Here at the Freak House, we’re working on stories pegged to “30 Rock” (It returns this week!) and the final episodes of “The Sopranos” (beginning April 8). So be on the lookout for those next week.

But what about this past week? What TV programming caught your eye? Here are a few things that did it for me:

– “Planet Earth” on Discovery HD. Amazing wildlife footage and and natural vistas — and all crystal-clear. If there’s a great advertisement for HDTV, it’s this series. Check it out on Sunday nights.
– “LOST”! Shades of “The Twilight Zone” and Hitchcock, blended with plenty of humor (mainly furnished by Hurley’s one-liners). This show has become a blast again.
– Yau-Man uncovers the immunity idol on “Survivor” (See post below) and goes a little nuts. It’s official: I’m a Yau-Man fan.
– Laila Ali on “Dancing With the Stars.” Float like a butterfly, indeed.
– “Friday Night Lights”: The Dillon Panthers are going to STATE! (And aren’t Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton the cutest couple on TV?).
– “Battlestar Galactica” and “Rome” end their seasons in dramatic fashion.

OK, now you have the floor. Tell me what turned you on this week …

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Thursday was a breakout night for our local “Survivor: Fiji” rep. After an exhaustive search, Martinez resident and UC Berkeley emplyeee Yau-Man Chan finally dug up the highly coveted immunity idol.

“Oh my God!” he beamed as he pried the valuable trinket from the dirt. “This is it. This is my million dollars right here!”

It was the most expressive we’ve seen little Yau-Man all season. His tongue darted in and out of his mouth like a lizard. His eyes bulged and he planted several smooches on the idol as he hung it from his neck. You almost expected him to make like Golem from “Lord of the Rings” and start croaking, “My Precious! My Precious!”

His excitement is understandable. Last season we watched former Walnut Creek resident Yul Kwon build a savvy strategy around the immunity idol on his way to winning the whole thing. We don’t know if the frail Yau-Man, 54, is capable of pulling off the same feat, but he just put himself in a great position.

Speaking of Yau-Man, we’ve been wondering if any fan clubs have sprouted up in his honor on the Web. We figured the chances were slim. After all, he doesn’t have the youth, the hunky build or the matinee-idol looks of a Yul. But we did come across a fawning tribute called “The Cult of Yau-Man” on the Buddy TV site. … Oh man, we can feel the Yau-Man tidal wave building.

One of the cool things “Lost” writers occasionally do is have a character act as a proxy for the audience and voice sentiments that have been on our minds as we watch the show. And so it was rather affirming last night to hear a scornful Sawyer ask, “Who in the hell is Nikki?”

Who the hell, indeed. Nikki and her boyfriend, Paulo, of course, are the two much-derided characters who came out of nowhere this season and never really found their niches in the show’s unwieldly cast. And so when last night’s episode began by focusing on them (via a Nikki flashback), I thought we were in for one boring and very disposable hour.

Oh how wrong I was. Although the episode really did nothing to advance the story (and was basically one big gimmick), it was an oh-so-cool stand-alone that had us enthralled throughout — right up to its very Hitchcock-like surprise ending. In case you haven’t watched it yet, I’ll tread lightly on the details, but let’s talk about what had us so stoked:

– I loved seeing several of our dead favorites — Boone, Shannon, Arnzt (!), and even Ethan return for eye-popping cameos.
– Interesting how “Lost” turned into “CSI: Craphole Island” for one night with Hurley, Charlie and Sawyer trying to piece together the clues of the crime.
– Got a kick out of the show-within-a-show concept with Billy Dee Williams (beautiful!) appearing (with Nikki) in a cheap-thrills action series. Sawyer: “What’s ‘Expose’?” Hurley: “Only the most awesome hour of television ever — like ‘Baywatch,’ only better.”
– I was absolutely floored by the way those familiar airplane-crash scenes were done from a different point of view and how Nikki and Paulo were stiched into them. How did they do THAT? Very trippy.
– So is there really such a thing as a Medusa spider?
– “Paulo lies.” Great play off that line. Don’t always believe what you thought you heard.

Aaaaargh! I’m so mad at myself. In today’s column, I made a silly vow never to write about (or mention) that guy on “American Idol” until he gets booted. You know — the guy with the weird hair and the reed-thin voice. Yeah, that guy — He Who Shall Not Be Named (with apologies to Harry Potter).

