TVSquad

Goodbye, Jay -- you don't mind if we push you out of the chair, do you? If you thought NBC made a mess of the David Letterman/Jay Leno replacement switch-off back in 1992, then you might find it not very surprising that the hand off from Jay (I don't want to go) Leno to Conan O'Brien is portending to be just as sticky.

According to TV Week, NBC is poised to announce the official Jay Leno departure from The Tonight Show and Conan O'Brien arrival today. Our man at the TCA, Joel Keller, could have all the details later on, so keep checking back with TV Squad.

Reportedly, Leno will be exiting in late May, possibly on the anniversary of the date he took the chair from Johnny Carson, May 25. Carson's last Tonight Show was May 22, 1992; Jay's tenure commenced on Monday, May 25. The problem with re-creating that symmetry in 2009 is that those dates are Memorial Day weekend.

There's a better reason for watching How I Met Your Mother tonight than to see Britney Spears reprising her role as Abby, the receptionist who may or may not be Barney's next conquest. On the episode called Everything Must Go, Lily and Marshall face their financial troubles head on. With Marshall out of his evil corporate job, their future tied up in an apartment that's in desperate need of renovations because it was built on an incline, and Lily's credit card debt nearly $100,000, the Eriksens are in trouble. It's been building for weeks and it reaches a boiling point tonight when they realize everything must go.

They set up an online auction at a site called lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com. The twist here is that the website auction is for real, reports USA Today (sorry, no link... the story is only in the print edition). The creators of the show have set up the site and will raise money for the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles by selling Lily and Marshall's props and costumes. The auction site will last two weeks. The site is part of charityfolks.com and you can register now to take part once it goes live this evening.

Icetruck.tv looks like a normal Youtube knockoff at first glance. It has friendly soft blue icons with rounded edges that just scream, "let's watch dramatic chipmunks all day long." But beneath the unsuspecting veneer lies one of the greatest viral marketing campaigns to hit the internet since Al Gore invented it so long ago.

The Icetruck site is actually a webvertisment for Showtime's Dexter, about a serial killer who works as a forensic analyst to help catch murderers. If that doesn't sound cool enough, it stars Michael C. Hall from Six Feet Under. What more do you need?

The little town of Springfield, VT (pop. 9,300) won the nationwide contest to host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie. It beat out 13 other Springfield, USAs for the honor based on voting on the USA Today website.

Springfield, VT was a last-minute entry into the contest. City leaders said they didn't even hear about the contest until the videos were almost due, so they hurried up and slapped something together. That video is pretty darn good, actually. It begins with a live action re-creation of The Simpsons opening credits, which comes to an abrupt stop when a man impersonating Homer Simpson sees a giant, pink doughnut. He chases it around town-- showing off Springfield, VT in the meantime and introducing characters, such as a post-pubescent Bart. Whoever wrote the script definitely has knowledge of The Simpsons. You can see the winning video (and the other contenders) here.

Springfield, VT will get to premiere The Simpsons Movie on July 26th. It opens nationwide on July 27th.

For a few months now, we've been telling you about how 16 towns of Springfield across the United States are all competing to host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie. The cities have been sending their videos to 20th Century Fox to show why they're the real Springfield.

The city of Springfield, Oregon, for example, did a Bill Kurtis-style investigative report on where the real Springfield is and determined it was in Oregon. There was even a cameo by Tony Hawk! The city of Springfield, Massachusetts had a similar premise, but with higher production quality. Theirs includes a message from Sen. Ted Kennedy.

You can see all the videos here, where USA Today is hosting a vote from now through July 9th on which Springfield deserves the premiere. The website doesn't say whether our voting will actually determine the premiere location, though.

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:

• If you're a fan of watching competitive eating (um, why?), you might understand why one of the "sport's" biggest stars is absolutely crushed to have developed severe jaw arthritis.
  
• Isaiah Washington isn't going away like he's supposed to.
  
• US Weekly has Paris fatigue... and I've got it too! Apparently it messes with your mind, because in the show I said "USA Weekly" instead of "US Weekly." Oops! I blame Paris!
  

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

Retired athletes used to get jobs as managers or coaches or a job in the announcer's booth or even retire. Now they make a living doing reality shows.

First ex-baseball player Jose Canseco did The Surreal Life and now he's pushing a new reality show (scroll down) titled A Day With Jose. Basically, you go to the web site and tell Canseco what you would do with him if you got to spend the whole day with him. Maybe you'd like to go to a Giants game with him and taunt Barry Bonds! Maybe you'd like to see him as a Chippendale's dancer! Maybe you'd just like to see Jose sit around the house watching television!

OK readers, it's your turn. In the comments, tell us what you'd do if you could hang out with Canseco for a whole day.

Late last week we reported that The Jackson family, sans Michael and Janet, were developing their own American Idol-style reality program titled Pop Dynasty. Now it turns out that another musical group is returning for an, um, American Idol-style reality program. Does anyone have an original thought in their minds out there?

