TV

Kicking off week two of Dancing with the Stars, the night before Tuesday's "first-ever double elimination," it was everyone slinking through a Mambo or huffing and puffing through a Quick Step. Best dance of the night was an easy call: Kristi Yamaguchi's mambo with partner Mark Ballas smooth as ice (har!), but then what do you expect from a gold-medalist ice skater? As judge Carrie Ann Inaba asked after the couple's all-but-perfect performance, "Have you really never done this before?"

Below are highlights from Amanda Overmyer's exit interview with reporters last week. (I didn't sit in this time, but the good folks at Fox are kind enough to send a transcript.)
- Her plans for the future: "If nothing comes up out here for me to pursue with music, I'll probably give it maybe a good six months, and if nothing happens I'm going to go back and continue on the career path that I started." (That would be in home oxygen and durable medical equipment.)
- On why she wanted to be on Idol: "The objective of being on this show was to go out there and show America me, perform like me, look like me and see how well it would take. The comments from the judges were based more on the idea of trying to win, and I had a different agenda." She later put it another way: "As far as the judges bickering and all that, like I said before, their comments are based on excelling within the competition and that wasn't really my objective." (Well, she wins points for honesty!)
- On being realistic: "Success, to me, is a strong, healthy family and success in whatever job that you do. If this is just 15 minute of fame, I'm not going to chase it my whole life trying to get it back; I'll take it for what it is and move on. Hopefully it's not. Hopefully I can make a career out of this, but it's not going to be that unicorn that I keep chasing."
- As for her personal life, Amanda confirmed she's engaged. Will she invite any Idol contestants to the wedding? "I'd surely invite at least a couple of them. I don't have any date at all. It's been all pending what happens with this."
- On what she likes about performing: "It's a good feeling, having everyone's attention on you and having the ability to provide entertainment that comes out of your throat that gets people excited. They start jumping around, so it makes you jump around more. They start screaming at you, so I'll bend down and sing in their face. It's kind of a back-and-forth tennis match, where the ball goes back and forth."

Has anybody been watching HBO's seven-part miniseries, John Adams? I've been DVRing the episodes and hope to watch them soon, at my leisure.

The Sopranos it undoubtedly is not. But John Adams (based on David McCullough's Pulitzer prize-winning biography) does boast a stellar cast of actors from both sides of the Atlantic: Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney (as John and Abigail Adams), David Morse (Washington), Tom Wilkinson (Franklin), Sarah Polley (Nabby Adams), Danny Huston (Samuel Adams), Stephen Dillane (Jefferson), and Rufus Sewell (Hamilton).

Tom Hanks is an executive producer, and the series is directed by Tom Hooper. John Adams airs Sundays at 8 p.m. Central, and episodes repeat on HBO channels (including HD) throughout the week. The last episode begins airing on Sunday, April 20.

Has the writers' strike left your memories of your favorite shows hazy?
Entertainment Weekly has a guide to 26 shows that are returning soon. It includes a recap of where the show left off, some info on what's coming up and even the number of remaining episodes.

What are you most looking forward to seeing?