Contactmusic.com says that Justin Timberlake is being considered as a possible Oscars host. The article says Oscar producers were impressed with Timberlake's ESPY awards performance.
Oscars bosses were wowed by Timberlake's naturally funny performance as the frontman for the ESPY Awards last month (Jul08).
And they allegedly want him to join the illustrious club of Academy Awards hosts, taking over from 2008 master of ceremonies Jon Stewart.
No offense to Justin Timberlake but we would prefer to see the Daily Show's Jon Stewart back again. (via Dlisted)
The Associated Press is reporting that CNN's Headline News channel is launching a comedy show called Not Just Another Cable News Show.
CNN Headline News isn't the first place you'd look for comedy, but the network says it will try to have fun with some of the clips in its news archives.
Not Just Another Cable News Show will premiere April 5, the network said Monday.
"It's an entertaining way to recall some of the more memorable moments captured on video," said Ken Jautz, executive vice president at CNN Worldwide.
The 30-minute show will be on Saturdays at 7 p.m. ET, then repeated twice later in the evening. It will be followed each time by News to Me, a series that shows hot Web videos.
The Comedy Central Insider notes that Fox News also has a comedy show called 1/2 Hour News Hour. Both of these channels are supposed to be about news so something seems very wrong about news networks attempting Daily Show type of funnies.
Jon Stewart had a great performance last night hosting the 80th Academy Awards. In addition to telling jokes he also played Wii on the big screen and watched movies on an iPhone during the Oscars show. Here is one of his funniest jokes of the night - the Gaydolf Titler joke.
You have to give Barack Obama credit, he's overcome a great deal. Not just he's an African-American. Barack Hussein Obama is his name. His middle name is the last name of Iraq's former tyrant. His last name rhymes with Osama. That's not easy to overcome. I think we all remember the ill-fated 1944 presidential campaign of Gaydolf Titler. It's just a shame, Titler had so many good ideas. We just couldn't get past the name. And the moustache.
Gaydolf Titler already has over 4,000 Google results and dozens of Technorati results. About.com lists a few of Stewart's other political jabs from the evening here. E-Online lists some of his entertainment-related jokes.
David Letterman returns with a Top Ten List of striking writers demands. The writers themselves give the top ten list. You can see the written list here.
It has been nearly two months since the latenight talk shows went dark because of the writer's strike. Now Worldwide Pants has cut a deal with the Writers Guild of America. That means David Letterman and Craig Ferguson can both return to the air with their writers. Worldwide Pant's owns both Letterman's show and Craig Ferguson's show.
The other shows are going to try it without any writers which means the jokes aren't going to be as good. It also means it is going to be very difficult for them to get celebrities on their shows. The Screen Actors Guild has been behind the WGA in the strike and actors aren't going to want to cross picket lines to appear on any of the shows that don't have a deal with the WGA. This include Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien as well as John Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
The Writers' Strike is on and the question now is how long will it last. Cinema Blend reports that the strike could knock talk shows like Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report off the air.
If the strike happens tonight at midnight, the fates of shows like Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report are up in the air. Since all of these shows tackle current happenings in news and pop culture, the host's monologues are often written the day of taping. The heavy lifting, of course, is not done by the hosts, but by a team of writers who craft not only opening monologues, but any sketches or video pieces that may air. Conan's masturbating bear didn't just show up at 30 Rock one day with a satchel full of diapers, but sprang forth from the fertile mind of a staff writer.
Hopefully they will find some way to end the strike before it temporarily kills late night television. More background on the Writers' Strike can be found here.
The Media Post's TV Watch blog warns that earlier commercials may be coming to interrupt the usually "relatively commercial-free first half hour" of late-night talk shows. There may be some pressure on late-night comics to come up with shorter jokes.
Meanwhile viewers should start complaining, because now a bunch of commercials will interrupt the usual relatively commercial-free first half hour of your favorite late-night network talk show.
Jokes in those monologues that need a lot time to develop will now need to be rewritten. CBS has already been experimenting in running early-in-the-show commercials this summer during "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" - all because of the coming commercial ratings, which are replacing program ratings as the main currency for TV advertising deals.
Good news: David Letterman typically has only has about three bits in his short monologue. That means early commercials - like those for young-skewing products, theatrical movies, videos, and mobile phone companies - can be easily squeezed into the early part of his show. The same can't be said for NBC's Jay Leno, who seems to have an extra-long initial monologue - seven or eight bits for his intro.
Because viewership is higher earlier in the evening, commercials - now subject to commercial ratings - will run earlier.
Inserting advertisements and cutting into monologue time is likely to be another bad move by the television networks. This will just be one more reason people move to the Internet to watch video clips or find alternative content.
Contactmusic.com 
The Associated Press is 
Jon Stewart had a great performance last night hosting the 80th Academy Awards. In addition to telling jokes he also 