While I've had love affairs with Top Chef, The Amazing Race and Rock Star: INXS, without question my favorite reality show of all time is The Mole, a competition hosted by Anderson Cooper that aired only two seasons in its pure form. It later reappeared in a horrible celebrity edition with Ahmad Rashad as host, but that was but a pale shadow of the original.

A quick summary of the show's premise from Wikipedia...

Players in The Mole must work together to complete various physical and mental challenges to build up a significant cash prize for the winner. One of them, however, is "the Mole," a double agent hired by the producers to sabotage the efforts of the group. The Mole must be careful to avoid drawing suspicion. Using journals, players must track vast amounts of minutiae about the person(s) they suspect of being the Mole, such as seating positions, clothing colors, minor discussion topics, and so on. The quiz at the end of each episode tests players' knowledge of the Mole, and determines by lowest score (or slowest time, in the event of a tie) who is eliminated from the game.

The show has been gone a long time, but yesterday Variety reported the following...

ABC has given a 10-episode order to Stone & Co. Entertainment ("Tim Gunn's Guide to Style") to revive the reality competish, which hasn't aired in four years.

Casting and pre-production have begun on the show, which will likely start shooting later this spring. ABC is looking to run "The Mole" this summer.

Rashad is not being asked to return. With Cooper now at CNN and unavailable to host, producers say they are "looking for someone in the Anderson mode, a little mysterious but full of comedy."

[Variety] ABC bringing back 'The Mole' (via TV Squad)

If I'm going to break 4 months of silence, you know it's gotta be for something monumental, right?

Wrong.

I absolutely LOVE Geico's series of caveman commercials. I laugh hysterically just thinking about them. Not only do I actually watch the ads every single time they come on, but I've spent way too much time hanging out in their crib.

Anyway, imagine my delight when I read this item...

ABC is developing a single-camera sitcom based on the characters to be penned by Joe Lawson, the advertising copywriter who created the spots. The show will feature three of our early human ancestors battling prejudice as they try to live ordinary lives in Atlanta.

God bless you, ABC. Hopefully this will make up for the recent decline of "Lost."

[TV Squad] Geico's cavemen score their own sitcom

If ABC is wondering why ratings have fallen steadily this season for its hit show "Lost," the network need only look to the last few weeks for the explanation. More so than just about any other series on TV (except maybe "Veronica Mars"), "Lost" seems to constantly go into reruns just as the action starts to gain momentum, and those rerun stretches can last up to a month sometimes. To make matters worse, on several occasions the series has aired a clip show that recaps events from the series that every viewer already knows backwards and forwards. It would be one thing if I could ignore these clip shows, but the network promotes them as new episodes to trick everyone into watching. Even my TiVo thinks it's a new episode. Then when I finally sit down to watch the episode, often going through a long pre-show ritual of preparing snacks and a cold beverage, I discover within 5 seconds that I've been duped. Again.

"Lost" is too good a show for its producers and network to taint with these kinds of tactics. And given ABC's poor track record this season (and the steady decline in quality of "Desperate Housewives"), this show is far too valuable for the network to risk ruining it like this.

The show goes into it's final burst of new episodes for the season starting next week, so this shouldn't be a problem again for awhile. But I certainly hope some changes are made by this fall.

Former "Full House" star Jodie Sweetin admitted in an interview on Wednesday's "Good Morning America" that she became addicted to crystal meth two years ago:

When the show ended in 1995, she said she wanted to be a normal kid. She went to high school and college and by age 20 was married to a Los Angeles police officer — TV older sister Candace Cameron was in the wedding party.

But two years ago, she found herself dangerously addicted to one of the most debilitating drugs, methamphetamine. She said she was unemployed and bored and began simply by experimenting. Soon, she was using meth everyday.

She eventually checked herself into a rehab clinic after an intervention by former co-stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, John Stamos, and Bob Saget. Unsurprisingly, she and her police officer husband are divorcing.

I can't help but think that Kimmy Gibbler is somehow to blame for all this.

[ABC News] 'Full House' Sweetheart Talks About Meth Addiction