JENNIFER LOPEZ IS OFFICIALLY AN ‘IDOL’ JUDGE — Her deal is only for one year, which is smart because that’s precisely how many season “American Idol” has until it gets canceled. [TMZ]

TBS CANCELS ‘MY BOYS’ – I tried to watch this show several different times, and every time I was astounded by how poorly written and two-dimensional the male characters were. It must be how women feel about every other show on television. [Ausiello]

THE BEST THING I’VE SEEN ALL DAY — “Jersey Shore” cats. Simple idea, brilliant execution. [BuzzFeed]

NEXT ‘REAL WORLD’ SEASON TO FEATURE YOUNG PEOPLE PARTYING — Season 25 will return to The Palms in Las Vegas. Should be groundbreaking. [Real World News Blog]

Anyone with half a brain can see that “American Idol” is going to die a quick, ugly death when Simon Cowell’s “X Factor” becomes the hot new reality karaoke competition to watch. Nevertheless, Fox is going through the charade of hiring new judges, who after MONTHS are-they-or-aren’t-they will be Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, two of the most respected musicians from never and briefly, respectively.

What with all my intelligent serialized TV shows to watch and leather-bound books to read, I obviously don’t care about this non-drama. However, I enjoy the part where J.Lo struggles to accept her fading fame:

Among JLo’s demands, “she was angling for an overall deal at Fox, including a put picture, to keep the movie career going. But Fox said no,” one insider tells me. “In the old days, these were called a ‘vanity deal’ for good reason. They simply don’t exist today. Will Smith doesn’t have put pictures.”

Another informant says she also was angling for TV development projects to replace the ones that had gone by the wayside when her career grew cold. Also, Team JLo was pissed that the Idol producers never discussed ahead of time their decision to offer a judging job to Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler. Though Team JLo kept threatening she’d bail if she didn’t get what she wanted, Fox called her bluff several times. That’s when real or imagined “Plan B” feelers put out to other talent would wind up in the media. [Deadline]

The good news is that we can laugh at her for following in the hallowed footsteps of Paula Abdul and Kara DioGuardi. The bad news is she’s still going to get $12M a year from Fox. In a related story, firefighters in Michigan were laid off because the state’s economy is so bad. That seems fair.

How I Met Your Mother (CBS) — Jennifer Lopez guest stars. She’s so versatile! Is there a TV show she can’t make worse? (full image here)

Chuck (NBC) — I tuned out after watching the first couple episodes this season, but apparently tonight’s episode is a game-changer. I hope the change is to a sexier game with more realistic choreography for its fight scenes.

The Bachelor (ABC) — What’s that you say? This show ended last week? Oh no: it never ends. This is the televised wedding of Jason Mesnick and Molly Malaney — the woman Mesnick originally sent home at the final rose ceremony. How exciting! You get to watch a wedding without the fun of knowing the people or enjoying the free booze and food at the reception.

Animal Cops: Miami (Animal Planet) — “What do you mean, Lassie was played by a male dog? Sounds like this could be a… *sunglasses*… real bitch of a case.” YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Gossip Girl (CW) — The show returns from a long hiatus. How long was it? Not long enough. ZINGO! But seriously, Blake Lively needs to do something naked already. It can even be tasteful, I don’t care.

House (Fox) — Laure Prepon guest stars as a blogger who solicits medical advice online while admitted to House’s hospital. I’m sure House will love that.

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Travel) — I’m just finally getting around to reading Kitchen Confidential. It’s doing nothing to lessen my jealousy of the life that Bourdain has lived. I wish it were the ’70s so I could have all the irresponsible sex and drugs I could get my hands on.

It’s not uncommon for people on the Internet to say bad things about Jennifer Lopez. It is, however, unusual for such editorial content to show up on Hulu, where some lowly coder or page designer tagged her “Saturday Night Live” episode with “has-been” and “cellulite.” And I can’t help but feel that the “comedy” tag is a little sarcastic.

Even though I pity J.Lo more than I dislike her, I love any little example of corporate drones fighting back and displaying some individualism. It always reminds me of the Independent Thought Alarm:

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Ordinarily, I wouldn’t bother writing about Jennifer Lopez’s stint as the host and musical guest for “Saturday Night Live” just because I wasted 70 minutes of my life watching it. But this episode was so pathetic and lazily unfunny that I feel we should gather together as a community — as people do for a funeral, or after a tragic event.

I understand why “SNL” reels in the Taylor Swifts and Taylor Lautners to host, but… Jennifer Lopez? It’s a puzzling decision, one that I have to think is fueled by complaints that “SNL” skews too white and male. But then taking a minority and making her the star of sketches about Telemundo and Univision isn’t exactly my idea of racial integration in comedy — and I’m using a very broad definition for “comedy” here. (I’ll make no mention of her musical performance, except to note that it’s easy to see why Sony dumped her instead of releasing her next album.)

Anyway, there was one skit at the end of the show that made me laugh, but I didn’t see it on Hulu, so it’s possible that I fell asleep and dreamed it. So instead of that one funny sketch that may or may not have happened, below is video of the “flags of the world” digital short, which was okay. Not exactly funny, but fairly original. I’ve also included a picture of an adorable baby bunny rabbit. I’m not exactly sure why, but I figure it can only help.

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