TV briefs: Dr. Drew casting call in Atlanta; CNN biter; former Atlantan on FX's 'Partners;' updates on Rod Man, Jocasta, Zack Everhart Jr.

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Usually when I write about biters, I'm referencing "The Walking Dead."

But not this time. CNN's award-winning Beirut correspondent Arwa Damon is being sued for allegedly biting an EMT in a drunken rage, according to a story in TMZ. She was at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad last July when this incident occurred.

CNN has not doled out any punishment that I know of. Damon, 36, joined CNN in 2006. She has extensive experience covering the Middle East.

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CNN's Carol Costello and Brooke Baldwin debuted their shows in New York today. As TVNewser noted, they used a backdrop of their old Atlanta studios on the screens. They were the last weekday anchors based out of Atlanta until their boss Jeff Zucker moved them up to New York, where he is based. Studio 7 in Atlanta will be handed over to sister station HLN, which still has daily anchor operations here.

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Credit: Rodney Ho

Credit: Rodney Ho

Daniele Watts, who graduated from North Springs Charter School of Arts and Sciences, is playing Martin Lawrence's self-absorbed 20-year-old daughter on a new FX sitcom debuting tonight at 9 p.m. called "Partners," which also stars Kelsey Grammer of "Frasier" fame.

Although Watts is 28, she is playing college age. This is her first regular role on a TV show.

Back at North Springs, she remembers Raven Symone ("That's So Raven," "Cosby Show") was part of her acting class. "She was already known as the 'Cosby kid,' " Watts said. "I was very jealous of her. We weren't close friends. I do remember seeing her work and being inspired. She took risks I didn't take. I hadn't acted before."

Watts spent her high school years learning how to act and also enjoyed show choir, obsessed with jazz standards. She said she had come from a pretty sheltered childhood in California and Orlando before coming to Atlanta in ninth grade, where she came to appreciate African-American culture. She attended USC and tried her hand at acting, doing mostly theater gigs, then picking up small roles in crime dramas such as "Cold Case" and "Criminal Minds." She then got a spot in "Django Unchained" and a recurring role on Showtimes' "Weeds."

Now she said she gets to work with two comedy legends. She says Grammer is quite the presence on set, prepping with theater-school type vocal exercises. Lawrence, she said, is easygoing but not super talkative. She said Lawrence's philosophy is doing what he feels right and being in the moment. Grammer, she said, is more of a planner.

Lawrence plays a bit against type as a goody two-shoes lawyer getting taken to the cleaners by his soon-to-be ex wife. Kelsey Grammer of "Frasier" and "Cheers" fame also plays somewhat against type as a morally questionable attorney. The pair work together in an "Odd Couple" set up.

The show is under the same model as FX's "Anger Management" and Tyler Perry's original "House of Payne" and "Meet the Browns" on TBS.  The production company creates 10 episodes. If the show pulls in enough ratings, FX will commit to 90 more episodes. (George Lopez recently tried the same deal but it doesn't appear as if his recent FX show will get picked up.)

Reviews for "Partners" have skewed more negative than positive, with Metacritic averaging reviews to a 44 out of 100. Given that the two main stars had their heydays in the 1990s, the sitcom does feels like it's stuck in that decade in style and form.

The New York Times cites the mediocre writing: "You begin to suspect that the discomfort is not in the characters but in the actors, who presumably know bad writing when they must recite it."

The New York Daily News' veteran critic David Hinckley gave it three stars out of five: "Too often "Partners" feels like it's being written to the jokes, not the characters." He also dubbed Lawrence "uncharacteristically stiff" while Grammer makes "pompous and devious funny."

The San Francisco Chronicle says "There is great chemistry between old pros Lawrence and Grammer, even if the scripts are spotty and feel about 20 years old, same-sex marriage references notwithstanding."

Watts' father Marvin Watts, a project manager who still lives in Stone Mountain, had a passing resemblance to Lawrence back in the day, Watts said. He would be called Martin so much back in the  day, he had people start calling him Marv to stop that from happening.

TV preview

"Partners," 9 p.m. Mondays, starting August 4, FX

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Several locals are on reality competition shows. Here's a quick update:

- Rod Man from Villa Rica is in the final four on NBC's "Last Comic Standing." His last set this past Thursday about ugly babies (or wha the dubbed "babies going through changes") pulled in universal praise from the judges.

Check it out here:

- Zack Everhart Jr. of Kennesaw cruised into the top 10 of Fox's  "So You Think You Can Dance." Here's his paso doble performance with Jacque LeWarne last week:

- Jocasta Odom of Lovejoy is in the top 11 on CBS's "Big Brother." I have not been following the show. She has been placed "on the block" to be voted off three times. Twice, she has been able to escape the block. This week, she was unable to do so and remains on the block. Frankie Grande, the brother of singer Ariana, has made quite a spectacle of himself on the show, I've read. He even said some snide remarks to Jocasta, suggesting she go "kill yourself." According to TMZ, Jocasta's sister Maranda Chelsea, told the pub, "It was an ignorant statement and the little respect I had for him just went out the window."  And the parting shot, "It shows the lack of maturity he has.