TVSquad

Oscar roulette is usually played when it comes time to figure out the nominations. However, this year there seems to be a wheel of fortune spinning with the names of possible hosts for the show. Of course, the folks running the show have intimated that they might want to have a few stars sharing the duties. Historically, that hasn't worked out too well.

The other day when Hugh Jackman removed his name from the running, I asked you for your ideas and told you that I like Kathy Griffin. Jimmy liked George Clooney and Justin Timberlake. Sancty suggested Neil Patrick Harris.

It looks like Megan Fox hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live is all but officially confirmed by the folks behind the show. And now we've gotten word that U2 will be the first musical guest for the new season of SNL. They're in the midst of their U2 360 world tour promoting their latest album, No Line on the Horizon.

I don't know if U2 has the same kind of pull on the kids today as they have had on my generation through the years, but in my eyes this is a pretty significant "get" for one of NBC's marquee shows.

Paula Abdul needs some career advice. In the wake of her departure from American Idol, the sometime choreographer/occasional singer and QVC pitch woman has been rumored to be doing all kinds of TV projects. Most have turned out to be rumors and nothing more, but in an interview with TV Guide, Paula said there is a TV dream she covets. Paula Abdul would like to host a TV talk show.

I can't imagine a worse TV vehicle for Paula, especially the kind of talk show she envisions. She said, "It would be a lot of fun variety with a ton of unexpected stuff and tributes to everyday people getting their big chance."

That sounds perfectly cloying, especially if you assume that Paula will be pretty much herself, pretty much like she was on American Idol, which was uncritical, sweet, gentle and pleasantly unfocused.

Now, either Megan Fox will be hosting the premiere of Saturday Night Live on September 26th, or the Internets are just taking this unconfirmed story from Life & Style Weekly and running with it. I hope she does host it, and I hope they let her go unscripted in her monologue, because if there's one thing Fox does do funny, it's try and speak intelligently.

At least we'll get the chance to remember what an amazing actress she is. Don't get me wrong, I teared up several times at the depth of her portrayal of Mikaela Banes in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. When she was climbing all over that motorcycle with her ass hanging out of this shorts (right), you could really feel an emotional connection to the anguish her character was feeling at the thought of her boyfriend leaving for college.

Actually, Fox may be an amazing actress. Certainly she must have elevated Hope & Faith to new heights because I didn't even know she was in it. At least she's hot. I'm sure that's what most of the sketches would focus on anyway.

This seems to be Neil Patrick Harris' year. A tour-de-force season on How I Met Your Mother was followed by hosting stints on the Tonys and TV Land Awards that showed how natural he was in the role of awards host. Heck, he even managed to get the Tonys some viral street cred by doing a Billy Crystal-esque medley at the end that stated the show "could not be any gayer if Liza was named mayor and Elton John took flight."

So, it's not a big surprise to hear that NPH is near a deal to host the Emmys as well, according to Variety.

The summertime is when I could get a breath of fresh air from Ryan Seacrest. By the end of American Idol, I'm just hoping that Ryan would stop interviewing contestants and just get to the singing. Eventually the confetti falls, we have a winner, and Ryan Seacrest disappears from my television until January.

So You Think You Can Dance rolls around and we're greeted by the wonderful Cat Deeley. I have to admit that she's light years ahead of Ryan Seacrest. She may not be as witty as Tom Bergeron, but she brings a flair to her hosting duties.

He's no Johnny Carson or Bob Hope or Billy Crystal, but pop star and former boy band fave Justin Timberlake could be the next star to host the Academy Awards. The Oscars are still months away, but the Academy is already contemplating a way to make the show more Nielsen worthy.

Last February's show, hosted by The Daily Show's Jon Stewart (he also hosted in 2006), celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Oscars but was a ratings dud. It was the worst Oscars ever, in terms of Nielsen ratings, even though it had a 21.9 rating and 33 share.

Many people blame those dismal numbers on a disinterest among viewers in the films that were in contention last year, including heavy dramas No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, which seemed to have little appeal to mass audiences.

