TVSquad

It would seem that sooner or later everyone in show business will get a shot at a talk show. After all, if Rachael Ray can win an Emmy as a talk show host, and a one-time respected anchorman like Maury Povich can have 20 years of syndicated talk success, why not give every Tom, Dick, and Megan Mullally a chance.

NBC reportedly thinks Piers Morgan could be the next big thing in talk. The bitter Brit, a personality as caustic as Simon Cowell, was the winner of The Celebrity Apprentice and is the nastiest judge on America's Got Talent. Morgan has a two-year deal with ITV and is on the verge of inking a similar contract with NBC. The idea is that he could be the next David Frost.

Before Lifetime snagged Bravo's Project Runway, it got its hands on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star Carson Kressley. Lifetime tapped Kressley to host the feel-good show How to Look Good Naked, and now it looks like the cable net wants to keep the Kressley train moving by giving him his own talk show.

The standard Monday-Friday talk show format is rare on cable nets, but is in line with Lifetime's plan to change its image from the "woman being beaten, kidnapped, set on fire, but ultimately triumphing in the end" movies/Golden Girls network to something younger and hipper -- basically Bravo with a female slant. Kressley's chat fest is supposed to focus on his talent for fashion and will feature a mix of studio and field segments that feature him offering insight and advice to "everyday" people.

At TCA yesterday, two very big stars were on hand to discuss their new shows. Spike Lee attended the ESPN Films panel to promote his documentary Game Day with Kobe Bryant. And Elvis Costello was on hand at the Sundance Channel panel to talk about Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..., his new talk show.

ESPN announced several film projects, both documentary and theatrical. The network will be presenting four documentaries this fall, one of which is by acclaimed director Spike Lee. On the surface the film seems pretty bland; it's just cameras following Kobe Bryant around on game day. But I'm sure you want to hear what Lee said about his film.

The late night comedian will be appearing during your primetime schedule. Starting tomorrow, Jimmy Kimmel LIve will run special half-hour shows each night that ABC airs the basketball finals. Special guests include: David Beckham, Edward Norton, Charles Barkley, Liv Tyler, Adam Sandler, Eminem, Shaquille O'Neil, Magic Johnson and New Orleans Hornets guard and 2008 MVP contender Chris Paul, among others.

Out of the celebrities mentioned, I'm most interested to see Eminem. I haven't seen the Real Slim Shady on TV in awhile. He's always a good interview though -- all that contrived hostility and testosterone in overdrive. Who are you looking forward to seeing? Or is Kimmel's fabulousness enough to get you to tune in?

The schedule is after the jump.

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.

Last year, the train-wreck-fascinating TMZ.com grew into a 30-minute TV series, aiming its lens at troubled pop tarts and clueless drunks stumbling around Hollywood. And try as we might, some of us were unable to divert our eyes.

Now another website might be morphing onto the small screen. MomLogic.com, a site aimed at moms of all ages, is being eyed to grace the airwaves as a talk show in the fall of 2009, reports The Hollywood Reporter. The Telepictures-created site was launched by Warner Bros. Television Group in November.

So I was reading this press release about a new CBS reality show called Greatest American Dog (working title). The network has just named a host of the Greatest American Dog and his name is Jarod Miller. The show premieres on July 10. What caught my attention was this phrase, "Animated zoologist Jarod Miller." Now, maybe it was just me, but for a moment I envisioned Jarod Miller as Brian Griffin, the dog on Family Guy. You know, an animated cartoon creation. After all, on Family Guy, Brian is the most intelligent character, and he has co-hosted a radio talk show.

In fact, the only thing animated about Jarod is his enthusiasm for animals. He's a guy who really loves his job. He's been on talk shows galore, putting creepy crawlies on Rachael Ray and keeping snakes from slithering all over Jimmy Kimmel.

On the theory that it worked for another actress who play Tracy Turnblad, Marissa Jaret Winokur is going to star in her own daytime talk show, just like Ricki Lake before her. (Can Nikki Blonsky be next?)

Marissa J, who's currently spinning, twirling and trying to look graceful on Dancing With the Stars, will be developing a syndicated yakker (industry talk for talk show) for Sony Pictures Television. The fact that another company is also doing the same thing for Marie Osmond means one thing: producers think that if you can dance, you can talk. That's a show business axiom, isn't it? Her show, if it flies, will be for fall 2009.