The group is Menudo. You remember them, don't you? They were the 80's boy band that introduced the world to Ricky Martin. They were also famous for rotating their band members out when they got older or their voices changed. Kind of like a pop-rock Logan's Run. The old members of the band aren't reuniting. Instead, according to USA Today, seven boys are being picked from around the country to star in the new series The Road to Menudo. Hey, wasn't that the last Bing Crosby-Bob Hope road film?

Candidates are being judged by Johnny Wright, who managed the mega-boy bands New Kids on the Block, 'NSync and the Backstreet Boys, as well Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough. The show will begin airing next month on MTV Tr3s, MTV's bilingual Latin-American channel.

Those are the latest rumors spreading around the internets and the industry, that The CW has all but canceled the cult favorite Veronica Mars and that CBS is going to give a surprising second season renewal to Jericho, which looked like it might be dead in the water.

USA Today is reporting that a really good source is saying that Veronica Mars is "all but dead." Critic Robert Bianco says that fellow writer Gary Levin says the show is gone and he's "almost always right about these things." I think any buzz that the show might have had a year or so ago is now dead and a renewal is unlikely. (Isabelle talked about this last month, too.)

As for Jericho, SyFyPortal says that not only will CBS renew the drama, but it will move it to a new night in the fall to get it away from American Idol. Time will tell. The networks reveal their new schedules next month.

[via TV Tattle]

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode.*

Yeah, I know all of those who haven't yet watched the recent episode of 24 on their TiVos or DVRs are going to be upset about this post, but it's about THE issue that's been lingering in the air following the final moments of hour 17:

Audrey Raines is alive. And being held hostage. After an avalanche of complaints about this season (including from me), does this turn of events please you?

Show executive producer Evan Katz told USA Today that bringing back Jack Bauer's great love "takes the story in a radical direction." He apparently felt as though they'd "stuck with the suitcase nukes a relatively long time for us."

Several weapons experts told USA Today that a key story line in this season's 24 -- that terrorists have suitcase nuclear weapons -- is, as one arms control expert said, "so highly unlikely as to be approaching fantasy."

Despite pouring cold water all over a pivotal 24 plot point, they said there's more of a danger posed by the potential release of dirty bombs, adding that there have been legitimate concerns expressed about the custody of post-Soviet era nuclear materials that could be used in dirty bombs.

This season's 24 features a former Russian general, with access to Russian suitcase nukes that were slated for decommissioning, working with Islamic terrorists to detonate the weapons in the United States. A spokesman from a California-based non-proliferation studies center said of such a scenario, "God forbid it happens. But no, it's not very likely."

Carlo Rota, who plays 24's Morris O'Brian, told USA Today that having his character cave in to terrorist demands to re-program a trigger for three suitcase nuclear bombs after he was tortured via a power drill was the right call.

"If he hadn't have caved, he would be setting himself up to be the super-individual he's not," Rota told the newspaper.

He said that the after-effects of his torture -- and the small fact that he armed nukes for terrorists -- will emotionally hobble Mr. Chloe, as clearly evidenced by the most recent episode. If Morris can pass up the whiskey in lieu of some Red Bull and smokes, he just might be okay.

I have to admit that when I heard the name of this board game, I laughed.

Both Target and Kohl's have pulled Drinko off of their shelves. If you haven't already guessed, Drinko is the booze version of the classic Price Is Right game Plinko (the one where the contestant drops giant chips down a board and it bounces around and lands in a dollar amount). They've been getting a lot of complaints from various groups that say the game promotes binge drinking.

This isn't the only board game with the drinking theme. Other games include Shots and Ladders and Keg Pong.

This could inspire a PIR drinking game itself. Maybe taking a shot every time Bob Barker doesn't hear what a contestant says? Or maybe a shot when a contestant does something stupid? Nah, you won't last too long.

[via Obscure Store]

Yesterday, an article in USA Today talked about what appears to be a new TV trend: the portrayal of sensitive male buddies who talk about their hopes and fears and (gasp) their feelings. Riffing off a silly New York Times article from 2005 about "man dates," USAT talks to relationship experts and psychologists about why these new "couples" exist.

In the process, they examine pairs like William Shatner and James Spader from Boston Legal, Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford from Studio 60, Julian McMahon and Dylan Walsh from Nip/Tuck, among others. They even include Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and his search for a male friend on The Office in this article as evidence of this "trend."

There are two little flaws with this article, though, which I'll mention after the jump.

I thought it was just me.

I've tried to get into Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip like I did with Aaron Sorkin's two other network creations . . . The West Wing and Sports Night. I wanted to like Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford in their roles as the saviors of a long-running, comedy sketch show. I really did. But, there's just something missing; a last piece of the puzzle that would make this show very enjoyable. However, I thought I was the only one who felt that way.

Fortunately, I'm not. Not only do many of you feel the same way, but we also have Robert Bianco, USA Today's television critic, in our court as well.