Breaking news, as THR is reporting that ABC "has decided against picking up" struggling series—in decreasing order of belovedness—Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, and Eli Stone. By not actually saying the word "canceled," the network leaves the door open to ordering future episodes, but THR puts the odds of that at "improbable." UPDATE: Scrubs lives.Still—you never know! Brooke Shields has chosen to go the full denial route with Lipstick Librarians, and it's been working out for her! (The studio custodians and security have been great about keeping up the charade that the show is still in production when she arrives on the lot every morning.) UPDATE: The network did pick up Scrubs, set to premiere in a one-hour episode on Jan. 6. WTF? They pluck Daisies but re-animate Scrubs? Why can't that show die? It's so irritating. And we're told that yes, Zach Braff comes with the package, for one final swansong season. [THR]

It's time now for everyone's favorite late-afternoon mini-mystery, aka a blind item guessing game. Today's comes to us from EW's Michael Ausiello, who broke the Grey's Anatomy CallicaGate story, and so who knows from TV set histrionics. On this particular "sophomore drama," "all the stars have the disposition of Linda Blair pre-exorcism."

If golddiggers of all persuasions are having a tougher time right now, that includes fictional ones like Janey Wilcox, the Victoria's Secret model whose pursuit of a very rich husband forms the story of Candace Bushnell's novel Trading Up. The book was in the process of being adapted into a Lifetime movie but suddenly, rues a network exec to the Times, "it was like the script had been written two years ago." Talking animals, however, are doing great: Beverly Hills Chihuahua has been killing it at the box office, which Hollywood studios will likely take as proof that audiences want anything but reality right now—as tempting as it might be to rush out films featuring villainous businessmen.

Though it premiered last year to huge numbers, the whimsical dramedy Pushing Daisies may soon need its hero's touch of life, if last night's ratings are any indication. The second season premiere of Daisies fell a whopping 55% from its year-ago totals, the biggest drop on a night of mostly bad returns for ABC (Private Practice fell 38%, and the troubled, endlessly tinkered-with Dirty Sexy Money fell 31%). Might ABC be rethinking it decision to hold all three shows until the fall after last year's writers strike interrupted their freshman seasons? And if a shirtless Lee Pace (above, having bees poured on him) can't resuscitate Daisies, can anything? [THR]

Everyone's always been miserable, except when they're watching rich people. As if previously operating under the crazy idea that people watch television to see their own lives reflected back at them, television writers today are all a-tizzy about the amount of shows about rich people, scratching their heads and wondering why, in this time of foreclosures and defaulted mortgages and soaring gas prices, anyone would want to watch something about people with overabundances of money. Their theory is that shows like Gossip Girl, Dirty Sexy Money, Lipstick Jungle, and the upcoming CW series 90210 and Privileged all create wish-fulfillment in mostly hopeless times. And, um yeah!, they're right!

We didn't watch the premier of ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money" last night, but our videoguy Nick did, and he thought it was awful. So we were like, Okay, Nick, why don't you show us the absolute worst part, something that demonstrates why you think this show is so irredeemably bad. So he did. You know what? He makes the case.