'Dancing' Pro Derek Hough (Photo: Toby Canham/Getty Images)

“Dancing with the Stars” golden boy Derek Hough almost left the show after last season. But now, with a fourth mirror ball trophy looking likely for the acclaimed dance pro with his partner Kellie Pickler on Tuesday night, his fans shouldn’t worry. Derek implied to reporters that he’s likely to stick around for Season 17, which begins in September.

After a truly emotional freestyle performance on Monday with Kellie, which received a perfect score of 30 and caused judge Carrie Ann Inaba to burst into joyful tears, Derek told hostess Brooke Burke-Charvet how he almost quit after last year’s “All-Star” season. But his partnership with Kellie appears to have strengthened his love for “DWTS” even more.

He elaborated to xfnityTV backstage on Monday night, “It might be a good idea to do next season. 2014 is going to be a little bit different because that’s when certain projects I’m working on will come to life. [Right now] is all the preparation stages.”

Although Derek — who is co-producing a STARZ cable channel series called “Blackpool” with his sister, former “DWTS” pro Julianne Hough — wouldn’t say definitively if he’ll be back on the ABC reality show this fall, he said, “I say this tonight … I was literally within an hour of not doing [Season 16]. I called producers, saying, ‘I have a weird feeling I need to do this season.’ I was in the hospital with my mom and I was like, ‘I need to do this.’ And they said, ‘We need to know in the next hour.’ I was like, ‘Hold on. Let me think about this for a second.’ And I was like ‘Okay. Let’s do it.’ And now I know why!”

While Zendaya Coleman and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy actually received the highest cumulative Monday night score, Kellie and Derek hit everyone in the heart with a freestyle for the ages, leaving Carrie Ann sobbing that the singer had bared her soul on the dance floor. But Derek did, too, and was visibly moved afterward, appearing teary-eyed.

He explained: “When you’re a choreographer and you put so much into a routine that’s emotionally driven, those are like my ideas and my little babies that I have here and then I put them out there and they’re there to be judged and looked at. When it’s all over, it’s just such a relief. All these emotions you’ve suppressed just keep going. Then I see my mom behind the judges and I haven’t seen her in several months and she was sobbing.” The 28-year-old dancer added to reporters with a smile, “I could begin crying right now, s—!”

Derek said of Kellie: “I’m so glad I did this season because she was amazing. I just had a feeling I needed to do this season and looking back on it, I was absolutely right—dancing with her has been incredible, dancing with Brilynn [Rakes], the blind girl, the rotating room [exhibition dance]. There are so many elements to the season that have been so amazing.”

While the other final couples—Jacoby Jones and Karina Smirnoff, Aly Raisman and Mark Ballas, and Zendaya and Val—used props and extras in their “super-sized” freestyles, Derek instead to simplify his dance with Kellie.

“I’m all for big production—I love putting on shows,” he said. “I did battle with it in my mind. I said, ‘Man, is this the right thing to do? To downsize it physically and try to super-size it emotionally?’ I wanted to try to separate her—this is what she can do and not to try to wow people with spectacle but wow people with the ability and with heart. I was glad it paid off and turned out well.”
And it sounds like Derek will be creating more magical dance moments for at least one more season of “DWTS”!

The mirror ball trophy winner will be revealed on Tuesday night’s two-hour “DWTS” Season 16 finale, beginning at 9/8c on ABC!

Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie of "The Today Show" (Photo: NBC)

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — Two charter airplanes carrying the “Today” show anchor team and their crew from Hawaii to Yellowstone National Park were diverted in the air to Oklahoma for coverage Tuesday of the catastrophic tornado outside of Oklahoma City.

Television networks rushed their big names to the scene, including anchors Brian Williams of NBC’s “Nightly News” and Scott Pelley of the “CBS Evening News.” Both broadcasts were expanded on Tuesday to cover the story, as was ABC’s “World News,” with Diane Sawyer remaining in New York.

Similarly, Shepard Smith of Fox News Channel, Anderson Cooper of CNN and Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC led cable news teams on the story. MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” broadcast from Moore, Okla.

