Reality Check: 'American Idol' sets ABC preview

Ahead of its announced season 23 premiere March 9, the ABC singing competition “American Idol” will air a preview a week earlier, immediately following the network’s live telecast of the Academy Awards. As with regular episodes, the March 2 preview will include auditions, ABC said.

As previously announced, season 4 champion and eight-time Grammy Award winner Carrie Underwood succeeds Katy Perry on the judges panel, with Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie returning.

On Thursday, the basic-cable network WE posted a short trailer for its upcoming new series “Love After Lockup: Crime Story.” Set to premiere in February, this latest spinoff in the franchise about prison convicts’ romantic relationships after release focuses on the lawbreaking that led some of the series’ stars to incarceration.

“In-depth interviews provide a no-holds-barred look at the pre-prison life of the franchise’s most loved and notorious characters as they return to the scene of the crime, reflect on their origin stories and how far they’ve come,” WE said in a news release.

The old order changeth

Bravo executive and “Real Housewives” impresario Andy Cohen says the surprise cast revamp of his cable network’s long-running “Vanderpump Rules,” about staff shenanigans at an upscale Los Angeles restaurant, was overdue.

Calling it “the absolute right thing to do,” he said on his SiriusXM’s satellite-radio show “Andy Cohen Live” that with staff attrition over the last four years, “[S]lowly but surely none of them were working at SUR. The entire point of the show morphed and changed as it went on, and it wound up that James Kennedy was the only one with any kind of footprint at SUR, because he was DJing there occasionally and now he's gone on … and they're all having good success outside of SUR.”

Additionally, Cohen noted, some staffers now “don't want to be in the same room much less on the same show with each other … so what you were left with was really just a few pieces of what the original ‘Vanderpump Rules’ was, so I think this is a very smart programming move.”

Finale

Glen Cove-raised singer Shye, one of this season’s five finalists on NBC’s “The Voice,” goes for the glory Monday night at 8 and Tuesday night at 9, in the two two-hour season 26 finale episodes.

Premieres

Competitors from past seasons deck the halls with sugar, butter and chocolate on season 7 of “The Great British Baking Show: Holidays,” early Monday on the streaming service Netflix … Running two hours each at 8 p.m. this Tuesday and next, “Lego Masters: Celebrity Holiday Bricktacular” returns for a third installment, with Will Arnett as host and Sophia Bush, Eric McCormack, Holly Robinson Peete and Lil Rel Howery pair with fan-favorite past contestants as they brick it up for charity before judges Amy Corbett and Jamie Beard … Early Wednesday on Netflix, interior designer Jeremiah Brent joins the returning “Queer Eye” crew of Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness as they perform their makeover magic on needful Las Vegas denizens … Early Thursday on the streamer Peacock, hotel heiress Paris Hilton and fashion designer and actor Nicole Richie from the OG reality TV show “The Simple Life” reunite in the three-episode Paris & Nicole: The Encore” ... and Friday night at 8 on WE, Bay Shore couple Tia and Rob are among the couples finding “Love During Lockup” on the convict-relationship show’s fifth season.

Recaps

Punkin Jackson, Nick Morgan and Therron Pittman all reached “The Summit” in the inaugural finale of the mountain-climbing competition, winning $250,000 each, with a vote by all 13 contestants declaring Morgan the winner, for an extra quarter-million … The team of Jessica Harrison and Lenore Johnson took “Crime Scene Kitchen” season 3 … “Survivor” tossed Caroline Vidmar … and Teresa Giudice and Victoria Larson have been bounced from “House of Villains.”