Actress Priscilla Presley, skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi and Marlee Matlin, the deaf actress who won an Oscar for "Children of a Lesser God," are among the dozen celebrities who will compete on the sixth season of "Dancing With the Stars."

The other contestants on ABC's hit competition show are actors Shannon Elizabeth, Steve Guttenberg and Cristian De La Fuente, TV/radio host Adam Carolla, tennis great Monica Seles, magician/showman Penn Jillette, R&B/pop singer Mario, Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor and stage star Marissa Jaret Winokur.

"Dancing," which returns March 17, is hosted by Tom Bergeron and Samantha Harris. Last season's winner was former Indy 500 champ Helio Castroneves.

A Federal Communications Commission plan to help owners of rural television stations survive the transition to digital broadcasting is great for station owners, bad for cable companies and of questionable value to viewers, according to critics.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's plan is meant to help thousands of low-power television stations across the U.S. that operate in rural and underserved communities hold onto their viewers during the digital shift.

Beginning Feb. 18, 2009, all full-power television stations in the U.S. will broadcast a digital-only signal. The problem facing the low-power stations is that they are not required to go digital. Use of a converter box may actually block the low-power analog signal, yet digital signals would display normally.

In his proposal to help rural stations, Martin "explicitly encourages" the consumer electronics industry to configure their boxes to allow for analog signals, but that fell short of what low-power stations had sought. In December, the Community Broadcasters Association, which represents the small stations, had asked the FCC to declare that boxes that do not "pass through" analog signals violate the federal "All-Channel Receiver Act" and should be banned from sale.

Martin also wants to give special consideration to the roughly 560 Class A stations -- a special class of low-power broadcaster -- to apply for full-power status when they convert to digital.

While these proposals will clearly benefit station owners, what is not clear is what they will do to remedy the problem at hand -- how to make sure current over-the-air viewers will still get a signal during the transition..

For now, consumers can take some comfort in knowing that four of the 42 converter boxes that have been approved for sale do allow for both analog and digital programming.

(John Dunbar, Associated Press)

NBC News says it's streamlining its operations. It's dividing the country into three regions, which means Chicago is losing bureau chief Tom Lee and much of whatever autonomy it might once have enjoyed.

The Chicago bureau now will take its orders from the news division's New York hub. Other U.S. hubs are in Atlanta and Burbank, Calif. Foreign bureaus will be directed through its London hub.

NBC News boss Steve Capus unveiled the new arrangement he says will make the division's news-gathering operations more efficient. Better than axing: "Streamlining," incidentally, has become quite the buzzword in the media business.

In recent days, CBS Radio has said it is streamlining operations. Tribune Co., this paper's parent, is streamlining. TV networks and movie studios are streamlining.

It's practically the new black.

Streamlining evokes a noble image of someone taking a sledgehammer to a Berlin Wall of bureaucracy, a far more appealing picture than that of people emptying their desks into boxes.

(Phil Rosenthal, Chicago Tribune)

"American Idol" fans will be able to download their favorite performances thanks to a new agreement between the Fox talent show and Apple Inc.

Performances by "Idol" semifinalists go on sale on iTunes this week for 99 cents per song, the show's producers and Cupertino-based Apple announced Monday.

Full video of the top 12 contestants will be available through the online music store starting March 11 for $1.99.

(AP)

Duane "Dog" Chapman will be back in business and back on the air on A&E, according to the TMZ Web site.

A network official confirmed to TMZ that the show is going back into production, but they've not yet set a premiere date.

A&E had suspended production on "Dog the Bounty Hunter" indefinitely after a recording surfaced featuring Chapman making racial slurs. He immediately began a tour of forgiveness, working with CORE and other groups to promote racial equality. Network execs were said to be "very pleased" with Dog's attempt to make amends and his reaching out to members of the African-American community.

A&E isn't just making this decision out of the goodness of their hearts, TMZ adds. The show was popular here and internationally.

"CW Now" will sign off after airing two new episodes in its regular Sunday 7 p.m. slot through Feb. 24. After that date, repeats of "America's Next Top Model" will take its place. ... TNT has added another drama to its roster of original series, picking up a show called "Leverage" from producer Dean Devlin ("Independence Day," TNT's "The Librarian"). The series stars Timothy Hutton as a modern-day Robin Hood, a former insurance investigator who turns against the corporate interests he used to work for to help the downtrodden. TNT has ordered 13 episodes of the show to premiere later this year.

(Zap2it.com)