TVSquad

You talkin' about my hair? Well, all right -- What is that? A swim cap?

One of the greatest all-time moments of my senior year of high school was watching David Letterman completely dismantle Madonna. She came on with the idea that she was going to set the agenda and really give Dave the business; I guess the sycophantic dancers in Madonna's pre-show prayer circle told her that she was really funny. Anyway, if you remember, she went toe to toe with the big guy and, to quote a phrase, she awoke a sleeping giant.

Letterman's cultural cache might be waning a bit -- he was beaten by Nightline in the ratings recently -- but his wit is still with him. Further, as the following clip with hair-product enthusiast Spencer Pratt will show, he can still seethe with barely controlled rage at our culture's propensity to elevate idiots to places of prominence. The video after the jump...

Like most red-blooded Americans, I love lists. We do a lot of them here at TV Squad and you'll see them at many sites every single day of the week. But I think that sometimes the lists go too far. I mean, what's the point of listing the top 50 or top 100 of something? Isn't that a little bit too many spots? Instead of getting down to the nitty-gritty (say, a top 10 or top 25), you ended up not only listing the best, worst, most, least (or whatever the list's topic is), you're just listing all of them.

Case in point, this Forbes list of the 100 most powerful celebrities.

When you think of funny people in America, who do you immediately think of? Stephen Colbert? Robin Williams? Chris Rock? Matt Stone and Trey Parker? How about David Letterman or Dane Cook?

Some of the people above are on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 25 funniest people in America (two of the people above aren't on the list, nor should they be!). Some of the choices are downright baffling (as usual for these lists): Augustun Burroughs? Please. Diablo Cody? Good writer, but one of the funniest in the country based on Juno? But it's good to see the Sedarises on there (both David and Amy), as well as people like Tina Fey and Demetri Martin. There are even two current cast members of Saturday Night Live on the list. Can you guess who they are?

Once you read the list, you can go into the comments and say "why the hell is _________ on the list?!?"

It seriously sends a message to CBS when even Nightline as well as Leno is beating Letterman in the ratings. Nightline averaged 3.6 million viewers for the week ended May 19. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno averaged 5 million and The Late Show with David Letterman averaged 3.4 million according to latest Nielsen Media Research data.

It's tough to believe that David Letterman has fallen from grace so far and is now largely irrelevant. Given the gap, perhaps NBC should look into keeping Leno for a little bit longer rather than have him leave in 2009, particularly considering that even Craig Ferguson is beating Conan O'Brien in the ratings.

I remember when Letterman was a shot of adrenaline to the late night wars. What has Letterman done (or not done) to place him in the number three position? If CBS decided to replace Letterman, who would be the logical choice for the timeslot?

After six seasons, Oxygen is shutting down Talk Sex with Sue Johanson. Her final advice on love, lust and awkward positions will be dispensed this Sunday, May 11. The show will feature the year's top ten sex toys. Wheee!

A frequent guest on talk shows (and a favorite of David Letterman's), the 78-year-old grandma of two has been dishing sex advice on Oxygen for six seasons. Whenever I've stumbled across the show, I always thought it was just so weird. Like getting sex advice from your grandma.

Then again, between Johanson and Dr. Ruth, maybe they make the best sexperts because you'd never look at them in a lustful way. That's just my armchair psychology talking.

So, Disney CEO Robert Iger was having one of those yummy breakfast confabs talking about the future of the network and new media, alternate platforms and all those other fun buzz words about how we're going to be watching shows in the next few years. Then, kind of as an aside, he was asked about Jay Leno. With the end of Leno's era as the host of The Tonight Show looming -- and Conan O'Brien chomping at the bit to take over -- Mr. Iger said that he wouldn't rule out ABC going after Jay.

Ken Auletta of the New Yorker pressed Iger about Leno, to which the ABC head man squirmed and said, "It's not something we typically comment on."

David Letterman likes to make people think he's just phoning it in. And I'm starting to wonder if it's not just an act. Defamer caught him recycling his jokes last week. His monologue on Wednesday (Apr. 2) was nearly identical to his monologue on Thursday (Apr. 3).

Seriously. He just changed up the wording of a few jokes, and some of them he repeated word-for-word. This isn't like his on-going jokes about the "hookers in Times Square" or the "squirrels in Central Park" or "John McCain is so old that...".

After Johnny Carson, David Letterman is my favorite late night talk show host of all-time. But last night he made a joke that made me cringe (and I'm pretty cringe-resistant).

