TVSquad

So Diane Sawyer took over for Charles Gibson last night on ABC's World News. I don't know how "important" her first episode was. She's filled in on the show before and obviously wouldn't suddenly start yelling expletives or start drooling. She handled herself fine (though if I want to see a chick read the news I watch Katie on CBS). What did everyone else think?

When NBC was promoting Brian Williams' fifth anniversary as anchor of the NBC Nightly News, I figured it was a good opportunity to ask him a few questions. After all, with two wars, a lousy economy, the health care debate, and Tiger Woods, there's lots of news going on right now.

And, in such a relatively short period of time, the news landscape has changed on both the broadcast and the cable fronts, including the fact that on Monday, when Diane Sawyer takes over ABC's World News, he'll be the only male evening news anchor left.

Williams (or as he's been called lately, BriWi) was nice enough to answer some questions via e-mail about his new competition and how he lets his famous sense of humor come through during a serious newscast. Finally, he gives me some insight into what he's listening to right now (if you've seen previous interviews with him, he leans more towards the college radio side).

The Washington Post is reporting that George Stephanopolous has been offered the co-host job on Good Morning America.

He hasn't take the job yet, but if he does he will replace Diane Sawyer, who we told you was going to take over for Charles Gibson when he vacates the anchor chair on World News. Gibson's last day will be Friday, December 18 and Sawyer's first day will be on Monday, December 21.

Part of the negotiations between Stephanopolous and the network revolve around the Sunday morning show he does now, This Week. He wants to keep that gig too while he works Monday through Friday on GMA. If he decides not to take the job for some reason, then current host Chris Cuomo could get the job (it must be odd to be the second choice even though you've done the exact job for a while). Whoever gets the spot will be co-host along with Robin Roberts.

To the three of you who still watch the news on a regular basis, here's some news you would have seen coming.

ABC World News' lead anchor Charlie Gibson has announced his retirement. He will leave the show on Dec. 18 and Diane Sawyer will take over the anchor's chair on Dec. 21.

He has only been the station's lead news anchor since May of 2006 when he stepped in for Bob Woodruff who sustained injuries from a roadside bomb in Iraq. Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas replaced World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings who left due to medical reasons.

With Diane Sawyer moving from Good Morning, America to World News Tonight, ABC is reportedly hunting around for just the right person to become the new GMA host. The names bandied about include George Stephanopoulos, Bill Weir, Chris Cuomo, David Muir and Cameron Mathison. I am telling you right now, Cameron Mathison would be perfect for Good Morning, America.

While the other men mentioned are all involved in news, Cameron is on All My Children. He's an actor. But he's also an attractive performer and an ABC talent on the rise. He was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars, and even though he didn't win, he won over a lot of non-soap viewers who'd never seen him before.

It was big news this week about Charlie Gibson retiring. Later on, when the headline flashed that Charlie was "livid" that Diane Sawyer was chosen to succeed him at the ABC World News anchor desk, I have to admit I was stunned. Why on earth would Charlie Gibson be so vexed by his former Good Morning America partner taking on the job he had chosen to give up?

The Daily Beast story claimed that his reaction came from a unnamed source, and that's what Variety's BLTV was writing about today. He suggested that perhaps the reporter, Rebecca Dana, had relied too much on scuttlebutt and chose to believe that Gibson was ticked off and, thus, went with the story.

When Peter Jennings passed away and Bob Woodruff was injured, one of the names that popped up as a replacement on ABC World News was Diane Sawyer. Now, a couple of years later, that's actually coming true.

ABC has announced that Charles Gibson will step down as anchor of the show in January. Sawyer will take over for him. Of course, that means that Sawyer will step down from her hosting gig on Good Morning America. No, I don't think there's any chance that Gibson will switch places with her and go back to GMA, but who the heck knows (ABC is using the word "retires"). Gibson does say that he wants to continue working with ABC News in some way.

So we have two big stories here: two women as network news anchors (Sawyer and Katie Couric at CBS) and the question of who will replace Sawyer in the morning. Or maybe they'll just stick with three hosts/co-hosts (Robin Roberts, Chris Cuomo, and Sam Champion). Who do you think should take over on GMA?

I started watching the Inauguration coverage this morning on ABC, where Charlie Gibson intoned about the historical aspects of this event while Diane Sawyer awkwardly tried to keep up. In the third chair was George Stephanopoulos, who I like, but have never paid a whole lot of attention to. He got my attention, however, during this coverage with his constant interjections of random facts.

