Callista Gingrich

Submitting to fiscal and political reality, Newt Gingrich's campaign announced Wednesday that he would soon end his presidential run, awash in debt and having won only two states. The former House speaker's bid was unlike any in recent memory - part presidential campaign, part book-signing and movie-screening junket, and part tour of the nation's zoos. It repeatedly imploded, but almost as repeatedly resurrected, seemingly by the sheer force of Gingrich's will. Along the way, he first boosted his standing as a GOP elder statesman after years offstage, but toward the end risked damaging his image with his drawn-out departure.

Reporting from Columbia, S.C. - Newt Gingrich is surging and the guy ahead of him, Mitt Romney, as well the guy behind him, Rick Santorum, are rattled. Only days ago, Romney was sitting on a comfortable lead in South Carolina's Republican primary race. Santorum was anticipating a positive bump in his numbers, thanks to the endorsement he received from top Christian evangelical leaders and the good chance that a final, official count of votes in the Iowa caucuses would show he actually beat Romney in that state.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 4 - 10 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     CBS This Morning Filmmaker Ken Burns; Sam Sifton. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Newt Gingrich; Susan Boyle; Will Geist; Curtis Stone. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC KTLA Morning News (N) 7 a.m. KTLA Good Morning America Jake Tapper; Marissa Jaret Winokur; Rachael Ray; Les Gold and Ashley Broad. (N) 7 a.m. KABC Good Day L.A . 7 a.m. KTTV Live With Kelly and Michael Robert De Niro; Isla Fisher; DJ Connor Cruise.

"The New Normal," which premieres Tuesday on NBC, concerns Bryan and David (Andrew Rannells and Justin Bartha), a gay couple who want a baby; Goldie (Georgia King), the young woman they hire as a surrogate mother; Goldie's quirky-precocious 8-year-old daughter, Shania (the invaluable Bebe Wood); and her problematic grandmother, Jane (Ellen Barkin). I'm no fan of the works of its well-known co-creator, Ryan Murphy, who has "Nip/Tuck," "Glee" and "American Horror Story" in his portfolio.

The tenure of an openly gay spokesman for Mitt Romney's campaign lasted less than two weeks. On April 19, Romney's campaign announced it had hired Richard Grenell, 45, as its foreign policy spokesman. On Tuesday, Grenell tendered his resignation, citing a “hyperpartisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from being on a presidential campaign.” Grenell never had a chance to make an impression with the public in this job. Last Thursday, the Romney campaign held a conference call with reporters to blunt a foreign policy speech that Vice President Joe Biden was about to deliver.

He may have signaled that he was considering an end to his presidential bid, but Newt Gingrich plans to continue Wednesday on a multi-day sprint through North Carolina that involves nearly two dozen events for the former House speaker and his wife, Callista. Gingrich is scheduled to throw out the first pitch at a college baseball game, visit local GOP gatherings, and, of course, fit in a visit to a zoo. But on Tuesday night, when presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney swept five primary contests, Gingrich gave the clearest signal yet that he may not continue his campaign until the party's convention in August, contradicting what he had been saying for months.

DENVER - President Obama on Wednesday cast Republican Mitt Romney as a throwback to the 1950s on issues related to women's health in a speech aimed at winning women's votes in a key battleground. “When it comes to a woman's right to make her own healthcare choices, they want to take us back to the policies more suited to the 1950s than the 21st century,” he said, taking direct aim at his rival. “Mr. Romney's running as the candidate of conservative values. There's nothing conservative about a government that prevents a woman from making her own healthcare decisions.

Washington turned off the rancor and partisan fighting on Sunday to show it can still unite behind something: A Neil Diamond sing-along. The button-down crowd at the Kennedy Center loosened up the black ties for a rousing rendition of Diamond's "Sweet Caroline," as the power pop, camp-inclined performer and songwriter was officially branded a national cultural treasure at the Kennedy Center Honors gala. Meryl Streep, jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and Broadway star Barbara Cook joined Diamond in the lineup of honorees at Washington's annual salute to the performing arts.

TAMPA, Fla. -- Everyone knows the big names who will be getting face time on the stage of the Republican National Convention this week. The nominees of course. Some of the larger, ahem, Republican governors. And rising party stars.   Plenty of lesser known Republican lights will have a turn as well, and some you might not have expected.   The conservative actress Janine Turner, star of the 1990s TV hit “Northern Exposure,” will speak on Tuesday evening, though not in prime time.