This season of the Real Housewives of Orange County is quickly coming to an end as the finale is set to air next week.

In the meantime, the 12th episode of the season airs tonight on Bravo at 10/9c. Titled “Fashion Victim,” Peggy orchestrates a surprise trip to Las Vegas with her husband. Also there to spin giddy in Sin City: Tamra and Eddie. Meanwhile, Gretchen corners Slade about the debt-related problems of their relationship. And a fashion show is held, but a medical emergency causes a no-show and mounting drama. A preview clip is below.

Watch What Happens Live – The guests are Kara DioGuardi and Gretchen Rossi. Gretchen will also be giving a live performance of her new single.

Meanwhile, the reunion was filmed this week on Tuesday though we can’t help but wonder how interesting it will be, you know, since most of the issues from this season were basically the rehashing of issues from past seasons. Andy Cohen however promises it will be the best OC reunion to date! “JUST wrapped the OC Reunion. I think it was our best OC reunion in 6 seasons. Really dramatic, tense, powerful, and emotional,” he tweeted. Uh uh.

The ladies seemed exhausted with the filming which took over 11 hours. “Holy shit get me out of here!!!! No more reunion taping PLZ,” tweeted Tamra Barney. “Whoa long ass reunion show yesterday! Quite a crazy and emotional day! All us woman sure can fight!,” tweeted Gretchen the next day. As for Peggy Tanous, she took issue with Bravo inviting Slade Smiley and not her husband Micah. She tweeted, “Shootin reunion. Can you all believe they only invited Slade to film & would not even allow Micah to be here with me. What do you all think?”

Some photos from the reunion below as well as some new photos of Alexis Bellino as posted on her facebook page.

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Gretchen Rossi at the reunion taping

Alexis and Gretchen at the reunion

Peggy and Tamra

Alexis Bellino wearing Alexis Couture?

Another shot of Alexis

During the TCA 2011 Winter Press Tour going on this week, Bravo announced several premiere dates and series renewals on Thursday.

The biggest announcement however came in the form of the widely talked about 6th season of the Real Housewives of Orange County. Bravo confirmed yesterday that it will be returning on Sunday, March 6 at 10pm.

Other big announcements included the return date of Bethenny Frankel’s show Bethenny Ever After (season 2), and the renewals of popular shows The Rachel Zoe Project (season 4), Millionaire Matchmaker (season 5) and Flipping Out (season 5). The recent season finale of Millionaire Matchmaker averaged 2.2 million viewers, the highest ratings ever in the show’s history, so the return is not a surprise.

Additionally, Bravo announced that casting is set to begin on the ninth season of Top Chef and that Top Chef Masters will return later this year for a third season with host Curtis Stone. Other shows renewed include Work of Art: The Next Great Artist. New shows coming this year include Platinum Hit with Kara DioGuardi which will debut this Summer and Rocco’s Dinner Party will air later this year. New series Million Dollar Decorators and Pregnant in Heels are both set to premiere in April.

A list of the shows announced with return dates below -

• Million Dollar Listing – February 3 at 9 p.m
• The Real Housewives of New York – February 15 at 10 p.m
• Real Housewives of Orange County – March 6 at 10pm
• Bethenny Ever After – February 28 at 10 p.m

Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen will also be moving to new nights, Tuesdays and Sundays, though no official date was announced for the move.

TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON BRAVO’S UPCOMING SHOWS?

While Kara DioGuardi has remained mum since news of her firing from American Idol made headlines weeks ago, her dad is now speaking out on her behalf and what he had to say is a bit shocking.

Kara’s dad, Republican senate candidate Joe DioGuardi, told Capital Tonight that Kara found out about her firing the same way the public did – from reading about it.

“She read it the way you did and I did,” said Joe. “Would you believe she did not hear — and still has not heard — anything?”

Joe added, “Her disappointment is that that’s the way she’s being treated and she feels that’s not proper. I think they’re trying to create a lot of buzz… they’re trying to reformat the thing.”

Though Fox has yet to publicly confirm the firing, TMZ and multiple reputable media outlets broke the news on July 30. Yikes.

In other Idol news, TMZ also reported AI was negotiating a deal with Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler to be the replacement judges. News however broke a week ago that negotiations with Jlo fell through due to her many diva demands.

However, TMZ is reporting AI is still in talks with Jlo, but they do have a back up plan in case the talks fall through. The back up plan? None other than Shania Twain. TMZ refers to the country star as “plan B.”

TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE WAY KARA FOUND OUT SHE WAS FIRED? WHO DO YOU WANT AS A JUDGE? JLO OR SHANIA TWAIN?

