Just about everyone seemed to love Ellen DeGeneres's debut on 'American Idol' this week, including viewers and fellow host Kara DioGuardi. TVWeek.com reports that ratings for Ellen's Tuesday night debut were up one percent versus last year's first episode in Hollywood (although they note that the first episode on Hollywood always gets a bump in ratings). The site also reported that 27.7 million people tuned in, the most viewers the show has had this season.

DioGuardi lauded Ellen's debut to TV Guide, explaining that Ellen "knows more about music than you think she does" and saying she was a good judge of talent who speaks to contestants "with kindness, but also had criticism in there."

A couple of times a year, TV Week asks TV critics from print and online media to fill out a survey with their lists of the best and worst TV shows of the season. The summer list this year doesn't hold too many surprises in the "best" category, though I think the "worst" has a few (worst lists are always more fun to read anyway, right?). First, the ten best:

1. The Sopranos (HBO)
2. Lost (ABC)
3. Friday Night Lights (NBC)

From time to time, we get commenters telling us that we write like we're jaded and don't like our jobs. Of course, this couldn't be further from the truth; we all feel very grateful that we get paid to watch and report on one of our favorite things to do in the world. And anyway, there are other writers out there who actually do sound bitter about having to write about TV, and that they'd rather be doing anything else but.

Take Tom Shales, the sourpuss who the long-time Washington Post TV columnist. His writing always conveys a sense that he'd rather be writing for the travel or food section, but he's been doing the TV beat so long, he's stuck. On his blog on TVWeek.com, he seems to have conjured up some sort of "feud" between David Letterman and his longtime band leader Paul Shaffer, and he uses that speculation to take a couple of cheap shots at Paul's comedic and musical abilities (Bob mentioned the post this morning in his review of TV-related blogs).

There have been rumors of late that Michael Jackson, in an attempt to revive his stalled music career, might just be planning an upcoming surprise appearance on American Idol. But Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe put those rumors to rest in a recent interview with TV Week.com.

When asked if Jackson would be on the show, Lythgoe stated "we won't be seeing him." He also indicated that he wasn't just saying this as a "tease" or because the details are up in the air. Lythgoe added, "the fact is he will not be on American Idol."

Dallas Mavericks' owner and media entreprenuer Mark Cuban has definite opinions about a lot of things, and in this wide-ranging interview with TVWeek.com, he talks about everything: why he doesn't care about what people think of him, the NBA, Broadcast.com, ESPN, HDTV, and the future of television advertising. There's video of the interview, and it's in four parts.

The interview is pretty good (though I can't agree with his admiration for Dennis Rodman), but I'm not sure about the odd camera angle. It's like watching an old episode of Batman, with the weird low camera angle looking slightly upward toward Cuban and the interviewer.

So it looked like Jack Bauer was off to a Chinese prison at the end of the season finale of 24 the other night (I'm going by the reviews, I don't actually watch the show), but executive producer Howard Gordon says in this TV Week podcast that next season's shows will not take place in China (it's just not feasible).

Gordon also talks about the frustrations that he faced this season, and reveals that one particular bad guy actually almost got away ...

[via TV Tattle]