“Dan's the creator of the show, so to lose his voice would be pretty crazy,” McHale told TVLine.com. “He gave me the role of a lifetime, so it would be a very weird scenario [to continue] without him.”

Season four just got weird. Late Friday night, NBC and Sony -- the studio that produces "Community" -- announced that Harmon would not be back next season. On his blog, Harmon said he had been "fired."

In reaction to this news, McHale, and his "Community" co-stars Alison Brie, Gillian Jacobs, Yvette Nicole Brown and Jim Rash, took to their Twitter accounts on Saturday afternoon to express support for Harmon.

Season four of "Community" is set to premiere in the fall on Friday nights at NBC. The cast is expected to return mostly intact, though whether Chevy Chase -- who famously and publicly feuded with Harmon over his role on the series -- remains to be seen.

Despite the fact that NBC Entertainment president Robert Greenblatt said last week that Harmon would likely have a role on "Community" going forward, don't necessarily expect that to be the case.

"If I actually chose to go to the office, I wouldn't have any power there," Harmon wrote on his personal Tumblr page. "Nobody would have to do anything I said, ever. I would be 'offering' thoughts on other people's scripts, not allowed to rewrite them, not allowed to ask anyone else to rewrite them, not allowed to say whether a single joke was funny or go near the edit bay, etc."

"Community" ended its third season earlier this week with a three-episode season finale.

EARLIER: Dan Harmon: "I Got Fired"

"We're one show now, so we've got an action-packed show," producer Nigel Lythgoe told ET at the Fox upfronts this week. Fox ended the "So You Think You can Dance" results-show broadcast, meaning many changes needed to be made before the new season.

"This year we're doing an entirely new thing that we should have done years ago," Lythgoe said enthusiastically. "We're going to have a male winner and a female winner. With changing it around, to making it just one show, we sort of realized, 'Hey, why don't we do this?' We wanted to do it, now we have the opportunity to do so."

As Lythgoe told TVLine.com, “Girls dance totally differently than guys."

To make up for the lack of a results show, "SYTYCD" will have all its dancers perform in episodes one and two before revealing who goes home. "We'll watch them dance in the first week," Lythgoe told ET. "America will vote. We'll watch them dance in the second week, take into account America's vote and the week before's routine and make a decision."

Lythgoe said to TVLine.com that the dancers won't know before their routines if they're in danger because “we don't want the [at-risk] contestants to be panicking [when they dance]."

As for the celebrity judges, Lythgoe would love to see Kristin Chenoweth and Jesse Tyler Ferguson return for season 9.

For more on the new rules and format of "So You Think You Can Dance," head over to TVLine.com.

"It should be very interesting. I don't have much to say," said Legend, who is set to star in ABC's new singing competition, "Duets."

"It's interesting when people, you know, are judging singing competitions when they aren't really singers." Ouch!

We don't know who John has been listening to, but Demi is absolutely a singer! Has he heard her amazing vocals on "Skyscraper" or the pitch-perfect "For the Love of A Daughter?" We love you, John Legend. But, perhaps you need to give Demi a second listen.

What do you think of John Legend's comment about Demi? Dish in the comments!

CHECK OUT THIS SLIDESHOW OF LATINOS IN YOUNG HOLLYWOOD

Let me tell you a story about Dan Harmon, who was fired from "Community" on Friday night.

Several years ago, when "The Sarah Silverman" program debuted, I wrote a review of it. I didn't like it much; it just wasn't my thing, and I said as much in my review.

Within a day or two of that review appearing, a comment appeared on that review -- a very negative one from someone named Dan Harmon. I confirmed with Comedy Central that the comment was, in fact, left by Harmon, who was then a writer/producer on Silverman's show. (I didn't want anything on my site that had been left under his name if it wasn't actually from him.) It was him. And then I noticed that my site was getting some traffic from MySpace (remember, this was more than five years ago).

Turns out Harmon posted a more stinging rebuke of me on his MySpace page, because what he'd left on my site apparently hadn't been harsh enough for him. Needless to say, both comments weren't complimentary toward me or my intelligence. They weren't easy to read. When someone writes, "You look like an idiot ... I'm looking into the 3 pixels that represent your eyes and right into your unremarkable soul," that tends to stick with you.

I'm not saying any of this to pile on Dan Harmon. I absolutely am not; he's had a bad enough week. I'm saying this because I want to make a point: He's probably as difficult to work with as all the stories say he is. But based on what he's achieved with "Community," he's worth it.

As I said, I didn't especially enjoy those comments when I read them for the first time. But here's something that's also true: I was able to realize that his comments about me were very well-written. Want proof?

A friend of mind, the writer Claire Zulkey, does a regular event called Funny Ha-Ha, where people get up and read amusing things they've written. She invited me to be part of it a couple of times, and I'm aware enough of my own limitations to know that I'm not all that funny. So twice (without saying who wrote it), I read Harmon's diatribe at Funny Ha-Ha, and ladies and gentlemen, it killed. Both times.

The rant has a point of view that Harmon meticulously, if angrily, got across. It's very far from being a generic angry Internet comment; it's just another instance of Harmon proving that he's unstoppable (and pretty diverting) when he's got something to say.

