TVSquad

CBS has had a rocky relationship with their new evening news anchor. The move to hire her after journalist Dan Rather went down in flames like a phoenix blasted out of the sky was heralded as a new dawn without realizing that it sets just as quick.

Couric has earned some respect for her work since Sarah Palin let her stick her brain in a Newton's Cradle and knock it back and forth until her "You betchas" became her "Okie dokies". But the news broadcast is still third in the ratings war and the egg hasn't completely been washed from CBS' face.

So until Palin announces her bid to run for head of Alaska's border patrol to keep those pesky Russians at bay, CBS hopes they can keep what little momentum they have going by doing for Couric what NBC just did for Jay Leno.

American Idol winner Carrie Underwood has won her first and second Grammys tonight. Underwood won 'best female country vocal performance' award and 'best new artist', a real biggie against popular singers such as Corinne Bailey Rae and James Blunt.

During her acceptance speech for the first award, she thanked God, music producer Clive Davis and Simon Cowell, someone who did not get a mention from Kelly Clarkson when she won two Grammys last year. The writers of her hit song "Jesus, Take the Wheel" also won a Grammy for their songwriting.

Carrie is the second Idol winner to win a Grammy. Fellow winners Fantasia Barrino and Ruben Studdard were both nominated but neither one got the little statue and the Thank You speech.

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:

• You could win a chance to sing with Justin Timberlake at the Grammys.
• The organizers of the Acadamy Awards are done with giving $100,000 gift baskets to the stars.
  
• More proof that prison changed Martha Stewart; her radio interview with Howard Stern.

The video's embedded after the jump below, or you can download the file directly (Quicktime required). You can also subscribe to this vodcast via our feed.

What a night for Kelly Clarkson! She cried when she beat out Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow, Mariah Carey, and Bonnie Raitt for best female pop performance for her very awesome Since U Been Gone rock hit. Less than an hour later, she nearly broke down as she sang Because of You. Later in the night, Kelly won her second grammy for best pop vocal album for Breakaway, an album that was very close to her heart. She wrote or co-wrote half the songs on the album and divorced her management company over control of the album. Neither of her acceptance speeches mentioned her win on American Idol. That's a tough call. She obviously wouldn't be where she is if it weren't for Idol, but at the same time, she legitimized herself as a true talent this year when she distanced herself from the competition.

Other winners:

Kelly Clarkson just solidified her standing as my favorite American Idol (sorry Bo, you're #2). She has managed to escape from the strangle-hold that American Idol has on most of its contestants' careers. In an article that comes out in today's Time magazine, Kelly says she didn't want to make From Justin to Kelly with runner-up Justin Guarini but she was contractually obligated. I never saw it, because it looked like some terrible version of Beach Blanket Bingo and it only got 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. She said, "I knew when I read the script it was going to be real, real bad...I could not get out of it." Kelly eventually did get out of her contract with 19 Entertainment, the studio that manages all the American Idol winners, when folks in charge wouldn't allow her to write any songs for her new album, Breakaway. She ended up writing or co-writing six of twelve tracks and now is managed by a new company. Just call her Miss Independent.

By the way, Kelly is scheduled to perform on the Grammy Awards this Wednesday. She is nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album. Knowing that her personal stamp is on that album, I'm definitely rooting for her!

November sweeps stunts brought us stormtroopers on The Apprentice, a live debate on The West Wing, a dead chick on Lost and Medium in 3-D. Why are February ratings so tame? One word: Olympics.

NBC is expected to kick some television tail when it covers the Olympics every single night from February 10-26. Going into this month, the networks are touting some pretty uninteresting guest stars on the shows that need a boost. And that's about it. Oh, there is also going to be some sh*t going down on The O.C., but you don't want the spoilers, do you?

Here are some highlights for February sweeps, which began yesterday and run through March 1:

UPN has decided to stick with the "celebrity coming of age" approach for a new drama based on the childhood of recording artist Alicia Keys. Heck, it worked for Chris Rock.The series will be based on Keys', who had a white mother and a black father and was raised by her mother in Hell's Kitchen after her parents divorced when she was two. She started playing piano at six and eventually grew up to be a popular singer and pianist, selling over fifty billion copies of her first album in just under eight minutes. The show will be written by Felicia Henderson, who wrote for Family Matters and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Keys will executive produce.