Here’s the transcript from the June 4 TV chat. I’m going to turn off comments; instead, if you have something to say, follow this link to post questions and comments for the June 11 chat. And everybody wins!

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Gail: Hi, everybody. This morning I spied on a live chat two of my Philadelphia TV-critic friends do, and I really think I get better questions — so thanks. But I wonder if I should get a co-host so we could banter. Hmmm, who could it be? I’d be thinking Oliver, but he’s not a good typist, and if you turn your back on him he’s over at QVC ordering cat condos. While you ponder the possibilities, I’ll get started on today’s questions.

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garricks: Hi, Gail!

The premiere episode of “Nurse Jackie” is available for free download at the iTunes store. I thought it was great, and I’m hooked.
Gail: “Nurse Jackie” is the great — and by great, I mean really great — new Edie Falco series debuting Monday on Showtime. Clearly proud of the show, and hoping to get you to sign up for the channel, Showtime has offered several ways to watch the premiere in advance, including streaming on Showtime.com. Falco completely makes you forget Carmela Soprano; here, she’s a nurse who’s close to a saint, but also very deeply flawed. Oh, and it’s a comedy. “Nurse Jackie” will follow the season premiere of “Weeds.”
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Gabe: This week on “Jon + Kate Plus 8,” the tension was palpable, but not quite what I expected following last week’s dramatic reveal of the big scandal and potential breakup. Was the season premiere filmed recently — as in after the rest of this season?
Gail: Even with Mady between them, you could see that Jon and Kate weren’t exactly cozy, but you’re right, at least they were in the same chair. From what I hear, the season premiere, when they discussed the scandal and what looked like their separation, was shot two months after the episode we saw this week. Even with all the notoriety, I’ll bet some people still don’t know who we’re talking about. As a colleague confided, all last week when Jon and Kate were in the news, he was going, “Who?”
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garricks: Gail, who on Earth are Spencer and Heidi Pratt? I can’t see that they’ve done anything significant. Are they like Paris and Nicole, “Celebutants?” They seem to be a waste of space.
Gail: Speaking of which: Spencer and Heidi. “Speidi.” My acquaintance with them came via tabloid TV and “Entertainment Tonight” until the debut Monday of “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here.” She was (is?) one of the friends on MTV’s “The Hills”; he’s her new husband, and their wedding was covered to the level of Charles and Diana. It seems obvious to me that NBC cast them on the show — AND SCRIPTED THEIR BEHAVIOR — just for attention. And it worked, didn’t it?
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Marsha: Is anybody watching that horrible I’m A Celebrity show that’s on every night? I would rather watch dead air.
Gail: Ratings are dropping nightly.
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PamE: Hi Gail:

I saw that the new season of Whale Wars will be starting soon. Do you know when? Thanks!
Gail: The new season starts at 8 p.m. Friday on Animal Planet. This is the reality show about the group that fights Japanese whaling by tracking and confronting the ships; I understand there’s a lot of confrontation and danger this season.

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Gen: Ms Pennington:
Would you know when Part 2 of “The Last Templar” will be shown? It was pre-empted by NHL action this past Sunday on NBC.
Gail: It’s scheduled for this Sunday, 8 p.m.
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Linda: Do you know when Channel 5 will run Part 2 of 2 of the movie the Templar?
Part 1 was shown on 5-24-09, Part 2 was to show 5-31-09, but they ran the hockey playoffs.

Thanks.
Gail: Is there an echo in here?
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Judy: When is part 2 of The Last Templar, which part 1 aired on Sunday, May
24th, on NBC scheduled? We have seen nothing about this? The Stanley
Cup was on Sunday evening. I hope we did not miss it.
Gail: Nobody paid much attention to NBC’s “The Last Templar” the first time around. Now, three people in a row are into the rerun. Maybe that suggests networks should either schedule miniseries in summer or give each one multiple airings, as cable does.
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Charles: Hello Gail Pennington,
USA Today’s Life Section Friday, May 29, featured the summer premiere of USA Network’s hit show Burn Notice. I’m a fan and was wondering if the Post-Dispatch planned a similar story about the hit show?
The USA Today article says that Burn Notice attracts 5 million viewers an episode and the “spring’s season finale drew a record 7.6 million viewers”. I’m wondering how these viewership numbers compare to other hit shows on cable - is this a high number of viewers or average?
Gail: “Burn Notice” is very popular and has ranked as the No. 1 series on cable. The spring finale outranked several competing shows on the broadcast networks. Season 3 begins tonight at 8 p.m. I reviewed it when it started and don’t usually have space to revisit shows during their runs. One this popular doesn’t need an extra push. I do have a review up on Tube Talk of “Royal Pains,” which follows “Burn Notice” at 9 p.m. It’s the entertaining new comedy-drama with Mark Feuerstein as a doctor in the ritzy Hamptons.
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srs1: I’m not watching the show, but I had to ask. Earlier this week, Rob Blagoiavich said his wife was “eating tarantuals to help support the family”. I though this was a charity thing. Are these loonatics actually getting paid for the show?