MAJOR shake ups in the American Idol judging line up.  Ellen DeGeneres announced late yesterday that she has quit the show, after just a year.

In a statement released to multiple media outlets, Ellen stated, “A couple months ago, I let FOX and the American Idol producers know that this didn’t feel like the right fit for me. I told them I wouldn’t leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next.”

Ellen, 52, replaced Paula Abdul as a judge for the show’s ninth season.  “It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for,” her statement continues, before adding that “it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings.”

The AI news did not end there as TMZ then confirmed this morning that fellow judge Kara DioGuardi has been fired, and that the show will be going back to a three-judge format.

And who will be replacing Ellen and Kara on the judging panel?  According to GossipCop and TMZ, it will be none other than Jennifer Lopez aka Jlo and rocker Steven Tyler.

GossipCop was the first to report the news, when they ran a story last night stating that American Idol had offered the two spots to both Jlo and Steven.

TMZ also confirmed this morning that assuming all deals are finalized, the judge’s panel will consist of Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler. Adding that the only way Kara will get her job back is if Jlo rejects the offer.

American Idol is reportedly hoping to announce their new judging line up on Monday.

TELL US: WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE CHANGES IN THE AI JUDGING LINEUP?

Ever since news hit that shock jock radio host Howard Stern was in talks to replace Simon Cowell as a judge on American Idol, a lot of tongues have been wagging, with most people being not too keen on the idea.

Though Howard himself has revealed his interest to judge AI, current judge Kara DioGuardi doesn’t think he would make a good fit for the show.

“I don’t really know if I can even speak on it,” said Kara on the Howard rumor. But then she added: “I don’t know that [Stern] has a musical background,” she mused. “I think that if you’re gonna replace Simon, you have to have that background.”

Kara continued, “You have to have somebody who knows about signing great artists and being a part of their career from the very beginning to the very end… I think that’s probably a precursor for whoever takes that position if they’re not a big artist who’s been through it themselves.”

Kara however went on to sing praises of new judge Ellen DeGeneres, who has received rave reviews for her recent performance on judging Hollywood week. “Ellen brings a sense of humor, of course, but also I think she knows more about music than we think she does,” explained Kara.

“She had a really good handle on whether a contestant had potential,” DioGuardi added. And as for those pesky rumors that Simon and Ellen have been butting heads? “You have to take every rumor you hear about “American Idol” with a grain of salt,” she said. “They usually aren’t true.”

The Los Angeles auditions of American Idol brought us what seemed like some serious tension between guest judge Katy Perry and Kara DioGuardi.  Katy even threatened to throw a Coke at Kara for singing her hit “I Kissed a Girl.”

Days later, Kara is now speaking out and making it clear all is well between the two ladies, and that the two were just joking. 
“People actually think that I was upset by this — like there was tension,” Kara, 39, said on Ryan Seacrest‘s radio show.

“I think that it’s really good that she disagreed with me,” continued Kara. “I think that it’s important that people have different opinions or else who wants to watch the show? It’d be boring.”

According to Kara, who also happens to be a songwriter-producer, she has known Katy for a long time and the two have worked together in the past.

Moving on to other news, did Katy have a reason for really turning it on during the LA auditions? It seems so as the 25 year old singer tells MTV she would love to permanently replace Simon Cowell as an Idol judge.

Katy told MTV that the experience was “awesome” and “if I was offered that job as a permanent host, I would ditch my career and take on that career.”

TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF KATY’S APPEARANCE ON THE SHOW? WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE HER REPLACE SIMON?

Could the Semifinalists of American Idol’s ninth season have been revealed? That answer is yes according to Joesplace, who has managed to correctly reveal the identities of American Idol’s semifinalists for the last two years. He has now released the alleged names of nearly all of the ninth-season’s Top 24 semifinalists.

Four of those alleged semifinalist include contestants — Katie Stevens, Tyler Grady, Ashley Rodriguez and Jermaine Sellers — whose auditions aired last week during American Idol’s two-night premiere, from Boston and Atlanta.

This spoiler list is even more likely to be accurate because unlike previous AI seasons in which Hollywood Week occurred in the fall and ended with the final 50 contestants returning to California to learn their fates at a later date, this ninth-season’s Hollywood round took place just last week with the contestants learning their semifinalist status on Friday.

American Idol’s ninth-season Hollywood coverage which will feature the introduction of new judge Ellen DeGeneres, is set to officially begin airing on Tuesday, February 9, continuing into the following night. The top 24 semifinalists — 12 males and 12 females — will then officially be revealed on the February 17 show.

