Show runners are just what the term sounds like: They are the powerful people who plot the course of TV shows.They decide what we see, and the best known are in front of me right now — Damon Lindelof and…

…But my kiss from Derek lingers. Don’t tell me it was wrong; some things can’t be denied.

I digress, however. I first realized my evening with ABC and six professionals from “Dancing With the Stars” might not add up to…

Ashton Kutcher, who’s clearly way more famous now than he was when we knew him on “That 70s Show,” is here for his new reality-game series, “Opportunity Knocks.” Nobody has many questions, because we haven’t seen the show, so I…

Nobody has really seen ABC’s new fantasy-drama “Life on Mars,” except in the original British version. An adaptation by David E. Kelley was thrown out (some people saw a pirated copy of that online), and new executive producers started over.…

Wednesday, July 16: ABC

Weather: Warm and sunny; LA weathercasters complain about “high” (I’m guessing 40 percent) humidity.

Temperature in International Ballroom, Beverly Hilton: Comfortable, thanks to warmth generated by a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of Disney executives and publicists. And speaking…

Executive producer Scott Stone, who’s a friend of Tube Talk and has posted here, sends along this plea to “Mole” fans to help boost the resurrected show. Here’s his letter:

AN OPEN LETTER TO MOLE FANS
 Will The Mole Face…

ABC has revealed the names of the “Dancing With the Stars” pros who’ll attempt to teach TV critics “some basic ballroom moves.”

Scheduled to attend are “Dancing with the Stars” professional dancers Alec Mazo, Edyta Sliwinska, Karina Smirnoff, Kym Johnson,…

Here are the most recent ratings, as always courtesy of ABC. Note that the No. 2-rated show of the week was “Wipeout”! Not my cup of torture, but I am enjoying “I Survived a Japanese Game Show,” which has an…

Some highlights from my week off, in which I did not blog even when tempted:

• ‘Top Chef: The Tour’ finally opened St. Louis reservations (sometime over the weekend?) and immediately sold out. However, the website says walk-ins are accepted for…

Here’s a confession: I can’t watch every single thing on TV. I’d like to, of course, but there are only so many hours in the day, and some of them are taken up with writing stuff and, well, life. So…