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Oprah Invites Jay and Conan to Appear on Her Show

Tonight was Conan O'Brien's last night as host of The Tonight Show. He decided to leave rather than put his show back thirty minutes. His $40 million settlement will no doubt ease some of the pain he's feeling. Jay Leno will move to The Tonight Show after the Olympics, and Jay can count on at least one major fan to help him spread the word: Oprah Winfrey. Oprah has also invited Conan O'Brien to appear, although Conan hasn't responded yet.

Oprah announced on her show today that Jay will be a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Oprah Winfrey said she is set to interview Jay Leno, and her production company said an offer has been made to Conan O'Brien to appear.

Winfrey said on her talk show Friday that she was going to Los Angeles for a "one-on-one" interview with Leno to air on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Thursday. O'Brien's appearance has not yet been confirmed, Harpo Productions said.
Will Conan show up and hug it out with Jay? Will they both cry? All signs point to....yes.

Posted on January 22, 2010
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Conan and NBC Finalize Deal

The late night NBC disaster is finally over. Early this morning Conan O'Brien's team and NBC reached a deal in which Conan leaves NBC, gets a lot of money, and can go back to work on another network on September 1. Jay Leno will go back to The Tonight Show and The Jimmy Fallon Show will remain in the same time slot.
In a marathon session, lawyers for the talk show host and NBC finalized a settlement sealing O'Brien's exit from "The Tonight Show" at about 3 a.m. Thursday. The overall deal is said to be worth $46 million-$47 million, close to the $50 million annual production cost of "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien."

O'Brien's settlement is for about $33 million, with the rest of the money going to his staff in severance packages from the network. NBC on Thursday also formally announced the return of Jay Leno as "Tonight" host. He'll start March 1. "We're pleased that Jay is returning to host the franchise that he helmed brilliantly and successfully for many years," said Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Uni TV. "He is an enormous talent, a consummate professional and one of the hardest-working performers on television."
The network will air reruns of Conan's show until the Olympics, then will reboot The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after the Olympics ends. Conan will most likely end up at Fox where he will compete with David Letterman and Jay Leno.

Posted on January 21, 2010
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Report: Leno Back to Tonight Show, Conan Leaves With Big Payday

According to Nikki Finke, the NBC/Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien disaster may be settled very soon. Nikki says there's a tentative deal to put Jay back hosting The Tonight Show at 11:35 p.m. and to pay Conan a lot of money to leave. They had to call in Ron Meyer, the president of Universal to get the parties even to speak to each other.
I've just learned that, for the past 48 hours, Universal Studios President/COO Ron Meyer was secretly drafted during this NBC late night crisis to negotiate a settlement between the network and Team Conan after O'Brien and his reps were threatened by NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker (see below). "Ron is a former agent, one of the biggest in Hollywood. He could get this done, so NBC used him," a source just told me. "No one would talk to each other, and they talked to Ron. He got everybody to talk to everybody."

The deal as sketched puts Jay Leno back hosting The Tonight Show, and Conan O'Brien exiting with a lot of money. But there are still some terms to be worked out -- which is why there hasn't been any announcement yet. But I'm warned that "anything can happen" now that Meyer did his duty, and NBC is back in charge. I can tell you there are definitely people around NBC Universal boss Jeff Zucker who want to keep Conan in place at The Tonight Show. "But Zucker is digging in his heels because of the bad press. He's being stubborn," a Team Conan insider just told me.
Jeff Zucker wants Conan gone and he doesn't want to pay him anything. But that's not reasonable, so someone else had to come in to mop up the mess. Nothing's signed yet, so the whole thing could blow up by morning.

Posted on January 14, 2010
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Andy Richter Joins Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show

Andy Richter is joining his old boss and friend Conan O'Brien in his new gig as host of The Tonight Show.
Richter, who was O'Brien's Late Night show sidekick from 1993-2000, has signed on to be the announcer on The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien when the new version of the 11:30 p.m. NBC stalwart kicks off June 1.

In between taking on a role rendered iconic by former Tonight Show announcer Ed McMahon and ankling his sidekick gig on Late Night With Conan O'Brien in May 2000, Richter has been involved in several comedy series. Included in that run is short-lived Fox laffer Andy Richter Controls the Universe and also-short-lived Peacock skein Andy Barker, P.I.
It's a good move for Andy and it definitely adds to the new show.

