Talent

Even though former co-host Meredith Vieira doesn't watch the show anymore (she's too busy getting up early and working on The Today Show), she did watch Star Jones' final show, and feels that the show has become a joke and is now hard to watch.

This is one of the many things that Vieira says in a "10 Questions" interview with Time magazine. She also talks about women who were angry with her when she left 60 Minutes, how she was raised a boy, and what kinds of stories she wants to focus on when her gig on The Today Show starts in a couple of weeks.

• Here's a complete list of winners, in case you were wondering who won Best Gaffer on a Miniseries.
• Ken Levine has another fantastic review of the Emmys. Lots of great lines, but my favorite might be, "Why was Charlie Sheen up for Best Actor and Jon Cryer up for Best Supporting Actor? In Two and a Half Men, is Jon the half?"
• TV Guide had minute by minute coverage, a backstage report, and photo galleries.
• Entertainment Weekly's PopWatch blog watched the Emmys too, and they also list their 10 Most Memorable Moments.
• And writer Paul Davidson went to the Emmys last night. He observed many things, including the fact that Paula Abdul's assistant needs deodorant.

Hey, the Emmys are on NBC right now! Keep refreshing your browser if you're not watching the show as we'll have the winners as they're announced. (Winners will be in bold and underlined.)

(If you're looking for the 2007 Emmy Award winners, those are on another post.)

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

Grey's Anatomy
The West Wing
24
House
The Sopranos

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

The Office
Arrested Development
Two and a Half Men
Scrubs
Curb Your Enthusiasm

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Peter Krause (Six Feet Under)
Denis Leary (Rescue Me)
Christopher Meloni (Law and Order: SVU)
Martin Sheen (The West Wing)
Kiefer Sutherland (24)

OUTSTANDING LEAD ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Lisa Kudrow (The Comeback)
Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (The New Adventures of Old Christine)
Stockard Channing (Out of Practice)
Debra Messing (Will & Grace)

• Cronkite to introduce Couric; Schieffer to sing some folk.
• K-Fed to try to act on CSI.
• Here is the new version of Megatron.
• John Mayer will also be on CSI.
• Bob Evans might sue Entourage.
• Racially-divided Survivor ticks off NYC officials.
• Forest Whitaker will do a guest stint on ER.
• Taylor Hicks suing over the iTunes release of pre-Idol material.
• Patty Hearst to guest on Veronica Mars.
• Horatio Sanz thinks he'll remain on SNL.
• Others aren't so sure: rumor is Sanz, Parnell and Thompson are out.
• All we really know is that four SNLers are out.
• Here is the new Survivor cast; teams to be divided by race.
• USA renews The 4400 for a fourth season.
• Jimmy Kimmel to host game show.
• ABC News specials now on iTunes.
• Cuomo named news anchor at GMA
• ABC moves up premiere of Men In Trees.
• Study finds that there are not enough gay characters on TV.
• Zach Braff thinks this is last season on Scrubs.
• Stargate SG-1 cancelled.
• Music video banned by MTV for blatant product placement.
• Here's (snicker) Kevin Federline (chuckle) rapping (heh) at the Teen Choice awards.
• Giamatti to play John Adams in HBO miniseries.
  

• Did The Colbert Report rip off a web show?
• Keith gives a "State of TV Squad" address.
• Is there a possibility Stargate SG-1 will live on?
• What shows should be cancelled immediately?
• Can you find any clues in the Lost season three poster?
• Enter our latest contest by telling us which show will get sacked first.
  

• Awesome TV jerks.
• Reasons why I don't care about the Emmys.
• Five interviews with cool dead guys.
  

• I call out a phony press release about the "new" Sci Fi Channel.
• We catch you up on The 4400 before the finale.
• I'm worried about The Daily Show after Corddry's departure.
• Here's a look at the press kit for Standoff.
• Joss Whedon lists TV's best characters.
• An early review of Dexter.
• Bob doesn't like MSNBC's new graphics.

• Sports Night: "Sally"
• The Simpsons: "Lisa's Wedding"
• Angel: "The Prodigal"
• Seinfeld: "The Boyfriend"
• The Prisoner: "Living in Harmony"
• Futurama: "When Aliens Attack"
• The X-Files: "Lazarus"

• Monk: "Mr. Monk Goes to a Rock Concert"
• Stargate Atlantis: "Common Ground"
• Psych: "Shawn vs. The Red Phantom"
• Stargate SG-1: "Counter Strike"
• Rock Star: Supernova: Week 8 Elimination
• Rescue Me: "Hell"
• Eureka: "Dr. Nobel"
• Vanished: "Pilot"
• Kyle XY: "Overheard"
• The Closer: "Borderline"
• Prison Break: "Manhunt"
• The Venture Bros.: "Love-Bheits"
• Entourage: "What About Bob?"

Two quirky little items about The CBS Evening News.

First, veteran anchor Walter Cronkite has actually taped the intro for when Katie Couric takes over from Bob Schieffer in September. Who knows if the intro will even air, and if it does air if it will be a permanent thing on just a one time thing to welcome Couric.

