TVSquad

Bob Sassone already did a post on how the amazing Anderson Cooper caused a little bit of an accident on the set of Live with Regis and Kelly yesterday morning when he subbed for the Reege. As funny as that -- and really, the entire "host chat" segment was -- it was not my favorite thing that happened on the show yesterday.

That honor goes to Cooper's interview with The Bachelorette's Jillian Harris. Harris was on the show with her "fiance," doing the post-finale press tour and shilling for the jeweler who provided the diamond ring that Ed bestowed upon her on Monday's season-ender.

While Kelly stuck to the script and asked the common, "when did you know he was the one?" questions, Anderson wasn't having any of it. He's Anderson freakin' Cooper, and as he demonstrated with his swift takedown of the Lohan clan, he doesn't have time for the shenanigans of D-list reality stars (except Kathy Griffin). So Cooper, always trying to get to the bottom of the story, flat-out asked Jillian how many dudes she boned in the Bachelorette mansion.

The silver fox has been popping up all over the continental US this week for his CNN show, AC360. Two nights ago Anderson hung out with some do-gooders in New Orleans, profiling the efforts of volunteer groups rebuilding Katrina homes. Last night, he made an appearance in Warren, Michigan, right out side Detroit to talk to hard hit auto workers.

Now, I enjoy it when they take him out of the studio and dump him among the commoners, since that's when his real talent of connecting with people comes through. But, as a viewer who might actually be interested in the news, it's getting hard to hear him over the whoops and hollers of his live audiences. It really hit a sour note last night while he was reporting on the death of Natasha Richardson.

If you're anything like me (first of all, you have my deepest sympathy), you haven't been able to sit still since The Daily Show and The Colbert Report went off the air for the holidays. It also may be because my body has absorbed more sugary fat from the holidays than one of Tyler Durden's homemade soaps.

Both shows returned to the airwaves Monday with new episodes. Both also had cable news celebrity cameos so big, no lightning fast news ticker announcing an accidental nuclear missile launch could draw your attention away from them.

The Daily Show returned with another appearance by CNN's gray-haired uber-anchor Anderson Cooper and an interesting interview with new Meet the Press moderator David Gregory. The Colbert Report picked up former Hannity and Colmes pushover Alan Colmes and wound things up with an interview with CNN reporter John King.

The continuing adventures of Anderson Cooper, Mr. Magoo and the magic board.

10:20: They've moved out to the lawn in Phoenix. The atmosphere there is quite a bit more, uh, subdued than in Chicago.

10:19: Yikes. Dana Bash looks more and more depressed each time they show her. She's reporting that McCain's camp has given up.

10:08: Wolf Blitzer: "Arkansas. Put that in John McCain's column right now." Is it wrong that that made me snicker? It doesn't even make sense!

9:59: Iowa was just called for Obama, and Anderson Cooper just asked what they're going to do when he gets to 270 electoral votes. "We leave!" was the reply. We'll see if that actually happens. Could we have an empty eleciton center soon? Check back for more coverage!

9:55: Roland Martin compared the Obama supporters in Grant Park to Lollapalooza. Meanwhile, back at the Biltmore, an unidentified old man is wandering around aimlessly on stage.

Election night! Election night! Let's check out the folks at CNN. Is Wolf Blitzer going to lose his mind? Is Anderson Cooper going to be pretty? Is John King going to lovingly stroke the magic board? Let's find out.

9:00: That's what we've got for now. I'll be back shortly with more updates-- and maybe we'll have a new president. Not that CNN will project that.

8:59: Soledad O'Brien is looking at demographic information with Mr. Magoo. Poor Mr. Magoo can't work the touch screen because he's not tall enough. Hilariously, this comes at the point in which they're talking about how age is a factor in the way people vote.

8:57: Drink. They're not even making a projection in Arizona.

852: Can someone tell me what is up with these clean coal commercials? This is the 7,000th one I've seen today.

8:48: James Carville looks more and more like a reanimated corpse every day.

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."

Now that the confetti has been swept away, all the balloons popped, and the St. Paul cops are stowing their riot gear, it's time to recall the surprisingly eventful Republican National Convention in Minnesota. Is it really only one week ago today that Senator John McCain pulled a rabbit out of his hat and introduced little-known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate? She's not little-known anymore. In fact, the 2008 Republican Convention is forever more to be remembered for her ascent, whatever her future portends.

Here's some other thoughts from the TV coverage of the RNC:

Media matters
Having the two political conventions back to back was a plus for the TV pros. All the mistakes from Denver were rectified in St. Paul. The MSNBC set ups avoided train stations and noise interruptions. Splitting up Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews worked better, with Olbermann as the point man throwing the coverage to the other news pros. And there was less bickering and fighting, at least compared to the week before.

