BEST

1. Mad Men. The best show on TV.
2. 30 Rock. The funniest show on TV.
3. Lost. Just when I started to drift away from this show they pull off an amazing year.
4. Chuck. I really hope NBC sticks with this show. One of the more entertaining hours on television.
5. The Colbert Report. Both Colbert and Jon Stewart handled the election well this year, but Colbert did something special.
6. The Mentalist. My favorite new show and one that deserves all the ratings.
7. Burn Notice. With 30 Rock and The Office, Thursday is a great night of TV again.
8. The Late Show with David Letterman. Dave is always great, but he got involved in the election too and really shined.
9, Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. Sure, she may look like Palin, but that doesn't mean her impression would be automatic. Fey became a pop culture phenom this year.
10. Whatever, Martha. Really odd idea for a show, but it works.

How can we enter a new year without celebrating the last year's best and worst TV? Not a lot of the new shows were impressive, but I've been entertained for the last year, so I can't complain.

In making out my lists, I realized I must be a half-full type of gal, because even my worsts aren't that bad, and I had a heck of a time coming up with them.

So, here are my lovin'-life, lovin'-TV best and worst lists for 2008:

Best new show -- Leverage
Man, I love everything about this show -- the chemistry between the characters, the quotable quotes, the clever jobs, the flashbacks. It's the most entertaining hour on television right now. Thank you, TNT!

... Twelve shows a stinkin'

That aroma tickling your nose is not one from an oven full of fresh gingerbread cookies. No, it's from a television full of burned-out ideas and gutted hulks of viewers who can't take the crap that is heaped upon them. That's because, more than ever, there is a lot of stink on the television landscape. Most of it is due to inordinate amounts of reality programming which has flooded the market. The rest is due to the lack of new ideas for an industry that is rapidly changing.

In order to start our annual Festivus countdown we have compiled a scientifically proven list of 12 shows just stinking up the flat screen. And, when I say 'scientifically proven' I mean I just asked a bunch of people off the street about shows they disliked. So, it's as accurate as it possibly can be. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'll have opinions, one way or another, on these shows and others not on the list. So, if you have your nose plugs, let's begin.

Memo to TBS: vaudeville is dead. Apparently, the folks at Turner never got that news flash. TBS has greenlighted a vaudeville pilot to be hosted by Harland Williams. The half-hour installments -- should it get picked up -- would be a late-night entry.

That means you'd have to be up late and probably pretty bored with infomercials to not surf away from the jugglers, puppets, plate spinners, gymnasts and other novelty acts likely on the program.

TBS is serious about this concept, tentatively called The TBS Comedy Roadshow, and if they emphasize the comedy aspect, maybe it'll find a niche. But the term vaudeville makes me very wary.

It seems that the show NBC hoped would revive the variety show format was getting an autopsy before it even had a chance to get off of the operating table.

E! Online reports that Rosie O'Donnell said her live variety show, the cleverly named Rosie Live, won't make it past the first episode, or as she so cutely wrote on her web site, "there will b no more."

The one and only episode of Rosie's return from TV purgatory was dismal, to say the least. Friday's Wednesday's episode only drew 5 million viewers, despite the appearance of high profile celebrities like Alec Baldwin, Alanis Morissette and Ne-Yo to help them forget the fact that they were watching a show where Rosie O'Donnell is the star.

It looks like Rosie Live has been declared dead. Her attempt at reviving the variety show format tied for the lowest-rated program of the evening.

Frankly, I don't think it's necessarily a death-knell for the format so much as the host. Rosie's highly-publicized feuds have certainly soured me on watching any sort of television program hosted by her.

In comparison, Stephen Colbert's A Colbert Christmas pretty much embraced the variety show format (with enough changes to keep it modern and interesting) and it was great entertainment. Granted, cable stations don't have the ratings requirements of network and the entire special was pretty much an attempt to sell the DVD (in a humorous, non-annoying fashion). If some other Broadway-style celebrity hosted the same show, I'm willing to bet ratings would have been higher.

I've embedded a video from Rosie Live after the jump, guest-starring Alec Baldwin. I'll let you folks judge for yourselves whether or not Rosie's variety show is cringe-worthy or simply unappreciated.

I grew up on The Lawrence Welk Show (during visits to my grandmother) and Donny and Marie, so my affinity for the variety show started young. I was always a little bit rock-and-roll, which is why I couldn't help but like the Nick and Jessica Variety Hour specials when they aired several years back; it was in my blood.

So I was curious to check out Rosie Live! tonight. I expected some goofy skits, like from Laugh In (or Nick and Jessica), but instead we got some authentic conversation with the guests, some horribly executed guest visits, some unknown talent that was almost painful to watch and ... show tunes.

I liken Rosie Live! to a parade. You wait through the whole broadcast for those special floats that don't come until the end, and of course for the bigger-than-life balloons. The balloons never came, folks.

You know that Barbara Walters-Rosie O'Donnell dust up this week with the two former View co-stars trading comments/insults about the sins of the past? Well, it smelled to me of a publicity stunt and now I'm convinced of it.

Turns out both divas will be having TV specials on Wednesday night, November 26. That's tomorrow night. Rosie Live will air at 8 o'clock on NBC.

Meanwhile, Barbara Walters has snagged Barack and Michelle Obama for a one-hour news special to air at 10 o'clock on ABC on November 26. What a coincidence!

Once upon a time the airwaves were filled with TV variety shows. There were stars like Sonny and Cher and Donny and Marie, and further back, The Ed Sullivan Show and The Carol Burnett Show.

Well, Rosie O'Donnell remembers that kind of TV entertainment, and she thinks it's what America wants now. As Bob reported not long ago, NBC is giving her an hour to see if anyone agrees, the night before Thanksgiving, November 26, from 9-10 p.m. ET, Rosie Live will air live from the Shubert Theater in New York.

The news today is that Rosie has booked Ne-Yo and Alanis Morissette to provide the musical portion of the program. The plans for the rest of the hour include a topical monologue, which Rosie should have no problem pulling off because she did one every day on her daytime talk show.