RuPaul’s Drag Race is gearing up for its season 3 premiere (January 24 on Logo) so of course they’ve been teasing us with bits of information about what we can expect this time around. One of the most exciting things is the panel of judges. This season Vanessa Williams, Amber Rose, Jody Watley, LaToya Jackson and Fantasia are some of the brown girls added to the mix. Check out the image grid below for the full scope of judges:

Swooning yet? Now check out a preview of what’s to come (in case you missed it in our previous post):

The premiere episode is going to be a 90-minute audition spectacular. They held open auditions on Hollywood Boulevard (American Idol style) so you already know. Prepare to laugh!

Before Vanessa Williams would sign on for a new role on Desperate Housewives, she had to deal with her reservations over the way the show has previously handled Black cast members.

Fans of the show remember the awful, awful storyline they had involving Alfre Woodward and Mehcad Brooks.

Like, you get the amazingly talented Alfre Woodward and rising star Mehcad Brooks on the same set and you have them playing oddballs with no real purpose?

Vanessa Williams agrees, telling Entertainment Weekly:

“She had her son in chains in the basement. It was like, ‘Really? Do we have to go there with our first Black character?’  I honestly fell off the show after that. I think it was just so implausible and just an image that Black folks don’t want to see – their child chained and shackled in the basement.”

She’s right because I stopped watching the show after a while and it didn’t get good again until they pushed the storylines for everyone five years up.

Hopefully, writers and producers make the most of Vanessa’s talent as she joins Wisteria Lane to play the wife of a baseball player.

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Actor Reggie Austin has been cast as Vanessa L. Williams’ husband on the seventh season of Desperate Housewives.

According to Black Voices, Austin will play Doug, a New York baseball star (with the Yankees) whose marriage to Renee Perry (Williams) is on the rocks when she becomes attracted to Fairview’s new contractor (Brian Austin Green). Austin’s character will not debut until the fifth episode of the season.

Williams recently did an interview with TV Guide where she mentioned that she wanted Isaiah Mustafah to be cast but he has a TV deal with NBC so that probably wouldn’t have worked out contractually. But it’s cool, Austin is just as nice to look at and is very talented.

Austin recently played Jamie on The CW’s Life Unexpected and also appeared as baseball player on the Debra Messing series The Starter Wife. The 31-year-old Peekskill, NY native is a Yale School of Drama graduate.

Vanessa L. Williams is only the second Black woman to be added to the cast.

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Vanessa L. Williams is moving to Wisteria Lane, which makes her the second woman of color to join the cast. Alfre Woodard did a brief stint in season two but fans, particularly those of color, weren’t feeling her storyline–especially not the part where her son was in shackles in their house. Even Williams raised an eyebrow about that as she revealed in a recent interview with TV Guide.

Williams will play Renee Perry, a wealthy baseball wife and will hopefully bring a positive image to the show this fall. TV Guide caught up with her to get the deets about her character, casting The Old Spice Guy (Isaiah Mustafa) and transitioning from Ugly Betty.

On Her First Impression of Housewives:
“I thought it was a fantastic opportunity for women my age to be sexy, delightful and completely different.

Transitioning from Ugly Betty:
“I wanted to come at this character from a completely different sensibility. Some of my first ideas were to make Renee southern, saccharine sweet or to have the hair and wardrobe be completely different.”

“Marc Cherry wanted me to be as suburban as possible, even though Renee is married to a professional baseball player and does have a lot of grandeur as part of her lifestyle. So we’ve made me look as close to my real life self as possible. No more shoulder pads or pointy-toe pumps with spikes.” (Like in Ugly Betty).

On The Character’s Marriage and the Twist:
“They haven’t cast her husband yet, but I was trying to get them to cast Isaiah Mustafa, the guy who does the Old Spice commercials. He looks athletic and funny. But Renee is leaving her husband and fighting to get his money. She’ll apparently be competing with Bree for her new love interest, Keith [played by Brian Austin Green]. And Tom could be interesting.”