Now, you may wonder, did that withering comment make it harder for me to like "Community" at first? I wondered about that for a very, very long time -- trust me, I thought about it a lot. And I've come to two conclusions:

• "Community" made it hard for me to like it, especially in its first season. I gave it a lot of chances in Seasons 1 and 2, and I appreciated what the cast was doing, but the show didn't quite click for me because of its distancing meta techniques, which weren't expertly tied to characters I cared about in the early days. It wasn't due to the fact that Harmon had called me an idiot, I don't think.
• My little online experience with Harmon didn't affect my view of the show much, I don't think, but it did make it hard for me to see a lot of my colleagues in the media fawning over the guy. I'll admit that that rankled now and again. I'm only human, after all.

But you know what? The show itself eventually won me over. Last year, I became a late convert thanks to the overwhelming brilliance of "Remedial Chaos Theory," and when I love something, I tend to love it 150 percent. I recognize that not every episode of "Community" is great, and there are still certain things about it that bug me at times, but I sat down to watch that episode with an open mind and I completely fell for the Greendale Seven, which made me really happy. I went back and watched Season 2 and have faithfully watched Season 3, the finale of which was very pleasing, I thought.

What I'm trying to get at here is this: When something, or someone, is difficult, you work on it. When someone rubs you the wrong way, you acknowledge that, figure out how to move forward, and move forward. Why couldn't NBC and Sony do this?

After all, executives there are paid a lot more than I am to put up with the delicate egos and undeniable flaws of creative people. And I'm of the opinion that whatever baggage Harmon brought to the table was worth putting up with. For him to be shown the door without getting a single phone call from NBC or Sony Pictures Television, as he says in this post about being fired, is horrifying -- but more importantly, it's unprofessional on the part of those above him in the food chain.

I'm not saying every showrunner should get away with everything -- far from it -- but at the very least, there should have been discussions in the last few weeks with Harmon about his future with the show. And if NBC and Sony weren't going to go forward with Harmon as showrunner, they should have put on their big-boy pants and canceled the comedy. If Harmon at the helm of "Community" was just too more trouble than they wanted to deal with, they should have pulled the plug, but they didn't have the guts.

NBC and Sony are not making widgets and not merely replacing a manager who couldn't get his people to meet their widget quota. As much as the business might involve slicing and dicing Nielsen numbers, it's not, at the end of the day, about cold numbers and flow charts. Some shows do involve widgets and some shows are topped by executive producers who can be replaced at will. "Community" is not one of those shows, and for Sony and NBC keep the show going but without Harmon -- well, that's just dumb. That's not a knock on the new "Community" showrunners, that's a knock on short-sighted TV executives.

I will stipulate that Harmon can be a hard guy to get along with. My long-ago, minor experience aside, many credible articles and sources have said so. But I don't require him to be my friend, nor should the executives at Sony and NBC. I require him to make an inventive show with a lot of heart and wit, a show that is imbued with a particular gleeful/bittersweet point of view. Harmon did that, whatever problems Sony and NBC may have had with his management style.

Look, creative types can be a real pain in the ass. There aren't a ton of showrunners who make the trains run on time, make something approaching art and are also nice to everyone (there are a few, and they are worth their weight in gold). But that's the business "creative" executives are in. It's messy, it's not easy, but if TV executives wanted to go into something more predictable and less stressful, why not try accounting?

So, Dan Harmon, I forgave you a long time ago for what you wrote about me, even though it hurt my feelings at the time. I understood, even then, that what prompted your angry response was the fact that your feelings had been hurt. Sensitive types aren't always fun to be around (and this is something I can relate to). I understood, then and now, that you care about what you do. I'm sure you still care about "Community."

And as Alan Sepinwall wrote here, I think that shows with unique visions that lose their showrunners late in their runs are often much worse for it. I'm sadly sure that will be the case here. This is one of those cases where something like the thing you loved will just be a reminder of how much you miss the thing you loved.

I'll miss Harmon's "Community." And I think NBC and Sony executives have no idea of the shitstorm they just created. So I'll leave an angry Internet comment of my own: Whoever thought it would be a good idea to ditch Harmon is a business-casual potted plant. You're VH1, "Robocop 2," "Back to the Future 3."

You're Jim Belushi.

“I hope I'll win,” said the openly gay singer and actor who shot to stardom as a contestant and first runner up on “American Idol” almost ten years ago. “We have different styles. [Arsenio Hall is] a little more laid back. I'm a little more hands-on. I think the effects of my efforts were superior. I think we'll see on Sunday when Mr. Trump makes his decision.”

Aiken also weighed in on his new-found role as a gay activist, taking on North Carolina's antigay Amendment One and appearing on CBS' “Face the Nation” opposite the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins last week, an experience he laughingly still can't believe happened.

“Wasn't that crazy?” he asked, beaming with a smile, in an interview on my SiriusXM radio program. “So it did happen, you're saying? Because I was thinking it was all a dream.”

Aiken never would have imagined in 2003, when he was on “American Idol” and not open about his sexual orientation amid the rumor mill that he was gay, that he would one day be out, let alone that he would be an activist speaking passionately about gay marriage and the politics of the state he grew up in, North Carolina, on national television.

“In 2003, [I] wasn't even convinced [myself that I] was gay,” he chuckled. “Oh, no, no, no, no. You know, it's a process for everyone. Even in 2008, when I came out publicly, I said, ‘I'm not going to be one of the activist people, who speak out publicly about it.' That's where I was in my own personal journey. I believed at that time that I was completely, perfectly out.”

But Aiken eventually felt a sense of responsibility to young people, he said, working with groups like the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network [GLSEN], becoming more aware of issues LGBT youth face today.

“It hasn't been until the past two years that I really started realizing a part of this is going to be making sure other people don't live through what I did,” he explained. “Making sure that people don't have the same type of struggle that I did. I've realized now if I can be a a part of making it easier for a kid to be able to be comfortable with himself, then I have a responsibility to do it.”