For “Today,” in the unaccustomed position of fighting back from the No. 2 spot against ABC’s “Good Morning America,” it marked the third time in recent months that news disrupted special broadcast plans. Savannah Guthrie’s interview with President Barack Obama was virtually forgotten because it happened only hours before the Boston Marathon explosion. And Matt Lauer was poorly positioned in Texas on the day Boston was shut down for the marathon suspect manhunt.

The Oklahoma tornado came in the midst of the NBC show’s “Great American Adventure” road trip, which had the team scheduled to visit five places in five days. They made one, Monday on the beach at Waikiki, and were headed to Yellowstone when executive producer Don Nash was reached in the air and told about the tornado.

“A lot of time and effort went into the Yellowstone visit,” he said. “But, ultimately, we are first and foremost a news program and this was a big news story. In the end, it was an easy choice.”

The planes with Lauer, Guthrie, Natalie Morales, Al Roker and Willie Geist were instead sent further east.

It’s likely that the third visit of the week, to Chicago, will also be cancelled, Nash said. He’s playing it by ear for Thursday’s trip to Orlando, Fla., but said “Today” is determined to keep Friday’s plans to check on recovery progress from Superstorm Sandy at the New Jersey shore as the summer beach season begins.

“It’s the right show to do on a week like this,” Nash said.

While “Good Morning America” did not send its hosts to Oklahoma, weather reporter Sam Champion was well-positioned. He had traveled to Kansas on Sunday to be in place when there were forecasts of severe weather.

“CBS This Morning” co-host Norah O’Donnell traveled to Oklahoma to anchor that network’s extended coverage Tuesday morning.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Joe Mantegna, left, and Thomas Gibson of "Criminal Minds" (Photo: CBS)

Despite reports that all the cast members of “Criminal Minds” have signed new contracts for the CBS series, the promo for the two-hour, Season 8 finale teases: “Their worst enemy will be revealed, but not everyone will live to see it.”

So does that mean a member of the Behavioral Analysis Unit team actually dies … or is there another hidden meaning?

“I am one of those people that never goes to fortunetellers, or reads my horoscope, because I hate that,” says Joe Mantegna, who plays profiler David Rossi, deflecting the question. “My feeling is if I knew what was going to happen tomorrow, maybe I wouldn’t wake up. I don’t live my life that way. I don’t plan what is going to happen next. So I think there is a reason to wait for things to happen and to see how it is going to happen.”

All season long, the members of the BAU team have been stalked in their personal lives and on their cases by an unsub, known by them as The Replicator. In the finale, The Replicator targets one of the team — from the promo it looks as if it is Alex Blake (Jeanne Tripplehorn) as she is tied up in chains — as his next victim.

“It does get personal,” Mantegna tells xfinityTV. “We have exposed a lot of the personal lives of the characters, so what happens — particularly in this two-hour episode — is that we tap into that. If you have a show that has legs like ours does, you want to go that extra mile, you want to spend a little extra on the episode, you have a little more going on, more visuals, more everything. The same thing with the personal aspects of it. You dig a little deeper. You want to end the season so people go, ‘Wow! That was a ride we took.’ It is almost like you are on a roller coaster and they saved that last, big hill until just before you get to the finish. I think we do that.”

Watch a Sneak Peek of the Two-Hour Season Finale of “Criminal Minds”:

There is also personal time for Hotch (Thomas Gibson) in this episode with the return of his girlfriend Beth Clemmons (Bellamy Young) and his brother Sean (Eric Johnson), who we haven’t seen since Season 1. Hotch and his son Jack (Cade Owens) are in New York visiting Beth when he gets a call from Sean, who needs help. So the BAU team heads to Manhattan to investigate a string of deaths tied to apparent ecstasy overdoses, and it turns out that Sean is more involved than he lets on.

“Sean had already been in the show prior to when I joined,” Mantegna says. “For those fans who had seen that episode, it is a familiar thing. It is nice that we can resurrect a character you have seen before. In this case, somebody close to one of our characters — Hotch’s brother. I always enjoy that when these characters come back.”

