News Round-up: Gareis, LeBlanc, CORRIE, DTV

Roy and Hayley Cropper's CORONATION STREET spinoff
CORONATION STREET's Roy and Hayley Cropper will star with Becky Granger in a spinoff show. The cast members will star in a comedy offshoot from the ITV soap set in Romania and set to be released later in the year.

In the program, Roy, played by David Neilson and Hayley (Julie Hesmondhalgh) will be invited to the Eastern European state by a face from their past, who is getting married to a football star from the country. The trip contains many mishaps and pitfalls - including Hayley and Roy missing the nuptials - before their relaxing break is further upset by the arrival of another couple, the brash Verity and Glen, prompting them to cut their holiday short.

DTV switch doesn't hurt ratings
There may be a couple million homes that cannot receive a TV signal right now. But how many of those households actually watch TV regularly in the first place? Judging from the early ratings data, not many.

More than 900 stations shut down their analog signals Friday, causing some unprepared viewers to scramble to update their equipment. Yet the percentage of households using television from Friday to Sunday night was pretty steady when compared with previous weekends.

According to Nielsen Media Research, about 52.1% of households watched TV this weekend. The weekend before that: 52.4%. The weekend before that: 53.1%. And before that was Memorial Day weekend, with 50.4%.

Jennifer Gareis launches blog on CBS.com
"This is an incredible opportunity for me to share my videos, behind the scene pictures, and general thoughts on the always sizzling sexy Donna Logan storyline. My goal is to post video and written blog. I am currently learning how to use a Flip video camera...just got one last week. So keep in mind, I am not a professional videographer, but my hope is that this fact makes what I post all the more entertaining. think of it as home videos from the set of BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL!"

Guest star Emmy brings prestige without TV glory
"Across the board the performers have never been happy with it," declares DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES' Kathryn Joosten of the contractual network deal to honor the recipients of the guest star accolades at the low-key Creative Arts Emmys a week prior to the festooned Hollywood fiesta. "It's an honor and always a delight to be awarded any award by your peers," she humbly consents, "but, frankly, in terms of equality with other actors, a guest star Emmy gets you a doorstop."

INTERVIEW: Y&R's Christian LeBlanc (Michael)
On what he's looking forward to at the Daytime Emmys this year: "It's just like it was in New York, although I do miss New York. We're going to be old school in the Orpheum downtown which is gorgeous, very old school, old Hollywood. But seeing everyone together [is what I look forward to]. Traveling around was a treat because you don't see your New York partners, even the other regular CBS guys. I've made so many friends that way. It's mainly the people, getting to see everybody. It is an old home week. Scary for the civilians -- soap opera people on the town."