Posted on February 24, 2009
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Jimmy Fallon's First Guests: DeNiro and Van Morrison

Jimmy Fallon is working hard on his guest lineup for his new talk show which debuts on March 2nd. Robert deNiro and Van Morrison will be his first guests.
Fallon replaces Conan O'Brien, who has his final show Friday before heading out west to take over the "Tonight" show in June. Morrison will perform material from his critically praised "Astral Weeks" album.

NBC says Tina Fey, Jon Bon Jovi, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Donald Trump and Serena Williams are among other guests scheduled for Fallon's first week on "Late Night."
Conan's are big shoes to fill.

Posted on February 19, 2009
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Alec Baldwin Channels Joaquin Phoenix

Alec Baldwin was his usually entertaining self when he was a guest on the Conan O'Brien show. Alec came out and did his Joaquin Phoenix imitation in honor of Joaquin's recent bizarre appearance on the David Letterman show. Take a look:



Posted on February 13, 2009
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Ellen DeGeneres' Friends Serenade Her

Ellen DeGeneres turned 50 and in her honor her friends did a little lipsynching to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." Watch Jake Gyllenhaal, Paris Hilton, Sharon Osborne, Victoria Beckham, Celine Dion, David Spade, Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, Masi Oka and Heidi Klum sing and dance their hearts out for Ellen in this hilarious video.



Posted on January 25, 2008
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Carson Daly Thumbs Nose at Writers' Strike

Carson Daly broke ranks with his late night talk show brethren and crossed the WGA picket line. Carson is not a member of the WGA, but all the other late night talk show hosts have respected the writers' strike and have put their shows into reruns.
NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly is about to become the first late-night talk show to defy the writers strike and resume production. Daly, who is not a member of the Writers Guild, will begin taping new episodes of his Burbank-based show this week for airing next week, an NBC spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.

The half-hour Last Call airs at 1:35 a.m. EST weeknights, but whether Daly's first new episode would air next Monday or Tuesday was initially unclear. No guests were disclosed. Writers Guild spokesman Gregg Mitchell declined to comment. Daly is not the first talk-show host to go back into production. Ellen DeGeneres, who is a member of the union, has continued taping her daytime syndicated talk show after shutting down the first day of the strike. But Last Call becomes the first to break ranks among the late-night shows, which all had chosen to air repeats rather than tape new shows without their striking writers.
The Writers Guild Of America issued this statement: "We're disappointed at Carson Daly's decision to return to work. Mr. Daly is not a writer and not a member of the WGA, unlike other late-night hosts Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Craig Ferguson, and Jimmy Kimmel, who have all resisted network pressure and honored our writers' picket lines. We hope he'll change his mind and follow the lead of the other late-night hosts."

Bad Carson. Bad talk show host. May all his dialogue be perpetually unfunny. Come to think of it, he's not funny even with professional writers.

Posted on November 27, 2007
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Leave the AMPTP Alone!

Here is a new Writers Strike video from the Colbert Report writers and United Hollywood.
"Very successful entertainment executive, who is also quite young for his position, on why scribes' strike is asinine. Not tooting own horn or anything but he is very connected-- squash, Iger-- has inside dope. And 'hung' not an exaggeration. Rare example of humility in biz. Also makes squash-playing very challenging. If he can't change this description later, you'll never work in this town again, Youtube."

Direct video link


Posted on November 15, 2007
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Ellen DeGeneres Not Welcome In New York

The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) is very unhappy with Ellen DeGeneres, who is continuing to film her show, even though other talk show hosts such as Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel are refusing to cross the picket lines to film. Ellen is now not welcome in New York! Here's what they said:
Ellen DeGeneres went back on the air this week after honoring only one day of the writers strike. In anticipation of her plans to tape shows in New York City on November 19th and 20th, the Writers Guild of America, East is extremely disappointed to see that Ellen has chosen not to stand with writers during the strike. Ellen's peers who host comedy/variety shows have chosen to support the writers and help them get a fair contract, Ellen has not. On her first show back, Ellen said she loves and supports her writers, but her actions prove otherwise.

Ellen has also been performing comedy on her show. Even if Ellen is writing those segments herself, since those segments would normally be written by the writers on strike, she's performing "struck work". Ellen is violating the strike rules that were clearly explained to all of the comedy/variety shows.

