Episode

Natalie Zea says she prefers doing comedies, but her characters in two high-profile dramas find themselves in peril this week. "Oh, God, I know. I gotta get away from this," she said Friday with a chuckle. "I've got to go do some sort of slapstick comedy!" The laughs will have to wait, at least on the small screen. In Fox's "The Following," she plays Claire Matthews, the former wife of serial killer and cult creator Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) and former lover of the man who put him away, FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon)

Northwestern University junior Daniel Donohue may or may not have won $100,000 in the "Jeopardy!" College Championship. You'll have to watch the two-week tournament starting Monday to find out for sure. Donohue was selected to compete on the show against 15 other college students around the country from schools like MIT, Stanford, Georgetown, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. His first episode is set to air at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday on WLS-Ch. 7 (ABC). The 21-year-old Communications major was surprised to find out in February that he had been chosen even after passing a 50-question online test and an in-person audition in Cleveland.

Director Michael Bassett loves to blow stuff up. That's why Cinemax's "Strike Back" was the perfect choice for his first TV directing gig. "I blow up an ambulance and it's one of the biggest indoor explosions I've ever seen," Bassett told me at San Diego Comic Con. "When the shockwave hits you - you're sitting at your monitors 50 yards or 100 yards away - and then suddenly you just feel this wallop of air. Your crew is like, '[gasping sound].'...

Earlier this fall, “Hart of Dixie” actor Wilson Bethel wrote on Twitter that he was “glistening like a Christmas ham” for an upcoming episode. Bethel, who plays bad boy Wade Kinsella in the CW series, seemed a little embarrassed while talking about being shirtless for so much of the episode, but said that it makes sense within the story and is used with a great sense of humor.   “It doesn't really enter into the realm of being egregiously ridiculous,” he told me shortly after filming the episode.

Drew Roy can't complain about playing teen-turned-alien fighter Hal Mason in "Falling Skies. " Despite a constant alien threat, Hal seems to find time for romance. "I'll agree with you there," Roy said, laughing. "You know, being Hal, they throw a new girl at you about every other week. It's great. " The 26-year-old Alabama native was exaggerating just a bit, but during our phone interview before the TNT hit's second season began Roy explained that fans of Hal's relationship with his fellow scout, Maggie (Sarah Carter)

Michelle Lukes didn't get much time out of the crib during the first season of "Strike Back. " Thankfully that changed this year. As Season 2 of the action drama comes to a close Friday, we'll see Lukes' Sgt. Julia Richmond in action again as Section 20 launches an assault in the mean streets of Johannesburg, South Africa. The season finale airs at 9 p.m. CT Oct. 12 on Cinemax. Richmond proved she's more than a desk jockey in the season premiere with her total Bond girl moment as she and Sgt. Michael Stonebridge ( Philip Winchester )

The competition continued last night on "Top Chef: Texas," and so we continue our own point-based competition for the six Chicago chefs in the cast. Quickfire challenge: Border Grill's Mary Sue Millikin and Susan Feniger (remember them from "Top Chef Masters"?) guest judge a chili challenge in which they are to cook a dish with a pepper ranging in spice from the mild Anaheim pepper to the nuclear ghost pepper. Elimination challenge: Teams of three are to cook chili and serve it at a rodeo.

Bonjourno, squirrelfriends and welcome back for a new episode of the greatest show on television, "RuPaul's Drag Race. " When last we saw our fair ladies, they were impersonating celebrities--with varying degrees of success--in the "Snatch Game" episode. Can anything compare to that wonderful experience? Maybe something like Spring Break, perhaps? It's time for a wet T-shirt contest, kids! In the mini-challenge, RuPaul tasks the queens with offering up their best party girl realness using boob-plates from a company Ru name-checks but one that I will not. (How many places, exactly, are there to get fake breasts for drag queens?