This has been a busy week of new and returning TV shows, but some stories are clearly bigger than others. The biggest is the long-delayed repair of ABC's Thursdays, starting this week (Jan. 26); here's the story I sent to papers:

By Mike Hughes

After eight months
of fractured Thursdays, ABC finally seems whole again.

Remember when this year's "American Idol" had six men and seven women? Well, it now has six men and three women.

It's been that kind of year. Only one guy (Casey Abrams) has been voted out -- and he promptly got the one-per-year judges' save. Here are a few of my comments about "Idol" and more.

1) OK, this time I almost nailed it. I predicted, correctly, that Thia Megia, Naima Adedapo and Paul McDonald would be in the bottom three. (Well, I thought there would be four and reluctantly tossed in Stefano Langone, but who's counting?)