Newsstand Friday: TV Guide Filed under ( 24, CSI: Las Vegas, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Girlfriends, House, How I Met Your Mother, Survivor, Tyra Banks )

COVER STORY
Lost, 24, House and CSI Scoop!
The island drama kicks off our spoiler-filled finale package. Plus: Marshall and Lily’s wedding on How I Met Your Mother, dirt on Jericho, Girlfriends, Survivor and more!

BREAKING NEWS
Where Have the Viewers Gone?
We take a look at why ratings are down this season. Plus: Want to party with Tyra Banks? Go online.

No More Pussycat Dolls for Melissa S. Filed under ( Amazing Race, Anastacia McPherson, Boston Rob, Making the Band, Mark McGrath, Melissa Smith, Pussycat Dolls, Robin Antin, Ron Fair, Survivor )

Last week, The Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll bid adieu to Melissa S. Her stint on the show was not without controversy, as she constantly had her claws out when it came to fellow contestant Chelsea. I didn't know this before now, but Melissa S. was also a finalist on Making the Band 3. Guess she's making the reality show rounds a la Boston Rob (from Survivor and Amazing Race). She recently sat down with TV Guide to speak her mind.

TVGuide.com: I felt really bad for you after Ron Fair's comment that you were "sexy, Vegas-y white trashy."
Melissa: Oh, my god, it was horrible! The last two episodes were very hard for me to watch because of the way they were portraying me. There was no drama between me and Chelsea. I don't live in the editing room. I don't know what they were thinking, but it was extremely hard for me to watch that knowing that I got along with everyone in the house, and they portrayed me as the biggest bitch. Every time they showed Chelsea [faltering] there, I was beaming from ear to ear. Ron Fair's comment about the white-trash thing? I'm sorry, where was he coming off with that? I'm not that at all. I just have to brush it off and keep going.

TVGuide.com: Has your family been upset with the way you've been portrayed?
Melissa: It is so unfortunate. My family and friends who actually know me know that I am absolutely nothing like that. They kind of laugh about it and say, "This is so wrong." I was talking to [fellow Doll wannabe] Anastacia the other day and she's like, "Out of everyone in the house, you were like the sweetheart in the group and they really did a 180 on you."

TVGuide.com: But did you tell Mark McGrath that you thought Chelsea should be the next to go home?
Melissa: Well… I will definitely give my opinion. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything, but they never showed what I really said. They aren't going to show the positive side. I absolutely adore Chelsea, I think she's a strong performer and she has the strongest vocals out of anyone in the competition. I think her dancing is good. I don't think it is strong and that's where I think she's a weak link. When it comes to the Pussycat Dolls… if you watch these girls, they are killing the dancing. This is not a huge singing group, as we all know. They have the lead singer, Nicole, who is amazing, and the rest of the girls are strong dancers. I did give my opinion, and I think in interviews, people respect you more when you do.

TVGuide.com: So you don't have any regrets about saying that about Chelsea?
Melissa: No way.

TVGuide.com: Do you think maybe Robin saw that and that "attitude" put her off?
Melissa: No. I really think that Robin knew. It wasn't a surprise that she was a weak dancer. Everyone knew. I was just stating a fact.

TVGuide.com: So you weren't sabotaging Chelsea?
Melissa: Not at all. Everyone got a little out of hand with the whole editing thing. They made it out to be something that wasn't even that deep.

TVGuide.com: They also showed you rolling your eyes when Asia was helping Chelsea learn tricky dance steps.
Melissa: Yeah, but they didn't show that before Asia helped her, I was downstairs for an hour helping her. They took me up for an interview and said, "This is a competition, why would you help her?" Then I repeated, "Why would I help her?" and that's what they put in. They were egging me on. Saying stuff like, "Oh, you must not want this bad enough." They'll take what they want and make their own montage and make their own show.

TVGuide.com: They were somewhat right, though — it was a competition. If you didn't help her it wouldn't have really been so terrible.
Melissa: It was a competition, but at the end of the day, my talent is going to speak for itself. I can help her until she's blue in the face, but you aren't going to change someone overnight.