In addition, Mark Hamill guest stars as John Curtis. Normally when a well-known actor guest stars on a series, the immediate thought is that they are the bad guy, so there is a good possibility that Hamill is The Replicator.

But, of course, Mantegna isn’t giving that up, only saying, “Mark Hamill plays a scientist, a guy who is very educated. It was great to have him there. First of all, he is kind of an American icon. And he is a wonderful guy, so we had a good time with Mark. I think to bring in an actor like Mark Hamill just ups the profile of our show in a way. It is fun for us and it gives him a chance to get out and stretch and play another kind of character.”

As for answers as to whether or not The Replicator is captured, if someone on the team dies, and if the episode is a cliffhanger, viewers will have to tune in to see how it all plays out.

“I think people will be satisfied with where we go with it,” Mantegna teases. “They might be a little shocked, and go, ‘Wow.’ The one thing I can guarantee you is that nothing is going to blow up where all of us are gone.”

With Season 9 already confirmed, Mantegna has a couple of story ideas he wouldn’t mind seeing. Since David Rossi was married three times, and two of his exes are still unaccounted for, there could be a story there. [The third ex-wife we met this season in the episode where she asked to see him again because she was dying.]

But what is closest to his heart was the episode called, “The Fallen,” which dealt with Rossi’s past in the military, in which Mesach Taylor starred as his commanding officer during the Vietnam war.

“And then you saw him today and why was he homeless on the streets,” Mantegna says. “I really enjoyed that because I have a passion for our U.S. military anyway, so I wouldn’t mind revisiting that character. We left him at a care facility for homeless veterans. Maybe there is a follow up to that.”

The “Criminal Minds” two-hour season finale airs Wednesday, May 22 at 9/8c on CBS.

The "Dancing with the Stars" Finals (Photo: ABC)

Talk about bad timing. “Dancing with the Stars” experienced technical difficulties Monday night with its voting process — you know, the votes that will determine who wins Season 16 and one blinged-out disco ball.

“DWTS” fans were unable to cast their votes for their favorites on the show’s official page on ABC.com for a brief period of time and were temporarily diverted away from the site. Viewers were directed to place their votes via social media, such as Facebook, or the old-fashioned way — by calling on the phone.

“Voting on ABC.com is temporarily down, but you can vote by texting, calling and on Facebook,” read a message posted on “DWTS’s” official Twitter account Monday night. It included a link to the “DWTS” Facebook page.

ABC has not said what caused the brief outage but claims it was quickly addressed and should not affect the outcome of the show. The results will be revealed tonight, when a new “DWTS” winner will be crowned.

“DWTS” Recap: Finale Leaves Two Clear Frontrunners

“Facebook and http://abc.com are back online…don’t forget to vote that way too…u register with email then u will get 5 votes!!” wrote Disney star and “DWTS” finalist Zendaya Coleman in a Tweet to her fans after the online voting was restored.

The “DWTS” voting snafu comes two weeks after “The Voice” experienced a similar voting incident. In that instance, “Voice” host Carson Daly revealed on-air that there were “inconsistencies” in texting and online voting, but the network claimed it did not affect the final tallies for that week’s show.

The Season 16 champion will be revealed Tuesday night on the two-hour “DWTS” finale, airing Tuesday night from 9 – 11 p.m. EST on ABC.

Four's a crowd: Howard Stern (left) and Howie Mandel are joined by new judges Heidi Klum (second from left) and Mel B on the new season of "America's Got Talent." (Photo: NBC)

Do the new “AGT” judges have talent?

That’s the big question looming over “America’s Got Talent” as the summer talent-competition series gears up for its eighth season starting next week (Tuesday, June 4, at 9/8c). For the first time in its history, the show will have four judges rather than three, as Heidi Klum and Spice Girl Mel B (Melanie Brown) join veteran judges Howard Stern and Howie Mandel on the NBC show.

Technically, the two newbies are replacing one person — Sharon Osbourne — but they’re also on-hand to test whether there is room on this show for four judges.

The answer to that depends on whether or not Heidi and Mel possess two basic skills: One, a talent for judging TV’s widest variety of home-grown performers, and the other, likability.

