This is really, really good news. This is the kind of news that has to make every television fan cheer ... and breathe a sigh of relief. The season three premiere of 'Breaking Bad' was seen by two million viewers. For a network show, that would be cause for alarm. For AMC, it's a reason to celebrate. Those two million viewers were the most to ever tune in to an episode of 'Breaking Bad.' Did you hear that, world? 'Breaking Bad's' most-watched episode ever.

The numbers were spun, naturally, and they got even better. There were two repeats of 'No Mas' that night, and the total number of viewers climbed to 3.3 million.

Remember how Sharon Stone first made her claim to fame? No, I don't mean her imitating Cybill Shepherd in the comedy Irreconcilable Differences with Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long and Drew Barrymore. I'm talking about Basic Instinct, of course. As Catherine Trammell, she had perhaps the most famous crossed-knee move ever in the movies.

Well, now the star will be returning to the crime genre. Sharon will be appearing on NBC's Law and Order SVU later this season.

Stone will be appearing in a four-show arc, playing a former cop who's become a prosecutor, an assistant district attorney. That means instead of answering questions, she'll be asking them.

(S15E05) Once again in the NYC viewing area, The Amazing Race suffered a huge delay in airing due to football. Tonight, it started an hour and fifteen minutes late. And, after all of that, the Jets lost! It's a miracle this show keeps receiving Emmy awards when the CBS Sunday night schedule is so fickle due to every sport under the sun or inside a stadium. Speaking of sports ... who are the Brinkley Tigers on Flight Time's t-shirt? They can't be Christie Brinkley's ex-husbands, can they?

It's been too long since Kathy Griffin has been on Bravo! My Life on the D-List ended in August, but it seems much longer since we've had some Griffin humor. That drought will end next month. On November 3, Bravo will air Kathy Griffin's new stand-up special, Balls of Steel.

I'm smiling already. Kathy is hilarious, by far the funniest woman on Bravo... and unlike the females on the Real Housewives, she is intentionally funny. Her stand up concerts are especially well-done because she gets to really dish about pop culture, skewering the likes of Oprah, Rosie, Cher, Paris, et al.

You know, a few weeks ago when Sarah Brown blithely tweeted that she was leaving General Hospital, acting all la-di-da about losing a job, it should have been a tip-off that she had something cooking somewhere else. Today we learned what that something else is. Sarah Brown is joining The Bold and the Beautiful on November 6. Talk about a cushy landing! Oh, and her last day on GH is November 5, so there's no time for daytime fans to miss her.

The latter situation is quite unusual for daytime. But ABC agreed to release Brown from her contract early so she could make the swift transition. B&B executive producer Bradley Bell was thrilled and surprised. "I was stunned. It was something really very human and very big of them," he said.

There is big news in the world of television tonight. Multiple Emmy winner and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has joined American Idol as a judge. She will essentially be the permanent replacement for Paula Abdul, so if any of you were holding out hope that Paula was standing by to resume her post, forget about it.

The bigger story here is that a star of Ellen's stature, someone who has high visibility and is beloved by the public, has decided to become a member of America's number one rated prime time show.

Ellen DeGeneres on American Idol as a guest star would be a rating boost, so it's safe to say that her weekly presence will ensure that Idol's numbers will continue to be top of the chart.

There have been a lot of uneasy vibes floating around the offices of TV Squad HQ about the elevation of Family Guy to Best Comedy status by this year's Emmy nomination committee. I'm not speaking for the entire group, but it does feel a little out of place earning a nomination that even The Simpsons couldn't score in its 20 year history. It's like giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Michael Jackson for writing "Heal the World" and completely snubbing Nelson Mandela.

But no one is more unhappy about the news than pop culture's official lifeguard, Bill O'Reilly.

He called out Seth MacFarlane's cavalcade of cartoon pop culture for winning the nomination during his "Reality Check" segment.

The list of Emmy nominations have become the Hummer limo of the awards show world. They get longer and even more uncool, even though they are attempting to show just how cool they are with each passing year.

The whole system is in serious need of revamping. For the most part, the category structure hasn't changed in the last 50 years when then Academy President Rod Serling chose to eliminate favoritism by widening the playing field and the judging, a move so disastrous that no one has dared to even touch the system since then.

So if you're not going to revamp the process, at least add some categories that we wouldn't mind giving up four hours of sleep, exercise and our lives to wait for the winner.

