Rather's Departure; Summer Premieres

June 2006 News

CBS ditches Dan: After 44 years with CBS, Dan Rather is being cut loose by the network. According to reports preceding the formal announcement of Rather's exit, CBS could not envision a role for the former evening news anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent. No word on where Rather will go once his contract expires in November, though he is considering an offer from Mark Cuban to join HDNet as host and producer of a weekly news show. Hopefully some other networks will come through with a more appealing opportunity.

On the mend: ABC's Bob Woodruff, who was critically injured in Iraq, visited the newsroom for the first time since January. Woodruff, who had spent less than a month as the evening news co-anchor before being hurt, and cameraman Doug Vogt were embedded with troops when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb

Closer to home, ESPN's Peter Gammons was in stable condition after undergoing surgery for a brain aneurysm, and Roger Ebert had an operation to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. And in London, David Hasselhoff landed in the hospital after severing a tendon in his right arm. According to his publicist, the actor was shaving at a gym when he accidentally hit his head on a chandelier. It's been a long time since I've seen Knight Rider, but either that gym had a really low ceiling, or Hasselhoff is a lot taller than I remember.

In memoriam: Aaron Spelling died June 23, of complications from a stroke. During his career, the writer-producer was one of the most prolific people working in television, with at least one hit series (and often several) from the 1960s to the present. Spelling, 83 at the time of his death, is survived by his second wife, Candy, and his children, Tori and Randy.

Looking ahead: Summer isn't just for reruns anymore. The next couple of months feature some new series (including USA's Psych, ABC's The One, and Showtime's Brotherhood) and the season premieres of some others (such as Project Runway, Monk, and Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis). Fans of Weeds will have to wait until August 14 for that show's season premiere -- so late that, in my humble opinion, you might as well slot it in September and call it a fall show.

--A. Wu