As my late friend Adam Finley reported last month, Ryan Seacrest has been picked to host this year's Emmy Awards. I'm sure that most of you, like me, have already spent enough time lamenting the fact that Seacrest really has no business hosting a show like The Emmys. I guess the producers thought that after American Idol and America's Top 40, The Emmys were the next logical step.

Well, now the producers have decided that Seacrest hosting wasn't bad enough, there's a chance that he may do a number at the beginning of the show.

Think it can't get any worse? Read on.

I love Tony Bennett. I wasn't really familiar with his stuff until I had a chance to see him open up for Paul McCartney in Hollywood a year-and-a-half ago. At least, I didn't think I was familiar with his stuff. But, when I heard him sing "Rags to Riches" and "I Left My Heart In San Francisco" I was thinking, "I know these songs ..."

Since then, I see him and the era he represents everywhere I go and wonder how I could not have known before. I mean, they play his stuff in shopping malls, elevators and automated phone systems a thousand times a day. It's obvious those businesses rely on the innate smile-making ability of that era to keep people happy when they'd otherwise go insane.

• At 7, ABC has a repeat America's Funniest Home Videos, followed by a new Extreme Makeover, a repeat Desperate Housewives, and a repeat Brothers & Sisters.
• CBS has a new 60 Minutes at 7, followed by new episodes of The Amazing Race, Cold Case, and Without A Trace.
• NBC has Football Night In America at 7, followed by the Seahawks vs. the Broncos.
• Hallmark has the movie A Carol Christmas at 7, then Jack Frost.
• The CW has a new Reba at 7:30.
• At 8, FOX has repeats of The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad.
• There's a new 7th Heaven on The CW at 8, then a repeat America's Next Top Model.
• Lifetime has the movie A Different Kind of Christmas at 8, followed by A Dad For Christmas.
• Disney has a holiday movie at 8 too: The Ultimate Christmas Present.
• At 8:30, PBS has Tony Bennett Duets: The Making of an American Classic.
• Food Network has a new Iron Chef America at 9, Batali vs. Blais.
• At 9, Discovery has more of the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship Dog Show.
• TNT has Noah Wyle and Bob Newhart in the sequel The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines. It's on at 9 as well.
• Also at 9: AMC has Miracle on 34th Street.
• At 10, HBO has a new ep of The Wire, while Showtime has a new ep of Dexter.

Bennett? I think I broke it!

Sorry, punchline to an old joke, couldn't help myself. Anyway, Tony Bennett, whose albums have made the charts in every decade since the 1950s, will sing a series of duets this evening with the likes of Barbara Streisand, Elton John, Christina Aguilera, John Legend, Diana Krall, k.d. lang and Michael Buble. Tony Bennett: An American Classic, which celebrates Bennett's 80th birthday, airs tonight at 8:00 on NBC and is directed by Rob Marshall, who also directed Chicago and Memoirs of Geisha. The tribute will include big production numbers and stories about Bennett from folks such as Billy Crystal and John Travolta.

Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather just see Tony on stage by himself singing his hits and a few standards without all the extravagance and folderol, but what the heck, it's good to acknowledge that he's still influencing artists from different generations.