TVSquad

There's a lot of speculation in the biz about what will Oprah do next. The daytime talk show giant supposedly made up her mind recently and decided that her syndicated show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, would end its run in syndication and move to OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network (formerly Discovery Health). An official announcement is anticipated before the end of the year, but is that really was Oprah has decided? Nobody knows for certain.

There are pros and cons on either side. The companies that syndicated her talk show stand to lose a significant asset if she wraps up the current incarnation and abandons the market. Think of all those afternoon hours around that country that count on Oprah at three or four o'clock, or the morning slots where Oprah leads in to noon newscasts. Companies like CBS Distribution and the Tribune Company have feasted on the robust ratings Oprah has consistently delivered.

In his breakout role on NewsRadio fifteen years ago, Joe Rogan played Joe Garrelli, a maintenance man with deceptively deep springs of knowledge. In a sense, Rogan has been playing that role for his whole career, hosting Fear Factor and The Man Show, commentating for the UFC, while writing increasingly smart stand-up comedy. Rogan's new special, Talking Monkeys in Space (Spike TV, June 20 midnight), is his best work to date.

Rogan takes on the legalization of marijuana, Dr. Phil, and technology with brutal logic. His last television day gig, Game Show In Your Head, is over but he says he doesn't mind. He's still doing what he loves most - stand-up comedy and commentating for the UFC, and he's got a new Web series on Crackle.com, a sort of Inside the Actors Studio for stand-up comedians, he says will start within the next couple of months.

I spoke with him about all of that, how having a one-year old daughter has changed his perspective, how his personal philosophies have evolved, and the treatment of his frequent rival Carlos Mencia on a recent episode of South Park, in which Mencia was beheaded by Kanye West for stealing a joke he couldn't explain.

Being Oprah's buddy is never bad for one's career. And like former frequent guest stars Rachael Ray and Dr. Phil, now actress, author and former Playboy playmate Jenny McCarthy is poised to be the next "Big O" thing. She has inked a multiplatform deal with Harpo Productions to develop projects of all different kinds, including a talk show of her very own.

While her career may have started in nudity and comedy, she's more recently become known for her books, and her activism in the fight against autism, which her son has.

The first season of Frank Caliendo' s Frank TV debuted with some of the strongest numbers TBS had seen with over three million viewers for its first episode. That was bolstered by a constant barrage of spots during the MLB playoffs, and although that first run was cut to five episodes by the writers' strike, the show's future seemed bright.

Now season two is in the books, and that will do it for Frank TV. Broadcasting & Cable reported yesterday that Caliendo's series has been canceled.

Caliendo entered the second season in an optimistic mood. He had made some changes with the bigger budget TBS gave him, adding people to the cast to address the major criticism from Season One that Caliendo was playing every part. When doing impressions is your main strength, you're probably going to need an ensemble cast. Caliendo is one of the most talented mimics in comedy - watch his face during his signature George W. Bush or John Madden impressions. He gets the physical tics, as well as the voice, perfect.

We all need good news in these days of economic chaos and uncertainty, and here it is: not only is Dr. Phil not on the list of favorite TV personalities, ratings for his show are down a lot this season. Yay TV viewers!

Nielsen reports that ratings for The Sick Exploitation Cavalcade with Dr. Phil, or whatever the damn show is called, have dropped 27% this season. And the female audience, which was once the "doctor's" biggest fans, has dropped about a third. Anymore news like this and McGraw might have to start to counsel himself. Though I don't even think that he'd go to himself if he had a problem. In other daytime news, ratings for Ellen DeGeneres's show are up. She came in second in that favorite personalities poll.

Of course, Oprah is the one who unleashed this festering cancer on the world. Her ratings are down 8%. But she's still the queen. I don't mind her show, but if we could get some more real talk shows and game shows to take over the spots currently held by Dr. Phil and Maury, I think it would be a better world.

There's a famous scene in The Godfather: Part III -- the only really memorable one -- where Michael Corleone says, "Just when I thought I was out... they pull me back in." I thought of that when I read that Oprah Winfrey may not be ending her talk show in 2011 after all. What? I thought it was a done deal, but no. Every time I think she's done, she's back again.

When asked by Access Hollywood about The Oprah Winfrey Show ending in 2011, Ms. W said, "I'm not done." Well, you sure could have knocked me over with a feather. I mean, really, I understand that it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, but I really thought Oprah had other worlds to conquer, other fish to fry.