He was giving the weekly "Fun Facts" list (doing it on Wednesday this week because he's in repeats tonight and Friday due to of March Madness basketball), and the last joke in the pile was one about Andy Rooney. I don't remember it verbatim, but it was something along the lines of, "Andy Rooney's wife tells him, 'yeah, a--hole, I've noticed," a joke about how Rooney always says the phrase "you ever notice...," which, in all fairness to Rooney, I think has been said more by his impersonators (like Joe Piscopo) than by Rooney himself.

So, AOL TV did a poll about America's favorite talk show hosts and 1.3 million people made their feelings known. Interesting results. I didn't agree with some of them, like who I like waking up with. Diane Sawyer was the top choice, but I'd go for the second place finisher, Matt Lauer. As for whom to go to bed with -- TV talk show wise, that is -- I can't believe most of the people chose Jay Leno. Is he really that popular? I prefer David Letterman; I'm a sucker for the Top Ten lists.

If you've been wondering why Anderson Cooper hasn't been on his CNN show this week (I believe Soledad O'Brien has been filling in for him), it's not because he was busy spending the day with Barack Obama for a special episode that airs tonight. It's actually because he had cancer surgery on Monday.

Cooper describes on the Anderson Cooper 360 blog that "a small spot of skin cancer" was removed from under his eye. He says he wasn't even going to mention the surgery, but he still has stitches, and when he returns to the show tonight people would have noticed and he'd have to explain anyway (of course, he's probably still going to explain what's wrong, since I'm sure a lot of people don't read the 360 blog).

Mike Birbigilia's girlfriend probably doesn't think it's a good idea, but someone at CBS has greenlighted Mike Birbiglia's Secret Public Journal, a pilot for a new sitcom. Maybe it was Whiffle Ball Tony, you know?

Mike's sitcom will be based on the comic's stand up comedy act as well as his weekly autobiographical blog. In the show, Mike plays a Brooklyn stand-up comedian who lives with his girlfriend, works on their relationship and tries to make a success in show business. The humor, naturally, will reflect the routines he's been doing on CD (two) and on TV -- The Late Show with David Letterman (he was one of the youngest guys ever to do stand up on the show), Comedy Central and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

With the TV season getting back to business as usual, a few Lost stars have been making the rounds in the media this week. Earlier, E!'s Kristin Dos Santos interviewed Jeff Fahey, who plays pilot Frank Lapidus on the show. Frank is my favorite new Lost character, and Fahey is very intriguing and well-spoken in person. The actor discusses his reasons for joining the show and admits that he had never watched Lost before joining the cast.

Evangeline Lilly was a guest on Tuesday night's episode of the Late Show with David Letterman. The actress tells Dave about how a planned trip to China became an impromptu trip to Japan (no visitor's visa). She also talks about the writers' strike and how she deals with island fever during filming in Hawaii.

Both videos are available after the jump. Enjoy!

Awwww, isn't it nice when one late night host gives a compliment to another?

Late, Late Show host Craig Ferguson says that he would like to see Jon Stewart take over for David Letterman if and when Letterman retires. Letterman's current contract with CBS is up in 2010, which just happens to be the same time that Stewart's contract is up with The Daily Show and Comedy Central.

But that's not the most interesting part of this interview with Ferguson over at Broadcasting and Cable. Ferguson hints strongly that if Letterman stays, he'll stay, but if Letterman does indeed retire, he'll probably retire too. And he really doesn't have an interest in the 11:35 slot (Ferguson has already said he might leave CBS when his six year contract is up).

What's going on at the other TV blogs via the internets.

• BuzzSugar has the scoop on the Freaks & Geeks reunion.
• Bill O'Reilly is not happy with David Letterman or John Edwards.
• Mad Men's Rich Sommer (Harry) has one of the coolest celebrity blogs you'll find, and check out the incredible Xmas card he sent out.
• What were you doing in 1983? I was graduating from high school and watching MTV.
• New York picks 10 shows that they'd like to see NBC's Ben Silverman bring back.
• This teen wanted to crash a Hannah Montana concert - literally.
• Matt Roush loves ABC's new show Eli Stone.
• During the strike, Alan Sepinwall is reviewing episodes of Cupid.

Sure, Oprah Winfrey might have her own TV network, but that doesn't mean she's number one.

The Harris Poll has released their annual list of the 10 favorite TV personalities, and Oprah actually came in second (after being on top for five years). The first place winner? Believe it or not, it's Nancy Grace.

OK, just kidding about that. Number one is actually Ellen DeGeneres, who was number eight last year. The full list is after the jump.