Ox Notes: March 18, 2007

There's naturally plenty of Dancing with the Stars news after last night's Season 6 premiere. But first...

CBS will air Secret Talents of the Stars on April 8. I planned to blow off the show until I read that George Takei is in the cast, and his "secret talent" is singing country music. Suddenly, the show is a must see for me.

NBC is getting into the food competition biz, tapping genius chef/madman Marco Pierre White to host The Chopping Block. White's contentious relationship with Mario Batali is detailed in the book Heat by Bill Buford, which I mentioned last week because it features one of the contestants from Top Chef: Chicago.

Things have gone well for some members of the Queer Eye for the Straight Guy crew since the show ended its run; Ted Allen is a part of the Top Chef family, and Carson Kressley has a show on Lifetime. Sadly, however, Jai Rodriguez has been relegated to hosting a dog grooming competition on Animal Planet.

Project Runway's Tim Gunn stops by tonight's episode of The Biggest Loser to makeover the contestants. The show starts at 8 ET on NBC, so I plan to catch an hour of it before the women hit the floor for part two of the Dancing with the Stars 6 premiere.

Last night's men's competition was watched by 20.9 million viewers. The women face a daunting challenge tonight: the first hour of DwtS is up against American Idol for the first time in show history.

Before last night's competition, Adam Carolla told MSN, "I think it's pretty clear to everybody that there's a separate competition going on between me, Penn Jillette and Steve Guttenberg. I fully expect to win the Clumsy Oaf Division."

People has details on the stunning black dress Samantha Harris wore last night, as well as a What You Didn't See report from backstage at the show.

TV Guide has its own backstage report from the show, and Entertainment Tonight has a report by special correspondent Helio Castroneves.

Access Hollywood had its special correspondent, Mel B, file a report from last night's show, and her charming lack of professionalism makes the video fun to watch. Mel repeatedly mentions her Top 3 Men, and only near the end of the video does it become clear that she's talking about picks she made before the couples danced. She'll get the hang of this journalism thing yet.

Before she dances tonight, Marissa Jaret Winokur stopped by the set of Entertainment Tonight to talk about rehearsals.

See everyone here tonight for our live in-show DwtS chat, starting at 9 ET/8 CT.