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Penn Jillette: Morality For Reward and Punishment Is Not Morality (VIDEO)
Penn Jillette is known for being outspoken, intelligent and opinionated. As such, it's not much of a surprise when people find themselves rather unsure what to say when he starts presenting potentially controversial views on issues. On 'Real Time with Bill Maher' (Fri., 10PM ET on HBO) he presented his take on morality."My feeling about morality is if you're doing what you're doing for reward and punishment, it's not really morality," he said. In case there was doubt he was referring to religion, he further clarified, "When you add everlasting life as the reward and everlasting torment as the punishment, there can be no morality."
Penn & Teller: Magicians by night, detectives by day?
Las Vegas magicians and Bullshit! hosts Penn & Teller have inked a deal with ABC for an hour dramedy based on their real lives. To make it a little more interesting, they've added a fictional crime-solving element. Playing essentially themselves, Penn & Teller in the show will have a Las Vegas magician act at night. But during the day, they're "reluctant" detectives, solving crimes and saving lives.One of the big questions I have is if Teller will talk. I suspect that he won't, even though we all know he can. He doesn't during their work together because it creates more humor that way with Penn blabbing on and on. If this is supposed to be loosely based on their real lives, though, wouldn't he talk once the stage show ends?
However, since this is still a Penn & Teller "show," I'm sure he'll stay silent. There's a lot of sight gags they can do with a silent Teller and a chatty Penn. I've enjoyed the guest stints they've had on other shows, and think they're one of the most entertaining acts in the world, so I'm intrigued.
Penn & Teller take on the Vatican
Comedy-magic duo Penn & Teller have been challenging sacred institutions and debunking popular beliefs for six years with their Showtime series, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!. The seventh season of Bullshit! premieres June 25 on Showtime and will run through August. This year, the boys will set their sights on lie detectors, taxes, stress remedies and the Vatican. Inspired by the fictional Dr. Robert Langdon, or not, Penn & Teller will attempt to reveal the "secret world" of the Vatican, which might or might not include evil albinos and lots and lots of running, in the season finale. We'll have to wait until August 27 to see that episode, but there'll be plenty of Bullshit! to watch before then.
TV Squad Ten: TV celebs worth following on Twitter

Yep, I got a Twitter. It's part of my plan to plaster the Internet with links to my must-read blog posts about '90s indie rock and that handsome bastard Neil Patrick Harris (don't ask). Fortunately for you, some clever TV stars also use Twitter for fun and shameless self-promotion.
Here are ten fan-friendly TV celebs worth stalking on Twitter. Unlike that fake Stephen Colbert, these guys are all one-hundred percent, real-life paparazzo magnets.
Dancing With The Stars: Week 10 results (season finale)

(S06E20) Episode 20. The big show. We've followed these three couples for two and a half months and it's finally time to crown a champion and put season six in the books. As Tom called them out, we have the Olympic gold medalist, the one-armed hero, and the grid-iron god. You could make a case for any of them taking home the mirror ball, and the title of season six champion. But first, there was one more round of dances to get to. We'll have that, the winner, and so much more, after the jump.
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Dancing With The Stars: Week 2 Results

(S06E04)The votes have been counted and tonight it was time for the first ever double elimination. The new format did change things up, but I think it's for the better. Given the four weeks of training that each of the couples put in before the show begins, it's nice that they all got an extra shot on the dance floor. Filling in the gaps this week were musical guest The Jonas Brothers, and the return of the Macy's Stars of Dance. Were our predictions right? Yes and no. We'll take a look at the hits, and the misses, after the jump.
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Dancing With The Stars: Week 2

(S06E03) Alright, back for week two. With no eliminations in week one, that means we had twelve performances in a jam-packed two hour show. As is usually the case, now is when we start to get a good feel for who the contenders are. A couple people showed themselves to be just that. Along the way, we also were reminded of some classic DWTS bits and pieces. There was the couple with a weaker performance getting soft balled on their critique, and the couple with one of the better performances taking a few extra jabs from the judges. And, of course, there was the usual bit of questionable scoring. It's a lot to get to, and we'll give it a shot, after the jump.
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Dancing With The Stars: Week 1, Part 2