So what happens? He Who Shall Not Be Named comes out on Gwen Stefani night sporting the weirdest, kookiest, most hideous ‘do yet and now I can‘t even make fun of him or call him Rooster Boy, or the Beach Blanket Babylon reject, or anything. Like Randy, I’m … “speechless.“ Curses!

So I must turn my attention to other things, such as the show‘s surprising lack of energy. On Gwen Stefani Night, you expect rousing, edgy performances. You expect surprises. But there was very little of that. Even Gwen herself was pretty much prim, proper and sadly sedate in her little Hogwarts-like uniform.

BEST PERFORMANCE: Speaking of outfits, Melinda Doolittle was dressed in something straight out of a 1960s James Bond movie. Simon hated it and so did I, but the lady’s singing was rock-solid again in a cover of Donna Summer’s ”Heaven Knows.” Still, I think she may be becoming a victim of her own greatness. I don’t know about you, but I’m almost starting to take her for granted and she’s not doing enough performance-wise to grab me — say like Blake did last week with ”It’s the Time of the Season.” And maybe that’s why contestants such as Gina Glocksen (a lovely rendition of “I’ll Stand By You”) and Phil Stacey (“Every Breath You Take”) managed to leave stronger-than-normal impressions. Hopefully, Melinda (or La Kisha) hasn’t peaked too early.

WORST PERFORMANCE: I’ll give you one guess.

FASHION SNARK: I usually hesitate to make comments on sartorial style because, well, it just ain’t my department. But what exactly was going on last night? I already mentioned Gwen and Melinda. Now, what about Jordin Sparks, who came out wearing something resembling a picnic-table cloth. Yuck. This is the same woman who wowed us last week with that gorgeous black dress. … Still, I’ve got a huge crush on her.

(NOTE: Among our comments today, is one from Juley, a woman who attended last night’s taping with a friend. Some interesting stuff there. If any of you have attended a taping — or are planning to — please let us know. We’d love to hear about your experience.)
Photo courtesy of Fox

No wind-bag dissertations today. I’m in the mood for some quick hits. Off we go …

– It’s nice to see that Bill Clinton has decent taste in television. Speaking at the upfront presentation for TV Land, the former prez said he’s a fan of “24″ and “Grey’s Anatomy,” as well as such classics as “Bonanza.” No word on whether he ever watched “Commander In Chief,” the short-lived ABC series that put a woman in the White House. For more, click here.

– “Dancing With the Stars” apparently still has legs. Monday’s episode drew 20.2 million viewers. It also has some punch with boxer Laila Ali throwing it down and looking like an early favorite. So who goes this week? Easy: Billy Ray Cyrus.

– Oh, it was so sad to bid farewell to “Rome” on Sunday. The captivating period drama concluded after only two seasons. All hail Titus and Vorenus, who made for an engaging pair of male-bonding buddies. And all hail Atia, the scheming Heather Locklear of her day. And the lusty Cleopatra, etc. etc. … The show’s co-producer, Jonathan Stamp, offers his take on the series finale and sends “Rome” off with some worthy words in his HBO blog.

– No real surprise here, but Forbes magazine reports that “American Idol” is the biggest moneymaker on TV, earning an average of $745,000 per 30-second commercial spot. That adds up to $16.39 million for the Tuesday edition of the show and $14.19 million for the Wednesday show. With a cash flow like that, what took ‘em so long to set up the aid-for-Africa charity?

– It was great to see Concord native Juliana Hansen return to the stage for Sunday’s finale of “Grease: You’re the One That I Want.” But it had to be somewhat bittersweet for Juliana to hear one of the judges say she would have cast her in the lead coming out of the Grease Academy portion of the show. Instead, America was hopelessly devoted to Laura Osnes and Max Crumm who were picked to play Sandy and Danny on Broadway. The $10 million revival begins previews on July 24 and opens Aug. 19 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.

As promised, today’s Times contains the account of my up-close-and-personal “American Idol” experience last week. I had fun with it and I hope you’ll check it out.

Also included with the column is some information on how to get “American Idol” tickets. Sorry to say, it’s not very encouraging on that front.