We certainly intend to let Ellen know our dissatisfaction in person if she decides to proceed with the shows she has scheduled in New York on November 19th and 20th. We will also make our voices heard the preceding week if she tries to pre-tape comedy segments on location.

We find it sad that Ellen spent an entire week crying and fighting for a dog that she gave away, yet she couldn't even stand by writers for more than one day - writers who have helped make her extremely successful.

Every show and film set has a production staff and crew that is beloved by their writers. Ellen's staff is no more important than the rest of the industry. When shows refuse to stand with us they create huge revenue streams for the companies and that prolongs the strike for the thousands of staff and crew members who are noble enough to honor our picket lines. We find this situation hurtful to those people and extremely unfortunate.

The writers did not cause this strike. The companies' greed caused this strike and it could end tomorrow if they were finally willing to negotiate a fair deal. We ask Ellen to cease doing shows immediately. She should stand by all writers and help us bring this strike to a quick conclusion. We owe that to the thousands of people who are caught in the middle.

If you agree that Ellen should stand with the writers on strike, please contact her and tell her so at: ellen.warnerbros.com/show/dearellen/. Or, contact the show's production office at (818) 260-5600.
Ellen's publicist issued a namby pamby response about how it's sweeps week and it will cost them money not to film and she's daytime, not nighttime etc etc, even though she is a comedian who writes material as well an as actress. So, cry us a river, Ellen. Oh, right -- you already did that over Iggy. But somehow you can't seem to show the same consideration for the writers who create all your material for your show. Everyone is losing money on a strike; that's the entire point. Writers deserve a fair wage and that's worth sacrificing for.

Posted on November 9, 2007
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Dave Letterman to Appear on Oprah

David Letterman has at long last been invited to be a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Feud? What feud? David Letterman will make his first appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" next month, another sign the talk-show titans have buried the hatchet after a rift that lasted more than a decade.

Letterman will tape the interview, a rare appearance on someone else's show, on Sept. 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York, Winfrey's production company announced Wednesday. Their reconciliation began in 2005 when Winfrey appeared on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman." It was Winfrey's first guest appearance with Letterman, though she twice appeared on his NBC show before the comic jumped networks in 1993. Letterman frequently joked about Winfrey, and she rejected repeated offers to appear on his program. In 2003, Winfrey told Time magazine she wouldn't appear with Letterman because she had been "completely uncomfortable" as the target of his jokes.

When Winfrey appeared on Letterman's show two years ago, she told him, "I want you to know, it's really over, whatever you thought was happening." Letterman responded: "Are you sure it's over?"
What a glorious day for Dave! After ten years, he finally gets to be on the Oprah show. Will he behave himself? Surely he won't pull out any "Uma/Oprah" jokes? Let's hope they do a nutty cooking segment. Those are always good. Or maybe he'll bring his baby. That works.

Posted on August 29, 2007
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Gravely Ill Tammy Faye Messner On Larry King Live Tonight

Photo of Tammy Faye MessnerTammy Faye Messner bravely appears on Larry King Live tonight on CNN. She is suffering from inoperable cancer, and is just wasting away. But her spirit is still strong, as is her great sense of humor. She says she craves a hamburger and fries, although she can only eat chicken soup and rice pudding these days. Tammy garnered a huge new fan base when she apppeared on The Surreal Life and won everyone over with her generosity of spirit and her ability to poke fun at herself. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Tammy Faye!

You can see a clip from tonight's show here.

Update Tammy Faye Messner died at age 65.

Posted on July 19, 2007
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Jimmy Kimmel Has Emergency Appendectomy

Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was rushed to the hospital for an emergency appendectomy.
Jimmy Kimmel's funny bone remains intact, but his appendix is down for the count. The late-night talk show host is recuperating at home after undergoing an emergency appendectomy Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

"The surgery was a success," Lewis Kay, Kimmel's publicist, said. "He is resting comfortably and is looking forward to getting back to work." The 39-year-old comedian will be taking a few sick days while he recovers from the side-splitting, if unamusing procedure. Kay says Kimmel won't be back on air until Monday at the earliest.

"The rest of this week's tapings of Jimmy Kimmel Live have been canceled until he is back on his feet," Kay said. ABC will round out the week with reruns of interviews with Geoffrey Rush, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Kevin Costner and Leslie Mann.
That sounds like no fun at all. We wish him a speedy recovery!

