Zap2it.com

A grave digger, a Christian talk radio host, a chicken farmer and a WWE wrestler lead the newly announced castaways for CBS' Survivor: China.

The 15th installment of the Mark Burnett-produced CBS staple will premiere Sept. 20 in an episode that finds the castaways starting in downtown Shanghai and moving to HuangPu Mountain's Mi Tuo Temple for a Buddhist ceremony. Then the castaways will be placed on separate islands on the Zhelin Lake in the Jiangxi Province.

Each tribe will be given a copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War for motivation and assistance.

Brilliant or vaguely racist? We'll leave it to the castaways and host Jeff Probst to decide.

In case you're curious, the WWE wrestler is Ashley Massaro, winner of the 2005 RAW Diva Search. She was also on the cover of the April 2007 issue of Playboy, according to her bio.

The chicken farmer? None other than Chicken Morris, who is also this season's oldest contestant at 47.

And not only does Leslie Nease host a mid-morning radio show on Christian talk radio, but she also represented North Carolina in 2001's Mrs. USA pageant.

'The Closer' finale

Several members of the Turner Broadcasting family will help add a realistic sheen to the season finale of TNT's The Closer.

CNN's Larry King and Court TV commentators Rikki Klieman and Dominick Dunne will all make appearances in the finale, which is scheduled for Sept. 10. U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., also will have a cameo.

The guest appearances will be in a story in which LAPD Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) gets caught up in a media maelstrom as she investigates a high-profile case. The Sept. 10 episode is the second in a two-part finale; the first half will air Sept. 3.

TNT isn't giving away too many details on the finale, but Brenda apparently has a great deal of difficulty with the case, and her investigation of the prime suspect seems only to strengthen the suspect's defense. She's eventually called to testify in the court case that follows, with Klieman and Dunne providing commentary on her performance.

The case may also have some political overtones, as King discusses the case with Sanchez on his show.

TNT, CNN and Court TV are all part of Turner Broadcasting.

Rah rah for 'HSM2'

The Disney Channel's highly anticipated sequel High School Musical 2 smashed a bevy of viewership records on Friday night.

The follow-up to the phenomenon that was High School Musical drew an estimated 17.2 million viewers on Friday night, a figure Disney Channel boasts makes it the most-watched basic cable telecast ever.

That's an 8 percent bump from the Sept. 23, 2006, Monday Night Football telecast, which gave ESPN the previous record.

Want some more High School Musical 2 records?

High School Musical 2 became the most watched basic cable movie of all time in total viewers by a margin of almost 2 million over 2001's Crossfire Trail on TNT.

The sequel drew 6.1 million kids between the ages of 6 and 11 and 5.9 million in the 9-to-14 tween demographic.

Thus, High School Musical 2 can now claim to be TV's most watched entertainment telecast ever in tweens (still trailing 2004's Super Bowl, if you want to get all technical about it).

High School Musical 2 drew the biggest audience for any Friday night telecast of any sort in more than five years and directly contributed to a night of low ratings on the major networks.

Airing from 8 p.m. to 10:05 p.m., HSM2 then expanded its halo to a special preview of the original series Phineas & Ferb, which drew 10.8 million, Disney Channel's second largest audience ever.