This Sunday night, The Storm airs the first half of its four-hour miniseries on NBC, which is about some nerdy scientists (James Van Der Beek -- aka Dawson -- and Rich Sommer of Mad Men fame) who stumble on a way to control the weather, which of course rich guys and the military (in the form of Treat Williams and David James Elliot) find a way to exploit. Luke Perry plays another scientist who has been burned by the weather before, and Teri Polo stars as an ambitious reporter trying to figure out why there are snowstorms in the summer and whatnot. Your standard disaster fare. James Van Der Beek gamely joined a conference call the other day to talk to reporters about this film, and what happens when two former teen stars get together in one movie. A perfect storm, perhaps?

My favorite reality show on television (totally serious), Deadliest Warrior, has been picked up for a second season by the good people at Spike, because it is awesome. It is! The way they pick the winner of each battle is dubious and everything and that's a valid complaint, but people who don't like the show because of that are missing the point entirely. The show is great because of the weapons experts who guest in every episode. They're amazing. Remember that terrifying Spetsnaz guy? That guy needs a spinoff he's so entertaining. But gushing aside, last season had some awesome fights ("Mafia vs. Yakuza" was particularly fun, and "IRA vs. Taliban" had a flame thrower!) and some WTF fights (Maori vs. Shaolin Monks? On the real?!), so I think we should just put the fights we'd like to see out there now, before some ridiculous "Angelina vs. Aniston" episodes go into production.

We'll all be sad when the Comic-Con is over, leaving us with significantly less exciting news, but for now we'll just revel in all its nerdy glory! In other news, Speidi continues to hijack entertainment world, but Georgina Sparks is coming back, so maybe she'll take them down! Okay, not likely, but wouldn't that be so badass?

This week Dating in the Dark debuted and it pretty much reinforced everything you'd imagine about the superficial nature of people (particularly those willing to go on reality shows). Then next week, More to Love, or as we like to call it, The Fatchelor, debuts. We've seen it, and it's not really much worse than The Bachelor franchise, but it does torture the poor hopeless women by giving them diamond promise rings (in lieu of roses), and making them return them in the hopes that their dream guy gives it back at the end of each episode. So many of these women have never even dated before that it's more than a little bit depressing, especially when the bachelor asks them for kisses and they oblige. So much desperation on one show that it got us thinking about the other dating shows that are more than a little bit gross... when you think about it.

The CW has declared that Tuesday is officially the new hump day. Adjust your schedules accordingly.

Comedian Michael Ian Black has three reasons to celebrate. One, The State has finally come out on DVD, so we can all watch his classic pants-buying and Captain Monterey Jack sketches. Two, Michael and Michael Have Issues, his new Comedy Central show with fellow State alum Michael Showalter, is hysterically funny. Three, he gets all the Klondike bars he wants as the new Klondike company spokesman. We know which of those three we'd be most excited about, but it's hard to get past the trademark Black deadpan to figure out which has him the most jazzed. You be the judge!

You know when summer is coming to an end when all your favorite (or not so favorite) summer shows get picked up for another season. There's everything about these renewals in the news from Playboy ladies to divas (live ones!), to assistants and warriors, so read on!

So it turns out that waifish physique and penchant for black eyeliner may have been more than just fashion statements. Yes, it's true -- Mischa Barton has finally gone off the deep end. And I say finally because, really, didn't we all see this one coming? Her performances as the tortured Marissa Cooper on The O.C. were often just a little too good. At some point, acting totally screwed up probably just came too naturally. Who knows, maybe some lazy production assistant forgot to switch those painkillers with Smarties or that vodka with water all those times? I'm not pointing any fingers, but hey, you never know.

Last week So You Think You Can Dance took the control out of the hands of the judges and let America have complete control over the guy and girl who got sent packing. The first two victims? Randi Evans and Kupono Aweau. The new dance partners didn't stand out during Wednesday night's performance and the judges really hated Randi's bad wig, but they did have some stand-out performances along the way, including Randi in Mia Michaels' "butt dance" and Kupono in Wade Robson's "crash test dummies" number. We hopped onto a conference call with Randi and Kupono the other day to find out how they felt about getting axed.

The personal gets political today with government solutions on how to combat overpopulation in India and the rescheduling of a presidential press conference. Oh, and television? Yeah, there's some of that, too.