You're watching According to Jim, ABC's comedy series. The often-bickering couple played by Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith are in the living room of their suburban home. Their television set is on, showing a commercial.

The next thing you see is the same ad they're viewing on your screen as a full-fledged commercial.

Are you ready for the world of "seamless commercials"?

Media Daily News, an online publication, reports that ABC, experimenting with the format, recently showed the process to a group of media buyers in Los Angeles. The idea, of course, is to keep viewers from switching channels during commercial breaks. ABC, stressing that the process is a work in progress, showed 10 examples of how such seamless commercials could work in a comedy series.

Ugly Betty, the network's hit freshman hour, provided another illustration. A commercial might pop up on a cell phone or in a fashion magazine before morphing into the real thing.

If only the networks used as much imagination in creating their entertainment product.

By the way, cable outlets and some networks certainly didn't heed my pleas to eliminate those pop-up promotional figures, which clog the screen during dramas. During a recent rerun of Law & Order on TNT, Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) sneaked onto the bottom of the screen, ducked under yellow police crime-scene tape and flashed a spotlight as Sam Waterston pleaded his case in the courtroom.

Talk about annoying.

Remembering a talent

City councilmen in New York are expected to vote early next month about naming a Manhattan intersection after the late Jerry Orbach of Law & Order fame. If a resolution is approved, East 53rd Street and Eighth Avenue would be named "Jerry Orbach Intersection," honoring the native New Yorker who, in addition to TV success, was a Tony Award-winning Broadway actor. Orbach and his wife lived near the intersection for nearly 25 years.

Dusty's pick for tonight

Frontline (9 p.m., Rocky Mountain PBS-Channel 6) airs the fourth and final installment of News Wars, its intriguing look at the changing world of media.

And changing world is an apt description of this hour, as correspondents illustrate how the media operates in other parts of the globe.

Correspondent Greg Barber concentrates on Arab countries, with the emphasis on Al Jazeera.

During another compelling segment, correspondent Sheila Coronel pays tribute to world journalists who have been killed, jailed or exiled by countries for daring to tell the truth.

It's competitive out there

Fox's American Idol steamroller shows no mercy. Today's hourlong competition among 10 remaining finalists, airing at 7 p.m., will run until 8:07, an obvious ploy to cut into the second hour of ABC's Dancing With the Stars, when judges are eliminating the first dancing couples.

The two shows compete directly at 7 p.m., with Dancing recapping the competition from Monday night. ABC deliberately shied away from a Tuesday-night results show last week so as not to compete directly with Idol.

Dancing's March 19 season premiere drew more than 22 million viewers, the most ever for the series. Part of the draw was the appearance of Heather Mills, Paul McCartney's estranged wife, who performed with an artificial left leg.

The two series are scheduled to be in competitive time periods several times in April.

Burying 'DIRT'

If you really care, today's season finale of Dirt (11 p.m., FX cable), the grubby FX series about life in the world of tabloid journalism, features "the kiss" between two former female stars of Friends.

Courteney Cox, who stars in and co-created Dirt (the name of a fictional tabloid magazine), locks lips with Jennifer Aniston, in her guest-starring role as a competing tabloid journalist. Aniston's character loves the ladies and can be even more devious than Cox's character.

No announcement has been made about a second season of Dirt, which has been anything but a rousing hit.

A new season of The Shield takes over the time period next Tuesday for 13 weeks, to be followed by another run of Rescue Me.

Today's nostalgia

On March 27, 1988, NBC premiered Gore Vidal's Lincoln, a widely praised two-night docudrama based on the author's book. The production starred Sam Waterston and Mary Tyler Moore.

Dusty Saunders is the broadcasting critic. saundersd@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5137

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