Discussing his fan base, Aiken noted that the people to whom he appeals are the very people whose minds need to be changed in America.

"My fan base is very 'red state' typically,” he said. “I think a lot of people who are the most fervent supporters of mine are people who would have voted for a marriage amendment, but now might not. I speak more to people who are in the middle, sway-able area. I think some people, like Adam [Lambert] or maybe Rosie [O'Donnell], probably speak a little bit to a crowd where, it's like, we already got them. But I think that Ellen [DeGeneres] and Neal Patrick Harris speak to that middle crowd too. I think you gotta have both. You gotta have people who stir the turd so that people can smell it. And you gotta have people who keep things as normalized as possible.You need to have Malcolm X so that Dr. King can be more effective.”

Regarding Donald Trump's position against marriage equality and the controversy he stirred when he was flirting with running for president, speaking out on the issue, Aiken said it's better for him and openly gay George Tekei to do the show and be able to talk with Trump.

“Avoiding people who disagree with you, unless they are the Tony Perkins' of the world, who are never going to change their minds, is counter-productive,” he said. “I don't see Mr. Trump as a Tony Perkins. He is a lot more gracious in person and down to earth and real than I think he wants people to know. This is how I have tried to do it. People who know a gay person are more likely to support a gay person.”

It's with that calm sense of purpose that Aiken is heading into Sunday's finale of “The Celebrity Apprentice, ” hoping to win the grand prize, $250,000, for the charity he co-founded, The National Inclusion Project.

“I try to avoid tension -- it's impossible to avoid tension on a show like this, but I try my best,” he explained. “I think 85% of success in life is about paying attention, and I think 85 % of doing well on a show like this is [about] paying attention. And I think that's why I've done well.”

Listen to the interview here:

Or, as Harmon wrote on his personal blog: "I got fired."

The writer and producer was replaced on the cult comedy series by David Guarascio and Moses Port ("Happy Endings") late on Friday night, ending a week of speculation that many assumed would lead to Harmon's ouster.

According to Harmon, NBC never even contacted him about his deal. "They literally haven't called me since the season four pickup, so their reasons for replacing me are clearly none of my business," he wrote.

At the NBC upfront presentation -- where the network announced that the fourth season of "Community" would air on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. starting in the fall -- NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt noted that "shows lose showrunners all the time," when asked about Harmon's status. Greenblatt later added that Harmon's "voice" would still be a part of "Community," perhaps even on a "consulting" basis.

Don't bet on that happening, wrote Harmon:

You may have read that I am technically “signed on,” by default, to be an executive consulting something or other - which is a relatively standard protective clause for a creator in my position. Guys like me can't actually just be shot and left in a ditch by Skynet, we're still allowed to have a title on the things we create and “help out,” like, I guess sharpening pencils and stuff.

However, if I actually chose to go to the office, I wouldn't have any power there. Nobody would have to do anything I said, ever. I would be “offering” thoughts on other people's scripts, not allowed to rewrite them, not allowed to ask anyone else to rewrite them, not allowed to say whether a single joke was funny or go near the edit bay, etc. It's….not really the way the previous episodes got done. I was what you might call a….hands on producer. Are my….periods giving this enough….pointedness? I'm not saying you can't make a good version of Community without me, but I am definitely saying that you can't make my version of it unless I have the option of saying “it has to be like this or I quit” roughly 8 times a day.

Harmon had a notoriously combative relationship with NBC, as well as Sony, the studio that produced "Community." As Vulture's Josef Adalian noted, Harmon clashed with both corporate entities over the show's "creative direction" and "management style." He also publicly feuded with "Community" co-star Chevy Chase.

Harmon also penned a satirical piece for New York Magazine that mocked his then-employer. Writing from the "future," Harmon noted that NBC was no longer part of the big four networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox), but had become a "smaller cabler" known as "'Cock" -- a play on NBC's famed logo.

Check back to HuffPost TV for more on Harmon's "Community" exit. For Harmon's full response, click over to his blog.

EARLIER: Dan Harmon Out As "Community" Showrunner

RELATED: Find out the fate of all your favorite shows here

We also have the added blessing of this being the week that the state of Vermont officially banned fracking, so the possibilities were truly endless.

Watch the full clip above, and international readers can watch the clip here.

Ali G asks the hard-hitting questions that politicians rarely have to face on camera, such as, "Was it worth fighting a war over BLTs?" and, "Do you think people should get more welfare the longer they're on welfare?" Check out Baron Cohen interviewing the likes of Newt Gingrich, Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan, and be sure to vote for your favorite interview. Respect.

UPDATE: On his personal blog, Harmon wrote extensively about his ouster from "Community." Click here to read his comments.

Daniel Fienberg at HitFix explains the move:

In a traditional Friday news dump, word of Harmon's exit -- you can call it "firing" or just "Sony Pictures TV opting not to renew his deal" -- hit the Internet late evening Eastern Time along with the added information that "Happy Endings" and "Aliens in America" veterans David Guarascio and Moses Port will take over as showrunners for next season.

Under Harmon, "Community" became an Internet favorite. However, ratings were subpar throughout its first three seasons, leading many to speculate that the show might be cancelled by NBC. Additionally, New York magazine's Vulture blog reports frequent clashes between Harmon and Sony, and persisting questions about his managerial style. A high-profile spat with Chevy Chase, one of the show's stars, as well as "defections" on the show's writing staff, only intensified that scrutiny.