Sony has dipped in syndication before with the Wayne Brady Show, which failed to click but did win the star a Daytime Emmy. Marissa is already an award winner, grabbing the 2003 Tony as Best Actress in a musical for playing Tracy in the Broadway version of Hairspray opposite Harvey Fierstein.

Looks like the late-night talk shows may be coming back sooner rather than later, and this regardless of what happens with the strike. Variety admits that nothing official has been said and no one will comment one way or another, but insiders are saying the time may be nearing. Carson returned after two months of the '88 writers strike. With ratings taking a nosedive, January 7 has been pegged as a possible return date for the NBC hosts (Leno and O'Brien), with the others starting the same time or soon thereafter.

They initially shut down production in deference to their writers and stayed dark to help the writers maintain some leverage in negotiations, even going so far as to pay non-writing staffers out of their own pockets. But, when reruns of Spike TVs MANswers are beating your reruns, and your ratings are half what they were (as is the case with the NBC pair), it's time to rethink everything.

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, currently in reruns due to the Writers Guild of America strike, will dig deep to air five vintage episodes. That's rarely done with the late night talk shows as the monologue and many of the movies promoted by guests are dated.

Included in the vintage rerun plans are a 1992 Tom Hanks appearance, Julia Roberts from 1993, 1995 appearances with Johnny Depp and Jennifer Aniston, and a Matt Damon 2000 appearance. As the strike continues, the late night talk shows are running out of more current reruns according to an article in The Hollywood Reporter. I would think they're also a bit concerned with losing the audience and older shows at this time would almost be "new."

Jerry Seinfeld will be appearing on the October 21 episode of TalkShow with Spike Feresten. Of course, TV Squad readers should already know that, since Spike himself told Joel back in September. He told Joel he wanted Seinfeld to host his own segment of the program, but the Zap2It article only says that Seinfeld is set to do some new stand-up material and sit down for an interview. Whatever ends up happening, it should be a great night. Seinfeld does pop up on TV now and again, but not very often, so anything featuring him is always nice to see. The show airs Saturdays at midnight on FOX.

Somebody forgot to poke me with a sharp stick and remind me about Spike Feresten's late night show, TalkShow with Spike Feresten is currently airing Saturday evenings on FOX. Criminy, I've been looking forward to this show since April, and Joel even interviewed the man recently, for the love of God. Seriously, where was my head at? Okay, don't answer that, I know exactly where my head was. Anyway, College Humor recently interviewed Feresten, and the interview contains a lot of stuff we already know: he wrote the Seinfeld "Soup Nazi" episode, he penned a script for The Simpsons, he was a writer for Letterman, etc. What I didn't know, however, is that he and some writers from The Simpsons were asked to do a script rewrite of the movie Jury Duty. The rewritten script was then thrown out by Pauly Shore. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that one.

[Thanks to Katie S. for the tip.]

When my friend Kathy Howe heard I was going to participate in a conference call with Megan Mullally today, she said, "OMG, tell her I LOVE her and want to MARRY her!" So, Megan, if you are reading this, now you know. I did not have the chance to ask Megan any questions during today's conference call (though I did try!), but I did get to listen to all of the other questions and responses. So, here is an overview of the conference call about NBC's forthcoming The Megan Mullally Show.

(S01E09) In this episode, the KHBX news team are given a timeslot early Sunday mornings to do whatever they want, so they decide to create a daytime talk show for reporter Kevin Beekin. Before all of that, however, they shoot a segment outdoors with a roadside clean up crew. Since the garbage on the road isn't "reading" on the cameras very well, they actually take garbage out of their van and throw it on the side of the road, much to the consternation of the woman in charge of the clean up.

There first plan of action concerning the new talk show is to discuss some ideas with a PR person. They mention things like interviewing John McCain while Kevin is sitting on an elephant, and Alan gets the idea to actually pull pranks on animals, such as putting kittens inside of a dog house.

Well, it was a long road finally getting here, but we've finally got something for you: the first release of TV Squad's general podcast, the All Podcast Bulletin. Be sure to give it a listen and let us know what you think, but be gentle - it was my first time. We'll make improvements and tweaks along the way, so voice in with any suggestions if you've got them.

Go ahead and grab the file directly (link), subscribe to our podcast RSS feed (link), or visit the iTunes music store (link).  (Running time: 36:37)