A few things I learned from George Stephanopoulos this morning:

I don't know if you can hear that rush of wind across America, but that's the sigh of relief that the Presidential election is over. Either that, or it's the millions of yawns coming from viewers like you who watched election coverage through the wee hours of the morning. Many of them, like myself, tuned into coverage hosted by ABC News.

Overall, the team of Charlie Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos did well in keeping the action going when there weren't any results to be called, which was most of the time. Other than 11:00 p.m., the winner calls only made up one to two minutes of each hour. So, the rest of the time was used for analysis, exit poll results, and playing with the touch screen map. It was after Obama was declared the winner that they were able to relay the excitement of the election and what it meant for America.

Okay, it's been about 80 minutes since ABC News began their coverage of the elections, and I have just one thing to say: Diane Sawyer is hot! And, I guess George Stephanopoulos is cute, as well. Other than that, there isn't much else to report about the early coverage of the 2008 Presidential election. Which, I have heard, is historic. I know this because I heard it mentioned 550 times since coverage began.

So far, I give high marks to the team of Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, and George. I can't put my finger on it, but they seem to be the classiest and most qualified team of the Big Three networks. It's probably Charlie, who is the veteran of all of the current national news anchors. Plus, you know, Diane is hot. Together, they were able to keep the coverage moving during the first hour as the exit poll results were few and far between.

Speaking about those election results ... Thumbs up to ABC for not giving their estimates of winners in those states that are too close to call. Sure, it really didn't do much to pump up the election coverage energy, but it prevented me from throwing my remote at my HDTV screen and screaming that they were ruining the election. By the way, why does ABC's HDTV channel have the lowest volume on any channel? My volume control doesn't go high enough to get the proper sound. So, it's standard analog coverage for me, thank you very much.

Annie recently posted her top 10 Kristen Wiig Saturday Night Live moments, and I happen to agree that Wiig seems to be one of the SNL MVPs now. Remember just a short time ago when she was in the "featuring" category instead of one of the main players? She's earned it, that's for sure. Even when her impersonations aren't dead on (such as this past weekend's Elisabeth Hasselbeck), you know who she's doing, and she really throws herself into the character. I think her Hasselbeck will get better, and her other impersonations have been just dead-on and brilliant (Judy Garland, Suze Orman, Gloria Swanson, Jamie Lee Curtis).

But I was thinking that there are three other people that would be naturals for Wiig to impersonate.

Diane Keaton totally dropped the F-Bomb on Good Morning America! And they didn't even bleep it.

Keaton was being interviewed by Diane Sawyer, presumably about her new movie Mad Money. Sawyer is about to pose a question when Diane Keaton stops and compliments her on her lips (which are quite nice, I must say). Keaton laments that she doesn't have such nice lips cause if she did, she wouldn't have to work so damn hard on her "f*cking personality."

This is why I "heart" Diane Keaton. Of the two Dianes, clearly Keaton has the personality. She doesn't have to work on it.

The video is after the jump...

About two years ago, I set out to list the hottest women on TV who are over 40, over 50, and over 60. There were a lot candidates to choose from, even in the over 60 category, making it a particularly tough set of list to compose.

But now that our friends at AOL have decided to compile a list of TV's 50 sexiest women of all time (starting today with Nos. 50-41), I'm going to take on an even greater challenge: making one master list of seventeen beauties over 40. It's not as easy as you think; the TV landscape has changed a bit, and a few new strong contenders have recently entered their 40s, and a few of the previous list members have left the TV landscape. To make this list, a woman has to have been a regular or significant guest on a TV series or news program in 2007. So, after the jump, a list -- in no particular order -- of fifteen beauties who combine looks, maturity and grace to make one compellingly sexy package.

Thumbnails are with the list, but you can click on the gallery below to get a much better view of these lovely women. Then add your own choices in the comments.

I bet Rosie O'Donnell's publisher is going bananas over this one. Rosie has turned down an invitation to be on Oprah to talk about a new "tell all" book she wrote, called Celebrity Detox. According to the New York Post, she has granted Diane Sawyer the one and only interview about the book.

But Rosie's personal blog tells a different story. I'll spare you her haiku/text message writing style and tell you what it says: Basically, the book is full of emotional stuff and Rosie's not ready to talk about it. She says she is not doing any interviews regarding the book and makes no mention of Diane Sawyer.

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:

• Nicole Richie is doing a big interview with Diane Sawyer next week. Does this mean that the pregnancy rumors are true? And if so, what should we call it?
• Muppets! Hundreds of them! Retired muppets are getting a new home.
  
• Oprah's perfect reputation took a hit today.
  

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