Oprah cannot save the soap operas. Tell me something I don't know.

Tags: Andy Cohen, Fairly Legal, Glee, Jim Carrey, Oprah, The Office, USA, Weeds

Kenneth the Page will be distraught to know that Tracy Jordan will be missing from a couple episodes of 30 Rock in March, plus Pee-wee Herman strikes a deal with HBO for a special. It's a mixed news day for overly-enthusiastic skinny guys...

Tags: 30 Rock, Ben Bailey, Cash Cab, Gossip Girl, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Pee-wee Herman, Raising Hope, Tracy Morgan, USA, William Baldwin

Both Lone Star and J.Lo's careers got lengthened a tiny bit today. Way to hustle, guys.

Tags: American Idol, Comedy Central, Dick Wolf, Fox, J.Lo, Jennifer Lopez, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Lone Star, Norm MacDonald, Project Runway, Steven Tyler, Tim Gunn, Top Chef, USA, Vincent D'Onofrio

USA expanded their empire last night with the premiere of Covert Affairs, a spy show starring Piper Perabo as the most brilliant brand-new spy the CIA has ever had, or something. It's sunny and light, while managing to have a hint of danger (but not too much! Let's not actually have any stakes here!), as all USA shows are, and like Burn Notice has become and Psych has always been, it's enjoyable occasional viewing, but nothing to really get excited about.

Tags: Clarke Peters, Covert Affairs, Peter Gallagher, Piper Perabo, USA

USA gets into the she-spy game tonight with Covert Affairs, a show about a lady ass-kicker for the government played by Piper Perabo. The less said about that casting the better, so let's move on to more exciting things, like the fact that Peter Gallagher plays her boss on the show. To promote the premiere, The Eyebrowed One got on the horn with a whole bunch of blogger types to address the Alias comparisons, what Sandy Cohen would think of the show, and why USA is less of a clusterfrak than the broadcast networks. Read on for highlights.

Tags: Alias, Covert Affairs, Doug Liman, Peter Gallagher, Piper Perabo, USA

Liars, Criminals and saboteurs are all over today's news! Plus: You want me to start paying for Hulu?

Tags: Big Brother, Criminal Minds, Glee, Hulu, Janeane Garofalo, Modern Family, Oxygen, Pretty Little Liars, Project Runway, USA

Take the effortless style of Burn Notice, the roguish charm of The Mentalist and the opulence of Royal Pains and you've got White Collar. You've also got the recipe for a hit, which makes you wonder how long USA has been in the kitchen working on this one. In many ways, the network's newest series is your standard crime procedural, but it does it with panache -- it's the classier version of a procedural, if you will, with classier crimes and at least one classier character. Matthew Bomer -- who played Bryce Larkin on Chuck -- stars as a con artist Neal Caffrey, a multitalented grifter, con and forger who's never been caught, but is serving time for a lesser offense when he suddenly decides he needs to get out. Peter Burke (Carnivale's Tim DeKay) is the cop who knows him best, who's brought back in to catch him and ends up enlisting his former quarry in his efforts to snare The Dutchman, the master criminal who's taken Caffrey's place at the top of Burke's hit list.

Tags: Royal Pains, The Mentalist, USA, White Collar

Stop laughing, I'm serious! I'm a big fan of spy capers in general (ask anyone who's ever talked to me for more than 5 minutes -- Alias and Ian Fleming come up pretty frequently), so maybe I'm biased, but I swear to you, USA's Burn Notice is worth watching. It's full of fun factoids (did you know Nigeria is the gun-running capital of Africa? How about how to make a bug out of two cell phones? Or how about the fact that money launderers are "like the Yellow Pages of criminals"? I didn't either!), useful combat tips (actual quote: "When you fight, you have to be careful not to break the little bones in your hands on someone's face." - oh, if only I'd known that in my youth...), and a fabulous supporting cast (Bruce Campbell as a skirt-chasing alcoholic and former spy, and Cagney from Cagney & Lacey as a pill-popping hypochondriac and communications specialist, among others). Combine all that with a few expensive-looking car chases and a heartwarming fight for the underdog B-story, and you've got an entertaining damn show! Check out the pilot for after the jump. .

Tags: alias, bruce campbell, burn notice, cagney & lacey, usa