How do Heidi and Mel stack up? Well, we already know Heidi Klum has a talent for reality-TV judging since she’s long been a judge on her own show, “Project Runway.” Mel B, 37 — also known as “Scary Spice” — is untested as a reality-TV judge on American TV, although she’s been a judge on talent-competition shows in Australia.

As for likability, that’s a more subjective area. Klum, 39 (she’ll be 40 on June 1), has sometimes come across as too stern for some long-time “Project Runway” watchers, while others like her and respect her for her production skills and business acumen — not too mention her beauty.

In the publicity campaign NBC has crafted for Klum in these days and weeks before her debut on “AGT,” she’s positioning herself as outgoing and, believe it or not, comedic. On the clip above, provided by NBC, Klum is seen briefly yodeling.

Her yodeling skills — perhaps obtained in her native Germany (though she wasn’t raised in an Alpine region) — were on greater display Monday night on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” also on NBC.

On the show, Leno showed a clip from the upcoming “AGT” season in which Klum was seen out-yodeling an auditioner who came on the show dressed as a space alien in Alpine lederhosen. She then instructed fellow “Tonight Show” guest Bradley Cooper on the art of yodeling.

In the clip, she also gave some yodeling advice to the alien yodeler on “AGT.” “I do love a yodeling alien in lederhosen,” she conceded (who doesn’t?). “But,” she added, “you do have to project when you’re yodeling. You have to train your yodeling a little bit more.”

Can Mel B top that? Well, we have no idea if Scary Spice will ever be called upon to yodel on “AGT,” but she’s already been dogged by stories about getting booed at various “AGT” tapings, when audience members haven’t agreed with her reactions to various acts. It could be that Mel B could use a publicity campaign of her own.

Watch the season premiere of “America’s Got Talent” on Tuesday, June 4, starting at 9/8c on NBC.

ESPN's SportsCenter (Photo: ESPN)

By RACHEL COHEN

NEW YORK (AP) — ESPN is cutting its workforce, the latest Disney division to reduce staff.

“We are implementing changes across the company to enhance our continued growth while smartly managing costs,” the sports media giant said in a statement Tuesday. “While difficult, we are confident that it will make us more competitive, innovative and productive.”

The company would not say how many jobs are being eliminated, but they include unfilled positions. ESPN has about 7,000 employees worldwide, with about 4,000 at its headquarters in Bristol, Conn. The vast majority work behind the scenes.

In April, Disney laid off about 150 people at LucasArts, the video-game making division of Lucasfilm, four months after acquiring the company behind “Star Wars” for $4.06 billion. Disney also laid off about the same number at the movie studio in April to cope with the decline in DVD sales as consumer habits shift to digital forms of home entertainment.

Still, Disney has been on a roll financially, beating or matching earnings per share estimates for the last eight quarters. After it reported a 32 percent gain in net income for its fiscal second-quarter earnings two weeks ago, more than a dozen Wall Street analysts raised their price targets on Disney stock to an average of nearly $72.

Fees from distributors for ESPN grew faster than expected in the latest quarter, while ad growth came in below expectations because of smaller audience numbers.

ESPN has also seen costs increase with skyrocketing prices for the broadcasting rights to live sports. For instance, the 12-year deal announced in November to televise the new college football playoff system will be worth about $470 million annually. The current four-year contract to air the Sugar, Orange and Fiesta bowls along with the BCS title game is worth about $125 million per year.

Live sports have become increasingly valuable in an age of fractured audiences and DVRs. That drives up rights fees, but also makes the programming more appealing to advertisers and allows ESPN to try to charge more from cable and satellite operators.

While announcing cuts Tuesday, ESPN will still be expanding in other areas. Earlier this month, it revealed that it was forming a network with the Southeastern Conference. The new network will launch in August 2014 under a 20-year agreement.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Jay-Z (Photo: The Grio)

By Kyle Harvey, theGrio.com

Numerous media outlets reported last week that singer Beyoncé and her husband, Jay-Z, were expecting their second child but the rap icon says the news isn’t true, according to New York-based radio station Hot 97.

