While Movieline may have already covered Jay "Teflon" Leno's State of the Union Address, in which he grandly freed himself of all blame in ConanGate, there were other awesome moments in last night's after hours programming. Unfortunately the best, Jennifer Lopez storming the Lopez Tonight stage and flawlessly delivering the regular host's monologue will be overlooked because it aired on TBS and did not involve vicious Leno slams. Fortunately for you, we have J. Lo's new talk show host reel, as well as the other moments you missed, ranked worst to best, while cursing Avatar for its Golden Globe wins.
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· Certainly not the New York judge who, just this morning, rejected the (alleged!) David Letterman extorter's plea to have his case dismissed. No word yet on whether his lawyer used the "Doesn't an attempt to shake down a late night host for $2 million seem insubstantial compared to NBC's $100 million+ late night screw-up?" argument. But the judge invited Halderman back to court for further reckoning on March 9. [TMZ]
Jeff Zucker receives death threats, Snooki considers going man-hunting full-time, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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As reported here Monday evening, Jay Leno finally took to the air to address the battle royale that has torn NBC to shreds over the last week. Though a close look at his comments about the Conan O'Brien debacle (which appear to be delivered off-the-cuff while cutting into Leno's almost-as-amusing "Headlines" segment) is essential reading for any student of late-night history, there is a riveting quality to the Leno's hand-waving, conversational style that really must be seen to be believed. When he says, "This is all business" -- the buck-passing, blame-mongering, the severe bruising and network cash hemorrhaging -- it's kind of haunting to sense that not only does he mean it, he's all right with it. It's just another day at NBC. And you know what? He'll be back to No. 1 before you know it. Click through to see the master at work.
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Anticipating the forthcoming announcement in which NBC will make official his reinstatement to The Tonight Show -- along with the departure of the late night colleague who has called that network his home since 1993 -- Jay Leno offered his audience a long explanation of the backroom maneuverings that led to an unprecedented broadcasting debacle. Amazingly, it's not that far off from our own satiric imagining of what such an explanation might sound like; but make no mistake, this is the real deal. What follows, courtesy of Variety, is the full text of Leno's remarks from tonight's The Jay Leno Show:
"I thought maybe I should address this. At least give you my view of what has been going on here at NBC. Oh, let's start in 2004. 2004 I'm sitting in my office, an NBC executive comes in and says to me, 'Listen, Conan O'Brien has gotten offers from other networks. We don't want him to go, so we're going to give him 'The Tonight Show.''
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As Conan O'Brien supporters rally in the rain this afternoon to protest NBC's mistreatment of the redheaded Tonight Show host, O'Brien and the network are nearing a deal that would award the host around $40 million for walking away. Two sticking points have surfaced in the negotiations, though: a non-disparagement clause that would prevent the host from bashing NBC for a certain period of time, and the custody of Conan's intellectual property. Among the characters in question are Triumph the Insult Dog, Pimpbot 5000 and the Masturbating Bear. (As for Andy Richter, NBC will get to visit him once a month, but only at the Burbank Ikea for a light breakfast).
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· CBS has gone ahead and ordered the rumored Hawaii Five-O reboot from Transformer scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. The pair has been shepherding the procedural, which would resurrect the Hawaii state police department made classic in its first run in 1968, along with CSI: NY executive producer Peter Lenkov. CBS is allegedly courting Alex O'Loughlin of the Eye's ill-fated Three Rivers to star. [THR]
AMC taps into presidential scandals, Simon Cowell woos his exes for X Factor, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Fox's new action drama Human Target comes on like a runaway train full of assassins next week, with the pilot episode airing Sunday at 8, and a second episode airing Wednesday at 9. The series, based on the DC comics graphic novel, concerns a private contractor named Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) who is hired to protect clients and draw out imminent threats like, well, assassins, by making clients appear vulnerable. He also looks and acts like Daniel Craig, so the cinematic parallels really draw themselves. While Human Target's stunt-work and conceits are a little unbelievable, one supporting player adds an immeasurable amount to this slick ride with the few scenes he's in.
