TVSquad

Rumors have been swirling for months that Rosie O'Donnell was in negotiations with NBC to create her own show. There were even rumors that she would get a talk show on MSNBC to compliment Keith Olbermann's show (though now Rachel Maddow has that gig). Instead, it has been announced that Rosie will host a variety show on NBC on Thanksgiving Eve, November 26.

It's called Rosie's Variety Hour, because it's hosted by Rosie, it features variety, and it's going to last 60 minutes. Rosie will do a monologue and introduce musical and comedy acts, and they'll be big prizes for people in the studio audience and people watching at home. Rosie compares the show to Carol Burnett, Ed Sullivan, and Sonny & Cher. She had me at the first two. I'd love to see a show like that on TV again. Not sure about the last one, but I think I know what she means.

If the show is a hit, you might see it as a weekly series.

On a cool Thanksgiving morning old (Underdog) and new (Stewie from Family Guy) parade balloons battle it out for a inflatable bottle of Coca-Cola. As they cross the skyline of New York City fists fly and heads are butted. But, in the end, neither is the one who claims the prize. That honor goes to the honorable Charlie Brown, who seems to have finally won something in his life.

This was a cute and gentle commercial by Cola-Cola, which rarely disappoints when it comes to Super Bowl ads. I never realized that the Underdog and Stewie Thanksgiving Day balloons had such angry looks on their faces. That was an advantage in this commercial as we saw the two balloons battling it out. I enjoyed when Underdog slammed Stewie against the building. Nice job overall.

(S01E10) "Pineapple."

So last week was the big bomb buster. Sarah kissed Chuck, Bryce came back from the dead, Morgan got a girl to touch him... pretty crazy stuff. Now, we get to see the aftermath of Chuck-nobyl and what it means for the future of Team Bartowski.

I'm pretty sure that this TV Squad assignment -- make a list of all the things you're thankful for in television -- is going to get me in trouble with my family. See, I've only got so much introspection to spare and I've pretty much used up November's allotment making this list. When my wife asks me to give her one thing I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving, she'll probably be expecting me to say "all the love I receive from my family" or something else suitably goopy. When I say, "I'm really thankful for how good House has been this season," I'm going to get a carving knife plunged into my eye-socket.

But I knew the risks when I signed up to be a television blogger. As my blogging mentor Hyman Roth once told me, "This is the business we have chosen, Jay." My list after the jump...

• At 8, ABC has a new Ugly Betty, then new episodes of Grey's Anatomy and October Road.
• CBS has a new Survivor at 8, followed by new episodes of CSI and Without A Trace.
• Also at 8: Disney has a Hannah Montana marathon.
• At 8:30, Showtime has 1995's Home for the Holidays.
• At 9, Great American Country has a holiday concert with Little Big Town.
• There's a new Divine Design on HGTV at 9.
• At 10, Bravo has a new Tim Gunn's Guide to Style.
• Sundance has a new Iconoclasts, with Wynton Marsalis and John Besh.
• Late night repeats of shows like Friends, Will and Grace, and Everybody Loves Raymond are airing holiday episodes tonight (check local listings).

Check your local TV listings for more. And also check out our guide for earlier today for marathons that might be on tonight.

I've got plenty to be thankful for in my life, but -- pffft! -- y'all don't care to hear about that! This is TV Squad after all, so let's get down to what I'm thankful for when it comes to all-things television:

Damages getting uber-renewed
As the first season of Damages ticked down toward its finale, I wasn't the only one afraid that F/X was being quiet about the show's renewal status. It wasn't until recently that we were blessed with the news of not only one new season, but two! Many of us fans have already gone into speculating what the major plot will be for the second season, but to now wrap our minds around a third ... wow.

The Shield having all remaining episodes in the can
The WGA strike is obviously going to be a huge downer for TV watchers everywhere, if it hasn't been already. Some shows will take months to reappear, possibly if at all! Thankfully one of my beloved shows, The Shield, apparently won't be affected by the strike, as it has its final season all wrapped up for us like a fat present under the tree (even if it does air in the spring).

I may not celebrate Thanksgiving today (as Robin from How I Met Your Mother would say, "The real Thanksgiving was in October!") but that doesn't mean I cannot take part of TV Squad thankful post series.

Television is a big part of my life. I've grown with it. I spend hours with it every day. So it's about time, I give thanks for having television in my life!

We're all thankful for many things in our lives. Good health, family, friends, our homes ... those often come to mind when Thanksgiving rolls around.