Also, how did Lou Diamond Phillips fall so far so fast? It made me very sad when I heard he was on there.
Gail: The winner gets money for charity. Patti Blagojevich is supporting one in Florida, I understand. She didn’t eat a tarantula, by the way. She just submitted, briefly, to one crawling on her. Lou Diamond Phillips, on the other hand, was nipped rather seriously by rats; he needed medical attention. As for his career, did he really fall all that fast?
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ricshers: Hi Gail,
Tried sending a question around 11 & still don’t see it, so I’ll try again!
Did CBS skip an episode of Harpers Island?
~Shers
Gail: I don’t think so. But full episodes of “Harper’s Island” are available on CBS.com, so you could go there and check.
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BWR: Do you think the whole “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” controversy with “Speidi” was cooked up by NBC to get attention? Because I don’t think there is any way that the quitting and coming back and quitting again was spontaneous. I also think their dialog was scripted. Your take?
Gail: Completely, 100 percent scripted, right down to the “spontaneous” call to NBC chairman Ben Silverman. The only thing that might have just come up was the baptism. You can’t really script Stephen Baldwin.
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Matt B: GP;
I’ve never wathced an episode of the Hills, never even came across it while channel surfing…I don’t read the celebrity tabloids that are geared toward a specific demographic. So, how can someone who is insulated from reading or watching about celebut*rds (hilton,richie, etc.) know who Spencer and Heidi are? Who really runs the US media? On a related note, the name of that NBC show should be, “You May Not Know Who I Am…SGMOH”

There’s a conspiracy there…somewhere…I tell you what.

MB
Gail: In the grand scheme of who’s on this show, those are middling stars. I pay fairly broad attention to entertainment, and as for some of the other non-celebrities on this show, I still can’t figure out Torrie somebody and “Frangela.”
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DN38146: Do you know when the next season of Robin Hood will air on BBC?
Gail: Hey, I have a BBC America source. He posted on my last chat transcript. I’ll put up his answer below. By the way, there’s no possible way I can keep a schedule of every show on every cable network in my head. I’m just saying.
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Hoovbacca: Doctor Who is now BBC America property and will air June 27th with The Next Doctor. Planet of the Dead, the second “special” will air the week of July 20th as part of “BBA America HD” premiere week, along with the 3rd season of Torchwood, a 5 part weeklong series called “Children of Earth”. Robin Hood should follow shortly as it is about 3 weeks from concluding it’s third season in the UK. Hope this helps
Gail: Thanks. It does help.
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FCS: On May 21 the Ft. Worth (TX) newspaper indicated that ABC was bringing Eli Stone back for 4 episodes beginning June 6. I checked the entire week for St. Louis and find no mention. Do you know what the story is here. I thought Eli Stone an interesting show and was disappointed to learn that it had been canceled.
Gail: That will teach you to trust a foreign newspaper. “Eli Stone” returns June 20 “for four consecutive weeks,” ABC says.
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Luis: What happened with our own “bachelor” from St; Charles. He select her bride but we never heard anything more. Maybe you can inform us. Thank you
Gail: You mean our farmer, who wanted a wife. The story as I hear it is that the woman he chose moved to St. Charles and lived in an apartment. After a short time, she moved back to California. Are you surprised?
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Matt B: GP;

