Ox Notes: October 13, 2009

After last night's Dancing with the Stars 9 Performance Show, Access Hollywood sent ace reporter LaToya Jackson to get the scoop from the competitors. Wait, LaToya Jackson?! The Insider and ET also had cameras backstage.

Aaron Carter & Karina Smirnoff spent their time backstage telling OK! and People that they're not a dating each other.

People has a load of other DwtS articles, including a blog post by Louie Vito, interviews with Maksim Chmerkovskiy and MJH & Mark Ballas, and a What You Didn't See report from the set of last night's episode.

DwtS 9 is the lowest-rated season of the show since Season 1. The numbers are especially bad among viewers aged 18-49, where they've dropped about 25% from last season.

In related news, former DwtS champ Julianne Hough will play a dancer in the upcoming Christina Aguilera-Cher film Burlesque.

DVR numbers were just released for the first week of the fall TV season, September 21-27. The numbers were especially good for The CW, where several shows get almost a third of their viewers from DVR playback.

I was sad to see Zev & Justin eliminated from The Amazing Race on Sunday after Zev's passport went missing. Justin explained in this Elimination Station video that the passport fell out of his pocket when they got lost during the monkey challenge, a scene which didn't make it to air.

Zev & Justin gave interviews to People and TV Guide, where they were asked what prize they won for reaching the mat first (they didn't get to keep the prize, obviously). When they initially checked in, Phil Keoghan announced that they'd won a pair of motorcycles, prompting Zev to exclaim, "Motorcycle? I can barely drive a car!"

The recently canceled NBC cop drama Southland may get a second chance on TNT.

Disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich will participate in the upcoming season of The Celebrity Apprentice. Networks, will you please stop casting indicted former politicians and their wives in your reality shows? It's embarrassing.