Amy Reiter

Now that “American Idol” and “Glee,” which I recapped for the Los Angeles Times, have wrapped up their seasons (read my takes on the season finales here and here), what am I doing with all my free time? Recapping “America’s Got Talent,” that’s what. Never having watched the popular NBC summer show before this season, I’m just getting used to the needling Howie Mandel-Sharon Osbourne-Piers Morgan judge dynamic, to the confounding combination of amateur and professional acts, and to the “Gong Show” and “Real People”/”That’s Incredible!” flashbacks from my youth. (Where are the Unknown Comic and Gene Gene the Dancing Machine when you need them?) If only Nick Cannon could master the Chuck Barris fake clap ….

Showtracker: “America’s Got Talent” recaps (Los Angeles Times)

Just because kids like foods that are gross to grownups (I’m looking at you, bubblegum ice cream) doesn’t mean they have no taste at all. Kids can be surprisingly discerning viewers when it comes to TV. This fall’s impressive slate of new kid-oriented shows has a lot to please children as well as their parents — from an adorable claymation sheep to a hyperactive animated antihero battling a villain named Dorkus to a trio of intergalactic escapees bonding together “sym-bionically” to save the Earth. Here are a few shows to watch for …

Fall TV preview: Kid-oriented shows (Los Angeles Times)