Ox Notes: February 10, 2009

TV Guide asked Dancing with the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy what he thought about Season 8 contestant Chuck Wicks being paired with his girlfriend, DwtS pro Julianne Hough, for the competition. Maks replied: "I don't want to start the season with a usual Maks rant, so I'm going to plead the fifth on that pairing!"

Maks' Season 8 partner, Denise Richards, told People that she's afraid of "forgetting everything right before going on live."

DwtS 6 champ Kristi Yamaguchi assessed the Season 8 contestants for Us Magazine.

Star Trek fans might want to watch tonight's episode of Leverage at 10 ET on TNT. It's directed by Commander Riker and stars Data and Quark.

Networks are announcing their plans for the future, including a reality show featuring self-help guru Tony Robbins on NBC. ABC and CBS are working on new reality shows of their own, thought CBS seems to be focusing on new scripted fare for the fall season.

The CW is jumping on the vampire bandwagon with its new scripted show, Vampire Diaries.

TLC announced that it's dropping Trading Spaces, long after it stopped being the compelling show that put the network on the map.

Reality Blurred has interviews with Survivor: Tocantins contestants Taj Johnson-George, Stephen Fishbach and this season's likely villain, Sierra Reed.

DwtS 8's Steve-O is scheduled to appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight, and hopefully the identity of his partner will be revealed. I'm guessing it's Lacey Schwimmer. Who do you want to see the stuntman paired with?