TVSquad

When it was revealed to the media recently that actress Christina Applegate had cancer, it was a shock. She is only 36 years old, but as anyone whose life has been touched by cancer, this disease touches the young and the old and everyone in between.

Today, the star of ABC's Samantha Who? was on Good Morning, America to explain what's happening with her, and Christina declared that she is now cancer-free. "Absolutely 100 percent clear and clean. It did not spread. They got everything out, so I'm definitely not going to die from breast cancer."

In an exclusive, candid interview, she revealed that three weeks ago she had a double mastectomy to remove all traces of breast cancer. She will have reconstructive surgery over the next eight months to replace her breasts.

I really admire Christina Applegate. I've liked her a lot on Samantha Who?, but to do what she did today makes me like her even more. She didn't have to face the media and talk about her cancer. It takes courage to share your story.

And having a positive diagnosis, to be able to say you're cancer-free, doesn't make it any easier to talk about the fear you face when you were told that you have cancer and must undergo a difficult surgery or chemotherapy or radiation.

OK, let's get this out of the way: if you haven't seen the season finale of Lost yet, stop reading this immediately. Not only will you be spoiled, but you'll be confused as hell. Get it? Got it? Good. Fun starts after the jump.

Television has a long standing tradition of making its stars feel more popular than they really are. As somebody who used to be on TV, five nights a a week, I know what that feeling is like. Generally when that person leaves television, they go on to do movies or change professions and they often become even more popular. However, there is always that TV celebrity who overestimates how much people want to see them and when they leave their hit TV show, it ends up being the biggest mistake of their career.

David Caruso
Before Caruso became the star of the weakest part of the CSI franchise, he was the star of NYPD Blue. After playing numerous bit parts on TV and in film, he finally hit the big time. The critics and the public both agreed that he was a breath of fresh air in what had become a stale world of TV dramas. He was sexy and tough, just like his show and he fit in perfectly with his supporting characters. Then suddenly, Caruso decided he was too talented for the small screen and bailed on the show. His much talked-about departure allowed him to make unwatchable films like Jade and the remake of Kiss of Death that nobody asked for. Luckily, the ginger-haired tough guy was able to revive his career, but one can't help but wonder how different things would have been had he continued to be Detective John Kelly.

Is Kathie Lee Gifford coming back to daytime? Does Regis know; does he care? Well, whatever the case with Reeg, there is talk that La Kathie Lee may be ready for a new talk show gig. In the Hollywood Reporter, Today executive producer Jim Bell said Kathie Lee Gifford is on the short list as a co-host for the fourth hour of the show. "I think she's a great talent," he said of KLG, while adding that other names are in the hopper as well.

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...

Prepare to be dazzled. Okay, that's probably not the right word to use when Harry Smith is involved. CBS is re-launching The Early Show tomorrow morning, complete with new set, new role for Harry Smith, new faces, and (most importantly) a new, aggressive attitude. The Early Show and other morning programs on CBS have consistently placed third behind NBC's powerhouse Today and ABC's Good Morning America. It's been so bad that 43 CBS affiliates have opted not to run The Early Show and have instead provided their own morning content.

Starting tomorrow, Harry Smith will be the main anchor of The Early Show and pretty much at the helm of the broadcast.

The official word doesn't come until this Wednesday (on a super-duper special Good Morning America, if you've seen the commercials ABC is running), but Sports Illustrated is reporting that billionaire and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is one of the celebs that will grace Dancing with the Stars this season.

But wait that's not all! Other stars rumored to have boogie fever this season are Wayne Newton, Jane Seymour, and Giselle Bunchen (there are many others rumored too but those three seem the most probable.)

Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts will return to the ABC show on Monday.

Roberts underwent surgery last week after discovering she had breast cancer. The surgery went well and Roberts is now awaiting test results to figure out what her next step should be. ABC spokesperson Bridgett Maney says that Roberts is feeling great and is looking forward to getting back to work.

Roberts will be returning at an interesting time, as the newest Nielsen numbers indicate that the ratings for the 18-49 demographic are down 10% for all morning shows (GMA, Today, and The Early Show) compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile, the cable news morning shows have seen increased ratings.

