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In the Lame Title Department, ABC's annual New Year's Eve show will now be called Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest.

I dunno...couldn't they have come up with something snappier? Like maybe Dick and Ryan's New Year's Rockin' Eve ... oh never mind.

Anyway, it's old news that Ryan Seacrest has been co-hosting the show for the past three years with Dick Clark, who suffered a stroke several years ago. But now Seacrest has his name in the title, so I guess it's official.

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:

• The tradition continues: New Year's Eve means Dick Clark.
  
• There's a new quiz show coming, from the maker of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.
  

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

New Year's resolutions vary from person to person. Some make a resolution to give up smoking, others to lose weight. My resolution is the same one as always: garner enough money and power to eventually become king of Earth. That, and getting soft-core porn onto network television.

Then there are some whose resolutions are much simpler. Take Ryan Seacrest, for example. When Mr. American Idol steps up to the platform to co-host Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2007 on Sunday all he really wants is to have a little snogging session with Christina Aguilera, who is performing on the show. Last year, Seacrest was able to lock lips with Mariah Carey.

Well, good luck to Ryan. And, if he can't get a kiss from Christina maybe he can get one from a musician in the band Rascal Flatts or a cast member from Broadway's production of Jersey Boys, who are also performing on the show.

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:

• They want to make it easy for you to become obsessed: Starstyle.com is a new website makes it simple to buy the same music, clothes, and furniture as your favorite television characters.
• Ryan Seacrest and Carson Daly insist they're not rivals over the chance to replace Dick Clark on New Year's Rockin' Eve.
  
• Jennifer Lopez's new dance reality show might be competition for ex-husband #2 Cris Judd's new reality show.

The video's embedded after the jump below, or you can download the file directly (Quicktime required). You can also subscribe to this vodcast via our feed.

Who knew that Dick Clark was a pack rat? It makes sense, considering he's been in the presence of stars ranging from Little Richard to Jay-Z; if I were in his shoes, I'd like to save momentos from those occasions too. But according to this AP article, he also has almost every issue of Life magazine and Playboy ever produced and many years of Fortune magazine. I swear, if he wasn't rich enough to rent out a warehouse to store all of this, he'd be one of those guys buried alive by his stacks of newspapers.

But I guess he's decided to simplify; he's putting a lot of this music memorabilia up for auction, including the first microphone he used on American Bandstand fifty years ago, a Michael Jackson sequined glove, and a bass guitar Paul McCartney played during the Beatles era. It's a no-reserve auction, and most of the profits will go to the T.J. Martell Foundation. No word on if his huge rubber band ball will go on sale, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Dick Clark caused a bit of a stir earlier this year with his appearance on his New Year's Rockin' Eve show, the first time he appeared on TV after suffering a stroke in late 2004. But he's stayed off the air since. Now comes word that there will be a musical tribute to him at this year's Emmy ceremony, to be broadcast by NBC on August 27.

Barry Manilow is set to perform his version of the American Bandstand theme "Bandstand Boogie", for which he and a co-writer wrote lyrics sometime in the mid-'70s. Of course, Clark hosted and produced Bandstand for over 30 years.

Gotta tell you, the words "musical tribute" sound very final to me. I mean, yeah, Dick's still with us, but it really sounds like the music and TV industries both acknowledge that we're not going to see much of him anymore. That reminds me: anyone find a health update on Dick? We really haven't heard anything since the New Year.

[via The Futon Critic]

As I was driving down the New Jersey Turnpike yesterday, I noticed that the signs for one of the rest areas (named after Jersey luminaries such as Vince Lombardi and Joyce Kilmer; this one was named for Molly Pitcher) had something different than the usual Burger Kings and Cinnabons on it: a sign for something called Dick Clark's AB Grill.

Wow. As if Mr. Clark didn't have enough money, he has decided to license his image and the American Bandstand name to a restaurant franchise. The web site for the AB Grill located in Kansas City describes the experience: "Guests can groove to their favorite top tunes from the '50's to today, watch music videos and American Bandstand clips, and peruse hundreds of pieces of memorabilia including pictures, gold records, and even Elvis' Hat and Bo Diddley's guitar." A look at the menu reminds me of the selections at the Hard Rock Cafe, only greasier.

Earlier this week, I speculated about what Dick Clark's going to look and sound like on his New Year's Eve show this year, since it's his first public appearance since he had a stroke in 2004. Well, according to New Year's Rockin' Eve co-host Ryan Seacrest, Dick's going to be better than most people are thinking.

"I'm not a doctor and I'm not his wife so I don't see him on a daily basis, but he will not be in a wheelchair on the telecast," he told AP Radio in an interview, recounted in this article. He goes on to say that Clark's voice won't sound quite the same as before the stroke, but "it definitely sounds like Dick."

Knowing how hard Dick worked in show business up until he had the stroke, I'm sure he worked just as hard to get himself in as good condition as he could for New Year's Eve. Looking forward to seeing him; heck, anything's better than seeing Regis ham it up and forget names.

You may remember (or not remember, depending on the obvious circumstances) that Dick Clark did not host last year's New Year's celebration on ABC due to a stroke he suffered just days before the event. Regis Philbin stepped up to the plate then. Now it seems we all had either get used to seeing Ryan Seacrest hosting the remainder of the events, or watch something else (or you could go out for the night, but we don't talk about that here). The next New Year's celebration show on ABC will be co-hosted by both Seacrest and Clark, with Seacrest eventually solo-hosting the show for several years to come.

[via Cynopsis]