thetodayshow

Seeing Brian Williams sitting next to Matt Lauer on Today was a bit disconcerting, wasn't it? I knew NBC was having some budget problems, but I didn't realize how thin of a bench they actually had. Williams subbed in for Meredith Vieira, but only stayed on the show for an hour, as I'd imagine he'd rather spend the 8:00 hour putting together tonight's Nightly News lineup than talk about ten ways to keep your car running or what Drew Peterson ate for breakfast.

Anyway, Williams was at times a bit too stuffy for the morning gig, but his famous sense of humor showed through a number of times, including the clips after the jump. The first one is a clip reel of some strangely homoerotic interplay between Williams and Lauer, which Al Roker called "a Whitman's Sampler of man candy." The second one is of Lauer, Williams, and Natalie Morales making their Oscar picks.

I just finished watching Today's Amy Robach interview creepy Chicago cop Drew Peterson and his half-his-age fiancee, Christina Raines. This is the umpteenth interview the show has had with Peterson, as accusations have abounded that he had something to do with the death of his third wife and the disappearance of his fourth, who's still missing. This engagement itself has been extremely odd, as Raines has already broken it once, saying that the whole thing was a publicity stunt. Now, apparently, she's back with him, calling him "funny" and "caring," while he snickers. I can't even describe the douche chills I felt while watching this thing.

Why does Today seem to be especially fascinated with this story? You know Peterson is calling the producers any chance he gets, trying to come up with any angle that will get him back in front of their cameras. Now the angle is that some other woman has fallen for his "charms", despite what happened to his last two wives and despite the fact that Peterson hasn't divorced his missing fourth wife yet.

Willard Scott doesn't do much around the Today show these days; except for an occasional week where he subs for Al Roker, all the semi-retired weatherclown (hey, he was a clown once) really does is his periodic shout outs to the nation's centenarians.

But at this point, I'm starting to wonder if those centenarians are more with it than the man who's giving them the tributes.

Almost every time I've seen Scott lately, he seems to mumble his way through the birthdays. While he's always been known for wacky asides and nonsensical ad-libs, they seem to be getting wackier as time goes on. But worst of all, he often falls behind the rotating Smucker's jar graphic that serves up each centenarian's name, location and photo. I mean, if you're a guy who's survived 100 years, don't you at least deserve to not have your face smiling on national TV while the audience is being told that you love wearing frilly dresses to church?

'The Big Bang Theory'
(8PM, CBS)
Between 'Chuck,' 'Heroes,' the gang on 'How I Met Your Mother' and, of course, this delightful egghead comedy, Monday night has become the must-see-night for geek TV.

'Big Bang' has only gotten better in its second season, and it's all because of episodes like tonight's gem. It's Christmastime, but there's no jingle in Leonard's bells when he finds out that Penny is dating his hunky co-worker.

And that's not the only steaming cup of holiday stress nipping at the noses of Leonard and his pals. The installment's called 'The Bath Item Gift Hypothesis' and it refers to Sheldon's maddeningly stubborn stance on the etiquette of gift giving.

Planet Green and Access Hollywood are rolling out the red, er, green carpet for Hollywood Green. The show, hosted by Access Hollywood and Today Show correspondent Maria Menounos will kick off tomorrow in a special timeslot at 6 p.m. The show will follow Menounos as she talks with her celebrity friends who are champions of environmentally-friendly living. The host will highlight green fashion trends, cover gala events, and put "fans and viewers in the know as to what she and the rest of Hollywood are doing to support the green movement."

Menounos is also a reporter for NBC Nightly News and can be seen in the summer comedy Tropic Thunder.

Planet Green is a property of Discovery Communications. It is a 24-hour eco-lifestyle network that focuses on conversation and meeting the challenge of protecting our earth.

Hollywood Green with Maria Menounos will air tomorrow at 6 p.m. on Planet Green then move to its regular time at 9 p.m. next week.

Katie Couric announced this morning that she is indeed going to be leaving the Today show at the end of May; she'll be moving on to the news division at CBS (their Evening News and 60 Minutes primarily). It was an odd announcement, because as she said herself, she's not leaving right this moment, and it's pretty much the worst kept secret in America. Though this was a non-announcement, it was still a little emotional, and you can tell that no matter what's gone on behind the scenes throughout the years at NBC in the morning, they are a close-knit crew. There's going to be some fun stuff coming up as they look back over Katie's career.

So now the big question is "who will replace Katie?" The front runner in the rumor-mill is Meredith Vieira. I've never really seen her on anything besides Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (yes I know she's on The View, but honestly I've just never seen it.) What do you guys think? Would Meredith be any good? She certainly has some big shoes to fill from Katherine Katie Couric.