Good Morning America host Robin Roberts announced this morning that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She'll have surgery on Friday to have a lump removed. She found the lump on the same day she was reporting on the death of a colleague, movie critic Joel Siegel, who died of colon cancer.

Roberts says her doctor believes they caught her breast cancer early. She said, "...my doctor expects me to be flying planes and hanging on to submarines in the middle of the Atlantic and scaling the Mayan pyramids in no time." She also wrote about her diagnosis on ABC's blog.

Roberts is 46 and does not have any family history of breast cancer.

This is rather stunning news.

ABC movie critic and entertainment editor Joel Siegel has died at the age of 63. He had been battling colon cancer for a very long time, since discovering he had it at age 57. His family and friends were with him when he died.

Siegel started at WABC-TV and then reviewed movies on Good Morning America He also authored the book Lessons For Dylan, a guidebook for his unborn son on how to live life. He was also one of the cofounders of Gilda's Club, along with Gene Wilder, who lost wife Gilda Radner to cancer.

I reported on the Daytime Emmy Award nominations yesterday and noted that Live with Regis & Kelly wasn't nominated in the Best Talk Show category. While that's technically true, the show was nominated in another category for morning shows. They'll go up against The Today Show, Good Morning, America and Univision's Despierta America in a new category. Regis still wasn't nominated for Best Host though.

Oh, and Regis is doing quite fine after heart bypass surgery yesterday. Kelly Ripa announced the news on the show this morning. One of his doctors said that Reege has "the heart of a 19 year-old." It wasn't clear which 19 year-old this was, but hopefully they will give it back to this person so they can also live a long, healthy life.

In case you missed it, ABC has posted a video of Evangeline Lilly's recent appearance on Good Morning America. The actress presented a brief clip from "Tricia Tanaka Is Dead," and gave her two cents on the love triangle. Here are the highlights:

• Lilly does not believe that Kate made an "ultimate decision" regarding Jack and Sawyer.
• The episode clip that she brought to Good Morning America showed Kate removing a dart from Sawyer's foot, and the pair arguing about how to approach their reunion with the crash survivors.

Last month, I wrote about a special that ABC's Bob Woodruff, who was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq in January of 2006, was putting together. The special was to discuss his recovery and interview eyewitnesses to the attack, and the military medical personnel who helped get him to safety. That special airs tomorrow night at 10 PM on his home network.

In advance of that special, Woodruff spoke to reporters about the bombing and his recovery. He described what he saw and felt right before the explosion, and what he said to cameraman Doug Vogt -- who was also severely injured -- right afterwards. He talked about being in a coma for 36 days, and having to put his memory back together as he recovered. "I couldn't remember my two young daughters - not their names but their existence," he told the reporters. He did say he may not ever be 100% recovered from his injuries, but "maybe if I get somewhere in the 90s, that would be pretty damned good."

Woodruff will be interviewed by Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America tomorrow morning, and Oprah Winfrey will also interview him on her show tomorrow.

What made me think of this is the news that the Today Show is expanding to a fourth hour in September.

Yeah, that's exactly what's missing from my TV schedule: another hour of Today. Hey, let's add three more hours to Good Morning, America. Maybe The View can be an all-day thing, and ABC can show All My Children at 2 in the morning?

The end of sweeps last week marked Today's eleventh consecutive year as the number one morning news program in the nation. The big ratings all started in 1995, when Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric hosted together. The addition of Matt Lauer in 1997 only strengthened the show's ratings. And now, with Katie gone to CBS, the addition of Meredith Vieira seems to be fine with viewers. In fact, they seem to really like her since about 20,000 more people are watching Today than they were at this time last year.

Why is Today still number one? I think it's simply tradition. Today was the first of its kind. Good Morning America and The Early Show both are copycats of the successful format but neither show has ever been able to match Today. Even now, the anchors on Today all seem much more relaxed. The show seems to flow much smoother than Good Morning America, which is legendary for its awkward transitions, and The Early Show, which constantly seems to be fumbling. Also, NBC has 'hosts', while the other networks have 'anchors'. NBC gets that the morning programs stopped being about news a long time ago.

[Via TV Newser]