Network television might not be the safest place for daily serialzed dramas—or their fans— anymore, but it looks like our dreams of cable stepping up to the plate to save our suds may finally be starting to come true. New York Daily News is reporting TeenNick will be trying out the telenovela format for the upcoming 10th season of Degrassi: The Next Generation.

The network will air half-hour versions of the teen drama 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday for six weeks, Nickelodeon President Cyma Zarghami told the Daily News Thursday.

"We're making additional episodes, a little more in the telenovela format, a little bit faster, cheaper and more efficient," Zarghami said. "It will be, I think, a big success."

Hollywood's biggest night gifted America's Sweetheart Sandra Bullock and comedian Mo'Nique with the coveted Oscar for their roles inThe Blind Side and Precious. The two evening's eventual winners were joined on the red carpet by some of film's newest starlets Kristen Stewart, Amanda Seyfried and Miley Cyrus and veterans Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver and Demi Moore. See more photos from the 82nd Annual Academy Awards after the jump and check out Mel's Oscars Live Blog for anything you may have missed!

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Tonight is the big night. Alison Sweeney drops by NBC's primetime drama Mercy to guest star in the "I Did Kill You, Didn't I?" episode. Watch Sweeney's interview about the role after the jump.

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TV Guide Network announced today that Vivica A. Fox is joining their red carpet Oscar team at this year's show.  She will join Carrie Anna Inaba, Chris Harrison and Lawrence Zarian for this Sunday's telecast of Live at the Academy Awards with Carrie Anne and Chris. It airs at 6 PM EST/3PM PST.

Photo by PR Photos

Shout out to All My Children's Debbi Morgan and Cornelius Smith, Jr. who took home NAACP Image Awards this past Friday. Morgan and Smith, Jr. were in the company of Gabourey Sidibe who won Best Lead Actress for Precious and Shonda Rimes, who won for Best Writing in Drama Series for Grey's Anatomy. See more pics from the event after the jump.

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The forbidden love of Christian and Olli, from German sudser Verbotene Liebe is coming to America. According to The Hollywood Reporter,  former HBO vice-president Sam Martin has secured the rights to the storyline revolving around a gay couple in Dusseldorf. Martin plans to Americanize Christian and Olli  with a setting in Portland, Oregon. READ MORE

Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin celebrated the seventh anniversary of their boutique Belle Gray on February 12. The party coincided with the taping of their upcoming TV Land "docudrama" Harry Loves Lisa. See more photos after the jump. READ MORE

This past week I had the extreme pleasure of interviewing the wildly-funny Eric Martsolf, who this Feb. 27 will be hosting ACME Saturday Night in LA. When the subject of whether Martsolf would ever pull double duty, juggling a web sudser with his Days of Our Lives hunk duties came up (costars Crystal Chappell, Galen Gering and Nadia Bjorlin all appear in Venice) Martsolf informed me he had already appeared in a short-lived web series called Brawn and Glamour.

 Of course I raced to You Tube as soon as I hung up from Martsolf and found just two episodes of the ridonkulously-insane serial. Starring Martsolf's former Passions pals Justin Hartley (Smallville) and Lindsay Hartley (Arianna, DAYS), Brawn and Glamour tells the story of a vapid, former teen starlet, whose series has been cancelled after 14 seasons on the air. All I have to say is after seeing Lindsay Hartley kick the shiz outta that one girl in the first eppy, I will go out to local churches and ask for donations for this 2008 series to start producing new epsiodes ASAP. Funny, funny stuff. Look for my full interview with Martsolf this week! READ MORE

Deliverance: The Next Generation? Well, well, who said Procter and Gamble was getting out of the TV game? According to the Wall Street Journal, P&G is teaming up with Wal-Mart to produce a two-hour, NBC primetime movie called Secrets of the Mountain. Snort. Giggle. This flick, revolving around a single mom who takes her young uns up on a mountain for some reason or another, is being heralded as Wal-Mart and P&G's attempt to combat all the "risque" television out there. Okay, who wants to inform Wally World that P&G's idea of "family friendly" TV generally involves people hunching on their kinfolk and deranged women snagging men in bear traps?

 

Boy oh boy that Jeff Zucker is one swell programmer. Why I think a talking spider might oughta just write "SOME EXECUTIVE" in her web about him! I mean, really, what better way to save NBC than to greenlight a venture from the television production arm of a conglomerate that saw it's two long-running TV franchises snuffed out in one year? Looks like I will keep finding my light— along with my DVR— on ABC.

The most soaptastic novelist since God wrote the bible, Jackie Collins is releasing her 27th book in the United States today, and to say I am a little excited would be like saying CBS is a little trigger happy when it comes to cancelling soap operas! 

Collins' latest bonkbuster, hilariously-entitled Poor Little Bitch Girl, revisits the world of the unstoppable Santangelo crime family. Only this time it isn't lady boss Lucky Santangelo—my favorite female fiction character ever—who's the center of attention, it's Lucky's son Bobby Santangelo Stanislopolous, son of late billionaire shipping magnate Dimitri Stanislopolous, and Lucky's wild child daughter Maria "Max" Golden, who sex and scandalize their way through the pages of what is sure to be another raunchy Collins scorcher.

Poor Little Bitch Girl introduces three new characters into the Santangelo universe—Annabelle, the daughter of Hollywood royalty, who runs a high-priced call-girl ring in New York with her cokehead boyfriend; Denver, a nymphomaniac attorney, who defends Annabelle's father when he is charged with the murder of Annabelle's mother and Carolyn, who's carrying on with a married senator. All three girls grew up with Lucky's son Bobby and share sordid pasts with the sex god. 

A friend bought the novel for me on pre-order, so it should be waiting on my doorstep when I get home. Let's just say if you hear about anyone getting mowed down on a dark, Southern street tonight it's because they got in my way on the drive home! After the jump, check out the splashy, retro opening from the hit 80's NBC miniseries Lucky Chances (which combined Collins' first two Santangelo novels), starring Nicollette Sheridan as Lucky, Vincent Irizarry as Gino, Eric Braeden as Dimitri, Leanne Hunley as Eden, Michael Nader as Enzio, Phil Morris as Steven, Grant Show as Marco and a young Sandra Bullock as Maria Santangelo. If Fronsie buys the distribution rights to Lucky Chances and puts it on SOAPnet I promise I will never break another ABC Daytime scandal again! (Fingers, toes and all other crossable parts crossed). READ MORE