You may recall that the CW last season was engaged in a feverish search for America's next top brain surgeon, only to be distracted, at the very last minute, by the greater quest involved in "Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll."

The Dolls went on to choose someone -- a young woman who, as far as I know, wouldn't have made the cut on the brain surgeon show -- as the next member of a troupe that seems to be infinitely expandable, given that the Dolls themselves seem to be infinitely expendable.

Someone's just asked CW entertainment president Dawn Ostroff about whether the chosen contestant, Asia Nitollano, will be joining the Pussycat Dolls.

"Asia has decided to do a solo career," Ostroff said. "We always said it was their [the contestants'] choice" on whether to join the troupe.

So what, asks another reporter, does this mean to the CW's upcoming "reality" show, "Farmer Wants a Wife"?

Ostroff seems to be lowering our expectations already. Sounds, in fact, as if "The Farmer" has as about as much a chance of taking a wife as the average "Bachelor."

"Like many of the dating games...sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work," she says.