TVSquad

On Sunday, Michael Vick will be interviewed on 60 Minutes in hopes of showing contrition, making a case for his NFL comeback and generally doing as much PR as possible to rehabilitate his image. The former Atlanta Falcon quarterback and NFL poster boy is pretty desperate to get back into the league -- and the money that comes with it.

Michael Vick, as you probably know, was once the highest paid quarterback in the NFL. He was on the cover of magazines and was considered an unstoppable force on the field. Off the field, however, he was running an illegal dog-fighting business. He spent most of the last two years either in court or in prison for his involvement in a syndicate that promoted gambling and killed dogs.

Andy Rooney is 90 years old, and has spent the greater half of the twentieth century (and well into the twenty-first) providing political and cultural insight to the masses through op-eds in both print and on CBS newsmagazine staple 60 Minutes. Despite remaining America's favorite most recognizable curmudgeon, Rooney's weekly diatribes have grown increasingly stale, and significantly more bizarre with each episode.

Any semblance of lucidity Rooney may have employed in ... I guess (?) what was once considered clever or funny or - at the very least - entertaining material has most assuredly fallen to the wayside. The scraps with which we've been left are, indeed, entertaining, but not for the reasons Rooney (or the producers of 60 Minutes) probably intended.

You know that Barbara Walters-Rosie O'Donnell dust up this week with the two former View co-stars trading comments/insults about the sins of the past? Well, it smelled to me of a publicity stunt and now I'm convinced of it.

Turns out both divas will be having TV specials on Wednesday night, November 26. That's tomorrow night. Rosie Live will air at 8 o'clock on NBC.

Meanwhile, Barbara Walters has snagged Barack and Michelle Obama for a one-hour news special to air at 10 o'clock on ABC on November 26. What a coincidence!

All things Obama are doing really well right now. Not just winning the election, but the top of the charts for Senator Barack Obama's two books, merchandise with Obama's image and name, anything and everything about the president-elect is hot, hot, hot. Thanks to the first major post-election sit-down interview with Barack and Michelle Obama last Sunday, CBS's 60 Minutes had its largest audience in nearly a decade. The 6.4 rating/16 share (adults 18-49) translated into a viewing audience of just under 25 million.

The enthusiasm and excitement for Obama is not unusual when you're talking about a new president. I recall this kind of buzz before Bill Clinton took office in 1993. The Clinton Inaugural even warranted a two-hour TV special that featured a glitzy array of celebrity Friends of Bill, like Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Fleetwood Mac, Warren Beatty and more.

Don't tell Keith Olbermann -- he of the Countdown special commentaries -- but CNN's Anderson Cooper is the Edward R. Murrow of our era. That's according to Lisa DePaulo of Elle, but the popularity and proliferation of Cooper, from CNN to CBS's 60 Minutes to anchoring Times' Square on New Year's Eve and filling in for Regis Philbin on Live with Regis and Kelly, backs up her assertion.

"He is our generation's Edward R. Murrow; that is, if Murrow were this good-looking and had lived in a world with Gawker and TMZ," DePaulo writes. "This is not just because of Cooper's exacting standards of journalism-hard work, legwork, no-divaness. He's a purist, really-like Murrow."

As this election season turns into the home stretch, whether you're for McCain or Obama, this is a very exciting time in politics -- and I find myself really missing Tim Russert quite a lot. This point was really driven home for me when I watched Tim Russert's show Meet the Press last week. Tom Brokaw has been a really good anchorman and reporter, but -- I'm sorry -- he's not a good moderator. He's just not. He doesn't get involved in the questioning enough. He doesn't ask the penetrating questions. He doesn't do his homework like Russert did to be right on top of the facts and catch politicians spinning rather than speaking the truth.

Like I said, Brokaw is not in his element with Meet the Press. Fortunately, he's only doing MTP until after the election. I give him credit for stepping in when Russert died unexpectedly and there was a network crisis. However, looking to the future, NBC needs to find the right person to take the big chair. NBC News chief Steve Capus is reportedly thinking about a rotation of hosts, including Chuck Todd (NBC's political director) and David Gregory (host of Road to the White House, MSNBC).

Have we seen the last of Mike Wallace on TV? If you believe his son, Fox newsman Chris Wallace, the answer is yes. Mike Wallace, who has been recovering from a January triple bypass heart surgery, recently had a fall in his home in New York. Fortunately, Mike wasn't badly hurt, but the doctors are watching him closely in the hospital because of the complications from his heart surgery. He is on blood thinner because of the bypass and if he starts to bleed from the fall, he could bleed out.

According to Wallace's son, Chris, host of Fox News Sunday, the heart "is working fine," but he added that his 90 year old father is done with TV. Does CBS know that for sure? I mean, will there be no future Mike Wallace interviews or special interviews? He retired from 60 Minutes in 2006, but remains with the network as Correspondent Emeritus. Chris made it sound like there will be no more TV ever for Mike Wallace.

He also said of his father, "He's doing really well," having spent time with him while he was in New York at Fox's studios to report on the presidential primaries.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Chris Wallace is on the short list for replacements if -- more likely when -- Katie Couric departs the CBS Evening News anchor desk. Wallace, son of the CBS elder statesmen and 60 Minutes attack dog Mike Wallace, has been host of Fox News Sunday since 2003. But the guy isn't interested.

"As much as I grew up in CBS and as much as I associate that anchor chair with Walter Cronkite and the history of broadcasting, I have never been so happy as I have working the last four-plus years at Fox. I suspect I've had a much better last couple of years than Katie Couric."

Let me start this rant by saying that I like sports. No, I love sports. I'm a fan. I get the DirecTV NBA package and the major league baseball games. I can talk to you for hours about stats and players and great games. That said, I hate the way Sunday sports programming drifts over into primetime. This happens primarily on CBS and Fox with the NFL games in the fall and winter, but the other networks have been guilty of staying with the game and then still insisting on showing the primetime schedule after the game is over -- even if that means that an 8 o'clock show begins at 8:45 and your DVR gets all screwed up and you wind up with only 15 minutes of a show you wanted to see!

They most prestigious award for excellence in broadcasting -- next to the Emmys -- were announced today. The 67th Annual Peabody Awards honored Mad Men, 30 Rock, Dexter, Project Runway, The Colbert Report -- all favorites here at TV Squad -- among others. To the Peabody Award voters, I say, "Good job."

The winners, chosen by the Peabody board -- which is part of the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication -- will receive the awards on June 16 at a luncheon at New York's Waldorf Astoria. NBC News anchorman Brian Williams will be the emcee.

After Johnny Carson, David Letterman is my favorite late night talk show host of all-time. But last night he made a joke that made me cringe (and I'm pretty cringe-resistant).

He was giving the weekly "Fun Facts" list (doing it on Wednesday this week because he's in repeats tonight and Friday due to of March Madness basketball), and the last joke in the pile was one about Andy Rooney. I don't remember it verbatim, but it was something along the lines of, "Andy Rooney's wife tells him, 'yeah, a--hole, I've noticed," a joke about how Rooney always says the phrase "you ever notice...," which, in all fairness to Rooney, I think has been said more by his impersonators (like Joe Piscopo) than by Rooney himself.

Mike Wallace, the semi-retired 60 Minutes correspondent, underwent triple-bypass heart surgery over the weekend at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

The 89-year-old Wallace, the oldest of the 60 Minutes correspondents, is recovering nicely, according to a CBS News spokesperson. The spokesperson added that the Correspondent Emeritus was already taking his first steps just two days after undergoing the procedure. Man, this guy is tough! It is unknown at this time if the surgery was planned or done after a checkup revealed an issue.

Hey, Brigitte here with TV Squad Daily. I'll be covering the TV stories I find interesting each day, Monday through Friday, in this video blog.

Today on TV Squad Daily:

• Bad mental image: Simon Cowell likes to blow off steam by getting lots of lap dances.
  
• The 60 Minutes interview with the President of France was short and not sweet at all.
  
• On the set of Grey's Anatomy, there are no plastic bottles allowed.
  

The video's embedded below, or you can subscribe to this podcast via our feed. Plus, you can also download the file directly.

• At 7, NBC has a new Football Night In America, then the Bears/Packers game.
• The CW has a new episode of The CW Now, then a new Online Nation.
• At 7:30 (or after football), CBS has a new, 90 minute 60 Minutes, followed by new episodes of Cold Case and Shark.
• At 8, FOX has new episodes of The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, and American Dad.
• ABC has a new Extreme Makeover at 8, then new episodes of Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.
• At 9, PBS has a new Mystery!
• Food Network has a the series premiere of The Next Iron Chef at 9, followed by a new Iron Chef America.
• Showtime has a new Dexter at 9, followed by a new Brotherhood.
• Also at 9: HBO has a new Tell Me You Love Me.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes.
• NBC has a new Dateline at 7, then the Concert For Diana.
• FOX has a new episode of The Loop at 7 (new episodes air at 8:30 and 9:30 as well).
• At 9, PBS has a new Mystery!
• Food Network has a new Next Food Network Star at 9.
• WE has a new Bridezillas at 9.
• There's a new John From Cincinnati on HBO at 9, then new eps of Entourage and Flight of the Conchords.
• At 10, Lifetime has a new Army Wives.
• MSNBC has this morning's Meet The Press at 10, if you missed it.
• Showtime has a new Meadowlands at 10.
• Also at 10: E! has a new Simple Life Goes To Camp, followed by a new Sunset Tan.

Check your local TV listings for more.