PASADENA, Calif. - One thing you can count on in Hollywood is that actor-producer Michael Douglas always does the unexpected. When he first started he became the hot new actor in the TV series, "The Streets of San Francisco." But he put that aside for a while to become a producer. His first venture, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," proved to be pure platinum, and he followed with three more hits.

Derek Hough has made it to the finals of the 16th edition of "Dancing With the Stars," which wraps Tuesday, but he almost didn't return to the ABC show this season.

A couple of stars from TV's "Chuck" and "Smash" will soon be dating on Broadway.

The fall TV season for the five networks is still months away, but the battle already has started to win back some of the viewers who have shifted to cable and online programming.

MINNEAPOLIS - When future generations look back at the 2012-13 TV season, they'll most likely wax nostalgic about survivalists whacking zombies, ad executives drinking away their sorrows and a spoiled young woman in New York who's into topless table tennis. They may also raise a glass to an extinct dinosaur called network television.

Any way you look at it, it was a tough year for the networks. Broadcast ratings dropped by an average of 7.5 percent, the steepest decline in six years.

NBC went out of the company and out of the country to find a president for its news division, on Monday naming the first woman to hold the top job.

New summer programming - including sitcoms, procedurals and reality competitions - arrives as fall and mid-season schedules continue to wind down. Most of the finales are seasonal only - these shows will return at some point (unless they're labeled as series finales, in which case they're gone for good). Here's what to watch and what to avoid on television this week:

The most striking thing about the broadcast TV networks announcing their new fall schedules this past week was how little that actually meant.

DON'T MISS:

BALTIMORE - Whether it's a Sunday night football game or the third Saturday in May at Pimlico, when NBC Sports floods the zone with members of its A-Team, the telecast is almost always a winner.

Guest lineups for the Sunday TV news shows:

"We have the technology ..."

"The Voice" is leaving the judging drama to its rivals.

LOS ANGELES - Amazon hasn't yet announced which of the 14 pilots it released last month will be getting series orders, but there's already been one confirmed casualty: "Zombieland."

With viewers abandoning "American Idol" in flash mobs, the future of the former ratings juggernaut is wrapped in turmoil and Scotch-taped in uncertainty.

To find their Mr. Darcy, the Guthrie Theater in Minnesota has turned to a Mad Man.

Ratings for the "American Idol" finale plunged to a record low for the 12-year-old show.

Robin Williams is back. So is Michael J. Fox. And, with a new cast, "Ironside."

LOS ANGELES - "Scandal" revolves around a beautiful, law-breaking Washington power-fixer with killer instincts and a matching wardrobe. She's madly in love with the very flawed president of the United States, who, among other things, recently murdered a Supreme Court justice. And they're the good guys.

LOS ANGELES - If viewers are losing interest in broadcast TV, what can lure them back? Executives hope they have an answer: stars.

You might not be able to take the New Yorker out of Sarah Hyland, but the actress - and now swimsuit model - is happy to be parking herself at the beach.

IRWINDALE, Calif. - A loud screeching sound echoed across the oval racetrack as a driver burned rubber, revving the engine of a silver Mercedes-Benz and spinning the vehicle a full 360 degrees while kicking up a cloud of dust and smoke.

PORT ROYAL, S.C. - When Candice Glover was announced as the next American Idol on Thursday night, her six younger siblings didn't hold back.

When the producers of the Academy of Country Music's annual television special approached Tim McGraw about the 2013 edition, the country music star immediately flashed on the program's format.