Barbara On 'Oprah'

Two titans of the talk show world meet up today when Barbara Walters of "The View" goes on "Oprah" (WMAZ, 4 p.m.) to promote her new autobiography that also hits bookstores today.

I've never really been a huge Barbara Walters fan -- I don't like "The View" and I always skip the "Barbara Walters Specials" on ABC -- but she is something of a TV pioneer as the first femae co-anchor of the evening news in 1976.

The book has already drawn a certain amount of notoriety because it details Walters' affair with U.S. Senator Richard Brooke, the first African-American elected to the Senate. Though I'm not a fan of adultery by any means, I actually have more of an issue of a journalist sleeping with a public figure she's supposed to be covering. Compromising objectivity downgrades the whole profession.

Walters, however, can't complain about the advance publicity for her book. In addition to the "Oprah" appearance, she is also getting a one-hour special on ABC Wednesday night at 10 p.m. called "Audition: The Barbara Walters Journey."

ELECTION COVERAGE: A few weeks ago, I said the networks should limit themselves to one network covering key political events, and that it should rotate around.

Interestingly, since we're in the sweeps period, none of the networks are covering the Indiana and North Carolina primaries live, instead opting for original programming. (Although I'm certain they will be interrupting the shows with news breaks and a crawl giving constant updates). So you'll have to tune into one of the cable news networks for the running totals in these key primaries.

TUESDAY'S BEST BETS: If you are fine with limiting your political knowledge to the news crawl and limited news breaks, there's plenty of new stuff around the dial.

It's hard to believe, but "Dancing With The Stars" (ABC, 8 p.m.) has already reached 100 episodes, and will be running back-to-back episodes tonight, followed by a new "Women's Murder Club" at 10 p.m.

That "other" music reality show, "American Idol" (Fox, 8 p.m.), is down to its final four contestants and is followed by "Hell's Kitchen."

CBS has new episodes of "NCIS" and "Shark" beginning at 8 p.m., while NBC has a new "Law & Order: SVU" at 10 p.m. "Reaper" (CW, 9 p.m.) is also new.

Finally, a couple of documentaries of note. "American Experience" (PBS, 9 p.m.) examines the presidency of the first President Bush, while "Bud Greenspan: At The Heart Of The Games" (ESPN2, 9 p.m.) details the life and experiences of the great Olympics filmmaker.