TVSquad

Taking a cue from ABC, NBC had Jay Leno pose as a reporter and ask NBC's two-headed entertainment chief, Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff, about when Leno would be leaving and when Conan would be starting. Only, instead of just wearing a baseball cap like Kimmel did, Leno donned a bald cap and beard to make him seem extra stealthy.

Some of the "funny" lines are after the jump, but here's the gist of the news: Leno's last day on the Tonight show will be on May 29, with Conan O'Brien taking over the following Monday, June 1. Conan will do his last Late Night sometime during the first quarter, according to Graboff and Silverman, and Jimmy Fallon will take over the timeslot at an undetermined time during either March or April (that's after starting online, as Lorne Michaels announced yesterday). No word on what will play in Conan's 12:30 slot in the interim period.

Just wanted to post a quick report about yesterday's late-afternoon Saturday Night Live panel. On the panel was (new TCA Career Achievement award winner) Lorne Michaels, Weekend Update anchor and co-head-writer Seth Meyers, and cast members Fred Armisen, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis, Kristin Wiig, Will Forte, and Casey Wilson.

Given the comedy star power on stage, the panel was strangely unfunny. That's probably because Michaels answered most of the questions. Anyway, two pieces of news came out of this panel:

• SNL will run live 30-minute Thursday election specials in primetime starting October 9 and running until the election. The specials will feature Weekend Update but may also have sketches. There will also be a primetime "Presidential Bash" episode the night before the election.
• Michaels mentioned that Jimmy Fallon will air his show online for "five or six months" before it airs in Conan O'Brien's old timeslot, in order to give it a headstart in finding its creative legs. "We learned with Conan how brutal it was to find a show when it was on the air," he said.

Tonight, the members of the Television Critics Association (including me) gathered at the Beverly Hilton to give out its annual awards. The membership voted on the awards in the month leading up to the press tour; we were given a number of candidates to choose from in various categories. The membership was also asked to choose recipients for an individual Career Achievement award and the Heritage Award, which recognizes a past show that had a big impact artistically and on the industry.

The members didn't reach back too far for the Heritage Award: it was given to The Wire. As for current shows, the members gave Mad Men a bushel of awards: Program of the Year, Outstanding New Program, and Outstanding Achievement in Drama. 30 Rock won for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, and Tina Fey won the Individual Achievement in Comedy award for her performance. John Adams won the mini-series award; its star, Paul Giamatti, won the Individual Achievement in Drama award. Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live received the Career Achievement award.

A complete list of winners is after the jump.

Time's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World is out, and for the third year in the row I just missed making the list (last year I was 103, this year I'm at 102, so I'm getting better!). The list is broken down into five different categories: Leaders & Revolutionaries, Heroes & Pioneers, Scientists & Thinkers, Artists & Entertainers, and Builders & Titans. This year, Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana herself, is #59. And the weird thing is, it's under the Scientists & Thinkers category.

OK, that's not true (she's under Artists & Entertainers), but it got me thinking that there must really be a shortage of influential people in the world today.

That's the idea from Matthew Gilbert over at Boston.com: reduce the length of Saturday Night Live from 90 minutes to 60 minutes.

Would it help the show? We all know that the weakest part of the show seems to be that last half hour, when the lame sketches air. Regardless of what many people say about the current SNL (including me), there's still a lot of talent on the show and there's a lot of good, funny stuff that comes from it. Unfortunately, all the funny stuff doesn't come from the same episode. I'd say there's usually two really good sketches in an episode (including "Weekend Update"), a couple of "oh, this is a good idea but not for a sketch this long" segments, and several "how did this make it pass the writers room?" disasters. Maybe cutting the show down to an hour, while not perfect, would make the good parts stand out more and really get the show lean and mean again.

In today's Washington Post, Saturday Night Live kingpin Lorne Michaels defended his choice of Fred Armisen to play Barack Obama, starting with last week's episode. After the much-publicized search for an Obama impersonator (or Fauxbama, as some are calling it), Michaels decided on Armisen, who is of white and Asian origin. Armisen, who's talented enough to do excellent imitations of people ranging from Prince to Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, did a credible job playing Obama, a man who is somewhat hard to pin down, imitation-wise.

But some critics, including the Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan, have very bluntly wondered why an African-American didn't play Obama. "They couldn't find an African-American performer who was funny enough to play the junior senator from Illinois? They couldn't find one in New York? Not anywhere in the country? Really?" wrote Ryan on her Tribune blog.

We told you recently about Saturday Night Live's first new episode after the writers strike. The show will return this Saturday with host Tina Fey and musical guest Carrie Underwood. Now comes word that Maya Rudolph won't be on the show this weekend.