Vulture's Josef Adalian writes:

According to multiple people familiar with the production of Community, Harmon's flaws as a showrunner were at least partially responsible for much of the turnover the past few years. As one person familiar with Harmon's strengths and weaknesses told Vulture, "Dan is a brilliant at ideas, but he's terrible at [management]."

"Community," has been renewed for a fourth, and possibly final, season. NBC has ordered 13 episodes to air on Friday nights.

Reviewing a season finale is very different from reviewing a singular episode, and "Supernatural" finales are more challenging than most. The end of a season has to tie up loose story threads from the entire season preceding it, while still leaving enough dangling to create a compelling jumping off point for next year. Thankfully, despite a few (okay, more than a few) lackluster episodes this season, I think that the season finale managed to course-correct in a way that makes me truly optimistic for Season 8. The last couple of episodes didn't build up much momentum going into the finale, in comparison with the stellar runs at the end of Seasons 1, 2, 4 and 5, but a finale still needs to stand on its own merits, and against the odds, I felt like "Survival of the Fittest" did so.

I think that my main criticism with Season 7 as a whole -- and, in hindsight, with Season 6 too -- was an overall lack of focus. The ideas behind the Leviathans and Eve were good in theory, but in practice, there seemed to be too many standalone episodes to create a truly cohesive through-line from premiere to finale. When a season works as a whole, there need to be multiple unmissable episodes which deepen the mythology and drive the story forward, and looking back at Season 7, I feel like we could've watched the first two episodes of the season, "How To Win Friends and Influence Monsters," "Reading is Fundamental" and "Survival of the Fittest," ignored the rest of the season, and still gotten the overall gist of the story.

I'm not sure if that was because of internal concerns that the Leviathans weren't interesting enough to be the focal point of more episodes, or because the monster of the week stories just didn't feel fresh or exciting enough (though I did enjoy "The Mentalists" and "Time After Time") -- but aside from Robbie Thompson, Sera Gamble and Ben Edlund, a number of writers seemed to struggle with pacing issues in their stories this year, with episodes either dragging in the middle or ending abruptly.

Although this sounds like a criticism of Gamble, I don't really mean it as one; I think that any showrunner (perhaps even Eric Kripke) would've struggled to conceptualize a new arc for Season 6 after the original five-year story came to a close, especially since no-one knew at that point whether the show would be back for a seventh year. For a series as heavily serialized as "Supernatural," conceiving two self-contained story arcs for the past two years must have been a herculean feat, so in many ways, I don't blame the writers for having difficulties in making Seasons 6 and 7 coherent.

Similarly, the transition between Season 7 and Season 8 could prove equally challenging, since the series is once again changing showrunners, with Sera Gamble (who has written for the show since its first year) handing the reins to Jeremy Carver, who was with "Supernatural" from Seasons 3-5 before departing to launch the U.S. version of "Being Human" with his wife, Anna Fricke. I mourned the loss of Carver almost as much as I mourned the loss of Eric Kripke at the time, because I don't believe there is a single writer who grasped Sam and Dean's voices with as much style and confidence as he did, short of Kripke himself (alright, and Ben Edlund).

And while Kripke knew Sam and Dean, Carver knew story -- so many of his episodes remain my all-time favorites: "A Very Supernatural Christmas," "Mystery Spot," "In The Beginning," "Free To Be You And Me" and "The Point of No Return," to name a few. They weren't just well-written in terms of character, they were well-structured, too. Having a clearly defined beginning, middle and an end, and a coherent sense of pacing, is something that "Supernatural" has struggled with more in the past two seasons than it did in its first five years. I don't know whether that sense of cohesion was due to Kripke's influence or the product of a more experienced writing staff, but I'm hoping that Season 8 can recapture the lightning in a bottle that I haven't truly felt from "Supernatural" since Season 4.

So, enough waffling about the backstory; let's discuss "Survival of the Fittest." I'll admit, I never really connected to the Leviathans as adversaries after they left Castiel; I grew to appreciate Dick's smarmy corporate exterior, but I never felt that sense of dread or intimidation that I got from Azazel, Lilith or Lucifer. I suppose it's because those villains felt so otherworldly, so unconcerned with the trivialities of humanity, whereas Dick, by design, was a mirror of mankind's corporate greed and the soulless march of capitalism. We instinctively fear the unknown, the unfamiliar, but Dick and his cronies were all too familiar to us, because those one-percenter values (or lack thereof) are being parroted back at us from the campaign trail on a weekly basis. A few of us might want to punch certain political figures in the face, and some of their opinions may instill a sense of dread in us, but it's not really apocalyptic dread, is it?

It also doesn't help that Dick was focused on humanity as a whole, while the Winchesters' previous adversaries were focused on them (as any good TV villain should be). We're not watching the "random dude in Iowa eating a turducken sandwich" show, we're watching the Sam and Dean show, so the Leviathans viewing the Winchesters as an obstacle rather than the goal undeniably lowered the stakes for me. Sure, the Leviathans wanted to squash the boys like bugs, but how is that different from any other monster of the week they've had to face? I get that the writers wanted to give the boys another global challenge, to somehow up the ante from Lucifer however they could, but there's no denying that Azazel, Lilith and Lucifer worked in large part because they were focused on the boys (or, really, on Sam) and personal stakes are so much more compelling than universal ones. That's another area where Eve and her "turn humans into monsters" plan fell down, although Season 6's issues were more widespread than simply having a disappointing villain.