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This just in: I don't want The Situation or Ronnie to win the Softy anymore. It's too depressing to see trenchant Jersey Shore coverage wasted on these two hedgehogs and their four-dimensional abdominals and rectangle faces (respectively). So we're opening up this week's Softy Guido Award to the ladies, in case they've got anything wussy they want to contribute. We had two big episodes of Jersey Shore last night (or J-Sho, as preteens call it... or JSHOWW, as I will now call it.) Will we see a guidette victory after the jump?
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You know you've made it big when the good people over at Law & Order rip your personal blackmail plight from the headlines and reinterpret it for an episode of their series. Almost three months after David Letterman announced that a CBS employee was trying to screw him out of $5 million with tales of his interoffice affairs, NBC is airing an eerily similar plot in tonight's L & O entitled "Blackmail." If only they'd had the foresight to script an episode where a Leno doppleganger whacks Conan!
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Cassie Scerbo is the modern-day version of a triple threat. A cable actress, pop singer and an accomplished dancer, her skill trifecta has earned her roles in a number of projects including Bring It On: In It to Win It and currently, ABC Family's second highest rated series Make It or Break It, where she plays Lauren Tanner, Rocky Mountain's "bitch of the beam." When she isn't embodying one of the nastiest characters on ABC Family, the upbeat actress packs her schedule with voice overs, auditions, online college courses, church and a boyfriend, her Make It co-star Cody Longo.
Earlier this week, Movieline caught Scerbo in a rare moment off to discuss her Facebook death threats, an upcoming cameo in the Not Another parody movie co-starring Chevy Chase, and nearly everything in between. Although she was hoarse from a nonstop itinerary, the upswinging actress presented herself with the certainty of a star.
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Welcome back to the puckery jungle! Sixteen designers, three judges, one last bolt of our patience, and even a few Tim Gunn catchphrases to write with glitter pen on our hope chest. It's Project Runway, townspeople! Clamor! The seventh season kicked off last night, exhibited a range of new talents, and did the hard work of telling the prettiest cast member to go home. Right now Irina is giggling somewhere and telling a room full of people who are just trying to finish their grocery shopping, "That was so the opposite of my season!" Anyway: I'm Louis Virtel, your Project Runway curator, and we have a lot of work/non-work to do. Bring your questionable taste level, and let's go.
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From the moment Jay Leno welcomed Jimmy Kimmel onto his show last night via satellite, viewers knew it was going to be ugly. Partly because Movieline had tipped them off a few hours earlier, and partly because Kimmel's solemn expression hinted that he was not there to discuss his iPod playlist like the other 10@10 guests. What transpired was a damning evisceration of Leno on Leno's own show. Click through for the clip, along with the rest of last night's after hours wreckage (and shocking Jersey Shore revelations) ranked from least to most entertaining.
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· It's been a busy week for American Idol creator Simon Fuller. On Thursday, he announced that he was teaming up with blogger Perez Hilton to find the next generation's boy band for a TV show conveniently titled Boy Band. Soon after, news surfaced that the television mogul had inked a lucrative new deal with CKX to consult for the company while continuing to oversee Idol, So You Think You Can Dance (which Fuller co-created) and also work on his online project If I Can Dream. The move will simultaneously allow Fuller to focus on developing other projects with financial backing from CKX. [Variety]
George Clooney partners with MTV, Rosie O'Donnell cancels on Jay Leno, and more TV Bites after the jump.
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Well! The road is smoothing out a bit after arguably the most turbulent day in late-night history. While we'd already heard that next week would be Conan O'Brien's last on The Tonight Show, a report published late Thursday states that O'Brien has reached a settlement with NBC that would get him paid and allow him back on the air at a competing network within months. If, that is, the host can safely extract himself from the beak of a rabid peacock that very, very publicly chewed into him this morning.
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After Jimmy Kimmel performed a devastating, hour-long Jay Leno send-up on his own show this week, we were surprised to learn that Kimmel would be appearing on The Jay Leno Show tonight to take questions from the man himself. The segment hasn't aired yet, but it's been taped, and a Movieline source has already seen it and given us exclusive early details.
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