Tonight on Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable: We talk about Newt vs. Romney in AZ, the ongoing court fight over health care for Arizonans under the poverty line, Congressman Raul Grijalva's fight with Sheriff Joe and a bunch more. Plus, Mayor Jonathan Rothschild stops by for a visit! Tune in at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6 or come back here later to watch it online.

Jon Stewart wonders why Sen. John McCain is so eager to give away American freedoms in the fight against terror.

Experian Simmons (a division of the jerkface company that keeps track of things I "forget" to pay for some reason) conducts an annual survey to find out which TV shows are most and least popular among those of liberal and conservative political ideologies. While many of the results aren't particularly surprising - liberals like The Daily Show and Colbert, conservatives don't! - I didn't know people felt so strongly about the show Swamp Loggers on Discovery, which is the most liked show for conservatives (beating out Top Shot, which is great if you enjoy slow motion shots of stuff exploding in HD) and the least for liberals. They're just guys trying to fight beavers for logs. I'm not sure why that's so polarizing.

Also, it turns out that liberals dislike The Price Is Right, possibly because most of them delegate everyday shopping to their staff and can't be bothered to think about whether the yodeler makes it through the Cliff Hangers game alive.

The most popular shows for liberals and conservatives, from Entertainment Weekly, are below the cut:

Everyone loves those Planet Earth shows, since they're exceptionally shot and capture moments in nature that otherwise would remain unseen, and the latest series Frozen Planet is probably no exception, especially if you like penguins and polar bears. However, when Frozen Planet airs in America on the Discovery Channel in early 2012, it will be one episode shorter than the version shown on the BBC. Why? Because climate change is controversial:

The final episode of Frozen Planet — the popular new series from the creators of Planet Earth — addresses the impending threat of climate change on the Earth's poles. In the episode, which will air on BBC One on December 7th, narrator David Attenborough is expected to claim that the Arctic could be completely devoid of ice by 2020.

But in the US, the episode will not air, for fear of the reaction it might draw from America's climate change skeptics. In fact, as of mid-November, the BBC had sold the documentary series to over 30 foreign networks, and a third of them had opted out of the controversial final episode.

Maybe Attenborough's view of the threat of global climate change is offbase, maybe we'll be fine without changing our behavior one bit, but is the very idea so offensive that the series needs to be shortened? That seems ridiculous, to say the least.

Another edition of the Arizona Illustrated Political Roundtable, as Rodd McLeod and Daniel Scarpinato debate the merits of ALEC, Arizona's ongoing redistricting battles, Sen. Jon Kyl's torpedoing of the Super Committee and more!

Tonight on the Arizona Illustrated Political Roundtable: A lively conversation about Gov. Brewer's plan to take away job protections for state workers, the latest on redistricting, Mayor Bob Walkup's legacy and more! Tune in at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 6 to see Democratic strategist Rodd McLeod and former Arizona House of Representatives GOP caucus spokesman Daniel Scarpinato talk about this issues with Arizona Public Media political reporter Andrea Kelly and Roundtable host Jim Nintzel.

Stephen Colbert highlights Arizona state Sen. Lori Klein's definitive defense of Herman Cain: "There is no way Herman Cain could be a serial masher if he's spending time around Lori and not trying to dry-hump her in an elevator. That woman is the definition of 'not unattractive.'"

Read the daily newspaper and you'll see stories written by an AP reporter from someplace else. Listen to the radio and you are sometimes listening to a DJ in another city. With outsourcing increasingly popular, it's good news when something is done here. Check out Arizona Public Media's Ready TV. Programming is done locally. Here's more info from the press release:

Launching December 1, 2011, Arizona Public Media presents Ready TV, a new 24-hour lifestyle channel programmed locally and specifically for the Southern Arizona audience. Ready TV will be geared towards men and women who want to explore, be enlightened and expand their horizons. Ready TV includes the best of “how-to” programming customized to meet the needs of viewers in Southern Arizona. The channel features entertainment like Austin City Limits and the Artist’s Den for music lovers along with ‘saw dust’ shows such as This Old House and Woodwright’s Shop with Roy Underhill for the DIY crowd. For cooking fans, Julia Child will be Ready TV’s featured chef along with the many masters she has inspired through the years. For adventure seekers, Ready TV will air plenty of exciting travel and nature shows that Southern Arizonans love.

The programming genres include:

Eat - Includes cooking shows with the grand dame of cooking, Julia Child, America’s Test Kitchen, Sarah’s Weeknight Meals and more.

Build — features handyman favorites such as, This Old House and for the green thumbs, Victory Garden. Crafters can tune in to It’s Sew Easy, Scrapbook Memories and Beads, Baubles and Jewels.

Travel- features travel and nature programs such as Rick Steve’s Europe, The Desert Speaks, Wild Photo Adventures and Art Wolfe’s Travel to the Edge, just to name a few.

Ready TV can be found 24-hours a day on broadcast TV at KUAT 6-3, Comcast cable 201 and Cox cable 82.

For a complete Ready TV program schedules go to readytv.org.
More information about AZPM, including program schedules and Video-on-Demand offerings, can be found online at www.azpm.org.

It hasn't even aired yet, but based on this shaky YouTube video shot off a TV screen, TLC's Virgin Diaries looks like it will be a source of minutes of low quality humor at the expense of others.

Here's how TLC's website describes the show:

Whether by choice or circumstance, many have yet to experience one of life's most intimate milestones: sex. Virgin Diaries takes you inside the lives of adult virgins who reveal the challenges, truths, and anticipations of losing their virginity.

And my suggestion for a theme song (although Betty Wright's "Tonight Is The Night" would also work):

[HT: The Hairpin]

I wasn't entirely sure how the online saviors of All My Children and One Life to Live were going to manage to produce the shows profitable without the help of some sort of traditional television partner, but it turns out they weren't sure either:

"After five months of negotiations with various guilds, hundreds of presentations to potential financial and technology partners, and a hope that we could pioneer a new network for the future, it is with great disappointment that we are suspending our aspirations to revive 'One Life to Live' and 'All My Children' via online distribution," the duo said in a statement. "It is now becoming clear that mounting issues make our ability to meet our deadlines to get 'OLTL' on the air in a reasonable time period following its January 13, 2012 ABC finale impossible."

[...]

"We believed the timing was right to launch an Online TV Network anchored by these two iconic soap operas, but we always knew it would be an uphill battle to create something historical, and unfortunately we couldn't ultimately secure the backing and clear all the hurdles in time," they said. "We believe we exhausted all reasonable options apparent to us, but despite enormous personal, as well as financial cost to ourselves, we failed to find a solution."

Prospect Park said the economic challenges proved too difficult.

"In the end, the constraints of the current marketplace, including the evolution and impact of new media on our industry simply proved too great a match for even our passion," they said.

All My Children ended on September 23, replaced by the utterly terrible food talk show The Chew. One Life to Live is scheduled to air its last episode in January.