"The Heart of Hopeness": Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech the other night, to a stadium full of insanely excited Democrats. John Oliver filed a report live from the site of Obama's speech. Man, John has really been putting himself on the line this week, being incredibly annoying in front of so many overexcited people. I mean, chanting "Osama!" at a massive crowd of Obama lovers is almost a sure to bring about a beating, but he totally lucked out with some relatively mild verbal confrontation. Other great moments included dancing to Jeremiah Wright's "white friends" song and making his move on hot strangers. As we would see later in the episode, it seems like the Democratic National Convention brought out the friskiness in the correspondents.

One of the best things about moving your show to New York? New York guest stars. Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa have signed up to play themselves on the September 25th season premiere of Ugly Betty. Conveniently, Ugly Betty's star, America Ferrera, announced the casting news while she was a guest on ... Live With Regis & Kelly.

In addition to the morning duo, other guest stars lined up for the new East Coast version of Betty include Ripa's husband, former All My Children star Mark Consuelos and Long Island native Lindsay Lohan. Lohan is reprising her role as Betty's high school rival for five episodes.

I'm a sucker for shows that are filmed in New York, so I'm super-psyched about this season of Ugly Betty. Now that they've already snagged Regis & Kelly, what other New Yorkers should Ugly Betty try to get as a guest star? Personally, my fingers are crossed for Anderson Cooper. But then again, my fingers are always crossed for Anderson Cooper.

(S04E01) Kathy Griffin is back, or as I choose to call her now Emmy Girl. Yes, the Emmy is on full display. In your face, everyone, Kathy's got an Emmy! Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List won the Emmy last year and if this first episode is a sample of what season four has in store, that Emmy is going to get a companion. This show is riotous. And irreverent and a perfect blend of comedy and celebrity reality which is really unreality because how many of us interact with Anderson Cooper and Michael Moore?

Kathy Griffin has found the perfect genre for her particular brand of comedy. A sitcom wouldn't capture her true character, strict stand-up is not her best venue (although she's gotten very good at it), and a talk show would force her to chat with others and appear interested. The My Life on the D-List format works for her and she's found a way to incorporate stand up, situation comedy and guests into a reality hour that highlights her being funny. She has supporting players -- Team Griffin, Jessica, Tiffany, Tom and Kathy's adorable mom, Maggie -- as her comic foils and partners in crime.

Aaron Brown is ready to return to television. After a two-year hiatus the 59-year-old journalist and ex-CNN anchor will be joining the PBS series Wide Angle as an anchor, producer and part-time field reporter.

Brown left CNN in November of 2005 after a network shake-up that gave his coveted 10:00 PM time slot to up-and-comer Anderson Cooper. He remained off of television due to contractual regulations and instead filled his time with teaching at Arizona State University as its first Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism. According to an interview with the Associated Press, Brown said he decided to work at Wide Angle instead of another cable news channel in order to "work in an environment where people just think about making good TV and good journalism." He added that cable news networks could be pushed into focusing on sensational, tabloid-like stories.

Wide Angle will begin its seventh season on PBS starting on July 1st. Topics that will be covered this season will be the crisis in the Sudan and the changing role of the military in Japan. Brown hopes to do some field work in Venezuela or the Middle East for future Angle stories.

When we opened TV Squad's mail bag today, we found this question from Robyn S.: "Am I losing it or am I seeing subliminal messages on ABC like "The Mole is watching you" and "The Mole is coming"? Quick, 2-3 second flashes after commercials. Is The Mole coming back this summer?"

Robyn, you'll be happy to know that you are not losing it, ABC's The Mole is indeed coming back to TV this summer.

With the rumors swirling around that Katie Couric may leave (or be removed from) the CBS Evening News soon after the 2008 election, speculation of what she might do and who might take her place has also been in the air. The latest speculation by insiders, though, is an interesting one, so interesting that it just might make complete sense.

According to the New York Daily News, "TV insiders," whoever they are, think that a trade of sorts might take place: Anderson Cooper comes to CBS to anchor the Evening News, while Couric goes to CNN to host a talk show in the 10 PM slot where Anderson Cooper 360 currently resides. The idea is to have Couric eventually take over for Larry King.

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:

• Rumor is, Jay Leno doesn't want to make way for Conan in 2009.
  
• CNN's Anderson Cooper guest starred today on Sesame Street.
  
• Prepare to be bombarded with public service announcements: analogue television is going extinct in 2009.
  

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

I was going to wait until this weekend to post this Larry King clip, but I have a feeling that it may be gone before the week is up. Most likely due to the fact that Larry himself will probably ask to have it taken down because he looks like such a whiner.

In this YouTube video, which can be seen after the jump, Larry has a little issue with CNN colleague Anderson Cooper. It seems that Anderson and his panel of presidential candidate debate experts are getting more time than Larry's panel is. Basically, he'd like to know why. Most likely because Cooper is a bit easier on the eyes than the very tired Larry. That, and the fact that Anderson doesn't normally ask his panelists what their favorite New York City deli is.