But sometimes it's the everyday things which we take for granted -- things like entertainment and television -- which get overlooked. I've been a reading fanatic and a television fan all of my life. Without those two mind diversions, my life would be very different ... perhaps not a good different.

So when I heard I had a chance to write about what I'm thankful for in (or on) television, I jumped at it.

Thanksgiving is about overindulgence; cramming our bodies to bursting with turkey and potatoes and gravy and cranberry sauce and just when we think we're going to heave if we have one more bit, it's the one day in which it is socially acceptable to unbutton your pants so you can squeeze in that last slice of pumpkin pie. Gluttony with approval, thanks be to the cook! As it turns out, TiVo is about overindulgence too, which is why it tops my list.

Now I can follow Everybody Hates Chris, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Chuck and Prison Break (Curse you Mondays 8/7 Central!) without missing a beat. Of course, one night of primetime television takes eight hours to watch, but isn't it worth it in the end? "I love you, honey, I should be done here by two am!"

OK, so we all know that Thanksgiving Day means football, football, football, NFL and college, and several networks (including CBS and FOX) will satisfy those fans. But there's more to Thanksgiving than that. What follows after the jump is a list of all of the other shows you can watch tomorrow, if you can get the remote control away from your brother-in-law or uncle. Lots of marathons and Thanksgiving-themed episodes.

• AMC is showing Alfred Hitchcock movies all day and night.
• At 7am, NBC's Today Show, ABC's Good Morning America, and CBS' Early Show will all have Thanksgiving features, including cooking tips and reports from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Thanksgiving is more than a time when families force members to tolerate each other for a few hours to get through a meal with minimal bloodshed. Oh, no. It's so much more: Thanksgiving is when TV Squad does these nifty lists of what we bloggers are thankful for in the TV world. My list will never be complete, because far into the new year, I will continue to think of the thousands of tiny things that should belong here. Of course, I don't have the time, space, or energy to make a thousand-item list, so an 8-point piece will have to do.

Have a lovely Thanksgiving Day, you wonderful people, and don't forget your stretchy pants.

Several of my colleagues here at TV Squad have listed personal video recorders as one of the things they're most thankful for this holiday season.

I wholeheartedly agree with them and think the list could even be extended a little bit further.

We live in an age where our televisions, computers, cellphones, PDAs, PMPs, video game consoles, and a myriad of other products can all communicate with other devices wirelessly and at broadband speeds - all in the pursuit of making the TV watching experience as convenient as possible.

From a technology perspective, it's never been a better time to be a fan of watching TV. Here is a list of the TV related items I'm most thankful for this holiday season.

In contemplating the issue, I've found seven things that I'm thankful for relating to the television medium. There could be more in the future, but these are the ones I've come up with at this time.

As I get older I begin to realize the crap what is the entertainment industry and getting ready for my journey to decrepitness, old age and senility, I am fully prepared to give vicious criticism and back-handed compliments now to avoid the rush. I'm sort of like those vindictive commenters you see on Internet message boards, except I give my real name.

Ah, Thanksgiving. My second favorite holiday after Christmas. So much to be thankful for, and they all sound like cliches: family, friends, health, happiness, pizza. But what about the stuff that we really can't do without, television? Below are a half dozen things about TV that I'm truly thankful for this year.

1. A second season of Mad Men: You know how it usually goes. You love a TV show like it's your wife or husband, and then the show is canceled after its first season because of low ratings or some other reason involving numbers. But that's not the case with AMC's Mad Men. I'm not completely surprised it was renewed, because when you have a period piece drama on one of the niche cable channels, there's a hell of a better chance of it getting renewed than if it was on NBC, Mondays at 10. Most times when a show is called "adult" that just means there's a lot of violence or a lot of sex or it's on cable so they can swear a lot. Mad Men is adult in the truest meaning of the word: intelligent, well written, well-acted, and focusing on adult themes of relationships, society, and the workplace.

To be honest, I don't usually think of television as something to be thankful for. This time of year I usually reflect on how lucky I am to have loving husband, a supportive family, and loyal friends. Also, as I'm sure most people do, I pause for a moment of gratitude for the things I take for granted most days: my health, my job, enough to eat, the clothes on my back, etc.

But now that I think about it, after I say thank-you for all the above, I guess I am rather thankful for television (especially on the weeknights). After a long day at work or running errands, I can't say I'm not grateful that a new episode of Cane, The Office, or Boston Legal is on. And on Sundays, the inevitable dreaded Monday morning is made more bearable by Desperate Housewives or some HBO series (I used to love Rome).