Because of that, as fond as I'd grown of Dick's snarkiness (and lord knows I would've been content to watch an hour of Dick and Crowley bantering) I was glad that Dean managed to take Dick down in the finale. They didn't outright destroy all of the Leviathans, so they can still present a challenge next season, but I felt that their endgame had run its course. The beauty of this finale -- especially this ending -- is that it's truly impossible to predict where the show might go from here, so we can spend the summer in rapturous speculation.

The Leviathans didn't work for me, but seeing them gone did, and so did most of the rest of the finale. I voiced my advanced enthusiasm for this week's episode in large part because it promised to utilize all of our favorite players -- Bobby, Castiel, Crowley and Meg -- and it delivered on that front. The episode was a fitting exit for Sera Gamble, who has always had a great grasp of Crowley's particular brand of wit, and all of the scenes involving the boys and Castiel, Meg and/or Crowley crackled with energy.

It's clear that the writers have been getting a lot of mileage out of Castiel's current lack of marbles, and Misha Collins did an excellent job delivering some truly bizarre lines. His fascination with board games -- Twister in particular -- was thoroughly enjoyable, and while I'm a little disappointed that we missed out on seeing the angel appear naked on Dean's car covered in bees, the mental image alone has a fair amount of value. I'm well aware that Castiel is a divisive character, so I'm sure there are some fans who dislike the fact that Dean and Castiel got zapped into purgatory without Sam, but to me, it's a good idea from both a creative and technical standpoint.

We might like to ignore this fact when we're selfishly enjoying one of our favorite shows, but Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are pretty much the only actors on TV who don't have a full-time supporting cast to lighten their filming load. Padalecki has recently become a father, and I can attest from set visits that "Supernatural" is one of the most labor-intensive shows to film, in terms of the cast and crew's working hours, night shoots, stunts and special effects. The fact that these actors have managed seven years with practically no time off without having a meltdown is somewhat miraculous to me, and yet Ackles and Padalecki are still just as passionate and invested in the show as they were at the start. Splitting Sam and Dean up, as much as some fans may hate it, allows these hard working dudes a couple of extra days off a week to spend with their families, and if that keeps them from getting burned out and makes them more inclined to keep making the show for another couple of seasons, I'm all for it.

And from a creative standpoint: I've been with this show since the pilot in 2005, I adore the Sam and Dean dynamic and am wholly aware that the relationship between the brothers is the biggest part of "Supernatural's" success. But they've been together for seven years now, and there are only so many ways to tell that fraternal story without retreading old ground (some fans feel we've already retrod old ground a couple of times as it is). The fact of the matter is, adding new characters -- whether it's Jo and Ellen, Ruby and Bela, Bobby and Rufus or Castiel and Gabriel -- allow us to see Sam and Dean from new perspectives; they bring out new sides to the boys and force them to react in different ways than they'd react to each other.

We've seen Sam and Dean in sticky situations for years now, and we know how they respond when they're up the creek without a paddle, but we've yet to see how Dean and Castiel would react to being stuck in a foxhole together, or how Sam truly functions as Sam (as opposed to the diet, soulless version of Sam we saw in Season 6) without his brother. I, for one, am eager to see how Sam goes about rescuing Dean from purgatory now that no demons want to make a deal with him, and I want to see Dean tied back into the mythology the way he hasn't been since Season 4 -- not just as Sam's protector, but as someone who drives the mythology forward by acting instead of reacting (or drinking). The actors have recently expressed their desire to see Sam and Dean separated or old cast-members returned in various interviews, not because they hate each other, but because they want to explore new facets of characters that they've been playing for over half a decade. I think it's natural and I think the writers should be applauded for taking that risk. I highly doubt that any real separation would go on beyond a couple of episodes anyway, but if it means shaking up the status quo and offering a new perspective on such beloved characters, I'd say it's a worthwhile experiment.

That's not to say that things couldn't go wrong -- since every time Sam is left to his own devices he seems to end up chugging demon blood or cozying up to sociopaths like Grandpa Campbell, and in that way, the season finale also found itself retreading old ground. Will Dean's sojourn to purgatory be like his trip to hell at the end of Season 3? Time will tell, but Carver has a great track record with these characters so I'm more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I was surprised (and pleased) that the episode chose to dispatch Bobby with comparatively little fanfare. Obviously, the character's first and greatest farewell, in "Death's Door," should be his enduring legacy, but I was expecting the episode to make more of a meal over Bobby descending into darkness. I'm glad Gamble didn't go that route, though -- having Bobby leave on his own terms was a fitting and poignant resolution, perfectly played by Jim Beaver and in-keeping with the character. I think it was perfectly reasonable for Bobby to refuse to let the boys go (and thereby avoid dying on the Reaper's terms) and for him to later nobly decide that he needed to leave before he ended up hurting someone and becoming the thing he once hunted.

It was nice that Sam got that moment with Bobby -- and I thought it nicely mirrored the Season 1 finale, "Devil's Trap," when Dean was being attacked by Azazel in John's body, before his father reasserted himself to avoid causing his son any further pain. Sam hasn't had many moments like that with Bobby, so it was nice that he got at least one, allowing Bobby to illustrate his love for Sam before the older hunter said farewell. I also appreciated the decision not to show Bobby's spirit burning up; the moment was far more resonant simply from witnessing Sam and Dean's reactions, because Bobby isn't some monster that we should relish seeing disintegrated. A part of me does feel like "Death's Door" should have been the character's last appearance, but I adore Jim Beaver so much that I was happy to take a little extra time, especially since the writers avoided compromising the integrity of the character.

