Kelly Ripa is prepping a return to primetime with a new series, 'Port Love.'

Ripa, host of 'Live With Regis and Kelly,' and husband Mark Consuelos will co-write and executive-produce the project. Consuelos will star, with Ripa set for a recurring role. According to Deadline Hollywood, the project, a single camera workplace comedy, follows the cast and crew of a once-popular TV show who have quite a lot of backstage drama.

In other TV news ...

• Carol Mendelsohn has sold a new crime drama to CBS. The 'CSI' showrunner's new project adapts Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield suspense novels. The character acts as a one-person witness protection program. [Reuters]

• 'Glee' star Mark Salling has released the first video from his debut album. The song, 'Illusions,' is off Salling's album, 'Pipe Dreams,' out Oct. 25. [Entertainment Weekly]

• Ellen DeGeneres is expanding her TV empire. The daytime talk show host as signed a new deal with Warner Bros. that will see her expand her production deal across various WB divisions. As a result, DeGeneres' company, A Very Good Production, will develop and produce network programs, cable shows, reality programming and syndicated shows. [Deadline Hollywood]

• Angela Lansbury has spoken out about her 'Murder, She Wrote' co-star Tom Bosley. "He was just a terrific person to work with," Lansbury said. "He was an actor's actor. He felt that the [happier] the atmosphere on the set was, the more we would get done." [TV Guide]

Welcome to TV Squad Lists (formerly 'The Five'), a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

OK, so yesterday I gave my list of the Five Greatest Police Detectives, and several readers gave their lists. Today I thought I'd do the other end of the invesitgation spectrum, private eyes, amateur sleuths and other investigators. This list was even hard to do. So many great characters.

1. Spenser (Robert Urich): I picked this Boston-based private eye because he seemed to be a great mix of brain and brawn. The type of guy who could go to the ratty gym and knock around some boxer and then go off to a fancy Beacon Hill cafe and have coffee with his girlfriend and talk about politics or literature. He was smart, clever, caring, a wiseass, and ridiculously moral. What else do you want in a private eye?