Ox Notes: July 17, 2008

The 2008 Emmy nominations were announced today, and AMC's Mad Men led all shows with 16 nominations. If you missed the show when it originally aired, AMC is running a marathon of all 13 episodes on Sunday, starting at noon ET. I watched the Mad Men on DVD last week, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Nominated in the inaugural Reality Host category were Tom Bergeron, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, Jeff Probst, and Ryan Seacrest. Bergeron for the win!

ABC announced its fall schedule yesterday. Dancing with the Stars 7 premieres on Monday, September 22 at 8 p.m. ET.

When DwtS returns, expect the contestants to be more controversial than those of Season 6. I, for one, was happy that last season didn't have any drama, a la Master P, Billy Ray Cyrus, Sara Evans.

Noticeably absent from ABC's fall plan is The Bachelor. Unfortunately, they're just giving the show a break, and not shelving it permanently.

Production on fall shows is still going strong, despite the possibility that the actors may yet go on strike.

The Writers Guild is amping up its efforts to unionize reality show writers, staging protests outside American Idol auditions to highlight the unfair conditions the show's writers work under.

CBS has indefinitely delayed Mark Burnett's new reality competition, Jingles, which was set to debut on July 27.

My brother, Dan, is thrilled that his dream girl, Sarah Silverman, is back on the market.

Jessica revealed on last night's episode of So You Think You Can Dance that she withdrew from the competition because she has two broken ribs. She said she should be healed in time for the tour. Zap2It has a recap of the episode, and Us Magazine has Mary Murphy & Dan Karaty's thoughts on the performances.

Last week, most of the SYTYCD performance videos were pulled from YouTube. I can't guarantee how long these links to videos of this week's performances will remain active, but here they are:

Courtney & Joshua -- Hip Hop and Rumba
Kherington & Mark -- Country Two-Step and Jazz
Comfort & Twitch -- Smooth Waltz and Hip Hop
Katee & Will -- Broadway and Pas de Deux
Chelsie & Gev -- Contemporary and Jive

Solos: Chelsie, Gev, Courtney, Mark, Comfort, Twitch, Katee, Will, Kherington, and Joshua