And how fantastic was it to see the return of the Impala, triumphantly set to Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild?" Absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder, and I just hope we'll never have to be without Dean's "baby" for such a long time again. I'm surprised he trusted Meg with it, though, even though she was playing the distraction. I don't love Rachel Miner's portrayal half as much as I adored Nicki Aycox's (Aycox had a lot more subtlety) but I'm still intrigued to see what Crowley has planned for her. Whatever it is, I hope when we next see Meg, we'll see the Meg of the first two seasons -- it's hard to reconcile the demon who possessed Sam and went on a killing and torture spree in the phenomenal "Born Under a Bad Sign" with the character we've seen in the past couple of years, and I'm far more enamored of the evil version.

I loved the pacing, the wit and the focus of "Survival of the Fittest," but I did have two complaints: first, the bizarre and, frankly, disturbing decision to make Polly the hapless human guinea pig take off her dress before Dick stuck her with the toxin -- it was narratively unnecessary and distractingly gratuitous, especially considering the episode was written by a woman. Second, the inclusion of Kevin the Prophet. Despite the racial stereotyping, I've actually enjoyed Kevin as a character, but I have to admit, he's seemed a little extraneous since "Reading is Fundamental." Once he translated the stone tablet, why was he useful to Dick? And why was he useful enough for Crowley to capture him? He didn't get to accomplish much this week or last, and Crowley's nabbing of him seemed abrupt. I wish the writers had found another way to decipher the Word of God (couldn't Cas have done it?) so that the prophet wasn't necessary at all -- better to never introduce him than to just have him present for the sake of it. I'm sure the writers will find a way to tie him into Season 8 in a more meaningful way, but it still felt sloppy in an otherwise tightly-plotted hour.

When "Supernatural" episodes are at their finest, the hour seems to fly by, and that was the case with "Survival of the Fittest." It was an engaging and tense hour from start to finish, with satisfying pay-offs for those of us that enjoy Castiel's inclusion in the story and his "profound bond" with Dean; a delicious return for Mark Sheppard, who can chew scenery in his sleep and steal scenes with the mere quirk of an eyebrow; and a suitably messy send-off for Dick. I love the idea of purgatory as some wild, uncharted forest, and I'm intrigued to see how much further Carver will explore that untapped resource next season -- hopefully allowing Sam and Dean to grow individually so that they'll have fresh, unique dynamics to explore once they're reunited. And, to close, I'd like to thank Sera Gamble for seven years of hard work and passionate writing, and congratulate the talented Jeremy Carver for getting the chance to continue Sam and Dean's inspiring journey -- I'll certainly be along for the ride.

What did you think of "Supernatural's" Season 7 finale? Were you pleased by the show's shocking cliffhanger? Saddened to see Bobby go? Share your reactions and predictions for next season below!

"Supernatural" returns in the fall with Season 8 on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.

It's been a revelatory season for The CW's "Nikita." This year, the show shed the last vestiges of its procedural beginnings and wholeheartedly embraced its compelling mythology, drawing fans deeper into Percival Rose's treacherous web of politics and bloodshed, keeping our heroes on the run, outgunned, but never quite outmatched. We've seen allies become enemies, Oversight dismantled, Zetrov returned to safe hands, Amanda deposed and finally, Percy fallen once and for all.

It's easy to forget, in the halcyon glow of the show's renewal, that this episode could easily have been "Nikita's" series finale -- would you have been satisfied if it had been? From a storytelling standpoint, the narrative truly has come full-circle; this season has been focused on the concept of "home," and as both Nikita and Percy pointed out in this episode, Division is the only home Nikita has ever known.

"I grew up here, I learned right from wrong here, and I fell in love here," our heroine pointed out, effectively scuttling Michael's plans for retirement on a desert island, but also embracing the idea that Division had a hand in shaping her into the honorable, powerful woman she is today.

Yes, Division took away her life, but it also inadvertently provided her with a new one, with a destiny that's far more important than the one she left behind. Nikita was on Death Row, she was an addict with no friends and no future, and so -- in ways she's probably reluctant to acknowledge -- Percy's twisted agenda changed her life for the better, albeit by making her suffer through the worst. That doesn't excuse what he forced her and the other recruits to do over the course of their careers, of course, but it's a silver lining to one man's depraved cloud.

Just as last year's finale brought all of the seemingly disparate elements from Season 1 together to reveal the extent of Percy's Machiavellian scheming, this season's closer beautifully wove the threads of Nikita's Season 2 journey into a cohesive tapestry, illustrating that, in the end, running Division was not only the obvious choice, it was the only real choice for Team Nikita to make.

From Nikita's mentor, Carla, and the faith she had in the idea of Division as a place for rehabilitation and second chances, to Owen and his belief that Nikita's unique skill-set should be used for protection as much as aggression, Nikita's path this year has been inexorably leading her towards this outcome.

In our recent interview, Shane West pointed out that "Team Nikita has been put together for a reason," and clearly, that reason was to force Nikita into a leadership role that she never would've chosen on her own; to help her realize that she is capable of taking command without abusing that position of power, and to prove that, in learning to trust others and let her loved ones in, she's no longer making decisions for everyone else -- she's allowing them to demonstrate their faith in her by risking their own lives for her cause.

