· Put down your yellow markers. The Simpsons has already crowned a winner of its 20th Anniversary Simpsons Character Contest. Peggy Black (pictured right, with Simpsons executive producer Al Jean), a Connecticut hospital operations manager and diehard Simpsons fan, beat out over 25,000 characters with her Ricardo Bomba. Bomba, nicknamed La Bomba, is a smooth-talking South American Casanova who works at the nuclear plant and moonlights as a Springfield singles scenester. Bomba will be introduced in a January 31 episode opposite Chris Martin of Coldplay. Black was thrilled with the honor and completely unfazed by the fact that there was no cash prize... partly because she thought she'd get to take home that giant hand with a donut they had her pose with. [AP]
NBC designs its own Olive Garden, Brooke Shields lands in the middle of nowhere, and more TV Bites after the jump.
· Your favorite political talk show hosted by a comedian who always seems stoned, Real Time With Bill Maher, has been renewed for an eighth season by HBO. [Variety]
· In the longstanding tradition started by Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central has given another Daily Show With Jon Stewart correspondent, John Oliver, a show. John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show will feature four comedians per episode, including Janeane Garofalo and Mary Lynn Rajskub, to co-star with Oliver, who will be host and lead performer. [Variety]
· Brooke Shields will rebound from the Lipstick Jungle into Indiana suburbia, with a 2010 appearance in The Middle, as a frenzied single mother of four boys. [EW]
· NBC has greenlit a culinary competition show that will test the network's synergistic limits. The series is called -- don't laugh -- United Plates of America, and will feature aspiring restaurateurs competing to impress a panel of wealthy investors from the cooking and business world. The winner will receive -- don't laugh -- a restaurant chain that opens in four U.S. cities during the finale. NBC Thursday's? [THR]
· The Emmys will come early this year, on Sunday, August 29, instead of mid-September on NBC. [LAT]