A day hasn't gone by where we haven't received some sort of tip or email asking us, the TV Squad, how to get on [insert reality show here]. Unfortunately no, Simon Cowell does not work for us, and Donald Trump isn't my BFF, so we really can't help all that much.

The folks at RealityWanted.com often send us a list of new and existing reality shows that are looking for new, er, talent, and they've given us permission to make mention of them here. We'll try to make this a regular feature as often as we get a new list.

This time we have Rock of Love, Family Court and a lot of new shows.

TV syndication upfront ad sales are brisk, with syndicators expected to sell higher levels of ad inventory, similar to the broadcast networks.

Sales are more than 50% complete, with one syndicator, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, more than 70% sold out of its 2008-09 ad inventory, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

What's it all mean? It means that syndication upfront totals are expected to be around $2.4 billion, up 4.5% from last year.

Maybe one reason is that syndicators are incorporating more product integration into their packages, especially with talk and entertainment shows. Strong categories include packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, movies, and fast food.

Hmmm ... I wonder what they're saying. That TV viewers sit around eating Big Macs, doing drugs, and woofing down Cheetos? Yeah, that can't be right.

It looks like Oprah is getting in bed with someone else, figuratively speaking. Sony Pictures TV will be distributing her new upcoming spin-off talk show hosted by heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz.

This marks a change from her usual relationship with CBS Television Distribution which distributes her own show as well as the spin-offs involving Doctor Phil and Rachael Ray. Dr. Oz is being perceived by many as a competitor to Dr. Phil, whose host's ethics have recently been in free-fall. CBS is already planning to launch its own spin-off of Doctor Phil called The Doctors.

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.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Dr. Phil made a lot more money than you did last year.
• Hmmm...maybe Katie Couric actually will be leaving The CBS Evening News.
• Several TV celebs make Radar's Web's 10 Most Hated People List, including a certain perky cook/talk show host and the entire cast of a short-lived NBC show.
• Actually, Neil Patrick Harris loves Britney Spears!
• You can watch uncensored clips of the new season of The Real World at RealWorldDailies.com.
• Here's a sneak peek at what's coming up on Lost.
• Yes, Kristin Bell does want to come back to Heroes.

Please file this item under the "Duh" file: Dr. Mehmet Oz, Oprah's favorite medical expert, is getting a spin-off talk show. Harpo Productions, Oprah's company, is developing a Dr. Oz talk show to commence fall of 2009.

According to insiders, the Harpo team had meetings with distributor in Chicago last month. A medical talker with Doc Oz, which I bet will be called Ask Dr. Oz -- the name of his successful segments on Oprah's show -- would follow in the footsteps of Dr. Phil. Remember, Dr. Phil McGraw began his life as a talker by appearing on Oprah in infrequent hours that were a de facto pilot for his own talk show. Dr. Phil then launched in 2002, as a Harpo production, and has been a big time hit. He's even challenged Oprah in some markets.

Every year, The Boston Phoenix publishes a list of the 100 Unsexiest Men of the Year, where they judge 100 males involved in everything from sports to politics to the internet. They always include several TV faces (and other body parts), and this year they've included a cartoon character.

No, not Dr. Phil, though he is a bit of a cartoon. The "doctor" is on the list, but the cartoon character I'm talking about is Quagmire, from Family Guy. The Phoenix sends a note to creator Seth MacFarlane that "nothing screams hilarity like jokes about date rape!" Giggity.

Kirstie Alley is coming back to the small screen and Oprah's got her. Harpo Productions has signed Alley for future TV projects. It could be a sitcom like Fat Actress, it could be a talk show, like the one she shopped around last year, but in whatever format, Harpo will be behind it. One definite possibility would be for Kirstie to appear in a show on OWN, the new Oprah Winfrey Network, which used to be Discovery Health Channel.

Today's New York Post has a gossip item that says King World execs are unhappy with the ratings for Rachael Ray's syndicated cooking/talk show and are not going to renew her contract when it's up in 2010.

Only one problem: the report isn't true and is full of inaccuracies (I know, Page Six inaccurate - shocking!).

The Huffington Post ran a story about it today as well and they were quickly contacted by a rep at King World that says not only is Rachael Ray's show safe, the ratings are actually up from last year, not down.