TVGuide.com: You really had a rocky road.... You were either winning challenges or in the bottom two. How stressful was that?
Melissa: It was pretty crazy. I didn't change anything. Every performance I did my best and I gave it my all. Sometimes for different reasons within the show, not having to do with the competition, I feel like they did that. Again, it was really hard for me. Imagine what I had to go through? While we were filming all I had to go on was just that judging. You can't think rationally during this show. It felt like every day I had to pick myself back up off the floor and piece my confidence back together. And then I'd win a challenge, and then I'd be back in the bottom two.

TVGuide.com: Would you ever do anything like this again?
Melissa: I'm probably not going to do another reality show unless I have control over what is going to be going on.

TVGuide.com: What are you working on now?
Melissa: I'm in a recording studio working on a solo album. This is the road I am on. I did Making the Band, I did this and it has been a tremendous experience, and I have nothing but great memories from both. I feel like I've grown as an artist and I'm learning more new stuff about myself every day. I'm just going to continue on this road and this journey. I'm not giving up. My fans can look out for me. My website is officialmelissasmith.com. My MySpace page is myspace.com/melspunks because I’m a spunky little girl. I'm still going to go get them, girl.

TVGuide.com: You were a great dancer.... Were any of the challenges actually hard for you?
Melissa: The only thing that was hard about this whole competition was that we had no time for anything. We had 45 minutes to learn our song and dance and then we were in the challenge and then we were thrown somewhere else in front of people performing. No celebrity performer in their right mind would only have 45 minutes of rehearsal and then get on stage and try to work it out. We were going on two or three hours of sleep every night because we were trying to learn everything.

TVGuide.com: Are you rooting for anyone in particular to win?
Melissa: I really feel like it is going to come down to Melissa R. and Asia. I feel like those two girls are extremely talented and could be the next Pussycat Doll.

TVGuide.com: If Chelsea does win, is that the worst thing?
Melissa: No! I'd be happy for her if she won, too. Everyone [has been] so talented throughout this experience, and I know how hard it is and what they've been put through.

Photo from TV Guide.

Pirate Master Details Unveiled Filed under ( Are You Smarter than an Average 5th Grader?, Cameron Daddo, CBS, Mark Burnett, Pirate Masters, Survivor, The Apprentice )

Mark Burnett is adding to his empire, slowly but surely. Poised to become the Aaron Spelling of reality television, the man behind Survivor, The Apprentice and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? is ready to unleash his newest show on the public. Pirate Master premieres on May 31 (on CBS, of course) and will be hosted by Australian actor/musician Cameron Daddo (Big Momma's House 2). The 13-episode series stars "16 people who all agree that had they been born 250 years ago, they would have liked to be pirates," as Burnett told TV Guide recently, from the set on the Caribbean island of Dominica.

Contestants live on a 179-foot-square rigger for 33 days while searching for buried treasure worth $1 million. Burnett said that the game stems from a mythical pirate story he came up with, "Captain Steel."

"Each man returned to the ship with a set of maps and hid them in a chest with 14 compartments, and it was only a few weeks ago that the chest was recovered," he said. "So the contestants are sailing to a different destination each week around the island looking for the treasure."

"It's a huge — and hard — adventure, with jumping off waterfalls, swimming up canyon lakes and crossing mud-filled jungles," Burnett says. The show's motto? "Watch your back." As Burnett notes, "Pirates have their own rules, and while they need to work as a group on the expeditions, you never know who's going to stab you in the back."

Contestants dress in period costumes, eat gruel and are ruled by an elected captain who can be overthrown if he doesn't treat his crew well. Each week at "Pirate's Court" — which are, according to Burnett, modeled after actual tribunals — a player is cast off the ship and set adrift on a raft. "If you can't run with the crew, if you can't swim or row or navigate, you're a liability."

