TVSquad

Hey, I didn't call Kanye West a jackass, the President did. But he's still a jackass either way. I'm sure he's been called much worse since he yanked the mic away from Taylor Swift at MTV's Video Music Awards in September.

When I heard that West and Lady Gaga would be touring together, I thought, what a horrible blow for Gaga. Not that she's any stranger to controversy, what with her blood-spattered performances and all. Actually, these two might be perfect to tour together.

But alas, the show will NOT go on, at least not with West. Apparently, he's being dropped from the tour, whether, as he told Jay Leno, he needed to take some time off, or whether he was asked to take some time off (I vote for the latter).

Gaga told Billboard, "Kanye's going to take some time off. But the good news is that I'm going on tour in a few weeks."

Ironically, the ill-fated tour was named "Fame Kills."

We've seen comments the past few days regarding the fact that we're reviewing this show daily so I thought I should go ahead and address this at the top. We're continually evaluating our coverage of this show, but for the rest of this week at least, these will be daily reviews. Regardless of how we or you feel about it, the very existence of The Jay Leno Show is a groundbreaking chapter in television history.

As such, we'd be remiss to not acknowledge it and cover it upon its premiere. It is a primetime major network show that has completely shaken up the television landscape this season, after all. As for how we'll continue covering it, we have considered weekly roundups or even sporadic reports. And we do listen to you, our readers, as to what you want to read.

Tonight, Jay brought us Steve Carell, "Celebrity Pets," and the "Jackass of the Month." If you think about that last one, I'm sure you can figure out who it was.

(S01E01) A lot is riding on this little NBC pet project. Like one-third of their primetime lineup. But despite all their promises and promotions that this was a comedy show, vastly different than Jay Leno's work on The Tonight Show, I saw virtually the same exact show on a different set. That's not necessarily a bad thing if you're NBC. Leno was incredibly successful for a long time on that show. Just call it what it is.

The promise that it would stay topical was brought to fruition. In the opening monologue, just like those Tonight Show monologues of yore, he drops a joke right away about the situation last night at the Video Music Awards involving Kanye West and Taylor Swift. Conveniently, Kanye was a booked guest tonight, as well, so with a little shuffling, he wound up on the chair next to Leno to talk about it.

By now you've probably heard about the giant Kanye West brouhaha that happened at the VMA awards last night. I actually heard about it when I got on Twitter right after it happened, and it felt as though the very Internet was going to melt from the inside out, leaving us all twitching in a puddle of rage directed at people whom we will never meet.

I tried to piece together what had happened, and from the responses I was reading, it seemed as though Taylor Swift went up to get her VMA, then Kanye West set her dress on fire, ripped off his clothes, and showed everyone his "Beyonce 4 EVA" tattoo located in a very family-unfriendly place. Then, I'm pretty sure he peed on like, a statue of Jesus or something.

So once I saw the video of what actually happened, imagine my surprise when it turned out all he did was make an ass out of himself on live television. Because, you know, the fact that Kanye West would do that is the BIGGEST SHOCKER OF ALL TIME.

When it was announced recently that Jay Z, Kanye West and Rihanna would be the guests on The Jay Leno Show on Monday, September 14, I wondered if this was a mini-Grammy Awards show. With all those musical guests, would there be time for jokes? Well, I think Jay must have wondered that, too, because fellow comedian Jerry Seinfeld is also going to be on The Jay Leno Show premiere.

I like Jerry, but I have to admit I'm not too impressed by this booking. It's not like Jerry is a stranger to TV. He's on all the time, and I don't mean the reruns of Seinfeld. Bob posted about Jerry doing commercials in Australia.

The variety show format seems like a no-brainer for success - get someone with star power and surround them with a bunch of ringers and some weird people spinning plates or bending themselves into curious shapes, and voila! Instant hit, right? But there have been some spectacular failures in recent TV history. Maybe it's the fact that there are so many talent/reality shows now that a show with no "winner" or competition doesn't seem as interesting.

Somehow, despite all of that, Ellen DeGeneres has managed some success with the format, and is now on her third - Ellen's Bigger, Longer & Wider Show, on TBS Saturday at 9PM.

Perhaps it's the fact that it's on TBS, which means the stakes are slightly lower than on the main networks. Or the fact that DeGeneres brings a loyal fanbase from her Ellen DeGeneres Show and her stand-up. Those would be the reasons you would look for if you were an industry executive or a media critic.

There are some big names on the bill for Ellen DeGeneres's variety show, Ellen's Bigger, Longer & Wider Show, which airs June 27 on TBS. Kanye West will be a big part of it, and magician David Blaine and comedian Nick Cannon will also appear.

Even the Chicago Cubs will make an appearance, as DeGeneres tapes a segment at Wrigley Field, singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-inning stretch June 16 (the rest of the show will be taped June 17 at the Chicago Theatre).

