·First they try to Poochie-up Ebert & Other Guy, now this: In a bid to appeal to a younger audience, Beauty and the Geek host Mike Richards has been hired to take over showrunning duties on The Price is Right. Which strikes us as just plain wrong: white trash grandmas and TPIR go together like mayonnaise and cold hot dogs. (But if that's really the plan, they might want to start with canning Drew Carey, who we literally noticed nodding off during a not-particularly-gripping round of Mountain Climber recently.) [Variety]
·The TCA—whom we've suggested might best be taken off life-support and sent to that all-expense-paid junket in the sky—will come three weeks later next year, in the hopes of giving the critics attending some idea of what it is they are covering. [Variety]
· E! has paid New Line $7 million for rights to broadcast the Sex and the City movie, The Women, and He's Just Not That Into You, with an eye towards launching a new weekly program entitled Ryan Seacrest Presents: My Favourite Movies of All Time. [Variety]
· Disney purchased the rights to Monster Attack Network, a graphic novel set on a tropical island inhabited by giant monsters which they assure us will be adapted into a kick-arse monster island movie, not "the artsy farty Spike Jonze thing over at Warner Bros." [THR]
· Fox has picked up another season of So You Think You Can Dance, and EP/judge/longwinded-speechifier Nigel Lythgoe has reportedly left American Idol after seven seasons to concentrate solely on it. [THR]

Tags: american idol | disney | price is right | tca | trade roundup