Whaddya think, Magic in 6?
(It is going to be on TV)
MB
Gail: I’m not really fond of magic. Mime, either.
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Cole Train: Gail, I saw that ION is going to start showing Deadwood repeats. Is there any chance of there being some renewed interest in a movie to wrap up some of the story lines?
Gail: It’s not ION; it’s The101 network on DirecTV, the same place “Friday Night Lights” airs. Stirring up interest in a “Deadwood” movie has never been the issue. Fans have always been interested. The problem is that David Milch never found time to write the movie — actually, two movies — we were promised. He moved on, the cast moved on and now the sets have all been struck. The town of Deadwood, which I luckily got to visit once, is all gone. So I think we should probably move on, too.
By the way, the DirecTV network is also airing reruns of “Oz.”
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HBO equals great tv: I absolutely loved the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and Brave New Voices on HBO this spring. Is there any word on whether or not they’ll bring them back next year?
Gail: “Brave New Voices” was a seven-part series about slam poetry, from Russell Simmons. I haven’t heard anything about a second edition.
“The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” hasn’t yet been renewed.
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PamE: I vote for Oliver as co-host!!
Gail: You know how he is; he’d probably want to be paid overtime.
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Christina M: What were your thoughts on Southland? Is it coming back for a second season?
Gail: I thought “Southland” was fine, although I didn’t watch every episode. NBC renewed it rather quickly for fall, and ratings then took a dip. Nevertheless, it will be back.
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Elizabeth: Any word on whether Chris and Mariska have signed on for the new season of Law and Order: SVU? I thought this week’s season ender was pretty lame, though I am glad that Dale character will be gone, he was annoying! Anyway, what do you think of Goldblum on Law and Order: Criminal Intent? I still prefer Vincent D’ Onforio myself. His quirky is actually entertaining rather than seeming forced. What do you think, and which Law & Order gets the best ratings tehse days?
Gail: I just heard gossip that they’re about to sign new contracts.
Haven’t seen the season finale and am actually skimming over your question to avoid spoilers, because it’s on the DVR. Of all the “Law & Orders,” only “SVU” really does well in the ratings, although the original has also been renewed for fall.
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Cole Train: Hi Gail. Is there a website that you can recommend that has good episode recaps? I’m looking to get caught up on Burn Notice and I missed all of season 2 and I don’t have time to watch all those episodes. I’ve found a couple of ok sites but no good ones. Thanks.
Gail: Lots of websites have all different kinds of recaps. I don’t turn to any one all the time. For “Lost,” say, I want a really detailed recap like the ones at EW.com. For other shows, I don’t want to wade through all that stuff and prefer just a few paragraphs. Sometimes Wikipedia actually has adequate recaps. Sorry to be so vague.
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Jeff: What did you think of Sunday night’s season finale of Breaking Bad?
Gail: Haven’t watched it yet. Stop nagging me!
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steve: Now that Medium is going to CBS how do you think they will get her gift back after what they presumed was a series finale episode?
Gail: It ended “to be continued,” didn’t it? That would have been ironic if the cancellation had stuck. I don’t think they’ll have any problem turning the storyline around. It’s not as if “Medium” is all that realistic anyway — except for the family life, which is pretty much on target.
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PamE: Did you see Men vs. Wild with special guest, Will Farrell this week? It was really interesting to see Will in those kind of conditions with Bear. Bear needs to feature a celebrity each week.
Gail: I’m going to try to catch a repeat. What did he eat, something like a reindeer eyeball? Why would anybody go on as a guest and do that stuff? Ewww.
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golfnutbucket: Gail,
America’s Got Talent should be starting soon. Anyone from STL on the show?
Marty
Gail: They don’t announce that stuff in advance; for Neal E. Boyd last year, I heard about it from his friends in St. Louis. We do have a representative on “I Survived a Japanese Game Show,” though….
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Gabe Hartwig: I vote Oliver. If @Sockington can Twitter, your kitty can chat. Surely you can teach him to type on your iPod Touch!
Gail: Paws too big. He’s a 12-pounder, you know. I’d have to buy him a stylus.
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domspern: For those of us who don’t have cable, are there any shows over the summer worth watching? Or am I destined to watch repeats?
In the past, we watched Kitchen Nightmares.
Thanks!
Gail: There were lots of network shows on my big clip-and-save preview of summer TV. If you didn’t clip or save, you can still find it on the TV page of STLtoday.com, I’m pretty sure.
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Lew Schucart: Gail, how’s the ratings been so far for The Tonight Show with its new host, Conan O’Brien after his first three nights at 10:30? I’ve seen some bad reviews of his first three days of shows, especially the first night.
I never cared for his old show or him, and think NBC would have done better in making Jimmy Fallon as Jay’s replacement. He seems much better at comedy than does Conan.
Gail: Huge the first night. Down the second night — when the show improved greatly, I thought. He’s going to have to settle in after all the sampling. For my taste, he needs to get away from all the taped bits and be more spontaneous.
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golfnutbucket: Hello Gail (& Oliver),
This is my first year watching “So You Think You Can Dance” and I’m really into it. I think I must have FF thru the part where they discuss what the winner of this competition gets. I would be surprised if it’s a job, because there are some competitors that seem like they already have a decent gig (one guy in the Miami ballet, for instance). Are you into it and do you have an answer for me?
When’s the premiere of the next season of Judging Amy?
Gail: “Judging Amy” returns the 12th. The 12th of Never!
I know “SYTYCD” is wildly popular, but I don’t like talent competitions in general, and this one’s on way too much for me to keep up with. There are big prizes, though — a car, I think; a high-profile job; money. And of course “the title of America’s favorite dancer.”
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Gail: That’s it, guys — I’ve given you 5 extra minutes, mainly thanks to all the love you sent out to Oliver. I wonder if his ears were burning?
See you back here next week. The chat is already online, so if you have belated stuff to say, you can post it as of now.