About two years ago, I set out to list the hottest women on TV who are over 40, over 50, and over 60. There were a lot candidates to choose from, even in the over 60 category, making it a particularly tough set of list to compose.

But now that our friends at AOL have decided to compile a list of TV's 50 sexiest women of all time (starting today with Nos. 50-41), I'm going to take on an even greater challenge: making one master list of seventeen beauties over 40. It's not as easy as you think; the TV landscape has changed a bit, and a few new strong contenders have recently entered their 40s, and a few of the previous list members have left the TV landscape. To make this list, a woman has to have been a regular or significant guest on a TV series or news program in 2007. So, after the jump, a list -- in no particular order -- of fifteen beauties who combine looks, maturity and grace to make one compellingly sexy package.

Thumbnails are with the list, but you can click on the gallery below to get a much better view of these lovely women. Then add your own choices in the comments.
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When I was doing my post about the lovely Bonnie Hunt, I realized that there are more more sexy women over 40 all over the entertainment spectrum than at any time I can remember. I don't know if it's better diets, the advent of Botox, or something else, but 40 no longer seems to be the career killer it once was. Here are the five women on TV who are old enough to remember the Nixon administration but still make even young guys' hearts go pitter-patter.

Some caveats: I am excluding Hunt because she's mainly in movies now. I am also including women who have been on TV recently, but not necessarily this year. Finally, everyone on Desperate Housewives only makes Honorable Mention because I want to give others their due for once.

By the way, this took me a while to do. I just kept remembering people who could fit in this category; some of whom you'll see are quite surprising. I was going to include women who were over 50 and over 60, but I decided to give them lists of their own, you'll see those in the coming days.

Click on the link for the picks.