And speaking of Schieffer, when he leaves the anchor desk, he might become a folk singer! He's written a couple of songs (with another CBS Evening News staffer) that are making their way around Nashville.

[via TV Newser]

Something tells me Gervais isn't losing any sleep over this.

Seems that hotel heiress/reality show star/professional nightclub visitor Paris Hilton wanted to be on Extras, and Gervais said no. So now Hilton is firing back, calling him insecure and saying: "I guess he's obviously scared of starring alongside an A-lister."

Hilton did not elaborate on who this "A-lister" was.

[via TV Tattle]

I miss Dick Cavett's talk show. In fact, I miss Dick Cavett's type of talk show on television. Charlie Rose comes close I guess, with the spare set and the serious devotion to subjects, but it's not the same. Luckily, Cavett is coming back to television (sort of), on Turner Classic Movies.

The movie network is going to run eight classic episodes of Dick Cavett's 70's show throughout the fall. The shows will run every Thursday night, as part of a theme night about a certain star or director. The first episode will air on September 7 and will include a brand new interview Cavett has with Mel Brooks. Later Thursdays will have classic interviews with people such as Katherine Hepburn, Groucho Marx, Robert Mitchum, Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Ingmar Bergman, and Bette Davis.

• Charlie Rose: a discussion of the Gulf Coast reconstruction effort
• The Late Show With David Letterman: Maggie Gyllenhaal and Bill Buford
• Jay Leno: Jeremy Piven, Cat Deeley, and Corinne Bailey Rae (repeat)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Paul Reubens and Under The Influence Of Giants (repeat)
• Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Salma Hayek, Eric Balfour, and Street Drum Corps (repeat)
• The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Andre Benjamin, David Boreanez, and Mellowdrone
• Last Call With Carson Daly: Sarah Silverman, Cheech Marin, and Mobb Deep (repeat)

Here's some news for all you John Mayer fans: the singer will appear on the season opener of CSI! Mayer has a new album coming out, titled Continuum, and he'll perform two songs ("Waiting on the World to Change" and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room") on the two-parter when it airs on CBS September 21 and 28.

Danny Bonaduce also guest stars, as a dead rock star. His dead body is a wonderland.

PBS' Charlie Rose interviewed late night host and Emmy host Conan O'Brien last night, and Google Video has the complete video (you can buy a better quality for 99 cents, but this version is fine...not sure how long this free video will stay up).

Lots of good clips from both his show and the 2002 Emmy Awards, and O'Brien has a lot of interesting things to say about his 13 years at NBC, the money that FOX offered him a few years ago, what will happen when he takes over The Tonight Show in 2009, and his conversation with Johnny Carson three months before he died.

[via TV Tattle]

I have to admit that I didn't get the connection when I saw the episode, but friends of legendary Hollywood producer Bob Evans say that the dottering old character played by Martin Landau this season is based on him, and he's not happy about it.

Now, at first I would think that it's silly, because there are plenty of old producers in Hollywood, but a friend of Evans says that not only did they use Evans' house in the show, but Entourage producers actually approached him earlier this year to play himself on the show.

HBO says the character is not based on Evans.

The web is starting to buzz about the similarities between these two clips (both having to do with doughnuts and science). One is from The Show With Ze Frank, a popular web show, and the other is from The Colbert Report. The Ze Frank clip was put up on Tuesday afternoon. The Colbert Report aired later that night.

Hmmmm...a rip-off, or just a weird coincidence?

[via Boing Boing]

We all have our opinions on what we'd like to see on television, and what we don't want to see. And now Salon has a two-part series where they asked several writers and other folks to come up with their fantasy television series. Included are such people as Phil Rosenthal (creator/producer of Everybody Loves Raymond), Mark Cuban, writer Megham Daum, Aaron Shure (writer on Lucky Louie), and ex-Men's Health, Maxim UK, and Stuff editor Greg Gutfield.

Most of the writers took it as a creative writing exercise, so many of the shows are more jokes than actual ideas. I don't really get Daum's idea about a show involving a ferret and laser tag, and John Darnielle (lead singer of The Mountain Goats) wants to see more boxing on TV.

Mark Cuban wants a reality show starring Dennis Rodman. Ugh.

You know whose essay I agreed with the most? James Frey's. Yup, that's James Frey of Million Little Pieces and Oprah fame. He wants to see a return of the old-fashioned private eye show we don't see on TV anymore, like Magnum, P.I., The Rockford Files, and Mike Hammer. I'd love to see that happen. Either that, or a variety show hosted by Amy Sedaris. All Amy, all the time!

Here's part one, and here's part two.

• Nightline has been beating Letterman in the ratings lately. TV Barn has the numbers.
• TeeVee.org has a review of Studio 60, and their pick for the pilot's "glaring flaw" is incredibly ridiculous. Have they forgotten about Sports Night?
• I don't really understand the first sentence of this post about The Office and Grey's Anatomy over at The Boston Globe's blog. Can someone explain it to me?
• Over at TV Guide, Surfer Girl loves loves loves Miami Ink, while Michael Ausiello gives his Emmy predictions.
• Speaking of the Emmys, someone is selling one on Craigslist.