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Saunders: CBS' latest attempt at reality a crime

Published January 11, 2007 at midnight

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Just when you think TV's reality binge has hit rock bottom, something like CBS' Armed & Famous comes along.

Premiering Wednesday, the insipid series features "celebrities" such as Erik Estrada and La Toya Jackson learning to be "real life" cops and then protecting the residents of Muncie, Ind.

What's next? How about a series featuring convicted criminals learning to be actors? They could have leading roles in CBS' numerous crime dramas.

More items from a coffee-stained notebook:

GETTING REAL: Let's consider the USA cable series Nashville Star the a warm-up to next week's premiere of American Idol on Fox.

The show, entering its fourth season as a countrified version of the Fox mega-hit, can be seen at 8 tonight. Jewell is the season's host.

NATURE'S BEST: The Best of Nature (7 p.m. Sunday, Rocky Mountain PBS) is a salute to the popular PBS series celebrating 25 seasons.

Lynn Sherr hosts the event, which includes a touching reunion between two elephants after 25 years apart. That's much more interesting than watching Estrada and Jackson pretend to be law officers.

NEWS NOTES: MSNBC, buoyed by the increasing popularity of personalities Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, was the only news-oriented cable outlet to show audience growth in 2006.

The cable network grew in overall audience ratings by 7 percent, while leader Fox News Channel was down 15 percent and second place CNN declined 8 percent. Fox still has a healthy audience ratings lead.

ABC's Bob Woodruff, severely injured a year ago in Iraq, will return to the network Feb. 27 in an hour-long special, To Iraq and Back. The former ABC World News anchor will report on the civilian and medical teams that helped save his life and also document his journey from the battlefield to Germany and finally home.

RATINGS ROULETTE: Whose gonna tell Donald Trump "You're fired!" The Sunday night premiere of The Apprentice, set in California, drew only 9.1 million viewers - the smallest audience of all his Apprentice series premieres.

The debut of Grease: You're the One I Want, NBC's new reality series that precedes The Apprentice in the schedule, drew 11.6 million viewers.

Audience figures for Monday's BCS college championship game on Fox (Florida beat Ohio State) were down 16 percent compared to ratings of last year's game on ABC, when Texas edged USC.

LOCAL SCENE: Fans of traditional country music who missed the story in the sports pages, should know that the country format formerly on KCKK-AM (1600) can now be found on the 1050 frequency, which operates as KCKK. The 1600 frequency is now KEPN, an ESPN radio outlet.

MetroBeat TV, the local documentary series co-produced by Comcast and Channel 8 community television, begins repeating (at 7:30 tonight), the programming that won three Heartland Emmys last October. Among the winners: A documentary about teen smoking. MetroBeat TV, airing on Channel 8 systems around the area, is available on On-Demand.

SEMI-LOCAL SCENE: A Colorado ranch is the setting for the sixth season premiere of Cowboy U: Colorado, airing at 6 p.m. Friday on Country Music Television (CMT). A group of potential cowboys and cowgirls begins training by trying to wrangle an unruly calf.

CASTING CALL: Cybill Shepherd and Marlee Matlin have joined the cast of The L Word, Showtime's lesbian oriented drama that began its fourth season Sunday night . . . Jeff Goldblum stars in Raines, a March NBC series, playing a Los Angles homicide cop who also happens to be a psychic.

CADAVER BEAT: Fans yearning for the return of NBC' Crossing Jordan can find their laboratory heroine in a series of new episodes beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday on 9News.

The episode deals with events from last spring's cliffhanger when Jordan (Jill Hennessy) was arrested for the bloody murder of her boyfriend following events from a night she couldn't remember. Jordan crossed the line by going on the run.

TODAY'S NOSTALGIA: On Jan. 11, 1976, ABC premiered a two-part biographical drama, Eleanor and Franklin, starring Jane Alexander and Edward Hermann as Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. The ABC Theatre production received numerous awards.