending pretty damned soon, based on a couple of the stories that are swirling about today.

NBC had their "infront" presentation today in 30 Rock's Studio 8H (aka SNL's studio) and while media types were treated to a look at their new slate of shows, we really didn't get that many answers or any kind of a schedule. All of that will apparently be magically revealed on May 19 at another NBC event -- until then we're left hanging about the fates of bubble shows like Chuck, My Name Is Earl, Law & Order and Medium. NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman did confirm, however, that sadly Life is dead. The NBC execs also confirmed that SVU will be back, with or without Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay, which would be weird since they're sorta the heart and soul of that show. Also, no word on whether or not they'll chop The Biggest Loser in half (we hope so; it really doesn't need to be more than an hour) or how they are going to fit all of their new programs in with no 10 PM timeslots available thanks to Jay Leno.

The NBC upfronts were today, leading to some news, although not the news you may be looking for. Other than that, it's been pretty quiet. You might say it's been too quiet. You might want to hunker down for a couple of days until what's coming, comes. Circle the couch cushions. Turn on CNN. Make some chocolate milk. Run silent. Run deep. The day's news briefs are after the jump.

Warning: This post contains some spoilers about tonight's House episode. It does. I'm serious. Stop reading if spoilers make you mad. Just stop it right now. For everybody else, click ahead for the juicy details!

Happy May Day everybody. Do people still do that pretty thing where they dance around a maypole with ribbons? I wouldn't know. I've been inside catching up on TV all day. I'm still stuck on how Private Practice ended its season and giving this whole thing way more attention than it deserves, but really, it has gone off the soapy deep end with all this Violet stuff. Anyway... on to the choice that its crappy parent show is making.

When news broke this week that The Hills would be continuing without its star Lauren Conrad next season, nobody seemed too perturbed by it. Surprising? Not really. Because besides the show not being terribly relevant anymore, the appeal of The Hills has always had less to do with Lauren Conrad herself than it does with the joy of watching little idiots stare at each other in sunny Los Angeles. (And hating Speidi, of course, but these days you can do that from the comfort of the Internet.) So, in honor of The Hills being brave enough to soldier on without LC, it seems only proper that we've come up with 10 suggestions for other shows that might want to follow suit.