I adore Carl Reiner. There. I said it. What are you going to do about it? No, seriously, if there's another actor/writer/director/producer in show business who's made me laugh more than Mr. Reiner, I can't think of him/her right now. He's been one of Hollywood's prime time jewels for six decades. So, the news that Carl Reiner is guesting on the House season finale makes me very, very happy.

According to the House powers that be, Mr. Reiner will be a clinic patient at Princeton Plainsboro, and his interaction is slated to be with Dr. Cuddy. Good for Lisa Edelstein!

It's been a little over a year since Guiding Light bolted from the confines of a New York studio to create a reality based production, a sort of cinema-verite style that brought to life a real New Jersey town to "play" Springfield. The results have been middling at best, but recently GL has lurched forward in a positive way and that can all be explained in two words/one name -- Grant Aleksander. The actor is back as Phillip Spaulding, one of the most important characters in the history of the show.

The last year of GL hasn't only been about the new production. Coinciding with all that physical change which has set more and more scenes outdoors and in "wild" set, the cast has been undergoing massive change. Top line veterans Ricky Paull Goldin, Nicole Forester and Beth Ehlers have all departed, and recently John Driscoll was tragically killed off.

One of the most recognizable figures in ABC News is saying goodbye to the daily grind. In his time with the network, Sam Donaldson has done it all, investigative reporter, anchor, host, talking head, and always with a distinctive, pugnacious style. After four decades at the job, ABC's Sam Donaldson is retiring.

He will be missed, especially at the network. Anchorman Charles Gibson acknowledged as much when he told the Washington Post that Donaldson's retirement "really is a loss of the bedrock" for ABC. These days, the big three have struggled to maintain their dominance in the news business with cable outlets offering so much blanket coverage compared to the nets. Sam Donaldson has been synonymous with ABC. He can't help but be missed. To this day, I think Ted Koppell is missed as well.

Question: Is Craig T. Nelson being cast on CSI: NY just another big star guest turn or could it be something more important? We don't know the answer yet, but I suspect that booking the Emmy-award winning TV star for three episodes could be a lot more significant than just pumping up the ratings during February sweeps with a meaty story arc.

What we do know is that the popular actor will be on CSI: NY as an antagonist to Gary Sinise's character. Nelson will play Robert Parker, a high profile, powerful publisher who has an ax to grind with Mac Taylor.

To say they're going to butt heads is an educated guess, but I think that's the direction they're going. You can see Parker using his media outlets to attack Mac and his department, you know, those great New York tabloid headlines.

I don't know about you, but in these tough economic times, I've contemplated trimming my TV budget. You know, scaling back the premium channels to save a few bucks ... But there's at least one important reason to hold off on the budget cuts.

Larry David is getting back to work. HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm resumes production in December and there will be 10 new episodes commencing in 2009. Our long national wait is over, people, Larry and Jeff and Richard and Loretta will live to kvetch and mock again.

Do you realize that the last new episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm was a year ago? A year! That's forever in TV, even when you factor in the Writer's Strike. Still, as Curb fans we're used to waiting. Larry once took off nearly two years between seasons. We understand suffering for the jokes.

When we last saw Larry in action, he had had an epiphany -- or so it seemed. Was his embrace of a happy, family life with the Blacks the real thing? It looked like it, especially that Christmas scene.

Sally Field is a two-time Oscar winner, a three-time Emmy winner -- including last year at Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for Brothers and Sisters -- and she's bound to be in the running again this year when the nominations are announced on July 17.

Now she's taking on a new role; she'll be guest programmer at Turner Classic Movies in July, and having gotten a look at her choices, I have to say to Sally, "I like you, I really like you" -- at least your taste in movies.

Sally will be joined by TCM host Robert Osborne introducing and discussing her four films. The Field four are Love With a Proper Stranger, The Awful Truth, All About Eve and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, and every one of them features great performances by women.

To those of you who aren't movie buffs, here's a bit more information about these films -- why I like them, and I mean, I really like them.

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If you've watched 30 Rock this past season, you've seen how funny actress Edie Falco can be. As C.C. (Celeste Cunningham), she's been a hoot opposite Alec Baldwin. Well, Showtime noticed, and they announced today that the three-time Emmy-winner, best known as Carmela on The Sopranos, will star in a new show for their network. She'll be playing a "strong-willed, iconoclastic New York City nurse juggling the frenzied grind of an urban hospital and an equally challenging personal life" is the 30-minute, single camera, dark comedy.