RickSanchez

Rick Sanchez is one of those CNN personalities -- it's hard to call him a news reporter -- who doesn't really fit the mold. He never fit the mold as a local guy down here in South Florida either. However, CNN seems to believe that Rick has an appeal. That said, CNN will give Rick Sanchez a new show in just a few weeks. Commencing January 18, 2010, Rick's List will be a daily two-hour installment of Rich Sanchez. The timing is interesting because they're cutting an hour into Wolf Blitzer's The Situation Room.

This actually makes sense. The Situation Room is very political and during the campaign and the election, the ratings were high. We're in a post-election period now and will be for a while.

The CNN idea is to fill the afternoon with more fluff and general interest news, the kind of stuff Rick Sanchez is better suited to handle. He can talk about lists for hours, taking calls, reading Tweets and vamping. The man enjoys the sound of his own voice.

Rick Sanchez is up to no good again... Part of me feels like he only continues his ridiculous stunts, not in the name of his so-called "journalism", but to appear on The Daily Show. Maybe he secretly likes getting ridiculed by Jon.

"Showdown in Crisisland": Tehran Bureau Chief John Oliver's New York accent is hilarious. Yup, the only thing funnier than an American with a poor British accent is listening to an English person over-stressing the R's of an American one. Best line: "Iran is the Jan Brady of international evil".

When Jon mentioned that the night's guest was going to be Natalie Portman, the audience seemed really excited. She was here to promote her new movie, V for Vendetta, which, as Jon noted, is rarely seen in children's books. "V is for Vendetta! Billy carried out a 'vendetta' against all those that he thought had wronged him!"...  "V is for Vagina" is also surprisingly rare.