-By Mike Shields

People.com is looking to make it easier for its readers to catch their favorite, or most buzzed about celebrities on TV—wherever and whenever they may appear.

The Time Inc. site has partnered with the Tribune Media Services property Zap2it.com to infuse its news and feature coverage with TV listings information. To do so, Zap2it.com has built a Watch on TV module that now lives within the site’s ‘Celebrity Central’ pages; when a user reads news about a particular celebrity, the module automatically lists that celebrity’s upcoming TV appearances.

For example, on Tuesday (Sept. 29), just below an article appearing on the site regarding the news that Jon Gosselin was leaving the TLC hit Jon & Kate Plus 8, readers encountered a TV Guide-like mini set of listings detailing Kate Gosselin’s next two upcoming TV appearances. The Watch on TV will provide such information on everything from stars’ regular series appearances to guest spots on daytime and late night shows over a two-week period, said officials.

People.com has signed on NBC as the exclusive launch partner of the new Watch on TV content.

In addition, as part of the new relationship between the two companies, People.com has launched a co-branded listings app powered by Zap2it.com. That move would appear to put the site squarely in competition with traditional listings providers like TVGuide.com and even corporate sibling EW.com.

"People.com continually looks for new and innovative ways to enhance and expand our content for entertainment fans," said editor Mark Golin. "Adding TV Listings from Zap2it reinforces People.com's leadership position as the leading destination for all news and information on celebrities."