The big news from the TV critics Press Tour Friday morning: Sarah Palin's Alaska premieres Nov. 14 on the freak show that is cable's TLC network, and, going for a little cross-promotion, the network has invited the Gosselin family for part of the ride. They'll go camping with Sarah and Todd and who knows what other Palins. (The Gosselin family these days, TLC President Eileen O'Neill confirmed, is just Kate and the kids.)

O'Neill dropped the bombshell just before a panel with the latest TLC family of weirdoes, the adults in a gaggle of Utah fundamentalist Mormons that features four wives and one husband, and enough children to make Jon and Kate's Plus 8 seem tiny. The show is called Sister Wives. Several critics were mortally disappointed after a wildfire rumor that Sarah Palin herself was going to be the TLC "talent."

In addition to hanging with the Gosselins, said O'Neill, Sarah and Todd, and perhaps some of their children, too, will be "showing off their beloved state." They hike glaciers and meet up with its "fascinating human and animal" denizens. They've encounterd brown bears and kodiaks, said O'Neill, "and are still looking for grizzly mamas." No word on whether they found any of Alaska's elusive liberals.

Executive producer Mark Burnett told me earlier that the eight-episode series will feature Palin showing her mettle as a worker in several different typically Alaskan jobs. O'Neill confirmed that Palin will be visiting logging operations and commercial fisheries, but there will also be elements of Alaskan adventure for adventure's sake.

No political agenda, O'Neill said about the show that will premiere nearly two weeks after mid-term Election Day, just good, clean outdoor fun.

OK.