She's an experienced host, an Oscar-winner, a Broadway star. But is Whoopi Goldberg hosting the 62nd Tony Awards the answer for the struggling annual broadcast? The Tony Awards, which honors the best in Broadway theater is considered one of the four major entertainment awards, along with the Oscar, Emmy and Grammy. But the Tonys have been losing viewership year after year despite the stars lured onto the broadcast. After having no single host the past two years, CBS has tapped Whoopi to be the emcee for the June 15 live broadcast from Radio City Music Hall in hopes that she'll make a difference in the Nielsens. The last single host was Hugh Jackman in 2005.

While this is Whoopi's first turn as Tony host, she is well regarded for her four stints as Oscar hostess. At the most recent Oscars, when Whoopi was left out of the host-highlight clip package of years gone by, she was ticked off and talked about it the morning after on The View. Perhaps doing the Tonys will be her way of sticking to the Oscars?

About two months ago, we learned that Donny and Marie Osmond were being considered for their own daytime talk show. One of the Osmonds will indeed host a talk show in the somewhat near future. Earlier this week, Marie, who recently appeared on Dancing with the Stars, announced that she will host her very own syndicated daytime talk show set to premiere in the fall of 2009.

This will not be Marie's first time as a host. If you recall, from 1998 to 2000, she co-hosted Donny & Marie with her brother, Donny Osmond.

TV Week tells us that after clearing 85% of the market with a few last-minute sales, including to one of my local stations in St. Louis, The Bonnie Hunt Show is now able to get things in order for a Fall 2008 launch. Hunt filmed a pilot in June of 2007 and was picked up with a two year commitment in September.

Bonnie Hunt is one of those Hollywood names everyone knows, everyone in the industry likes, and she's been around forever, but she's never been in anything "big-time." Her biggest TV role was probably her Emmy-nominated performance in the short-lived ABC series Life with Bonnie, in which Hunt played ... a TV talk show host ... well, that's kind of weird. I guess all she's really wanted to do is direct-- I mean, host a talk show. Sorry, they all want to direct, of course. Goes without saying. So I probably shouldn't have.

If only Bob Hope and Johnny Carson could come back from the dead...

Seriously, besides Billy Crystal and onetwo-time host Steve Martin, most Oscar hosts have suffered in the face of high expectations and the reality that they couldn't unleash their full force of funny over an audience full of mostly humorless industry types. Dave Letterman got eaten alive despite a performance most home audiences (well, me) thought was hilarious. Chris Rock dared to actually try to be a tenth as daring as he is in his stand-up act and he was called "insulting" by his non-fans and "boring" by the people who liked him. Ellen DeGeneres was so benign she put people to sleep.

Which is why I wonder why Jon Stewart would accept the Academy's reported invitation to host the ceremony again next year. When he hosted in 2006, he got decidedly mixed reviews, from people who liked his performance to folks like Nikki Finke, who said that Stewart bombed.

FOX announced today that Ryan Seacrest will be hosting the 59th Emmy Awards on FOX September 16 at 8:00 p.m. This news comes in the wake of the announcement that Seacrest will also be hosting the Super Bowl.

I have no idea if this is a good idea or not, as I don't watch American Idol, E! News, Captain Seacrest's Pirate Ship Hootenanny, or whatever the hell other series he's featured on. Still, isn't the typical rule for awards shows to have some kind of comedian hosting them?

Variety reports that negotiations to have actress Whoopi Goldberg join The View (she's been a guest host several times) are close to being finalized, though the network has made no official announcement just yet.

ABC is also apparently talking with comedian Sherri Shepherd about the possibility of joining the show. Currently the only three permanent hosts are Barbara Walters, Joy Behar and Elizabeth Hasselbeck.

Goldberg would replace Rosie O'Donnell, of course, who left the show a couple months ago.

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:

• Bear Grylls of Man vs. Wild is not quite as wild a you think.
  
• Yesterday, we finally got our answer: Drew Carey is the new host of The Price is Right.
  
• Hot Ghetto Mess just got a cheerier, less inflammatory name at the last minute.

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

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: Trying to see things from their point of view....

• Clay Aiken is that guy you don't want sitting behind you on a plane. And no, not because he sings.
  
• Katie Couric got all slappin'-mad over the word "sputum." Eww.
  
• Kathy Griffin is on the shortlist for the hosting spot on The View, but only if the price is right.
  

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