I’ve never watched an episode of Housewives but Williams’ addition has piqued my interest. Are you a fan? Or, are you considering checking it out because of Vanessa L. Williams?

For those still reeling from the cancellation of Ugly Betty and Vanessa Williams on network television, fret not: She’s coming back sooner than you think.

Williams will be joining the Desperate Housewives on Wisteria Lane.

The ABC network said on Tuesday that Williams will play a housewife in the upcoming new season starting in September, in a regular role that will see her make an appearance in just about every episode.

Months ago, a casting call went out for a black mother and daughter which sparked talk that Vanessa Williams will be the perfect fit.

Although the network and producers initially denied that she had been cast, producers did say they were open to the possibilities of adding her.

Executive producer Bob Daily told Zap2it, “We love Vanessa Williams and I knew her name has been floated. If she were available, we would certainly be interested in talking to her.”

Producers were said to be looking for someone who can serve the role as “provocateur.”

Now it’s official that Williams be that provocateur.

She is perfect for that role and will add a lot to the show. I just hope they give her a great story. They need to make up for wasting the talents of Alfre Woodard and Mechad Brooks with that horrid storyline.

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I am still reeling over news that Ugly Betty is not coming back.

Well, not really reeling per se. It’s not like I get a check from the show. Still, it’s sad to see what started out as such a quirky and promising show end on such a somber note.

It’s even sadder for folks who actually get checks to work on the series. Like the hilarious Vanessa Williams, who recently shed light about her and her fellow cast members feelings about the show’s cancellation.

Contact Music quotes the Ugly Betty star saying:

“I gotta be honest, we’re devastated. We’re sad, we’re not ready for it to end. We just moved to New York. We just got on a roll. Our season this year has been the best we’ve ever had. But numbers and ratings (were a concern). A lot of people couldn’t even find us. We switched – we were put on Thursday then taken off then (we were on) Fridays, now we’re finally on Wednesday nights. But we’re sad.”

She’s right. Not many people are home on Friday night to watch sitcoms and it’s always hard for a show to rebound once audiences forget what night it airs. That’s always a good way to kill a show’s momentum.

I really wish the network would reconsider if not for the fact that the show still has potential (this season has been strong), for the simply my desire to have more shows on broadcast networks that aren’t set in a law office or emergency room.

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You read correctly, it’s a wrap for Ugly Betty (cue death processional).

ABC is canceling the show that made America Ferrera an unlikely star (and kept Vanessa Williams in the spotlight). The series will wrap after the current fourth season, which will end with a 20th episode in mid-April according to USA Today.

Ugly Betty debuted in 2006, starting off strong on Thursdays but ratings plummeted when it moved to Fridays last fall. It was then moved to Wednesdays but the damage was irreversible. Ugly Betty will continue to air Wednesdays at 10pm ET/PT for now.

“We’ve mutually come to the difficult decision to make this Ugly Betty’s final season, and are announcing now as we want to allow the show ample time to write a satisfying conclusion,” says ABC chief Steve McPherson.”We are extremely proud of this groundbreaking series, and felt it was important to give the fans a proper farewell.”

Sorry Ugly Betty fans. I know how you feel (I abruptly lost Girlfriends and The Game). But at least you can reminisce via the DVD anthology. And who knows, maybe reruns will be syndicated.

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It’s a good thing ABC is moving forward with new plans to promote Ugly Betty.

The show didn’t belong on death night (aka Friday) so I’m glad the show will be joining ABC’s hilarious new series Modern Family and the show I watch because I really like Courtney Cox, Cougartown.

And with word of the previously reported new air date comes news about a new character coming to the show.

Thankfully, the storyline will involve the lovely Vanessa Williams, who the Academy needs to gon’ head (yes, gon’ head) and award an Emmy to for her hilarious performance as Wilhelmina Slater.

I know some people out there think the show has missed the mark and might as well give it up, but I actually think this season has been good thus far so here’s to hoping that the new plot and character addition keeps the show interesting.

Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello has the scoop on what’s to come for the series:

Sources confirm to me exclusively that Vanessa Williams’ real-life bro, Chris Williams (a.k.a. Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Crazy Eyez Killah!), will guest star in an early ‘10 episode as Willie’s drag queen doppelganger, Wilhediva Hater.

Good, right? Wait, it gets better.

Here’s the set-up, per an Ugly insider: Willie gets tipped off that someone has been regularly impersonating her at a drag club and she tries to shut the act down. That is, until she realizes that faux Willie could come in handy by attending meetings and events on her behalf. As a result,

“The two end up working together,” says my spy.

They’ve already had a gender-jumping character on the show before (played by Rebecca Roomijn), but I’m going to pretend I never saw it because I like Vanessa on TV.

Image via EW.

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ABC is moving Ugly Betty to Wednesday nights, after much speculation. The schedule shift could give the show a boost, as it would now air behind the more complementary half-hour hit series Cougar Town. People were curious about the show’s fate because they feared that cancellation was on the horizon, but the move could be the boost that it needed.

Scheduling the move takes Betty away from its original Friday night slot, sandwiched between the reality series Supernanny and 20/20—that obviously wasn’t good for ratings (Friday night is damn near death for TV shows), especially not for such a popular show. Hopefully this will help give the series the boost fans thought it needed.

Ugly Betty will be replacing Eastwick, which was not picked up for a full season.

All moves are effective in January.

Side Note: Maybe Vanessa Williams will finally win an Emmy for the show. She’s been
nominated three times for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a comedy but still hasn’t won. That’s just wack! Hopefully next year will be hers.

Last weekend’s award show included a Michael Jackson tribute featuring Madonna and Janet Jackson, an impromptu battle between Kanye West and Lil’ Mama for the most embarrassing Negro of the year award, and a twirk-heavy performance from Beyonce.

This weekend’s award show offered the vocal styling’s of Neil Patrick Harris and a demure version of Tracy Morgan I’m not quite used to. It’s as if the one loose cannon invited to the event had been given a tranquilizer to be sure he wouldn’t do anything remotely exciting.

Needless to say, the 61^st Emmy Awards didn’t pack as great a punch as the 2009 VMAs.

Still, if you’re a TV fan this was the award show to watch. As expected, both 30 Rock and Mad Men repeated their wins in the Best Comedy and Drama Series categories respectively.

There were some surprise wins, though, such as Toni Collette winning Best Actress in a Comedy for her role as Tara Gregson, wife and mother with dissociative identity disorder (DID), in the series United States of Tara.

There are actors who can barely get one character in a given show right let alone multiple ones spanning both gender and age. Collette certainly deserved to be recognized for her great work on season one of the Diablo Cody and Steven Spielberg affiliated series.

Speaking of recognition, I hope the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences eventually honors Vanessa Williams for her work in Ugly Betty.  This was her third time being nominated and her third time losing!

I’m not just saying that because she’s black either. Quite the opposite: She is great on the show and more importantly Vanessa Williams is the mastermind behind the underrated classic “The Right Stuff.”

She deserves every award she’s nominated for because of that song alone.

Anywho, here is the list of winners in the major categories:

COMEDY SERIES: 30 Rock (NBC)

DRAMA SERIES: Mad Men (AMC)

REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM: The Amazing Race (CBS)

ACTOR IN A COMEDY: Alec Baldwin – 30 Rock (NBC)

ACTOR IN A DRAMA: Bryan Cranston – Breaking Bad (AMC)

ACTRESS IN A COMEDY: Toni Collette - United States of Tara (Showtime)

ACTRESS IN A DRAMA: Glenn Close - Damages (FX Networks)

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY: Jon Cryer - Two And A Half Men (CBS)

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA: Michael Emerson - Lost (ABC)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY: Kristin Chenoweth - Pushing Daisies (ABC)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA: Cherry Jones - 24 (Fox)

VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

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