The traditional TV season has begun its final chapter this week, with the May ratings sweeps having started last night.
The good news is you'll see mostly new episodes of your favorite shows over the next four weeks. The bad news is that some of those shows will be ending their seasons.
And, in some cases, ending altogether.
We won't know about some shows until the middle of the month, when the networks unveil their fall schedules.
Interestingly, the hottest new show of this season, Fox's "Glee," runs through May and doesn't end its first run until June 8. (Don't worry, it's one of the shows already certain to return next season.)
Among the biggest events planned for the month is a full night of programming to mark the final episode of ABC's "Lost" on May 23, a Sunday night.
The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd quotes the show's co-creator, Damon Lindelof, as saying that fans should expect to ask themselves "What did they mean by this?" as the final credits roll.
The following night, Fox's "24" will end its TV run with a two-hour finale. There's still talk of a big-screen movie, so the best guess is that Jack Bauer will survive.
NBC's "Chuck" also airs a two-hour finale on May 24 (Yes, "24" ends on the May 24). It's not clear yet whether that's ending the season or the series. The latest buzz has been favorable for another season of the show.
Among the big "reality" competitions, CBS' "Amazing Race" wraps up May 9, and the network's "Survivor" ends May 16. ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" ends Tuesday, May 25, the night of the final competition on Fox's "American Idol."
"Idol" has its finale May 26, the final night of sweeps. And I'm still betting that Crystal Bowersox will be in the running that night, probably with Lee DeWyze.
Still hanging tough: Time Warner Cable's "Hang Tough" video competition was held Thursday at MATC's Cooley Auditorium, with a dozen middle schools presenting videos that highlight the dangers of alcohol, drugs, smoking and some of society's other problems.
The winner was Racine's McKinley Middle Charter School with a funny parody of the old "Dating Game."
I was among the judges -- a panel that included Channel 4's Susan Kim, Channel 6's Tom Pipines, Channel 58's Asa George and the Journal Sentinel's Jim Stingl, among others -- and the McKinley entry was my favorite.
The Green Bay Packers' Charles Woodson presented awards to the top finishers.
You can watch the half-hour program at Time Warner's Wisconsin on Demand Channel 411. And you can see all the entries on the Hang Tough Facebook page.
May 8 looks like Betty White Day: In addition to her heavily-hyped hosting of the Mother's Day eve installment of NBC's "Saturday Night Live," Betty White will host an all-day marathon of "Match Game" episodes featuring her from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. that day on GSN (it used to be called the Game Show Network).
By the way, White has told reporters that she won't do any "dope" jokes during her SNL visit.
In addition to Gene Rayburn's "Match Game," she also dropped in now and again on "Password," hosted by her late husband, Mineral Point boy Allen Ludden, as the following video shows. In a Brew City bonus, she promotes her upcoming 1965 performance in "South Pacific" at Milwaukee's old Melody Top Theater.
Tim Cuprisin is the media columnist for OnMilwaukee.com. He's been a journalist for 30 years, starting in 1979 as a police reporter at the old City News Bureau of Chicago, a legendary wire service that's the reputed source of the journalistic maxim "if your mother says she loves you, check it out." He spent a couple years in the mean streets of his native Chicago, and then moved on to the Green Bay Press-Gazette and USA Today, before coming to the Milwaukee Journal in 1986.
A general assignment reporter, Cuprisin traveled Eastern Europe on several projects, starting with a look at Poland after five years of martial law, and a tour of six countries in the region after the Berlin Wall opened and Communism fell. He spent six weeks traversing the lands of the former Yugoslavia in 1994, linking Milwaukee Serbs, Croats and Bosnians with their war-torn homeland.
In the fall of 1994, a lifetime of serious television viewing earned him a daily column in the Milwaukee Journal (and, later the Journal Sentinel) focusing on TV and radio. For 15 years, he has chronicled the changes rocking broadcasting, both nationally and in Milwaukee, an effort he continues at OnMilwaukee.com.
When he's not watching TV, Cuprisin enjoys tending to his vegetable garden in the backyard of his home in Whitefish Bay, cooking and traveling.
