TVSquad

As I think about the past year, in both my life and in the world of TV, there's plenty I have to be thankful for. The life stuff is obvious: health, family, my girlfriend, a roof over my head, food on my plate, and a job that I enjoy. But the TV stuff isn't quite as obvious. So, as the balloons float over midtown Manhattan and people get ready to gorge themselves, here are a few things that made me happy to be a television watcher this year:

The election - Yes, it was too long. And, yes, it was exasperating at times. But it was the source of a lot of entertaining television. Of course, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and SNL were in top form (Tina Fey became a huge star, thanks to Sarah Palin). But entertainment came in many forms this election season, from Katie Couric's skewering of Palin to David Letterman's spat with McCain to just about anything that came out of Joe Biden's mouth. Finally, I have three words of infinite entertainment for you: Chuck Todd's goatee.

So McCain finally broke down and reappeared on Letterman in lieu of his bugging out of the last one to be interviewed by Katie Couric. He begged forgiveness in as dignified a manner as a Presidential candidate could. Letterman responded by ripping him a new one, deservedly so.

The hypocrisy of skipping out on an interview to supposedly fix the economy but end up on ANOTHER interview show deserves at least a few snide remarks.

But, all feuds must end otherwise the public tires of them. This happened on Letterman last night.

So tonight is the big night when Senator John McCain visits The Late Show with David Letterman on CBS to make amends for bailing on the late night host to go to Washington to work on the Wall Street mess, only to stay in New York and do an interview with Katie Couric instead. As it turns out, Senator Joe Biden is going to be talking to Jay Leno on NBC around the same time. Could they each be bringing a guest with them to the late night talk shows?

Rumors are spreading that not only will Sarah Palin join McCain on Letterman's show, Senator Barack Obama could join Biden on Leno's show. While it would be hard for Obama to appear on Leno's show because it's taped in California, Leno hinted at the possibility earlier this week.

Amy Sedaris is creating and will write and star in a new sitcom co-produced by 20th Century Fox TV. Paul Dinello, her Strangers With Candy co-creator, is also involved. The show is being co-produced by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants.

It's sad that the third co-creator of Strangers With Candy couldn't be involved with this production, but I think Stephen Colbert is a little busy right now with that television show of his. Strangers With Candy itself was considerably risqué and I doubt whatever she's developing will be suitable for network television. Perhaps she'll go back to Comedy Central? Hopefully, it won't land on Fox where anything of quality is canceled prematurely.

I have been lucky enough to see Amy Sedaris live on two occasions (as well as watching many episodes of Strangers With Candy) and think she has buckets of talent. Whatever she's developing, I'm confident will be better than 95% of the crap on television.

Now that Senator John McCain is doing the most important thing in his campaign to become the 44th president of the United States, agreeing to appear The Late Show with David Letterman, I think we can say that the Straight Talk Express is on the way to being back on track.

It was inevitable, and really, really necessary, for McCain to fix this problem with Dave. McCain was the butt of the joke for nearly three weeks and it hasn't helped his campaign. Appearing Thursday should do a lot to ameliorate his image and in every way it can only be a win-win for McCain and Letterman.

That headline might be confusing to some. After all, doesn't David Letterman have an episode of his show every Friday night?

He does, but he always tapes it on Monday night after he tapes the regular Monday episode. But he wants to tape a show on Friday so he can comment on the Senator Joe Biden/Governor Sarah Palin VP debate which happens on Thursday night.

While NBC is carefully plotting Jay Leno's exit from The Tonight Show, David Letterman is talking about staying on the CBS Late Show beyond 2010. And since the subject of Leno came up, Dave thinks the guys at NBC are nuts to treat Jay the way they are, especially since he's done such a great job in the 11:30 slot. Letterman even said he wants Jay on his show the day after his Tonight Show tenure ends.

Letterman, who was once the heir apparent to Johnny Carson's desk but was passed over in favor of Leno, has thrived on CBS even though he was crushed to lose The Tonight Show. The supposed feud between Letterman and Leno, and their competition for The Tonight Show, was depicted in the HBO film (and Bill Carter book) The Late Shift. (If you've never seen it, buy or rent it; it's one of the best films ever about how TV works behind the scenes.)

So we all know that Conan O'Brien is taking over for Jay Leno next year, and that when he does Leno might go some place else, perhaps ABC, which might bump Kimmel to 12:35am. But what about the other late night player in all of this, Nightline?

The long-running news show will probably be dumped and its employees out of jobs if ABC pays Leno a bunch of money to come over to the network to host a show at 11:35pm and go up against David Letterman. Even though Nightline's ratings are good (they often beat Letterman) and it's makes money, they'll make more with Leno.

On Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen plays a vulgar playboy, a shallow guy who's more interested in booze, women and having a good time than being responsible and working hard. The role has earned him a couple of Emmy nominations and a lot of money. A lot of money. In fact, in a new poll from TV Guide, Charlie Sheen is the highest paid actor on TV, making $825,000 per episode; in a season of 23 shows, that comes out to nearly $20 million.

That's more than he could make in the movies, and unlike films, Charlie can keep on raking it in on Two and a Half Men for years. The show is a huge hit in syndication, so more episodes will simply mean more money down the road.

Right behind Charlie on the list is fellow CBS leading man, CSI's William Petersen. He's making $600,000 an episode. He's only doing ten episodes this season, but since he's also an executive producer on the series, he's probably making even more.

Goodbye, Jay -- you don't mind if we push you out of the chair, do you? If you thought NBC made a mess of the David Letterman/Jay Leno replacement switch-off back in 1992, then you might find it not very surprising that the hand off from Jay (I don't want to go) Leno to Conan O'Brien is portending to be just as sticky.

According to TV Week, NBC is poised to announce the official Jay Leno departure from The Tonight Show and Conan O'Brien arrival today. Our man at the TCA, Joel Keller, could have all the details later on, so keep checking back with TV Squad.

Reportedly, Leno will be exiting in late May, possibly on the anniversary of the date he took the chair from Johnny Carson, May 25. Carson's last Tonight Show was May 22, 1992; Jay's tenure commenced on Monday, May 25. The problem with re-creating that symmetry in 2009 is that those dates are Memorial Day weekend.

If you're like me, the last two weeks of Late Show reruns have driven you crazy. I actually get a little bummed out when the late night shows are in repeats, especially Letterman's show. Letterman is always the great bookend to my day. I can always count on him to entertain me before I go to bed, to make me laugh. But he has been in repeats for the past two weeks (not just one, but two!) and it's been lame. I mean, if they had older repeats from two, four, six, ten years ago, that would be cool (we've talked about this here several times before), but it's always repeats from a few weeks ago and that's just tedious.

So, to hold us over until new episodes of The Late Show start this Monday, a few videos from Letterman's past. The first one is from the Jacksons Variety Show in 1977 and features Dave with Michael Jackson!

You talkin' about my hair? Well, all right -- What is that? A swim cap?

One of the greatest all-time moments of my senior year of high school was watching David Letterman completely dismantle Madonna. She came on with the idea that she was going to set the agenda and really give Dave the business; I guess the sycophantic dancers in Madonna's pre-show prayer circle told her that she was really funny. Anyway, if you remember, she went toe to toe with the big guy and, to quote a phrase, she awoke a sleeping giant.

Letterman's cultural cache might be waning a bit -- he was beaten by Nightline in the ratings recently -- but his wit is still with him. Further, as the following clip with hair-product enthusiast Spencer Pratt will show, he can still seethe with barely controlled rage at our culture's propensity to elevate idiots to places of prominence. The video after the jump...

Like most red-blooded Americans, I love lists. We do a lot of them here at TV Squad and you'll see them at many sites every single day of the week. But I think that sometimes the lists go too far. I mean, what's the point of listing the top 50 or top 100 of something? Isn't that a little bit too many spots? Instead of getting down to the nitty-gritty (say, a top 10 or top 25), you ended up not only listing the best, worst, most, least (or whatever the list's topic is), you're just listing all of them.

Case in point, this Forbes list of the 100 most powerful celebrities.

When you think of funny people in America, who do you immediately think of? Stephen Colbert? Robin Williams? Chris Rock? Matt Stone and Trey Parker? How about David Letterman or Dane Cook?

Some of the people above are on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 25 funniest people in America (two of the people above aren't on the list, nor should they be!). Some of the choices are downright baffling (as usual for these lists): Augustun Burroughs? Please. Diablo Cody? Good writer, but one of the funniest in the country based on Juno? But it's good to see the Sedarises on there (both David and Amy), as well as people like Tina Fey and Demetri Martin. There are even two current cast members of Saturday Night Live on the list. Can you guess who they are?

Once you read the list, you can go into the comments and say "why the hell is _________ on the list?!?"

It seriously sends a message to CBS when even Nightline as well as Leno is beating Letterman in the ratings. Nightline averaged 3.6 million viewers for the week ended May 19. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno averaged 5 million and The Late Show with David Letterman averaged 3.4 million according to latest Nielsen Media Research data.

It's tough to believe that David Letterman has fallen from grace so far and is now largely irrelevant. Given the gap, perhaps NBC should look into keeping Leno for a little bit longer rather than have him leave in 2009, particularly considering that even Craig Ferguson is beating Conan O'Brien in the ratings.

I remember when Letterman was a shot of adrenaline to the late night wars. What has Letterman done (or not done) to place him in the number three position? If CBS decided to replace Letterman, who would be the logical choice for the timeslot?