Ox Notes: July 21, 2009

Tom Bergeron will reveal the identities of the Dancing with the Stars 9 cast members on Good Morning America on August 17. MOIB reader Deb noticed a rumor that DwtS 9 may feature 16 couples. I'm cool with the change if it means that couples won't start doing two dances per week so early in the season, but something tells me that won't happen.

Derek & Julianne Hough spoke with People about being nominated for an Emmy for their DwtS choreography. E! compiled a list of videos of the four So You Think You Can Dance routines nominated for choreography Emmys.

Reality Blurred has a list of all of the Emmy nominations earned by reality shows.

Paula Abdul may not judge American Idol next season.

What's the point of new episodes of Futurama without the original voice actors?

Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi may get her own sitcom on NBC about "a woman working in the culinary world."

NBA star Shaquille O'Neal is set to take on other athletes in the series Shaq Vs. starting August 18 on ABC. The Big Aristotle will swim against Michael Phelps and play tennis against Serena Williams. This I've got to see.

ABC, CBS and NBC will broadcast President Obama's speech to the nation on Wednesday night at 8 ET. ABC will air new episodes of Wipeout and I Survived a Japanese Game Show one hour later than their normal broadcast times.

I'm excited about casting news from the set of A Game of Thrones, the new HBO series based on George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series. Sean Bean was cast in a pivotal role, and several other roles have been filled as well. This series can't come to cable soon enough.