Posted on June 21, 2007
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Conan O'Brien Visits Lucasfilm

Conan O'Brien recently visited the San Francisco-based headquarters of Lucasfilm in this two-part series of video clips from NBC. The second video clip is especially entertaining. Conan gets to put on a special suit and play Lucasfilm's Schwa and C3PO digital characters. The segment was written and directed by George Lucas.





Posted on May 3, 2007
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Mel Gibson Aplogizes

Photo of Diane Sawyer interviewing Mel GibsonTomorrow morning viewers can tune in to see Diane Sawyer grill Mel Gibson about his drunken anti-Semitic tirade that turned him into a virtual pariah overnight. Sawyer is reportedly pretty hard on Gibson, and he takes it. As well he should.
"The stupid ramblings of a drunkard." That's what Mel Gibson calls his anti-Semitic comments to police when he was arrested for drunken driving in Malibu, Calif. The star, 50, sat down with Diane Sawyer for his first in-depth interview about the July 28 incident.

*****

He says that he hasn't had a drink in 65 days and that he started drinking again just months before the arrest. "Years go by, you're fine. And then all of a sudden ... somebody shoves a glass of mescal (tequila) in front of your nose, and says, 'It's from Oaxaca (Mexico),' " he says. "And it's burning its way through your esophagus, and you go, 'Oh, man, what did I do that for? I can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.' "
We love Diane Sawyer -- she's a tough interviewer. Good Morning America airs Thursday, October 12th at 7:00 am Eastern time on ABC.

Posted on October 11, 2006
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Vince Vaughn Chats With Oprah

Photo of Vince Vaughn and Oprah WinfreyVince Vaughn appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his new romantic comedy with Jennifer Aniston, The Break-Up.
Now Vince stars opposite Jennifer Aniston in The Break-Up, a romantic comedy about a couple falling not in but out of love. In recent headlines, Vince was the rumored groom in the $8 million wedding Oprah was supposedly throwing for her friend, Jennifer Aniston. Vince says he doesn't plan on getting married anytime soon, but jokes, "I'm expecting a pretty good band for $8 million!"

Vince speaks highly of his Break-Up co-star, whom he is also dating. "Jennifer's great. She's one of my favorite people," says Vince. "She's just really smart and funny and easy to be with—very considerate. She's great." Does Vince want to have kids? "At some point I would," says Vince. "I've always liked kids a lot—but no plans for the future. First we have to have the $8 million wedding!"

Has Vince discussed having kids with Jennifer? "No, I have not talked about having kids with Jennifer," he says. "I think [having children] takes a lot of focus, takes a lot of attention. I think it would be nice at some point to have a different priority in something else as you've sort of done stuff and challenged yourself, I think that time would come. But not any time in the near future for me, I don't think."
The clips from The Break-Up look really funny. It hits theaters nationwide June 2, 2006.

Posted on May 11, 2006
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Britney Tells Dave She's Expecting Second Child

Photo of Britney Spears on David Letterman showBritney Spears ended the tabloid speculation about her expanding waistline by announcing to David Letterman that she is expecting her second child.
The baby bump is for real. Britney Spears told David Letterman on Tuesday that she is pregnant with baby No. 2. "Don't worry Dave, it's not yours," the pop princess quipped on "The Late Show."

The revelation ended weeks of speculation in entertainment magazines, which have been regularly publishing pictures of Spears' apparently expanding waistline. Spears, 24, and her husband, backup dancer-turned-rapper Kevin Federline, 28, were married in 2004 and have an 8-month-old son, Sean Preston. Federline also has two children, Kori and Kaleb, with his former girlfriend, Shar Jackson. Child welfare officials and a sheriff's deputy reportedly visited Spears' home in April after her son accidentally tumbled from a high chair.

In February, authorities visited the home after photographs showed the singer in a car with her son in her lap, rather than in a car seat as required by law. Spears later apologized, saying she held the boy in her lap because of a "horrifying, frightful encounter with the paparazzi."
Britney looked good, although the confirmation that she is having yet another child with the horrible K-Fed is sending shockwaves through the Britney Spears fan base. She says she will go back to work, but will try to balance motherhood and her work. This means that K-Fed now has four children. The man is a menace.

Posted on May 10, 2006
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