Since production on Season 9 got underway the 'Two and a Half Men' set has been shrouded in secrecy. Promos have teased that all will be revealed in the premiere episode.

Last night, however, we got a sneak peek at the new Sheen-less 'Men' courtesy of David Letterman and 'Late Show.' And there was not a bowling shirt in sight.

Series stars Ashton Kutcher, Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones presented last night's Top Ten list on 'Late Show,' which, fittingly enough, was The Top Ten Reasons to Watch the New Season of 'Two and a Half Men.'

Watch highlights from the Top Ten after the jump.

Jeremy Piven may not be giving himself enough credit. On 'Late Show' (Weeknights, 11:37PM ET on CBS), he and David Letterman were talking about dancing. Piven said he had mastered one dance move in the late '80s, 'The Worm.'

Letterman kept hinting around that he wanted Piven to give a demonstration, but Piven wasn't going for it. "If I did it now I'd hurt myself."

But then the crowd got behind Letterman, and put the pressure on Piven. "Can't really disappoint them now," Letterman goaded about the growing clamor from the studio audience.

"I'll warm up and we'll see what we got," Piven said. He then dropped into the splits, and we're talking all the way to the ground. This was impressive for two reaons. One, that he had that kind of flexibility, and two, that his pants had that kind of flexibility.

We at TV Squad have been accused of having an bias against Jay Leno. That might be true; after all, our writers are free to post their opinions on any and all news stories, and my guess is that most of our staff are not big Leno fans (in fact, Bob has said many, many, many times how much he dislikes Jay).

But, one thing we've never denied is that the man can get an audience at 11:35. And, if anyone was fretting that Leno's audience wouldn't follow him back to 'The Tonight Show,' you needn't have worried.

According to Media Life Magazine (via TVWeek), Leno averaged 4.2 million viewers per night last week. Yes, that's one million viewers less than he had a year ago, but it's still a million more than Letterman, whose 'Late Show' has lost about 900,000 viewers since Leno came back. And Leno's pulling almost 1.5 million more viewers than Conan did.

So, why did most of the viewers come back so soon? Four reasons come to mind:

Comedian Chris Rock appeared on 'Late Show with David Letterman' (weeknights, 11:35PM ET on CBS) and discussed -- of all things -- the sex scandal involving Letterman and several of his female employees. Unfortunately, Letterman seemed sick, having lost his voice, and wasn't as quick with the comebacks as he usually would have been.

Watch the video after the jump.

David Letterman seemed stunned by the Biebermania that inundated last night's 'Late Show' (weeknights, 11:35PM on CBS) to see the 16-year-old R&B sensation perform.

"Oh my God... look outside, these people waiting across the street and in the rain for Justin Bieber," Dave said as the camera panned the line outside the studio.

After Justin's number, the late-night host asked, "Is your mom pickin' you up?'

Watch his response after the jump.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

To no one's surprise, Jay Leno's much-heralded return to 'The Tonight Show' on Monday was a ratings success, at least according to early overnight numbers. According to the Hollywood Reporter, advance numbers show Leno winning his timeslot with a 5.4 rating in metered market households and a rating of 2.0 among adults 18-49. That easily beat the 3.0 household rating for 'The Late Show With David Letterman' on CBS and the ABC ratings (cited by Entertainment Weekly) of 3.4 for 'Nightline' and 1.8 for 'Jimmy Kimmel Live.'

Leno's return had coattails too. Following 'Tonight,' NBC's 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon' posted a 2.1 rating, twice its fourth-quarter 2009 average and enough to beat usual timeslot victor 'The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson' by 40 percent.

David Letterman was in rare form last night, firing off merciless fusillades of jokes about the late-night woes of his former network NBC and his longtime rival Jay Leno. But Leno could have the last laugh if NBC gets to remake its late-night schedule the way it wants to. And Letterman could be the one who suffers the most from the new arrangement.

Letterman is currently riding high in the late-night ratings wars, easily beating new timeslot rival Conan O'Brien. That could change, however, if, as NBC hopes, Leno takes the half-hour from 11:35PM to 12:05AM, followed by O'Brien's 'Tonight Show' and then, at 1:05AM, 'Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.'

"Do you feel like a story?" David Letterman asked his viewers during the Oct. 1 episode of 'The Late Show.' What started off sounding like a benign comedy bit slowly developed into a 10-minute confession, a tale of extortion and illicit sex few of Dave's fans could have imagined, a lurid true story that was one of the most riveting moments on television during this or any other year.

Today I made an executive decision and gave the podcast an oh-so-creative name: "The TV Squad Podcast." This was after we recorded it on Tuesday, so I still refer to it by its old APB name. If you have any suggestions, let me know at tvsquad [at] gmail [dot] com.

In this episode, Late Show writer Bill Scheft joins me, Danny Gallagher and Kona Gallagher to talk about his new book Everything Hurts. Of course, there's lots of good behind-the-scenes info about what it was like to work at The Late Show, especially on how the events of the past month affected the staff and the show's writing, including the monologue.

