Want a stark alternative to the hoity-toity glitz and glamour of the Golden Globe Awards? Fox has your back with a full night of high-octane, he-man action.

LOS ANGELES — Former special-effects artists Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are the co-hosts of "Mythbusters," Discovery Channel's popular science program that tests whether everyday assumptions, conspiracy theories and urban legends can hold up through rigorous experimentation.

LOS ANGELES — Conan O'Brien is not going to take one for the team. The host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" released a statement Tuesday afternoon saying he would not move his show from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. EST to make room for Jay Leno's return to late night.

"South Park" and "The Simpsons" show that TV standards for animated programming are far different than for live-action programs. Taboo topics, profanity and even nudity are given more leeway.

Simon Cowell is leaving "American Idol" — but he's not going anywhere. The person many viewers say is the reason they tune into TV's No. 1-rated show — the X-factor, as it were — will help launch another show he produces, "The X Factor," in the United States beginning in the fall of 2011. He will be a judge on the show as well as executive producer.

It took 91 episodes of "Nip/Tuck," but Dr. Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) may finally grow a backbone. In Wednesday night's season opener — the first of the last nine episodes in the series — McNamara finally realizes all of the bad in his life can be traced back to his plastic surgery partner, Dr. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon).

As usual, the early part of the new year presents a gluttonous feast for television fans who have been eagerly anticipating the return of old favorites such as "American Idol," "Lost," "24" and others.

The good news of the 2009 TV season was that the broadcast networks finally started to recover from the disastrous writers' strike 18 months earlier. A strong crop of rambunctious shows struck off in startling new directions, especially at ABC: The sitcom "Modern Family" celebrated the broadening concept of American families while rampaging over all the PC rules, while sci-fi drama "V" allegorically but pointedly wondered if Barack Obama might be a voracious space alien.

Will Jay stay or go? Nothing is forever, and certainly not program ideas that just six months ago were proclaimed "the future of TV. Seriously." (Time, Sept. 3.)

WASHINGTON — Comcast Corp. struck a deal Thursday with General Electric Corp. to buy a majority 51 percent stake in NBC Universal, a move likely to further shake up an entertainment industry already roiled by the rise of the Internet and a severe economic downturn.