The pirate crew is made up of eight men and eight women. Among them: "a very tough Nigerian who became an American and a former Navy rescue swimmer, who's currently a smoke jumper. Everybody's a good athlete, but what they've learned is that to be a great pirate, you have to be really smart."

"It's a lot of fun, a great summer yarn. It's fantasy meets reality," says Burnett, who wrote the show back in 2003, adding "It's a big endeavor to pull off."

Photo from TV Guide.

Survivor Heads to China Filed under ( Mark Burnett, Survivor )

Mark Burnett has officially let the cat out of the bag, and has finally revealed the next location for the 15th season of Survivor: CHINA.

Executive producer Burnett confirmed that the next season takes place in mainland China. "It's a magic, really epic location," says Burnett. Production starts this summer.

Photo from CBS.

Jeff Foxworthy Has a Hit on His Hands Filed under ( Are You Smarter than an Average 5th Grader?, Jeff Foxworthy, Mark Burnett, Survivor, The Apprentice )

The numbers are pretty staggering. Jeff Foxworthy is the host of the new Mark Burnett show (he of Survivor and The Apprentice fame), Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. A staggering 26 million people tuned in for the shows' premiere episode, making it the most-watched series debut on any network in eight and a half years. TV Guide recently sat down with the comic/host to chat.

TV Guide: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader is getting huge ratings. Are you surprised?
Jeff Foxworthy: I feel like Cin­derella. I'm used to having shows that the network tries to keep a secret, so this is really weird for them to actually be plugging me.

TV Guide: Why do you think producer Mark Burnett chose a blue-collar redneck like you to host a game show?
Foxworthy: Last year, someone was trying to bring back Kids Say the Darndest Things, and I ran the show a couple of times. Mark Burnett saw it and said to me [affect­ing a heavy Australian accent], "You are so American." I was like, "I don't know what that means, but thank you." In this crazy business, I've hopefully been able to retain some normalcy. People think they know me.

TV Guide: Did they give you a pop quiz for the audition?
Foxworthy: I think they knew I was an idiot going in, and I don't ever pretend to be Alex Trebek. I find that I'm right about 40 percent of the time. And only then because it's some­thing that I've helped my kids study for.

TV Guide: Would your 12- and 15-year-old daughters whip your butt on this show?
Foxworthy: We were sit­ting together watching it last night, and as soon as I asked a question, they would blurt out the answer, and imme­diately it was like, "Did you know that, Daddy?" And I'm like, "No, but I'm still the leader of this house!"

TV Guide: What kind of a student were you?
Foxworthy: I always made As and Bs, but every comment on my report card said, "Jeff talks too much in class." In fact, the best note I ever got backstage at a stand-up show was from my high-school principal, who said, "I can't believe I'm shelling out money to hear the same kind of junk I used to try to put a stop to." I was in his office two times a week, and he would always say to me, "What do you think you are, a comedian?" Well, apparently I am.

TV Guide: What's been one of the show's dumbest moments?
Foxworthy: One of the questions was a first-grade art question: "If you mix red and blue together, what color do you get?" And the adult said, "Brown." I'm thinking you really need to be on display at a state fair somewhere. You're making me feel better about my family.

TV Guide: Is the show a commentary on the state of our national IQ?
Foxworthy: No. The stuff on this show — we deleted that file [from our brains] 30 years ago. I don't know why, 30 years later, I still know all the words to Gilligan's Island, but I have chosen to delete anything I ever knew about triangles.

TV Guide: What else do you have going on these days?
Foxworthy: I just finished the third volume of The Redneck Dictionary. Nos. 1 and 2 were on the New York Times best-seller list, which I'm pretty sure is a sign of the apocalypse. And I'm down to the last page of a children's book. It's the hardest thing I've ever written because you have to make yourself be 4 years old.

TV Guide: So are you, in fact, smarter than a fifth grader?
Foxworthy: [Sighs] No, I'm not. Well, maybe I am because I'm actually doing the same things I did in the fifth grade, and now I'm getting paid for it. I'm getting paid to make the class laugh.

Photo from TV Guide.