He also tells some funny stories about being canned from Sports Illustrated (and spawns a new catchphrase), feeding lines to the guy who played Mike Singletary and more. It's 45 minutes of fun.

After the interview, Kona, Danny and I give our picks of the week. Run time is 1:03:02.

You can listen to the podcast below; or download from here or by subscribing to our RSS podcast feed. It is also available via iTunes. Feel free to leave us feedback in the comments.

By the way, the music at the beginning and end of the podcast is "Life" by Justin Trawick.

What happened to David Letterman?

I don't mean the endlessly publicized sex scandal or the Sarah Palin controversy. I don't mean the ham-fisted and unfunny political commentary -- or even the strange tales of stalkers around every corner. I mean what happened to the guy from the mid-late 1980s who seemed so above and beyond any such tired showbiz cliches?

When Letterman followed Carson during the Golden Age of NBC late night TV, his show was admittedly quirky. But it was one of the best examples of post-modern comedy in the medium's history. Late Night with David Letterman not only mocked TV entertainment while being a part of it, but the show made fun of the very idea that people get paid to gab or act silly in front of millions of people.

There are very few recurring television moments that instantly grab my undivided attention: seeing an undead Billy Mays still pitching Oxy-Clean, Twilight Zone episodes that pwn Nazis, late night Skinemax.

Now you can add Don Rickles to that list. He's become a staple of late night during the early Tonight Show because he's engaging, colorful and damn funny. Every time he stops in at Letterman's Late Show, I have to stop what I'm doing and watch and that includes running a pregnant friend to the hospital, although it does ruin some of the comedy for me. All that screaming.

He's also great at roasts, not because he's a great insult comic but because he can be just as down to Earth and genuine with the people he's skewering. His best roast is one that never made it to television: a roast of Get Smart's Don Adams at the Playboy Mansion.

You knew that after a weekend of blackmail scandal news and tabloid stories, David Letterman wasn't going to open his show on Monday just telling jokes about Chicago losing the Olympics. In fact, he started off the proceedings with a bang, asking the audience, "Did your weekend just fly by?"

Then he proceeded telling some pretty funny jokes about the scandal; he spent the weekend "raking my hate mail," that it was "chilly outside the house and chilly inside the house," and that the next phase is to go on Oprah and sob. He even acknowledged his odd comedic predicament by trailing off on jokes about Bill Clinton, Mark Sanford and Eliot Spitzer, realizing that he's not in the position to poke fun at those folks.

But then, after the break, he sincerely apologized to his staff for putting them through this mess, and said he had a lot of work to do to repair things with his wife, Regina Lasko. It was at that moment (video below) that I realized that Dave needs to stop talking about this mess... immediately:

It's always great to see Don Rickles on TV. He's rarely out of form, and he has a knack for sailing some great zingers past the censors. Which means his appearance on last night's My Life on the D-List was a perfect opportunity, a place where he could be a bit more loose.

We got a taste of that from him, walking around Kathy Griffin's house, but we also got a glimpse of the guy I have heard about from comedians who've met Rickles - the old softie who is ever willing to talk shop with other comics. It was a great moment when Griffin and Rickles talked about how both of their mothers would try to tell them not to pick on people so much, with Griffin's mom providing a bit of the dialogue. Meeting Rickles was on Griffin's mother's "bucket list."

I thought I'd use the occasion to take a look around YouTube to find some of Rickles' best TV appearances. He seems to have been everywhere, from The View to cable.

Though David Letterman officially apologized last night for his controversial Sarah Palin joke, it's not stopping Palin supporters from calling for his dismissal.

It's the latest chapter in a story bearing an uncanny resemblance to herpes. It never goes away, and you're never sure when it's going to pop up again. In an attempt to end the furor, Letterman took a moment during his Monday night broadcast to apologize directly to Palin and her family.

"It's not your fault that (the joke) was misunderstood. It's my fault," Letterman said. "So, I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke."

He added, "I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself. I'm sorry about it, and I'll try to do better in the future."

If you recognize Steven Wright's material tonight on his Late Show with David Letterman spot, you either have a good memory, or you bought the re-release of Wright's I Have A Pony that hit shelves Tuesday. Wright will be performing material from the CD, which was originally released 24 years ago.

Warner Brothers released this "Deluxe Anniversary Edition," which also includes his first HBO special, A Steven Wright Special (coincidentally, produced by Peter Lassally from Johnny Carson's Tonight Show), as part of its 50th Anniversary celebration.

Wright's material was always off the wall, unlike anything anyone had heard when he first did Carson's Tonight Show in 1982. Some have worked in the same field of quick-fire absurdism that Wright cleared (like Mitch Hedberg and Demetri Martin), but Wright's comedy was never rooted in a particular time, place, or even galaxy, really. Which is why I Have A Pony still sounds fresh today.