In a brash move, FOX is foiling attempts by ABC to steer Dancing With the Stars clear of American Idol by extending their singing competition by seven minutes, cutting briefly into Dancing With the Stars introductory moments, and possibly the first performance.   The confrontation will take place Tuesday, March 27th when former No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani will be guest coaching on Idol in an attempt to achieve the impossible:  transform Sanjaya into a real singer.

Since Tuesday is the results show for Dancing with the Stars, early grumbling that the seven minute layover will impact voting is really not a concern.  In a ratings sense, as well, it will be difficult to judge an impact because no media tracking service is going to fragment the hour to see who shifts where from minute to minute, although that would be a heck of a service, hmmm.

Thus far Dancing with the Stars has gotten off to a respectable start pulling in roughly twenty million viewers with its premiere.  The morbid fascination over whether or not Heather Mills prosthetic leg is being wrongly touted as part of the reason for those numbers.  (I wonder about people sometimes.)  On the other hand, the morbid fascination with just how far off pitch Sanjaya can go and still remain in the competition IS, no doubt, a big part of why Idol is doing so well right now.  So for the record, FOX, if you want to dominate that seven minute run over, put Sanjaya on last for Tuesdays American Idol.

Of course, on the other hand, if ABC wants to combat this grab for the first seven minutes of the 9pm time slot, they could open with Heather Mills in a highly touted high stepping set.  It's all in bad taste, I know, but I'm just saying...

- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer

(Photo copyright © 2007 ABC)