Ox Notes: December 4, 2007

Dancing with the Stars 5 winners Helio Castroneves & Julianne Hough will join the DwtS Tour for several dates, presumably in the southeastern United States.

In an interview for TV Guide, Maksim Chmerkovskiy confirmed that he will not be back for DwtS 6. The show will be a little less hunky without you, Maks.

CBS announced its winter premiere schedule, which includes reality staples like Survivor and Big Brother, set to debut February 7 and February 12, respectively.

NBC also announced the January premiere dates for Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I might have to start watching Law & Order again now that Jeremy Sisto has joined the cast.

Shows produced by NBC Universal, which include Heroes and Battlestar Galactica, have been yanked from iTunes after the contract between the two companies expired this weekend. NBC U wasn't happy that iTunes was firm on its $1.99 per episode policy, but if the production house would prefer me to download episodes for free on unsanctioned websites, I'm all for it.

If the writers strike lasts through February, as some fear it will, it will derail pilot season, where networks sell ad space on new fall shows. I'm sure there will be more details as to how that would affect viewers closer to that February deadline.

Conan O'Brien offered support to the striking writers via a video posted at the site Late Night Underground. It's worth watching just to see the sparse beard Conan's managed to grow in the month since the strike began.

It's certainly no Oreo Pizza Beard: