Alyssa Milano made a return to comedy after years on "Charmed" with her new ABC series "Romantically Challenged," airing tonight on ABC.
"When I first read the 'Romantically Challenged' script, I thought to myself, 'I did this for eight years during my youth, no problem,'" Alyssa tells ET. "Then creeping closer and closer to the date we were going to start shooting, I got really nervous. I think a lot of that plays into the mental aspect that you are actually going to be shooting in front of a live audience."
But the night of the first taping, Alyssa experienced déjà vu and calmed down.
"I was waiting outside a door to come on and I saw the audience laughing and this sense memory came back from when I was a little girl," she says. "I relaxed, thinking, 'Oh you have been here before.'"
On tonight's episode, when it's time for Rebecca (Milano) and Perry (Kyle Bornheimer) to go back to their high school reunion, Rebecca is ready to confront Jesse (Kristoffer Polaha), the guy who publicly humiliated her by standing her up at the senior prom. But Perry knows the real reason why she was stood up and tells a preposterous lie to keep Rebecca from discovering the truth.
Like her character, Alyssa, who is a newlywed, having married agent David Bugliari last August, says there was a time when she was "Romantically Challenged" in real life.
"From when I was 18 to 35, I was romantically challenged," she says. "I hated dating. I hated the whole dance of: You meet someone and you make plans to go out, and you don't know what to wear and then you go out and you don't feel like you can be totally yourself. Then there is the whole, 'Do I kiss him or not kiss him thing? Is he going to call me the next day?' I hated it so much, I just jumped from relationship to relationship so that I wouldn't have to go on dates."
"Romantically Challenged" airs tonight at 9:32 p.m. on ABC, following "Dancing with the Stars."
Subject: Alyssa Milano is 'Romantically Challenged' -- But Only on TV 
Mon May 03, 2010 1:48 pm
