Monday meditations

Neil Zoren, Philly TV critic last seen bashing GSN for the lame bit of Improv-a-Ganza footage on the show's promos, returns with a nice note on Lingo. Zoren watches the show at 10:30 PM, a run which will soon vanish. He finds himself yelling words at the clueless contestants, just as I do. Only the clueless contestants often come up with the right word before my even more clueless self.

Zoren also notes that Bill Engvall will replace "silly Everyman" Chuck Woolery on the new Lingo episodes in June. He regrets the change but doesn't finger the obvious reason: age discrimination. Chuck just turned 70. Zoren also repeats his misgivings about Improv-a-Ganza. We've still got two more weeks of waiting before we see if the misgivings are justified.

ABC offers a long profile of Wendy Williams, talk show diva, not-so-competent Dancing with the Stars hoofer, and soon-to-debut host of GSN's Love Triangle. The story identifies a kinder, gentler image as the secret of Wendy's recent success. She will need to dial it back even more with GSN's grandmotherly audience.

New York Magazine talks to Pat Kiernan, local NYC morning anchor and once the voice of GSN's late, lamented Grand Slam. Kiernan says the quizzer was the hardest thing he's ever done: "In a matter of seconds, I had to listen to the answers, adjudicate the responses, and announce the score. If you get that wrong, you ruin the show."

Pat didn't ruin anything. Instead, the show suffered from too much filler and Miller (Dennis).