According to Joesplace spoilers, 20 of the ninth-season Top 24 semifinalists are:

- Lacey Brown, a 23-year-old from Amarillo, TX

- Michelle Delamor, a 19-year-old from Miami Beach, FL

- Lee DeWyze from Chicago, IL

- David Duke, a 23-year-old from Waxahachie, TX

- Katelyn Epperly from Des Moines, IA

- Andrew Garcia from Moreno Valley, CA

- Christopher “Chris” Golightly from Orange County, CA

- Tyler Grady

- Benjamin “Ben” Honeycutt from Ringgold, GA

- Casey James from Dallas/Fort Worth, TX

- Aaron Kelly, a 16-year-old from Sonestown, PA

- Alexander “Alex” Lambert from North Richland Hills, TX

- Michael Lynche

- John Park from New Jersey

- Ashley Rodriguez from Boston, MA

- Lillian “Lilly” Scott from Denver/Boulder, CO

- Jermaine Sellers, a 25-year-old from Joliet, IL

- Katie Stevens

- Haeley Vaughn, a 16-year-old from Fort Collins, CO

- Janell Wheeler from Orlando, FL

Ellen DeGeneres is opening up about her new role as a judge on Fox’s hit show - American Idol. The latest season of AI, set to premier Tuesday, January 12th, will feature Ellen replacing Paula Abdul as one of the judges.

When asked about fellow judge Simon Cowell, Ellen had the following to say: “We both like each other and accept one another,” DeGeneres tells Wall Street Journal. “At the same time I think he’s mean and I think he says things in an insensitive way and I don’t think that’s the way to get a point across. I’ve called him on it to his face. I’ll do the same thing to him (on Idol).”

Ellen goes on to discuss the type of judge she aims to be.  The talk show host promises to be opinionated, but can’t promise she’ll be as warm and fuzzy as her predecessor Paula.  “I don’t know if I’ll be as nurturing as she is. She always found a positive thing to say instead of attacking,” says Ellen. “I’ll probably try to be somewhat encouraging. … But I’ll be honest. I don’t think it helps anybody to be encouraged and not told the truth.”

The first couple of weeks of AI will feature guest judges. Ellen will come on the show alongside Simon, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi later on in the season.

Fox recently announced the ninth season of America Idol will premiere on Tuesday, January 12 at 8pm ET/PT. The season will premiere for two consecutive nights with a two-hour broadcast on Tuesday and a one-hour broadcast on Wednesday, January 13 at 8PM ET/PT.

The new season will feature the addition of Ellen DeGeneres as a replacement for Paula Abdul. Paula served as AI judge since the show began in 2002 and reportedly rejected a $5 million per year income and later announced her exit from Idol in August. Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Kara DioGuardi will be returning as judges while Ryan Seacrest will continue as host.

The auditions for American Idol took place over the summer and featured several guest judges in Paula’s spot including Victoria Beckham in Denver and Boston, Mary J. Blige in Atlanta, Joe Jonas and Neil Patrick Harris in Dallas, Kristin Chenoweth in Orlando, Shania Twain in Chicago, and Katy Perry and Avril Lavigne in Los Angeles.

In other Idol news, Kris Allen’s self titled album dropped at No. 11 on The Billboard 200 album sales chart after selling only 80,000 copies during its week of release, according to Nielsen Soundscan data. This is the lowest of any idol winner ever recorded. Before Kris, Jordin Sparks, sixth season winner previously held the record for lowest album sales and sold 119,000 copies in first week release in November 2007.

Those figures are especially low compared to the 198,000 albums sold by runner up, Adam Lambert, who has remained in the headlines due to his recent raunchy performance at the American Music Awards.

Ellen DeGeneres has yet to begin her stint as a new judge American Idol, but fellow judge – Kara DioGuardi is already singing her praises.

“I think it’s a genius decision,” says Kara, who joined AI last season, at the Entertainment Tonight/PEOPLE Emmy after-party. “I wish I had thought of it.”

Kara says she’s looking forward to the new dynamic on the show now that Ellen is replacing Paula Abdul as the show’s “nice” judge.

“I know a little bit about Ellen from watching her show and I would say she would probably be somebody who would be fair in her criticism and will try to be as supportive as she possibly could,” said Kara, 38. “I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

And does she think Ellen will get along well with the other judges? “[Ellen will get along with everyone] 100 percent,” she said. “I was on her show once and she’s lovely, generous, very kind. I think it’s going to be great.”

Not surprising to hear Kara speak so fondly of having a new judge. It has been reported in the past that she and Paula did not get along on the show.