Alex, Sean, Ryan, Birkhoff, even Michael, all could've walked away from her at many points this season, but they stayed because they believed in Nikita and her ability to know right from wrong and to make hard choices without ever sacrificing innocent lives. Division truly has a chance to fulfill Carla's original aspirations for it with Nikita, Michael and Ryan at the helm, and I'm glad that the writers chose restoration over destruction when it came to solving the problem of Division and all of the equally helpless recruits that Percy and Amanda manipulated over the years.

The outcome of "Homecoming" was just another illustration of the grace that Nikita never could've discovered without going through everything she had to endure this season: almost losing Michael, Birkhoff and Ryan; actually losing Carla; being betrayed and manipulated by Percy and the man she had hoped was her father; facing Amanda and her own darkness after being captured by Brandt -- all instances of our heroine being thrust into the fire again and again, forging her into the person that Division truly needed to lead it.

While it was bittersweet to see Percy and Roan die (and aren't you impressed by all of the cast's misdirection in teasing the show's deaths?), their stories have run their course. As integral as Percy has been to "Nikita's" story for the past two years -- and as phenomenal as Xander Berkeley has been in playing such a memorable and formidable villain -- Nikita (both the woman and the show) need to evolve. It would have undermined Nikita's strength to have such a major adversary remain on the board after everything he's done to her, especially with Amanda still at large. I also assume that the enigmatic "Group" that Percy was trying to get into will feature heavily next season, so there are still plenty of battles for our heroes to fight. Having Percy end up back in his glass prison was a poetic touch, and I loved the image of him falling through the glass, shot from below -- one of many fascinating visual flourishes from director Eagle Egilsson in "Homecoming."

I loved that, in typically Percy fashion, he managed to turn the tables and force Nikita to work with him one last time in escaping Division -- the pair have such a dynamic, antagonistic rapport that it served as a fitting send-off for an iconic character. I'm sure that one of his final lines -- "I brought you into this world, I can take you out of it" -- will keep conspiracy theorists speculating whether he truly was Nikita's birth father, as some suspect. It was also surprisingly touching to see just how affected Roan was by his commander's demise, and I'm glad that he got to go out with a bang (literally) following another stunning fight scene with Alex and Sean.

I was especially pleased with the way writer Carlos Coto toyed with the audience's expectations during the episode. From the outset -- with Sean's attempts to ask Alex out on a real date -- those endearing emotional beats seemed to be positioning Sean as one of the episode's casualties, building up to the possibility of a tragic demise that would serve to motivate Alex next season. There was an undercurrent of tension in all of the pair's scenes together as the possibility of his death loomed -- further played up by Coto's decision to have Alex and Sean split up, to go against every horror movie scenario ever committed to celluloid. Even in their joint fight with Roan, Sean seemed poised to go out in a blaze of glory, defending the woman he loved before tragically dying in her arms. The fact that Coto so knowingly subverted that classic action trope only made the episode more delicious, even if it came at the expense of Roan. And Alex continued the trend of getting her arm broken during dramatic fight scenes; was that the same arm that Nikita broke at the beginning of the season, continuity buffs?

While the episode undoubtedly placed Nikita in a leadership role, it did the same for Ryan, and now that Noah Bean is officially a regular next season, it will be interesting to see how the dynamic evolves between him and Nikita. We saw the mild-mannered analyst truly stepping up to the plate this week; he effortlessly took command of Team Nikita early in the episode, directing Birkhoff and Alex and Sean in their tasks while Nikita and Michael took care of Division. As the team's only trustworthy link to the government left, I'm intrigued to see how Ryan will adjust to straddling the line between answering to the president and looking after Team Nikita's interests.

I was also pleased to see Michael interacting with the Division agents he'd trained when he and Nikita stormed the castle -- even as an "outsider," it was obvious that he found it easy to fall back into old authoritative habits, and Shane West perfectly portrayed Michael's confidence and resolve once he was back on the home field. I wonder if he'll be back to wearing a power suit when we see him next. We had a brief, obscured moment of friction between Michael and Ryan when they were debating Division's future, so I'm curious to see if that will continue next year. When we spoke, West also pointed out that their new living situation is ripe with possibilities for conflict between Nikita and Michael: "They're different; Michael's very conservative and Nikita's very liberal ... When you see how it ends and what their current destiny is going to be, they're going to have different opinions on how to handle the situation." Whether that means trouble for "Mikita," we'll have to wait and see.

Even though she was the show's calm, steely center last season, I think Maggie Q has truly come into her own in Season 2, and it's clear that episodes like the phenomenal "Wrath" have given her new confidence in portraying Nikita, just as the character herself seemed to reach a new level of self-possession after the events of that episode. She has such admirable poise now, clearly buoyed by the support of her team, that I can't wait to see how the character faces next season's challenges. But as thrilling as her rousing speech to the Division personnel was, I think my favorite moment of the episode was her quiet, sunset conversation with Michael regarding their future. It was an understated, but heartfelt moment between two characters who have suffered more than their fair share of heartbreak, and I was impressed by the understated, but potent emotion on Q's face.

That segued into Birkhoff finally getting some action with Sonya (and a welcome cameo from showrunner Craig Silverstein, who could be spotted talking to Ryan in the background) before Nikita effectively ruined yet another romantic moment between Sean and Alex, who really do need to have a proper date over the summer.

Having the finale end where the show began, with Nikita and Alex steeling themselves to change the course of Division's destiny all over again, proved a fitting punctuation mark, while still leaving the door open for more thrilling adventures next season. I, for one, can't wait to see where "Nikita" takes us next.

What did you think of "Homecoming"? Were you glad to see Percy and Roan exit while Team Nikita got to fight on for another day? Share your reactions and predictions for Season 3 below!

