After six seasons, Oxygen is shutting down Talk Sex with Sue Johanson. Her final advice on love, lust and awkward positions will be dispensed this Sunday, May 11. The show will feature the year's top ten sex toys. Wheee!
A frequent guest on talk shows (and a favorite of David Letterman's), the 78-year-old grandma of two has been dishing sex advice on Oxygen for six seasons. Whenever I've stumbled across the show, I always thought it was just so weird. Like getting sex advice from your grandma.
Then again, between Johanson and Dr. Ruth, maybe they make the best sexperts because you'd never look at them in a lustful way. That's just my armchair psychology talking.
So, Disney CEO Robert Iger was having one of those yummy breakfast confabs talking about the future of the network and new media, alternate platforms and all those other fun buzz words about how we're going to be watching shows in the next few years. Then, kind of as an aside, he was asked about Jay Leno. With the end of Leno's era as the host of The Tonight Show looming -- and Conan O'Brien chomping at the bit to take over -- Mr. Iger said that he wouldn't rule out ABC going after Jay.
Ken Auletta of the New Yorker pressed Iger about Leno, to which the ABC head man squirmed and said, "It's not something we typically comment on."
David Letterman likes to make people think he's just phoning it in. And I'm starting to wonder if it's not just an act. Defamer caught him recycling his jokes last week. His monologue on Wednesday (Apr. 2) was nearly identical to his monologue on Thursday (Apr. 3).
Seriously. He just changed up the wording of a few jokes, and some of them he repeated word-for-word. This isn't like his on-going jokes about the "hookers in Times Square" or the "squirrels in Central Park" or "John McCain is so old that...".
So, AOL TV did a poll about America's favorite talk show hosts and 1.3 million people made their feelings known. Interesting results. I didn't agree with some of them, like who I like waking up with. Diane Sawyer was the top choice, but I'd go for the second place finisher, Matt Lauer. As for whom to go to bed with -- TV talk show wise, that is -- I can't believe most of the people chose Jay Leno. Is he really that popular? I prefer David Letterman; I'm a sucker for the Top Ten lists.
Mike's sitcom will be based on the comic's stand up comedy act as well as his weekly autobiographical blog. In the show, Mike plays a Brooklyn stand-up comedian who lives with his girlfriend, works on their relationship and tries to make a success in show business. The humor, naturally, will reflect the routines he's been doing on CD (two) and on TV -- The Late Show with David Letterman (he was one of the youngest guys ever to do stand up on the show), Comedy Central and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Variety has an interesting piece about how the television shows that have writers are faring against the shows without. To my personal chagrin, Leno is still beating Letterman in the ratings. Also, Conan O'Brien's show is topping the ratings of Craig Ferguson.
What does this say? Are the NBC shows so entrenched in American culture that it wouldn't matter if Shakespeare were writing Letterman's monologue?
Finally someone shows some love for Lost, which got itself back on track last season. The Directors Guild announced their nominees for this year's awards. Lost nabbed two nominations in the Dramatic Series category, for "The Looking Glass" and "The Brig." The Sopranos picked up two of the three remaining nominations, saving the last one for AMC's excellent freshmen drama, Mad Men.
On the comedy side, 30 Rock nabbed two nominations, with Desperate Housewives and Entourage picking up one each. And the critical love for ABC's incredibly charming Pushing Daisies continues as it snatches the final spot. But one category in which the Directors think very differently than anyone else is in Reality Programs. Not only is the kitschy Who Wants to be a Superhero? nominated, but is joined by Shooting Sizemore and Pros vs. Joes. The full list, including commercials, documentaries and mini-series after the jump.
Without a deal in place, the odds of The Late Show with David Letterman returning to the air by their goal of January 2nd is in doubt. This could be a major problem for Letterman considering that his major competitor, Jay Leno, returns to late night on January 2nd.
I don't see this turn of events as catastrophic for Dave, since he's always been very good at improvisation. This situation could be the true test of those abilities. Improvising when the guest makes a funny remark is one thing. Improvising a whole show is another.
As the strike lingers on and the Writers Guild of American (WGA) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) seem no closer to bridging their philosophical and monetary gap, the WGA is set to try a new tactic. According to Variety, the WGA is going to make a "legal demand" today for individual members of the AMPTP to schedule bargaining meetings with the WGA. However, at this point it isn't clear if the companies are legally obligated to do so, and if not, will they?
The blog The Top Socialite has posted what the author believes were the 12 craziest moments from the Letterman Show (both the NBC and CBS versions). I'm not certain exactly what criteria the author uses, but some of the segments are pretty damn funny and show Dave in his talented prime.
It's interesting to note that two of these segments made it to major motion pictures. The scene with Andy Kaufman throwing the coffee on Jerry Lawler was in Man On The Moon starring Jim Carrey and the segment with Harvey Pekar appeared in American Splendor (it appeared in the comic book too).
I would say this officially marks the end of the Dave-Oprah feud, as if it ever really existed. Supposedly, the "feud" started when Dave did a disastrous job of hosting the Academy Awards and kept saying "Uma. Oprah". At one point, Oprah did tell Time magazine that she didn't want to go on Dave's show because she always felt like the butt of his jokes and that made her uncomfortable. Oprah did finally appear on Dave's show in 2005 when she launched The Color Purple on Broadway. It's about time that Dave repays the favor.
What on earth is she going to ask him? Will he ever give her a serious answer? How many times will he mention Dr. Phil?
Yesterday we told you about Kathie Lee Gifford making her first appearance on Live with Regis & Kelly next month, and now she is revealing for the first time why she left the show in the first place.
She left in 2000 because her dad was dying. Gifford says she had an "epiphany" while guest-hosting David Letterman's show when he had heart surgery. She realized that she wanted to be with her dad and be with family without having cameras in her face and having to talk about it on the show all the time.
This probably isn't great news for Carson Daly, who has made it known he really, really wants the 12:30am gig. But it seems that Ludwin really likes Daly and thinks (as do Tina Fey and others) that Fallon and O'Brien would make for a great late night lineup at the network. Fallon told Howard Stern several months ago that he might get that gig after signing a development deal with NBC.
This week I got a trivia question from a reader named Len Maurer from St. Louis MO.
Len writes, "On Charles in Charge what was the last name of Scott Baio's character, Charles?"
I actually get this question quite often, and the answer is he didn't have one. Now some of you may insist that he did have a last name that was never mentioned on the show. However, according to a conversation I once had with Al Burton, executive producer of C in C, Charles was never given a last name ... ever.
After six seasons, Oxygen is shutting down Talk Sex with Sue Johanson. Her final advice on love, lust and awkward positions will be dispensed this Sunday, May 11. The show will feature the year's top ten sex toys. Wheee!
So, Disney CEO Robert Iger was having one of those yummy breakfast confabs talking about the future of the network and new media, alternate platforms and all those other fun buzz words about how we're going to be watching shows in the next few years. Then, kind of as an aside, he was asked about Jay Leno. With the end of Leno's era as the host of The Tonight Show looming -- and Conan O'Brien chomping at the bit to take over -- 
David Letterman likes to make people think he's just phoning it in. And I'm starting to wonder if it's not just an act. 
So, AOL TV did a poll about 
Mike Birbigilia's girlfriend probably doesn't think it's a good idea, but someone at 
Variety 
Finally someone shows some love for 
According to AOL, 
As the strike lingers on and the Writers Guild of American (WGA) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) seem no closer to bridging their philosophical and monetary gap, the WGA is set to try a new tactic. 
This is going to be one of those things I never delete from my TiVo. I can't believe it: 
Yesterday we 
Rick Ludwin, NBC's head of late-night programming, says that 
This week I got a trivia question from a reader named Len Maurer from St. Louis MO.
The Upfronts: FOX
Carter Bays of How I Met Your Mother: The TV Squad Interview
The Upfronts: CBS