Hot 97’s program director and on-air personality, Ebro Darden, said he emailed Jay-Z congratulating him about the alleged baby on the way, but the Brooklyn rapper emailed him back dismissing the news as another rumor.

“It’s not true. The news is worse than blogs,” Jay-Z said, according to Darden.

Beyoncé herself addressed the gossip in an Instagram post which was re-posted on sites like The Daily Mail.

“I can’t stop the rumors from starting, and I can’t really change peoples minds who believe them, all I can do is sit back and laugh at these low life people who have nothing better to do than talk about me,” the “Single Ladies” singer reportedly wrote.

She is currently in the midst of the European leg of her Mrs. Carter World Tour.

'The Bachelor's Chris Harrison (Photo: ABC)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” host Chris Harrison will again emcee the Miss America Pageant this September in Atlantic City, N.J.

Harrison has hosted the telecast for the last four years.

The Miss America Organization says he’ll be joined by Lara Spencer of “Good Morning America.” Spencer served as a judge for the 2012 pageant.

The pageant will take place Sept. 15 in Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall. The pageant had been held in Las Vegas the past six years.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

"DWTS": Kellie Pickler and Derek Hough (Photo: ABC)

“Dancing with the Stars” finalist Kellie Pickler got a touching gift after her stunning freestyle with partner Derek Hough on Monday night—her real-life partner, husband Kyle Jacobs, gave her the puppy she’d been wanting.

“I got a little surprise after the show,” Kellie smiled to xfinityTV backstage after receiving a perfect 30 score for her final dance of the night. “We were sitting out there on the dance floor after everything was over and [Kyle] comes over and he’s carrying this little bag and he opens it and there’s this little Maltese in there and I was like, ‘What’s this?’ And he’s like, ‘It’s for you.’ I was like ‘Awww!’”

“DWTS” Recap: Finale Leaves Two Clear Frontunners

Kellie said when she was helping out at a recent charity event, she had seen a Maltese puppy there she had taken onstage to be auctioned off. “I was looking at my husband [in the audience], like, ‘You better raise that paddle! I want this puppy!’ And he DIDN’T!”

But Kyle, who was teary-eyed in the “DWTS” audience after Kellie and Derek brought the house down with their lyrical freestyle, made it up to his wife. The country singer said although Kyle didn’t get her the same dog from the auction, he found her another Maltese to make her own. She hasn’t named it yet, but her dance partner, Derek, jokingly said Kellie should name the dog after him!

It was the perfect capper for Kellie’s night to remember and she tried to explain to reporters how she pulled off the dance everyone was talking about. “There’s a lot of dances where you’re acting, you’re playing a character,” she said. “But tonight, for the freestyle, it didn’t feel like I was playing a character. I was myself. I was me. I wasn’t playing the part. There was no part of it at all where my soul wasn’t completely attached.

“There were no walls up. I just went out there and it was like, I’m just going to be me and hopefully people like it and if they don’t, there’s nothing I can do about it. I lost myself in the dance. I know I sound crazy but there was so much freedom that I felt,” Kellie said.

The Season 16 “DWTS” champ will be revealed Tuesday night on ABC!

Rena Sofer (Photo: Frazier Harrison/Getty Images)

Former “General Hospital” star Rena Sofer is headed to “The Bold and the Beautiful.”

Sofer has been cast as Quinn Fuller, the mother of newly cast heartthrob Wyatt Fuller, according to TV Guide.

Last week, it was announced that Emmy-winner Darin Brooks (“Days of Our Lives”) will play the role of Wyatt.

There are few details available on either part, but both characters are “mysterious” and “both have secrets that will rock the soap,” says TV Guide.

Sofer is known to daytime fans for getting her start on soaps, most notably her role on “GH” as Lois Cerullo in the 1990s, and on “Another World” and “Loving” before that.

But more recently, the actress is known for a slew of appearances on prime-time series with her recurring roles on such hits as “24,” “NCIS,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Covert Affairs,” “Melrose Place” and “Heroes.”

Sofer begins shooting on “B&B” on May 22, with her episodes set to begin airing on July 12.

Catch-up on Full Episodes of “The Bold and the Beautiful” on xfinityTV: