TVSquad

This is not a political post. Let me repeat that: this is not a political post. I just thought that Anderson Cooper was pretty funny in this clip from his show, trying to get information from Sarah Palin's spokesperson. She's a bit confusing and spokesperson-ish though, and at one point Cooper really does scratch his head.

There are about 20 funny lines in this short segment from last night's episode of The Colbert Report. Colbert goes after CNN's Anderson Cooper for getting the exclusive story on what happened to Bubbles, Michael Jackson's former pet chimp. "Crank up the AC!"

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
CNN Finds Bubbles the Chimp
www.colbertnation.com

Have you ever noticed that whenever Richard Simmons visits a talk show, he makes everyone feel uncomfortable? Last night he visited Anderson Cooper and Erica Hill to talk about his new health initiative, and he started to dance around the studio, which made the two hosts laugh. He wanted Anderson to dance, but we all know that he doesn't dance! I think Simmons is a little too old for the tank top and shorty-shorts, don't you?

All that white hair and he's two years younger than I am.

Anderson Cooper's birthday was June 3 (mine's June 9 - I like money and DVDs!), and he was surprised on the set the other night by two special guests: Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly. Just kidding! Actually, it's a woman who hasn't made the A-list of celebs yet and a woman who is sure you can't afford anything.

Cooper always seems embarrassed by these things.

[via TV Newser]

No, that doesn't say "Elmo," though I could understand the confusion because Anderson Cooper was on Sesame Street last year. I mean emo.

USA Weekend interviews Cooper and he talks about a lot of subjects, from the places he hasn't gone in the world that he'd like to visit (China), what's on his iPod (Marisa Monte), what he watches on TV (Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List?!), Hurricane Katrina, that he hasn't gone to the dentist in five years (I used to be like that too), and why his dog is almost human. When asked what he does on the weekends, Cooper says he works for 60 Minutes. Seems like even his vacations involve work too.

Here are the weekly cable ratings, by number of viewers.

I'm always a little surprised to find Anderson Cooper 360 in the top 10 ratings. Shouldn't there be another cable news show in the top 10, like O'Reilly? Not sure why he's not represented, though I'm sure the primary coverage last week helped CNN.

USA is happy that their shows (In Plain Sight, Law and Order: CI) continue to do well. But bring on Burn Notice!

1. Sprint Cup Racing - Pocono (TNT)
2. Monday Night RAW (USA)
3. Law and Order: CI (USA)
4. Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
5. Army Wives (Lifetime)
6. In Plain Sight (USA)
7. SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
8. SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
9. SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
10. SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)

If you've been wondering why Anderson Cooper hasn't been on his CNN show this week (I believe Soledad O'Brien has been filling in for him), it's not because he was busy spending the day with Barack Obama for a special episode that airs tonight. It's actually because he had cancer surgery on Monday.

Cooper describes on the Anderson Cooper 360 blog that "a small spot of skin cancer" was removed from under his eye. He says he wasn't even going to mention the surgery, but he still has stitches, and when he returns to the show tonight people would have noticed and he'd have to explain anyway (of course, he's probably still going to explain what's wrong, since I'm sure a lot of people don't read the 360 blog).

Here are the weekly cable ratings, by number of viewers.

The headline for the Nielsen cable ratings this week is "Odd Baby Beats Up Wrestling Stars." Nickelodeon's new Fairly Odd Baby movie (from the Fairly Odd Parents series) got the #1 slot this week, as well as the #9 slot. The debate is Texas got the second slot, while the Anderson Cooper 360 analysis of the debate came in third.

1. Fairly Odd Baby (Nickelodeon)
2. Democratic Debate (CNN)
3. Anderson Cooper 360 (CNN)
4. Monk (USA)
5. WWE Monday Night RAW - 10pm (USA)
6. WWE Monday Night RAW - 9pm (USA)
7. SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)
8. Tennessee/Memphis Basketball Game (ESPN)
9. Fairly Odd Baby (Nickelodeon)
10. SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon)

Dear Anderson:

I was just reading about you over at TV Newser. I guess this is the new trend in TV news shows, anchors blogging live while their show is still going on. Greta Van Susteren over on Fox News has been doing it, and now you're doing it too.

You called Wednesday night's first effort "an experiment." As far as I can tell, you didn't actually blog during the broadcast, you just answered viewers questions in the comments section of the blog (if I'm wrong about this let me know), but I can see how you're all trying to connect television to the web, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I blog all day for a living, but I'm not sure I want to see my TV news anchors live blogging while they're doing a live show on television.

Here are the weekly cable ratings, by number of viewers.

Now this is a varied ratings list. Sure, we have Monday Night RAW in there just like every week, but thrown into the mix are politics (the Democratic Debate from CA, the State of the Union and analysis), Law and Order, a movie on Disney, an episode of Monk, and not one but two - two! - episodes of Anderson Cooper 360. The episodes were helped by the fact that they followed the Democratic Debate - one is from 9:52 p.m. on Thursday and the other from 10 p.m. the same night. Eight minutes later. Crazy ratings.

1. Democratic Debate (CNN)

It used to be that a band would debut a new song either on a tape that they handed out to fans at a club or on a radio station. Now they're debuting on cable news shows.

REM will debut their new song "Until The Day Is Done" tonight at 10 on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360. This isn't the first time they've used Cooper's show to debut something. The "Bad Day" video was first seen on the show five years ago. Tonight the song will be used during scenes from the special Planet in Peril.

Did you see Paris Hilton on Larry King Live last night? Here's the transcript. Jeez, she really did nothing to help her cause, eh? She seems honestly, sincerely, and deeply clueless. And as a guy, I don't even find her hot or appealing. She has the personality of a wicker chair. I found all of her talk about wanting to help people and learning her lesson and "reading the Bible" completely unconvincing.

After the jump is a roundup of what the internet is saying today about her appearance.

A while back I called Anderson Cooper "The Four Million Dollar Man." Looks like we're going to have to call him something else.

CNN has just given the anchor of Anderson Cooper 360 a big increase in pay. Cooper will be paid $50 million over the next five years. Yes, that's 5-0. That comes out to be $10 million a year, but it's up to you whether you want to call Coop "The 50 Million Dollar Man" or "The 10 Million Dollar Man."

So readers, is he worth it? It's really hard to judge whether one person is "worth" the amount of money they are given, whether it's Michael Jordan, Julia Roberts, or Anderson Cooper. But Cooper does indeed seem to be the future of CNN, the "face" of the network, if you will, and it looks like they want to lock him in for a long time to come.

Cooper hosts his nightly show at 10pm and also contributes to 60 Minutes over on CBS.

Animal Planet host Jeff Corwin was tossed by an elephant while filming a segment with CNN's Anderson Cooper. Corwin is a regular correspondent for Cooper's show, Anderson Cooper 360, for a segment called "Planet in Peril". The duo was in Cambodia at the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center when one elephant put Corwin's arm in his mouth and shook him. On his blog, Cooper describes what happened to Corwin as being "tossed like a ragdoll". Corwin also posted on the blog, and describes the incident in very little detail and a non-alarmist way. It's apparent from his post that he's more concerned with the plight of the Cambodian elephants than with what happened.

The video is on Cooper's blog (and on YouTube) right now, and once you watch it, you'll be amazed to know that Corwin was generally okay. His arm wasn't even broken, just badly twisted and bruised. After the incident, Corwin continued filming with Cooper and then went to get checked out by a doctor, who put him in a sling. He may have some ligament damage, but will have to wait to know for sure when he returns to the U.S. I was actually very impressed with Cooper's reporting because he didn't let the incident overshadow the real reason for being with the elephants.

Video after the jump (the attack happens at 2:40 into the video):

[Thanks, Tim UF!]

I like Keith Olbermann. I've interviewed him in the past and I watch his show regularly. I find myself agreeing with him more than disagreeing, especially when it comes to his "Special Comment" segments and Bill O'Reilly. But I'm wondering if he hasn't gone too far (needlessly) this time.

I didn't see this episode of Countdown last week, but Olbermann named CNN host Anderson Cooper a "Worst Person in the World" because of something Cooper said in a Men's Journal interview, about being approached to do a nightly newscast on another network:

"Doing 22 minutes of news from a desk in New York is not for me."

That's the quote that earns him a "worst person" nod?