Million Dollar Listing

Sometimes there seem to be infinite hoops to jump through during the house selling and buying process. On 'Million Dollar Listing' (Tue., 9PM ET on Bravo), Madison faced a rather unique hurdle as he suddenly found himself in the middle of a séance. Before he could close the deal, the property simply had to be rid of the spirit haunting it.

A spirit by the name of Max.

"We want to talk to Max and tell him that his house is gonna be loved by the people that buy it because all of us here are going to make sure of it," said the woman conducting the séance.

The high-end real estate market is big business, and highly competitive. Perhaps that explains why the claws were out when Josh Altman showed up at one of his newer listings to find his co-listing agent talking with Madison Hildebrand on 'Million Dollar Listing' (Tue., 9PM ET on Bravo).

The two are rivals on the show, and their disdain for each other was pretty clear, leaving the co-listing agent standing there awkwardly uncomfortable. And, to spotlight how sophisticated their business is, they resorted to child-like taunts and mockery.

"I didn't know recess got out early today," Altman said of Hildebrand's more casual attire. Altman was in a suit. Hildebrand was still bearing a grudge for Altman poaching his assistant as well.

The Parents Television Council is stirring up controversy again -- this time it's targeting the sexualization of teen girls on TV.

According to a Los Angeles Times report, "The results from this report show Tinseltown's eagerness to not only objectify and fetishize young girls, but to sexualize them in such a way that real teens are led to believe their sole value comes from their sexuality," PTC President Tim Winter said in a statement.

Among the shows the PTC examined are 'Two and a Half Men,' 'The Vampire Diaries,' 'Glee' and 'The Big Bang Theory.'

In other TV news ...

• Justin Timberlake said he'd "absolutely" join the cast of 'Saturday Night Live.' The singer/actor said he'd love to sign a one- or two-year contract if someone offered. The star has frequently popped up in skits over the past few years. [Splitsider]

• Leighton Meester clarified her statement that she'd leave 'Gossip Girl' in two years. "I honestly don't known what's going to happen. I love being on the show, so I can't predict the future," she said. [Access Hollywood]

• Matthew Morrison is heading on tour -- without the rest of his 'Glee' castmates. The recent Golden Globe nominee will tour in support of his upcoming solo album once his Fox hit wraps filming on the second season. [Music Mix]

Get ready for the 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.'

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Bravo has given the go-ahead to four new series, including a Beverly Hills edition of its popular 'Real Housewives' franchise. (We're already imagining a crossover episode with the nearby 'Real Housewives of Orange County.')

Also getting the greenlight are 'Miami Social Club,' a reality series that chronicles the lives of Miami socialites, but apparently has nothing to do with Bravo's other Miami-based series, 'Miami Social,' 'Million Dollar Decorators,' about high-end designers, and the New York-based 'Pregnant in Heels.'

A year has passed and there has been a lot of best and worst lists here at TV Squad. I know tons of reality television shows have grazed my TV so I've compiled a list of the best and worst reality shows of 2009.

Finding the best shows are easy, but it's hard to pare down the worst list. I define "worst" as shows that had potential and never did anything with it. While shows like I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here and anything involving the words "Real Housewives" aren't mentioned, they aren't the worst because they started at rock bottom and had nowhere to go. Several of the worst shows I've mentioned could just go through some tweaking and it could have been amazing.

Generally speaking, there's little on Million Dollar Listing that strikes me as edifying or illuminating television. Mostly, I've watched this Bravo reality/unscripted show about three Los Angeles real estate brokers – Josh Flagg, Chad Rogers and Madison Hildebrand -- who are young, ambitious and seemingly very spoiled, with a weird fascination.

Would Chad's hair stylist convince him to try a buzz cut? No. Could Madison succumb to the come-on of a sexy female client? No. Was Josh seriously concerned about his health? Yes.

However, I caught up with the show this week and saw a sequence that got to me on a very emotional level. Josh Flagg, in an effort to learn more about his grandmother Edith's life -- in particular, how she survived the Holocaust -- went to Amsterdam with her to visit the places she remembers.

Sometimes I like to indulge in my guilty pleasure of watching several hours of the Bravo channel all at once. I can't say I'm hooked on the network -- it's mostly reality shows -- but sometimes it's fun to just watch something totally mindless. In Bravo's case, I usually end up feeling much better about my own life.

This afternoon, I watched a few episodes of Million Dollar Listing, the show about three real estate agents in Los Angeles. Season three premiered last Monday, and I feel for these guys -- Josh Flagg, Madison Hildebrand and Chad Rogers -- because it can't be easy trying to sell homes in this market. It seems like a tough business to be in anyway, and they have to deal with bleached blonde Hollywood types, many of whom think they have all the answers.