Another atypical week for me. I missed a lot during my two days in L.A. for the “American Idol” taping and I’m just now catching up. Still, here are a few things that caught my eye this week:

– The “Idol” performance by Blake Lewis (”Time of the Season”) was amazing, both live and on tape. I’ve played it over, oh, probably three times since I’ve been home. Thankfully, the show is becoming more than a two-horse race.
– Ohio State’s remarkable NCAA victory last night. Twenty points down and they come back to win by one in the final seconds. Breathtaking.
– It was good to see our Martinez guy, Yau-Man, finally move over to the “wealthy” side on “Survivor” and participate in his first immunity victory. The suffering is over.
– And what about Locke on “Lost”? So it was an 8-story fall that put him in that wheelchair. Yikes.
– Loved the sweet male-bonding scene in “Friday Night Lights” that had our four main guys grabbing some beers and hanging out on the football field, where they talked about their girlfriend woes and other things. This show continues to hit me square in the heart.

Enough from me, though. I want to hear what turned you on about TV this week. Yes, I always appreciate contributions from our “regulars.” They keep this blog alive. But let’s see if we can also get some new names in here this week. Hit me with your best shots …

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I devoted a column earlier this week to on-the-bubble shows, in which I pointed out that we’ll have to wait until May to see how the fates pan out for these series.

But the news came earlier for a couple of shows. ABC has announced that it will, indeed, renew “Men in Trees” and “Boston Legal.” Both shows were previously considered to have somewhat iffy futures. In addition, freshman breakouts “Ugly Betty” and “Brothers & Sisters” were renewed.

Also picked up, as expected, were “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Dancing With the Stars,” “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Bachelor.”

Her services no longer needed at KRON, veteran television journalist Wendy Tokuda has joined CBS 5, where she will become co-anchor of the “Eyewitness News” at 5 p.m. beginning April 9.

“We are thrilled that Wendy is coming back to KPIX, her home for many years. She is a wonderful broadcast journalist” said Dan Rosenheim, Vice President and News Director, CBS 5 (KPIX).

Tokuda began her broadcasting career in Seattle as a secretary in public affairs and then as a news reporter. Next she worked at KPIX for 14 years as an anchor /reporter. She then moved to Los Angeles and co-anchored the 6 p.m. news for five years before returning to the Bay Area at KRON in 1997.

In addition to co-anchoring the 5 p.m. newscast with Allen Martin, Tokuda will continue to work on “Students Rising Above,” a Peabody Award-winning series profiling low-income, at-risk Bay Area teenagers.

So did you see us on TV? Yes, Ardua and I made our much-anticipated journey to “Idol” Land last night (Section D, Row 7, Seats 6 and 7, to be exact) and though I have yet to watch a playback of the show, a dispatch from home indicates that, with the magic of TiVo playback and freeze-frame, there is indeed televisual proof that we were there. (Of course, we probably could have grabbed more prominent screen time had we only thought to burst out in tears like that little Ashley girl).

My rundown of the live-”Idol” experience will appear in the Times at a later date, but let me just say now that the up-close-and-personal thing is pretty darn cool. It helps that we happened to attend “British Invasion” night and that, according to a couple of live-”Idol” regulars, it was one of the more energetic and compelling shows of the past couple of years.

Of course, when you’re there — in the cozy confines of Stage 36 on the CBS lot (yes, a Fox show is shot on CBS property) — you tend to get so swept up in the frenzy of the moment and even the tornado of hair and flailing limbs that was Sanjaya Malakar comes off as thoroughly entertaining.

So, who goes home tonight? I’m sure that, in some cases, the performances translate differently over the airwaves, but judging from the live renditions, I’d say Stephanie Edwards did herself no favors. She sang Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.” It’s a song I adore, but unlike many of her passion-fueled fellow contestants, Stephanie didn’t really engage the audience, choosing to remain almost motionless like a statue and delivering a somewhat tentative rendition.

But I defer to Ardua on all things “Idol” and although she, too, is worried about Stephanie, she thinks Phil Stacey will be packing his bags after his lively, but uninspiring performance of “Tobacco Road.” (She insisted the spastic Sanjaya did enough to stay at least one more week).

As for the winner of the night, it had to be, hands down, Blake Lewis who delivered a fresh and invigorating cover of “Time of the Season” by the Zombies. The performance was, in Randy’s words, so “very cool, vibey and edgy” that you didn’t have to be there to thoroughly enjoy it.

But it certainly didn’t hurt.