But the thing DeGeneres seems most excited about is comedian Joe Wong, whom we first wrote about in April when he made his network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. She'd love to see more comedians like Wong on television.

A Fox press release today confirmed the horribly-kept secret that Kanye "Voice of This Generation" West will voice a character on The Cleveland Show, a new Family Guy spinoff intended for the fall schedule. A couple of new details have emerged.

We knew West would play kid rapper Kenny West, and now we know West will throw down with Cleveland Jr. in a rap battle to impress fellow student Chanel, voiced by Oscar-nominated Benjamin Button co-star Taraji P. Henson. People.com has some insight about the taping. Apparently, West (Kanye, not Kenny) was a joy to work with, and executive producer Richard Appel said there was a mutual interest in West coming back for more. Would West make a good cartoon character? Would it take away from his beat writing schedule? If they can convince Mike Myers to join the cast, I'm in.

I'm pretty happy with the results tonight. I feel like America and the judges made the right call. And it isn't just up to America anymore. As Seacrest told us, there's a new American Idol rule. When someone is eliminated by America's vote, the judges have the ability to keep the person in the competition. It's designed to be used when America goes insane and votes people like LaToya London and Chris Daughtry off, people who deserve to stay in the competition. As I understand it, this option can only be used one time. Thankfully, the judges didn't use it tonight.

We also got to see the cool new digs where the Idols are staying. It's a ginormous mansion, complete with a swimming pool (or two), basketball court, bowling alley, hot tubs, the whole shebang. Looks like a very cool place to de-stress after being called to center stage to await your fate.

(S34E11) Can you hear the ladies and British comedy fans screaming? It's Hugh Laurie! The writing this week was stronger than usual, but I could not help but feel like they didn't use Hugh Laurie enough. When you get someone like that on the show, you better make sure the audience is sick of seeing him by the end of the episode. That said, Mr. Laurie did beautifully with what he was given and he's well on his way to becoming a regular host. Check out these video highlights from the episode.

America's favorite megalomaniac takes on America's least favorite megalomaniac and for once in this karma-deprived universe, the megalomaniac we were rooting for has won.

Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report called on his legion of fans/cult-like followers who would not only follow their leader into the gates of Hell, but also take his place in the seventh circle (the one that only gets QVC, C-Span 2 and late night knife infomercials) to help him vanquish his foes. In the past, he has used his followers to take on enemy combatants such as Chuck Norris, indie rock group the Decemberists and Oshawa, Ontario mayor John Gray.

This time, he's taken down someone more feared, despised and loathed than all three of those figures combined in a tragic teleportation device accident.

The wait is finally over. After having its last season cut short from 22 episodes to 14 due to the WGA Strike, Nip/Tuck is set to return in January 2009 and FX has been airing some great promos to get fans ready.

However, because of the strike, episode number counts, renewal news, and other tidbits of info all sort of got mashed together. So here's what I'm guessing is going to happen after the New Year...

(S33E01) "All-But-Certain-To-Be Next President" (Cold Open): This was a funny piece, but it didn't pack the punch I would have expected for a season premiere open. Oh! Hi, Darrell Hammond. Still here, huh? No, it's not a problem, man. It's just that you've been crashing here for a while and, well, you haven't really been doing much to contribute. And we've kind of been wondering when you'd be moving out -- Yeah, I guess your Bill Clinton voice is still pretty funny and I guess it'll come in handy some time in the near future. Okay, I suppose it's okay if you stay for a little while longer. Just try not to creep out the younger folks, okay?

With the announcer not cutting in until about halfway through the cast, it must have sucked to have such a slip-up this early in the episode. Was that even Don Pardo doing the voices for the cast intro? At first, it sounded like someone doing an impression of him.

(S04E11) "Ninety-seven minutes, E." - Drama

It just keeps getting better. Like everyone else, I've complained here and there about some of the mediocre episodes that have aired this summer. However, it's hard to stay angry when we get one like this. It was perfect really. Hands down, one of the best written episodes of Entourage -- spanning all four seasons. Think about it. When was the last episode that flawlessly integrated every character into the action as well as guest spots from Kanye West, Sydney Pollack, and Anna Faris?

Comedian Zach Galifianakis has outdone himself this time. First, he appeared in the Fiona Apple video, "Not About Love." Now he's lip syncing in Kanye West's new music video for "Can't Tell Me Nothing". We know Kanye's in on it because it's posted here on West's official website.

I don't know if you guys saw the Fiona Apple video, but I found it hilarious because it just seemed to come out of left field. Fiona seems like she takes herself so seriously, so having Zach appear with her and do the lip syncing in the video was surprisingly amusing.

The idea of doing this kind of thing again for a different singer seemed a little lame... until you see the video. Zach is bad assing as some sort of Amish farmer on his own farm in North Carolina. He's spitting on people and humping farm equipment. He's accompanied by comedian musician Will Oldham and a troupe of dancing girls dressed like they came out of the movie Heidi.

Warning: Song includes some profanity.