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.

HBO continues to prepare for a post Sopranos world. There has been a lot of talk about their upcoming shows lately, including adapting George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire, David Milch's John From Cincinnati, and the untitled Kanye West project. We can now add two more to that list.

The network has picked up a one-hour comedy from producer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (Designing Women) called 12 Miles Of Bad Road. The show will star Lily Tomlin as the matriarch of a rich Texas family. Add in the family real estate business and a collection of relatives and hilarity will ensue, hopefully. The idea almost sounds like a Dallas spoof. With Tomlin on board, it will certainly be worth a look. Look for Gary Cole, Mary Kay Place, and Leslie Jordan to also appear.

Larry Charles, director of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and a writer/producer for Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm is developing a new reality series for HBO centered on the life of rapper and producer Kanye West. According to Reuters, HBO has declined to comment on the untitled project.

Since I'm not a fan of reality TV in general, any new show with that label really has to prove itself to me in order to get me to watch it. I'm also rather indifferent to West himself. Still, having Larry Charles attached to the project does pique my interests somewhat, so who knows? All in all, I'm mildly curious to see how this reality series sets itself apart from the fold.

If you watched the Hurricane Katrina concert last night, you probably saw an emotional moment from singer Kanye West. He and Mike Myers were supposed to come on the concert like all the other celebrities and urge Americans to give money to help the victims of the hurricane. Myers started reading off the teleprompter like everyone else had done and then looked over to West when it was his turn. West, on the other hand, decided that this was the perfect opportunity to voice his opinion on the matter. "I hate they way they portray us in the media. When you see a black family, it says they're looting. You see a white family, it says they're looking for food," he starts. You can easily hear the emotion in his voice and you can see Myers nervously standing by as West continues. Afterwards, Myers attempts to get back onto the teleprompter but it's obvious he's rather schocked by what just happened. He says his little bit and then West finishes by saying simply, "George Bush doesn't care about black people". Myers tries to tack on the Red Cross phone number but the camera immediately cuts to Chris Tucker, who looks caught off-guard.

I think most people felt it was refreshing to see West use his right of free speech in that manner, regardless of whether or not they agree with his opinion or thought it was rude. You can watch the video at the Read link.