Listen up, Twi-hards!

“Twilight” may get all the headlines (“New Moon” Crosses $200 Mil Mark!” “Kristen Stewart: ‘I’m So Not Bella!’”).

But “The Vampire Diaries,” also a tale of the deadly undead, has quietly built a loyal following, first as a series of young-adult novels and now as a CW TV series.

The two may seem the same — both are high-school-set dramas about a young mortal girl in love with a brooding vampire guy — but “The Vampire Diaries” is no “Twilight” wannabe.

With the first 10 episodes of “Diaries” as evidence (all week, the CW is marathoning the season so far on Ch. 11, vamping until the show returns next month), here are five reasons it’s better than “Twilight”:

LOVE BITE: Nina Dobrev (left) and Kayla Ewell, from the breakout “Vampire Diaries,” are more fun than those mopey kids from “Twilight.”

Photos: PopWrap’s 10 Best Shows of 2009

“The Vampire Diaries” will feed your bloodthirsty needs this holiday season with a full-week marathon.

Beginning Monday, Dec. 14, The CW will air two episodes per night at 8 p.m. ET/PT for five nights. So if you haven’t caught the show yet or just wanted to revisit your favorite Mystic Falls characters, tune in all this week.

To whet your appetite, The CW Connect offers up these interview with the cast members answering fun fan questions.

The actors weigh in on which superpower they’d want the most, whether or not Stefan (Paul Wesley) would revert back to feeding on humans like he once did and if Elena (Nina Dobrev) has vampirism in her future. Oh, and Steven R. McQueen is just so adorable so we had to include him too.

Enjoy!

As we all know on “Vampire Diaries,” Damon (Ian Somerhalder) has always had his eye on Elena (Nina Dobrev). He’s even teased his brother — and Elena’s boyfriend — Stefan (Paul Wesley), that he thinks she’s major eye candy. But, with Stefan and Elena finally going there (yes! They did it! You know … the big IT!), it seemed these two are on track to staying together and making it work.

Uh, well, cut to the fall finale episode, when Elena finds a photo of her look-a-like and former Damon/Stefan paramour, Katherine, and then freaking out and subsequently almost dying in a car accident. Apparently, this car accident and the events following it will somehow lead to Elena spending a lot more time with a certain Salvatore brother: Damon (!!!). Yeah, we’re confused too.

So, we asked Nina at Tuesday’s Golden Globes Young Hollywood party to tell us what we can expect in the crop of new episodes set to air beginning this January. “The last episode we ended on a cliffhanger,” she explained to MTV News. “My character gets into a extremely big car accident, she hits someone and you’re left hanging. You don’t know what’s going to happen, so we’re going to pick up right from there and you’re gong to see what happened and what happened after that.”

She very coyly added a split second later: “And, let’s just say Elena and Damon are gonna hang out a little bit.”

Uh oh…

“The Vampire Diaries” returns to the CW in January, but until then keep checking back with us for more scoop and news!

I heard Paul Wesley (Stefan from The Vampire Diaries) will be on 24 this season. What can you tell me about his character? — Jean
MICKEY: Hey Jean, guess what? He actually already has appeared on 24; you probably just didn’t recognize him because he wasn’t famous yet. Wesley played Stephen, Kim Bauer’s husband, and will reprise the role this season, much to the delight of tween political thriller fans everywhere.

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