I mentioned not too long ago that Reno 911! would be going into syndication, and it looks like Superstation WGN has picked up the series for its late night comedy block this fall that will also include Scrubs, Becker and Corner Gas (a Canadian sitcom). WGN has acquired the first three season of the improved series for a two-year run. The series finishes off its fourth season on Comedy Central starting April 1, and it has been picked up for a fifth season, as well.

I think Reno 911! should translate pretty well to syndication. Naturally, some stuff may be have to be censored or edited completely, but one advantage the show has is that it's shot as if its a legitimate reality show, a la Cops, which means naughty bits and swear words are often censored, anyway. I suppose they'd still have to do that even on Comedy Central, my point is that such censoring just adds to the "reality" of this fake program.

I reported on the Daytime Emmy Award nominations yesterday and noted that Live with Regis & Kelly wasn't nominated in the Best Talk Show category. While that's technically true, the show was nominated in another category for morning shows. They'll go up against The Today Show, Good Morning, America and Univision's Despierta America in a new category. Regis still wasn't nominated for Best Host though.

Oh, and Regis is doing quite fine after heart bypass surgery yesterday. Kelly Ripa announced the news on the show this morning. One of his doctors said that Reege has "the heart of a 19 year-old." It wasn't clear which 19 year-old this was, but hopefully they will give it back to this person so they can also live a long, healthy life.

Anna told you yesterday about Regis Philbin's surprise announcement that he will undergo a heart bypass procedure this week. Philbin's last day for at least five weeks was yesterday, and the show has announced who will fill in for him while he's recuperating.

Today and tomorrow, CNN's Anderson Cooper, who has guest-hosted the show before, will take over for Regis in the chair next to Kelly Ripa. Then on Thursday and Friday, MTV's Damien Fahey will fill in. Then there will be a rotating group of celebs who will take over, and that list includes Jeff Probst, Martin Short, Donald Trump, Neil Patrick Harris, Howie Mandel, and Pat Sajak.

Wait a sec...no women? I know they like to have that male/female dynamic on the show, but come, who wouldn't watch Kathie Lee Gifford sit next to Kelly Ripa for a few days?

I promised myself - promised, promised, promised - that I wouldn't write another story about Anna Nicole Smith. But then I saw this video, and I had to post this. If it stops just one person from watching another second of Entertainment Tonight, then this post is worth it.

The video is from Entertainment Tonight, who had EXCLUSIVE! access to the funeral in the Bahamas (*cough* $$$$$ *cough*), and while we get all of the expected weeping and slow motion and doves being released, we also see various friends and relatives of Anna Nicole taking a shovel and grabbing dirt out of the back of a wheelbarrow. I'm sure this is done at funerals, but it just seems odd to have everyone at the funeral grab the shovel and join in. After a while it seems like less a tribute than just doing some maintenance work at the cemetery.

Pay special attention to the job Anna Nicole's mom does.

The day is closer upon us. The end of The O.C. will come to our screens tomorrow night.. The originator and main reason why the development floodgates of Hollywood were opened to introduce us to programming such as Laguna Beach and other bad teen shows based on excess and other items of unimportance.

Although there are many broken hearted O.C. fans amongst us, we aren't that upset to see a character like Oliver Trask off into oblivion. He was able to exude as much hate that a writer could place on a single character, and I am personally glad to see him go.

Businessman and former talk show host Merv Griffin has a new game show in the works, and it just got a great syndication deal. Let's Play Crosswords will premiere this fall, and has a green light to run on five big NBC stations, including those in New York, L.A., and Chicago.

Griffin also created Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, two of the biggest, longest running syndicated shows in the history of television. This new game show took him a while to create, because he had to figure out a way to get a crossword puzzle board, which can be large, on a TV screen, and also keep the show interesting.

But that name, Let's Play Crosswords? Is that really a good title? Why not just called Crossword!, with the exclamation point like Jeopardy! has?

Notwithstanding her upcoming gig as the host of the Academy Awards broadcast, Ellen is on a roll. Wearing her New Orleans roots with pride, it was only fitting that she celebrate in true Mardi Gras style on yesterday's Ellen and who better invite to her show than fellow native Harry Connick, Jr.

What she wasn't ready for was his shocking admission of paternity...