'Nip/Tuck' Creator's New Series Tackles Transsexualism

Pitt and Dede Gardner are producing partners with Murphy. They made the '06 feature film "Running With Scissors," which Murphy also wrote and directed.

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One week after a treacly musical about high schoolers during summer break became the biggest thing in the history of cable TV, a talent competition won by a ventriloquist who does impressions of singers with puppets became NBC's best performer in the time slot since November 2005.

Viewers are being very loud about what they want to see on television in the summer. Hope TV suits are listening.

"America's Got Talent" clocked nearly 14 million viewers Tuesday. It will be this week's most watched broadcast TV show.

The finale, in which viewers voted to award the million-buck prize to ventriloquist Terry Fator, snagged about 7 million more viewers than its closest competitor. That's NBC's biggest audience on a Tuesday since November '05 (excluding Olympics coverage) and the biggest audience on broadcast TV overall since the season finale of "House" in May.

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Wayne Newton looks to be the next guy to take on the role of older man with a sense of humor about himself on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."

Previous OMWASOHAHs have included John O'Hurley, George Hamilton, Jerry Springer and John Ratzenberger, who stepped in to the dancing competition's fourth edition when Vincent Pastore -- Tony Soprano's hit man Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on the HBO mob drama "The Sopranos" -- bowed out after one week because it was too hard.

ABC won't confirm Newton, whose "Dancing" gig was first reported by Entertainment Weekly's Web site. ABC plans to unveil the next lineup of celeb-competitors on its infotainment show "Good Morning America" next Wednesday.