News Brief

CBS: Vote now in Nielsen's Daytime Entertainment Panel on "The Young and the Restless".

News & Observer: How much of an Erica Kane fan are you? Do you know her well enough to win two tickets to see Lucci and Regis Philbin at the Progress Energy Center?

NY Post: "Friday Night Lights" is back in the ratings doldrums after a promising start this season. Last Friday's episode averaged only 5.4 million viewers - and, more alarm ingly, finished second-to-last (9-10 p.m.) in adults 18-49, losing roughly 300,000 view ers its second half-hour.

New York Magazine: "Friday Night Lights": Has Everyone Forsaken Small-Town Values? After overblown season debut — in which Landry kills the stalker who tried to rape Tyra last season — it was time to restore peace to Dillon in episode two. As peaceful as things ever get anyway. The seeds are now in the ground for a season’s worth of blowups, heartaches, and wounds that can only be mended by winning football games.

Kansas City Star: The finals of SOAPnet’s “I Wanna Be a Soap Star” air live tonight. The finalists are Ashlee Holland from Roanoke, Va., and Jimena Hoyos from Bogota, Colombia. One of them will get a 13-week contract with “Days of Our Lives.” The runner-ups included Monica Thomas of Topeka and Travis Wood of Ottawa, Kan.

Peterborough Evening Telegraph: It's been the launchpad for countless superstars and is a hot topic of conversation in homes, pubs and offices up and down the country four nights a week. And now, one talented city actor's name will be on the lips of millions of soap fans after clinching a once-in-a-lifetime part on EastEnders. Himesh Patel (17), from Sawtry, near Peterborough, hopes big things are also in store for him, but, at the moment, he is just revelling in rubbing shoulders with the likes of film legends Barbara Windsor and Phil Daniels on the Square.