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Now that "America's Next Top Model" is in its 13th cycle, there are only so many ways to keep the concept fresh. Making the girls pose as circus animals? Done. Including a transgendered beauty named Isis? Done. Shaving the models' heads? Done to death.

So this time around, Tyra Banks lowered her standards. Literally. Only candidates 5-foot-7 and shorter were allowed to audition, whereas most runway models are 5-foot-10 or statuesquer. It gave 5-foot-6 Erin Wagner of Spring Grove the chance to try for a career as a petite model. And now that the competition is down to just four girls, Erin is emerging as the closest thing to a villain the producers can come up with.

"I know I came off as bratty, but it's reality TV so I've accepted my edit," says Erin. "Everyone watching should just keep in mind, what you see is not necessarily what you get."

The accused "modzilla" clarifies some of her more scandalous moments.

Ann Rule has become the gold standard of true crime writing for a generation that would say, "Truman Capote who?" It's understandable, considering he merely wrote In Cold Blood, while Rule has gotten inside the heads of killers in 31 books.

Now two of them have been adapted for the Lifetime Movie Network - Lifetime's sister channel - and the titles confirm that she is officially a brand name. "Ann Rule'sToo Late to Say Goodbye" airs Saturday at 7 p.m. and stars Rob Lowe as a dentist whose exes conveniently commit suicide. Lauren Holly plays his sister-in-law, who grows suspicious that her sister's death was a setup.

On Nov. 14, Gina Gershon vamps it up in "Ann Rule's Everything She Ever Wanted" as Pat Allanson, a Scarlett O'Hara wannabe with a bad habit of poisoning her loved ones. On Nov. 15, both movies will air, along with Mark Harmon in an adaptation of Rule's And Never Let Her Go.

Rule could be the patron saint of LMN, which appeals to women who expect the worst from people. Even though men are more commonly killers, Rule is an equal-opportunity journalist. "I have found that my female readers are more interested in women killers than men," she says. Three percent of all males are sociopaths or antisocial personalities, says Rule, while only one percent of women get the same diagnosis.

Dr. Mehmet Oz has degrees from Harvard and the Wharton School, and has co-authored five YOU: The Owner's Manual books. It's hard to imagine him unwinding with "The Simpsons," but it turns out that the ubiquitous doctor is a student of television, too.

One of his earliest influences was the '60s sci-fi series "The Time Tunnel," but he can also talk "Two and a Half Men" with authority. He has a particular reverence for his set at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, where "The Dr. Oz Show" is filmed. Thanks to Tina Fey, the rest of us now know it as the legendary "30 Rock," also the home of "Saturday Night Live" and NBC News.

"Aside from Oprah's studio, it's the best audience you could hope for," says Oz. "It's so eclectic. On any given day, you get people from 20 states and 10 different countries."

That fits right in with Oz's mission for the show, which airs 4 p.m. weekdays on WFLD-Channel 32. Now that he doesn't have Oprah Winfrey to co-host, Oz relies on audience volunteers to assist him. "The best person to take over Oprah's place is America," he says. "The show is for you, it's about you and it stars you."

Like Oprah's other spinoffs, "The Dr. Oz Show" has been an immediate success. Oz earned the best debut for any syndicated daytime talk show since "Rachael Ray" premiered in 2006, and has such attention-getting segments as "The Top Five Cancer Symptoms You Can't Ignore" and "I Survived a Brain-Eating Worm! A Dr. Oz Special Alert." Another popular feature: "Viewers Most Embarrassing Questions," which have included nervous peeing, testicle size and arm pimples.

"I like shows that have some level of intelligence to them," says Oz. "When it's not as predictable, when you don't know what's coming at you."

As he embarks on his own television career, Oz discussed some of his favorite TV personalities.

"Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins"
9 p.m. Wednesday on MTV

Katie Doyle has been doing the MTV thing for nearly a decade now. She joined the cast of 2001's extreme game show "Road Rules" when she was a 21-year-old student. Then she kept getting invited back. In total, she's been on eight "Real World/Road Rules" Challenges -- including the latest, "The Ruins," set in Thailand.

At this point, she's pretty much got it figured out.

"You're either the b---- or the slut on TV," says Katie, now 30, of Chicago. "Never be the slut. I tell the other girls, don't do that stuff! I'm proud to admit that I'm the only female on the Challenges who hasn't hooked up on camera."

That would make Katie . . . um, a fighter. It was her historic catfight with castmate Veronica Portillo in 1994 that really put Katie on the MTV map. Katie verbally obliterated the topless Veronica (no one is exactly sure why), while a girl wearing only a yellow towel tried unsuccessfully to separate them.

It was good TV.

'Acceptance'
9 p.m., Lifetime

In the Lifetime movie "Acceptance," Joan Cusack plays a St. John-clad, permanently clenched mom who wants her daughter to choose a college based on 1) academic excellence and 2) spousal potential. Not necessarily in that order.

In real life, Cusack was a lot luckier. Her father had more idealistic expectations of her academic career. "I remember my dad, who was awesome, saying to me, 'If you really want to act your whole life, you should go to college first,'" says Cusack. "He said I should learn about all the other wonderful things in the world and have great professors."

Her father, a documentary filmmaker who died in 2003, had to put off his own college adventures to fight in World War II. He enrolled at age 21. "He was a great lover of 18th century poetry, for some reason," says Cusack. "Who knows why. But he really appreciated college, and he wanted his kids to have that experience."

The Lifetime movie is a satiric look at how twisted the college application process can be. "It's about when ambition and competitiveness - those American ideals - get in the way of shaping true character," says Cusack.

It doesn't look like Joan Rivers, 76, will be retiring anytime soon. The reigning Celebrity Apprentice has a new show premiering tonight on TVLand - "How Did You Get So Rich?" - and her Comedy Central roast airs Sunday night.

There won't be room for shuffleboard in her schedule for some time.

"I've always worked like a horse with blinders on," says Rivers on the phone from New York. "All I care about is being relevant. I read my papers, go out on the stage. I work every night somewhere."

Chicago is the first place she made a living doing what she loved, and she hasn't looked back since. "I come out of Second City, you know, and that taught me, say what you think. God bless the Chicago audiences. That was the first place I said what I thought, and they said, 'Yeah!'"