(S06E02) The season premiere of Dancing With The Stars gave the men a chance to showcase their talents on the dance floor. The second night of competition was all about the ladies, who danced either the Foxtrot or the Cha Cha Cha. Len warned the ladies right from the start that he was cranky, and it showed in his comments. His remarks ranged from rhyming to his dislike of all things hip-hop. Fortunately, his grumpy mood improved once the front runners hit the dance floor.
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Dancing With The Stars: Week 1, Part 1 (season premiere)

(S06E01) Tom Bergeron opened the season premiere by telling us that "anything can happen" this season, and I officially began my Dancing With The Stars exaggeration tally. They're changing things up a little for Season Six. Week One will feature two nights of performances and no elimination. Week Two will include one night of performances and a double elimination on the second night. Next Tuesday the lowest-scoring man and the lowest-scoring woman will be sent home. Got all that? Now, let's get to the performances!
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ABC renews five reality shows
Reality rules at ABC -- or so it seems. Today the network announced that five "alternative" (their word, not mine) shows have been picked up for next season: Dancing with the Stars (no surprise), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (still no surprise), Supernanny (understandable), Wife Swap (not too unexpected) and America's Funniest Home Videos (are you kidding me???). Yes, yes, it's true. Even in this era of YouTube, there's an audience out there that still enjoys America's Funniest Home Videos. ABC has booked it for an 18th season, making it the longest-running primetime show in the network's history. Host Tom Bergeron will be back -- natch -- and more money will be awarded to the funniest videos, which are now DVDs.
Identity returns in March
I really wanted to like this show, but I couldn't even make it through the first episode. Although, to be honest, the only thing that made me want to check it out was knowing that Penn Jillette was hosting it. I've been a fan of Jillette's for years, both solo and as one-half of Penn and Teller, but watching Identity was like listening to paint dry -- not watching paint dry, listening to it dry, which is much more boring.
Since networks don't make decisions based on my personal preferences, Identity will be returning to NBC Fridays in March. The first new episode will air at 9:00 p.m. on March 16, and will then slide into its regular timeslot beginning March 23 at 8:00 p.m.
Okay readers, should I have given the show more of a chance? Is it actually better than I thought it was? I'll admit I might not have been in the right mood when I watched it. Perhaps I had just been shot down by a girl at the bar, or maybe I ate some bad ham. If you think it deserves a second look, here's your chance to convince me.
Identity: Premiere
(S01E01) The latest in the ever increasing line of game shows is upon us. With Penn Jillette hosting, NBC unveiled Identity last night. After one episode, the show has a lot going for it. To start, Jillette was a great choice for the host. He's good with the guests, manages to keep the show moving along, and a pretty funny guy. The line of the night came when he said of the shark attack victim, "If she didn't have that top on our ratings would be a lot better."The game itself is rather simple. The contestant is presented with 12 strangers and a list of twelve identities. For each correct guess they move up the money ladder. Correctly identifying all twelve strangers is a $500,000 payoff. They have one mistaken identity in their pocket, so the first miss is a freebie. But a second miss sends them home with no cash.
To aid them in their quest there are two helper options. With "tridentity" they can pick one of the identities and the field will be narrowed down to three potential correct answers. There is also a panel of experts that includes a body language expert, a psychologist, and an fbi agent.
Penn and O'Donnell talk politics
Okay, I'm usually not interested in listening to other people talk about politics, and especially not on talk radio, which has a tendency to make all viewpoints, even the ones I agree with, sound annoying. However, magician Penn Jillette had Lawrence O'Donnell on his radio show yesterday to spout off on things political, and it was quite interesting. Of course, you might have the reaction I usually do to these sort of things and find it a complete yawnfest. O'Donnell is a former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, a political analyst on MSNBC, a panelist on The McLaughlin Group, and was a writer and executive producer for The West Wing. He has some interesting things to say about politics in general, and not always partisan issues, either. Anyway, if that's not your cup of tea, I encourage you to at least skip ahead to about twenty-eight minutes into the show when a cranky old woman calls and all but yells at O'Donnell for all the minor mistakes that popped up on The West Wing.TV Squad Hot Topics
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