"Nikita" returns in the fall with Season 3 on Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.

The Trevor Project, Cooper's sponsored charity, won $50,000.

The 2012 Power Players series was taped last month at D.A.R. Constitution Hall in the nation's capital.

It was certainly a star performance by Cooper -- there was even one category titled "A.C."

Despite missing a Daily Double question about James Jones' "From Here to Eternity," Cooper answered another Daily Double correctly and had a considerable lead heading into Final Jeopardy -- but not a complete runaway.

All three of Friday's Power Players missed the Final Jeopardy question about cotton gin inventor Eli Whitney, though Cooper said he knew the answer was the inventor of the cotton gin but just couldn't think of Whitney's name.

Kelly O'Donnell and Friedman both won $10,000 on behalf of their charities, the Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation and Conservation International, respectively.

Who's showed their smarts on Jeopardy's "Power Players Week" episodes?

Currently in its third year, The Six Pack is one of the top comedy podcasts on iTunes, with listenership in over 70 countries. Huffington Post Gay Voices will regularly feature episodes of The Six Pack.

Episode #95: "Pulling a Biden"

LISTEN:

Carnie Wilson and Lizz Winstead join us for a very girly edition of The Six Pack. First, Carnie tells us what it was like finding success so early in life, and about the insecurities that still stick with her. She also opens up about her born-again Christian bandmate Chyna Phillips and reveals how she feels about her reality show, Wilson Phillips: Still Holding On.

"There are things I don't like about [the show], but it's the way it is. It's reality TV," Carnie says of her reality TV show. "I hate that they have to make it where people don't want to change the channel. And unfortunately that takes either watching a train wreck or watching somebody get hurt feelings, and that sucks."

Next up, Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead gives us her thoughts on that bully Mitt Romney, and she ain't messing around. Her new book, Lizz Free or Die, also gives us some personal insight into Lizz's own life, including her childhood ambition to be a priest!

Catch The Six Pack Saturdays on SiriusXM OutQ channel 108 from 1 to 3 p.m. EST and as a weekly podcast on iTunes, sixpackradio.com, and now... Huffington Post Gay Voices! Listen to the entire podcast episode here.

Follow The Six Pack on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sixpackradio

Follow Dave Rubin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rubinreport

Here's who and what was on our raging gay radar this week.

Kara Laricks wins Fashion Star: Out contestant Kara Laricks was crowned the winner of Fashion Star, an honor that comes along with a $6-million deal with with Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue, and H&M. The former schoolteacher told Rolling Stone.com, "The fact that it was me standing in the end is more than I could believe." Who says lesbians have no style?

Photo by Tyler Golden/NBC

New photos from Passion: Brian De Palma is remaking the the French erotic thriller Love Crime, about a powerful executive in a multinational corporation (played by Rachel McAdams) who hires a naïve young assistant (played by Noomi Rapace) and then promptly seduces her into some dangerous "games." Variety reports that Passion is "a return to the style of De Palma's early thrillers, such as Dressed to Kill and Blow Out." New photos released this week have us intrigued, and we're hoping that De Palma's Passion will dare to take the erotic relationship between the two women further than in the original.

Photo courtesy of Integral Film

MMA fighter Jessica Aguilar comes out as bisexual: While prepping for the biggest fight of her career (tonight in Lake Charles, La.) the MMA fighter talked to SportsIllustrated.com about how she discovered the sport and also about going public with her bisexuality. Aguilar said, "It's always been something I had to be very conservative about and it's something I've had to get more comfortable talking about ... If somebody doesn't agree with my choices, with all due respect, I just don't feed into it because that's negative energy. I'm sorry -- this is who I am."

Photo courtesy of JessicaAguilar.com

Ellen DeGeneres awarded the Mark Twain Prize: The Emmy-Award-winning comic and TV host has been named this year's recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. DeGeneres reflected, "It's such an honor to receive the Mark Twain Prize. To get the same award that has been given to people like Bill Cosby, Tina Fey and Will Ferrell, it really makes me wonder ... why didn't I get this sooner?"

Photo Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Bold and the Beautiful star Joanna Johnson comes out as a lesbian: In an exclusive interview with TV Guide Magazine, the daytime TV star discussed coming out alongside her fictional character, Karen Spencer: "When [executive producer and head writer] Brad Bell called and pitched the story I was kind of thrown. I just said, 'Oh.' And there was this very long pause. Then I said, 'Where'd you get that idea?' He laughed. I laughed. And I said, 'Just make sure you get me a hot wife.' And he did!" Johnson's "hot wife," played by Crystal Chappell, made her debut this week on the show.

Photo by Sean Smith/JPIStudios

Sasha Alexander talks Rizzoli & Isles lesbian subtext: The actress who plays Dr. Maura Isles on TNT's Rizzoli & Isles says that she knows all about the show's subtext-loving lesbian/bi fanbase. In an exclusive interview with AfterEllen.com, Alexander talked about her onscreen chemistry with co-star Angie Harmon and how said fans interpret it. She told us, "What works for me is the fact that regardless what the interpretation is, whether that's a sexual relationship or not, that these are two smart women who are positive role models. Women who are not these catty stereotypical types who are fighting over who looks cuter. The fact that we can dig deeper into a friendship that can have conflict, that can be funny, that can be sexy -- that to me is what I am like with my girlfriends. And I admit there is some boob grabbing going on on set. I am not going to lie and say there is not. And not just her and I, it's all the ladies on set." 

Photo courtesy of TNT