Random happenings in TV land today …

- Here's a holiday gift for "American Idol" fans: the "Karaoke Revolution: American Idol" PS2 game, which includes an artificial intelligence capability that will allow players the chance to have their performances rated by real "AI" judges Simon and Randy. The game, to be released on Dec. 6, features songs like "Build Me Up Buttercup," "Hungry Like the Wolf," "Let's Stay Together," as well as "AI" contestant tunes like Taylor Hicks' "Do I Make You Proud?" Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway" and "She Bangs," the Ricky Martin made notorious by William Hung.

- This is sad: Reportedly, among the "Saturday Night Live" firings heading into the new season will be "Snakes on a Plane" star Kenan Thompson, whose Star Jones and Bill Cosby impressions are among the show's best bits. Guess there's not a lot of need for a Star impression now that she's out of a job, but here's hoping someone wisely develops a new series to showcase Kenan's talents.

- "Good Morning America" has a new weather guy: ABC New York's Sam Champion.

- "Prison Break's" season 2 premiere ratings were actually down from last year's series premiere, and the numbers dropped even more for the post-"PB" series premiere of "Vanished."

If you missed either show on Monday night, by the way, you can watch the full episodes, free, at Movieweb.com.

- IFC's greenlighting new episodes of "Greg the Bunny" and "The Henry Rollins Show."

- "Cops," meet Sheriffs. Fox Reality is developing a new reality series that will follow a training class of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department hopefuls. "The Academy" is set to premiere next year.

- USA says yes to a fourth season of "The 4400."

- "The Office" creator Ricky Gervais has launched another season of his must-hear podcasts, but they're not free this time around.

- The $25,000+ Emmy Awards swag bag is once again packed with goodies that, ironically, will be passed out to celebs who are the very people wealthy enough to be able to buy their own goodies. Though, thanks to the recent IRS decision to make celebs pony up taxes on their outrageous haul of free loot, some famous types may not be picking up their baskets this year, organizers fret.

- And more Emmy happenings: Insiders worry that the ratings will be down this year, thanks to lackluster star power and the late-August timeslot; Pinnacle Sports.com breaks down the odds for the major Emmy races; and Sprint is offering its cell phone users a game that lets them pit their Emmy predictions up against "Survivor" host Jeff Probst's.

- posted by Kim