Manhattan’s own Obscura Antiques & Oddities and its owners, Mike Zohn and Evan Michelson, are the focus of a new series, “Oddities,” premiering Nov. 4 at 9:30 p.m. on Discovery Channel. It’ll air Thursdays at 9 p.m. thereafter.
The shop, located at 280 East 10th (between 1st Avenue and Avenue A) has a cornucopia of just-plain-weird stuff, like human gallstones, late 19th century poison bottles and bizarre medical instruments. And Zohn and Michelson seem just as colorful (he’s a “creative taxidermy” winner; she’s into Victorian mourning jewelry and was in a “Goth fetish band,” whatever that is).
In the first episode, Mike finds a mummified cat in the private collection of “an eccentric artist” (ya think?) but worries it might be putrefying. Yeeeccchh. He also informs a customer, who thought he had a collection of musket balls, that they’re actually something else entirely. I won’t spoil it for you.
The second episode finds Evan encountering a puppeteer who’s looking for a prosthetic limb, and a customer who has what appears to be a dead body in the trunk of his car.
Good times.
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Julie Chen and her cast of thousands pulled, as Larry David might say, “pretty, pretty good” ratings in their maiden week on CBS’ new show, “The Talk.” At least in New York, anyway.
Airing at 2 p.m. on Ch. 2, “The Talk” replaces “As the World Turns,” which was pulling pretty dismal numbers before the hammer fell. So keep that in mind. Still, “The Talk” performed well for Ch. 2 in the key women demos for which it’s being produced.
For example, it averaged a 0.9 in women 25-54 last Monday through Thursday, 80 percent better than what “ATWT” averaged last October. It also increased 67 percent in women 35-64; 20 percent in women 18-49; and 18 percent in women 35-plus.
As far as households, “The View” was up 19 percent over what “ATWT” averaged on Ch. 2 the same week last year.
It’s co-hosted by Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, Leah Remini, Sara Gilbert and Marissa Jaret Winokur.
MTV’s “Jersey Shore,” meanwhile, snared 6.1 million viewers in its second-season finale last Thursday night. For the season, it finished as the highest-rated series in MTV history, averaging 5.8 million viewers — up 115 percent over last season — and is basic cable’s top-rated series this year in persons 12-34.
“Jersey Shore” co-stars Vinnie and Ronnie visit MTV’s “The Seven” this Friday (5 p.m.) for an in-studio Halloween visit with hosts Kevin Manno and Julie Alexandria.
Last, but not least:
* Kelly Clarkson stopped by the set of CMT’s new sitcom, “Working Class,” to say hello to series star Melissa Peterman and meet the cast, including Ed Asner . . . TLC will air a “Sister Wives” special, hosted by Natalie Morales, this Sunday at 10 p.m. It’ll catch up with Kody Brown et al. since the series wrapped earlier this month . . . The CW has given full-season orders to new series “Hellcats” and “Nikita” and while renewing “One Tree Hill” for the rest of the season.