Rudolph still doesn't have a contract with the show. She almost left before this season started, but decided to come back. It now looks like that was only a temporary thing until they could get a contract hammered out. Producer Lorne Michaels says "I'm going to keep calling her until she changes her number," so the show wants her back. For the time being, her slot will be filled with Upright Citizen's Brigade troupe member Casey Wilson.

In other SNL news, the show will announce later this week who exactly is going to play Barack Obama in sketches. It won't necessarily be someone who is in the current cast. Michaels is also looking outside the show for someone to play the Democratic Presidential candidate.

I went to the UCB Theatre in New York on Sunday night to see their signature show, "ASSSSCAT." It was side-splittingly funny as usual; the group last night featured UCB founder and SNLer Amy Poehler, Jack McBrayer and John Lutz from 30 Rock, Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel from Human Giant, among others, and the guest monologist was Samm Levine (Freaks and Geeks). I had a fantastic time.

But I kind of wish I was at the theater about 20 hours before that, when the entire cast of SNL put on a makeshift version of their show, hosted by Michael Cera (we mentioned this show when it was announced last week). Fortunately, The New York Times was there, and they not only have an article about the event, but a nice slide show as well.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams has two gigs this week: hosting the nightly news show and preparing to host Saturday Night Live this weekend, rehearsing and helping to write some segments. Some people say he's blurring the line between news and entertainment, but I'm looking forward to seeing how he does. And he's keeping a blog of how the week is going so far.

The Daily Nightly is one of the better network news blogs anyway, but these entries show Williams' funny side. After working one night, he actually had to go to 30 Rock and join the writers for their all-night writing session.

Sometimes, when it's too rainy outside to go anywhere and the air is full of a sense of doom and gloom, all you want is to just hole up indoors and watch hours and hours and hours of nonstop Canadian sketch comedy and cross-dressing. Hey, I can't possibly be the only one that feels that way, because otherwise, the Kids in the Hall complete series megaset wouldn't have been made. I had a full rainy week to lounge around with this lovely collection and we got to know each other pretty well. It's a real sweetheart, to be sure... A real cross-dressing, head-crushing, fact-sharing, cabbage-headin' sweetheart.

Here's an interesting bit of news: NBC news anchor Brian Williams will host Saturday Night Live next month. He was asked based on his stint at the anchor desk on Weekend Update last year. The video of that sketch has been pulled from YouTube, but as I recall, he had some great comic timing.

Williams has dipped in the ratings lately, falling behind Charlie Gibson at ABC. Hosting SNL will no doubt get him some attention on the 24-hour news channels (if he's good). But, is this the way to do it? Going on SNL will allow people to see Williams' funnier side (he shows it off on The Daily Show occasionally), but will it compromise his respect as an anchor man? I wonder whether any topics are completely off-limits. He might be willing to take a shot at Katie Couric, but what about President Bush? I'm guessing he'll be drawing a line somewhere... or not, if he's really that desperate for ratings.

NBC wrapped up its first of two days at the press tour at the Beverly Hills Hilton hotel on Monday with a panel on Saturday Night Live.

A Q&A panel at TCA isn't complete unless a star or two is asked about his/her personal life -- either directly or indirectly. Andy Samberg deftly deflected an inquiry about his being associated romantically with ex-SNL host Natalie Portman.

Then, it was on to questions about the show...

NBC's press tour day continued with a panel on Sunday Night Football.

When it concluded, panelists including Tiki Barber, John Madden and Al Michaels tossed out signed footballs to 10 or so lucky members of the press. Score! I caught the ball thrown to me by 2006 Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis, formerly of The Pittsburgh Steelers, now an NBC sports analyst.

In my dreams. It actually sailed over my head to a journalist behind me. "Fumble," he said as he scooped it up.

Sometimes press tour swag can be elusive.

(S32E18) Scarlett Johansson hosted just over a year ago (January 2006), but I don't remember much from that episode. I only recall the "Lazy Sunday" buzz still going strong, and nothing about Scarlett's performance. I suppose that entire month was a bit of a cupcake-y blur.

I wasn't expecting much from Scarlett this week, so I think she did okay. She was one of those hosts that couldn't tear their eyes away from the cue cards at any time, but at least she made each of her characters varied and fun.

There's no doubt that one of the biggest benefactors of the explosion of YouTube has been Saturday Night Live. Not only did the video of the SNL sketch "Lazy Sunday" put the service on the map, but YT has repaid the show in spades by popularizing other SNL sketches and Digital Shorts, most notably the Justin Timberlake/Andy Samberg classic "Dick in a Box" from last Christmas.

But, since NBC struck a deal with Fox to create a video site designed to be a "YouTube killer," NBC's lawyers have been going after all YT clips of the show that weren't uploaded by NBC to the channel it maintains on the site. Michaels discusses the issue with the New York Observer and makes no bones about how he feels about the site: "YouTube has been great for us," he told writer Felix Gillette.