• At 8, ABC has a new, two-hour Dancing with the Stars, then a new Castle.
• CBS has a new How I Met Your Mother at 8, followed by new episodes of Accidentally on Purpose, Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, and CSI: Miami.
• NBC has new episodes of Heroes, Trauma, and The Jay Leno Show.
• FOX has a new House, then a new Lie To Me.
• The CW has a new One Tree Hill at 8, followed by a new Gossip Girl.
• ABC Family has a new Lincoln Heights at 8, then a new Greek.
• TLC has two new episodes of Little People, Big World at 8, followed by a new Jon & Kate Plus 8.
• Also at 8: Food Network has a new Good Eats.
• At 8:30, ESPN has Monday Night Football, the Broncos vs. the Chargers.
• At 9, USA has a new Monday Night RAW.
• Food Network has a new Unwrapped at 9.
• At 10, Food Network has a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
• TLC has a new Ultimate Cake-Off at 10.
• Bravo has a new Million Dollar Listing at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

After the jump, the late night talk shows.

I'm overly excited about the news that The Rachel Zoe Project has been picked up for a second season on Bravo. I got hooked on the first season this fall, and have grown to love that pixie stylist and her dysfunctional assistants.

If you haven't watched the show, it follows the crazy life of Rachel Zoe, an L.A.-based stylist to celebs like Debra Messing and Molly Sims. She makes the stars look good on the red carpet, on magazine covers, and at fashion shows, and mixes with all sorts of interesting people, like designers Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors.

But all the fun really happens inside Rachel's studio, where she tries to keep everybody happy, including hubby Rodger, and squabbling assistants Taylor Jacobson and Brad Goreski. Those two are as opposite as they come, but that's what makes it fun for the rest of us.

There's no such thing as a good time to get arrested, but some moments are worse than others. For example, most people probably wouldn't want to be charged with a crime within a week of their reality TV debut. Just ask Josh Flagg, one of the stars of Million Dollar Listing's second season. Flagg was recently arrested for stealing expensive works of art that he had been hired to sell.

When he's not flying his clients around in helicopters and wrapping mansions in bows, Flagg works as an estate broker. He's been charged with stealing valuable art by Chagall and Picasso from the estates that he managed. Flagg's out on bail, but this probably isn't the kind of publicity he wanted before the show's premiere.

Our Monday morning roundup of a half dozen things TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week.

1. The Olympics. NBC, along with CNBC and MSNBC and USA and the web, will have approximately 477,312 hours of coverage. (Starts Friday.)

2. Primeval. New show about a rip in time that lets dinosaurs come through to modern England. Is this one of them? (Premieres Saturday at 9 on BBC America.)

3. The season finales of American Gladiator and Nashville Star. People do still care about these shows, right? (Tonight on NBC.)

4. So You Think You Can Dance. The season finale. We know what happens to Idol winners, but what happens to the winners of this show? (Wednesday at 8 on FOX.)

5. I Want To Work For Diddy. I'm not saying that. It's the name of a new reality show. (Premieres tonight at 9 on VH-1.)

6. Million Dollar Listing. One of the stars was arrested last week, just before the second season premiere. There's no such thing as bad publicity, as the saying goes. (Tuesday at 11 on Bravo.)

Bravo is bringing back Million Dollar Listing for a second season this summer. The docu-series gives viewers an inside look at the most exclusive realtors in the Los Angeles area, a luxurious but dangerous place to work. Despite the soft market, these agents will stop at nothing to close million dollar deals in neighborhoods like Malibu, Beverly Hills and Hollywood.

Josh Flagg, Madison Hildebrand and Chad Rogers, L.A.'s up-and-coming realtors, are the stars of this season. Flagg is known to send clients up in helicopters to view properties and has wrapped a home in a big red bow for a pair of new owners. Hildebrand, touted as the "King of Malibu," has sold over 80 million in real estate in the past two years. Rogers had his real estate license at the age of 18. Some of his celebrity clients include Paris Hilton, Nick Lachey, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Minnie Driver, and Coach Larry Brown.

Project Runway aside, Bravo is obsessed with the SoCal good life. The network that brings you Work Out, The Real Housewives of Orange County and Million Dollar Listing doesn't think you're getting quite enough of a glimpse into what Botox-ed blondes and metrosexual old-timers are doing with their free time so they've teamed up with Snackaholic Productions to bring you Welcome to the Parker, a one-hour reality show focused on the staff and guests of the posh Parker Palm Springs hotel.

Shooting on the series begins this month. The show will premiere next year. I'm glad to see that Bravo has cornered the market on wish-fulfillment reality programming, but does America really give a crap about a hotel that has a "manifesto" which reads, "We believe in the American country club experience: mixed doubles, a long steam, and a stiff cocktail?" Did they hire the editors of Esquire to come up with that? Don't get me wrong. I love Esquire, and heck, the hotel looks like a marvel of mid-50s, modernist design. I'm just not sure that I want to see any country club on TV that doesn't have Bill Murray hunting for gophers on its greens.