All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

- He’s back: Jay Leno hosts his first Tonight Show since the Conan O’Brien debacle tonight, with guests Jamie Foxx, Brad Paisley and Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn.

- Sorry, Joe Flanigan fans; the star of The Rockford Files remake has been cast, and it’s big-screen vet Dermot Mulroney. Not a name I ever would have thought of for the show, but an interesting choice, no?

- Rumors say Anderson Cooper may be headed to CBS, but his “people” say it’s not true that he’ll replace Katie Couric as the CBS evening news anchor.

- During tonight’s season finale of The Bachelor (8PM ET), ABC will announce the cast of the next Dancing With the Stars season, which premieres on March 22. I may actually have to watch if it’s true that Beverly Hills 90210 diva Shannen Doherty is among the new D-list hoofers.

- Snoop Dogg on One Life to Live, James Franco on General Hospital and now, Julianne Moore may make an appearance on As the World Turns, the show that helped launch her career, before the CBS soap ends next fall.

- The cast of Glee is indeed embarking on that rumored concert tour, with stops in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Phoenix.

- The Office funny guy Craig Robinson will be the new host of Last Comic Standing when it returns to NBC this summer.

- Marcia, Marcia, Marcia … because she and Jan, a.k.a. Brady Bunch stars Maureen McCormick and Eve Plumb, are still fighting, a planned Bunch reunion that was scheduled to happen this week is a no-go.

- American Idol season five alum Elliott Yamin – my all-time fave AI contestant – has been updating via Twitter about his experience being trapped in Chile after last Saturday’s earthquake.

- A Lost-themed amusement park attraction? It might actually happen.

- More Lost news: John Locke and creepy Ben as hit men? It’s a brilliant idea that Lost Emmy winner Terry O’Quinn is shopping, a drama about a pair of hit men who live in the suburbs. The show would star O’Quinn and fellow Lostie (and fellow Emmy winner) Michael Emerson, a duo that’s been responsible for a big chunk of Lost’s most memorable moments in the last few seasons.

- Zooey Deschanel is joining her Bones sister Emily Deschanel as a primetime star. Zooey will star in HBO’s series adaptation of Pamela Des Barres‘ famous band groupie memoir I’m With the Band.

- The new Doctor Who – with Matt Smith as the new Doctor – will debut on BBC America on April 17.

- Will Johnny Depp make a cameo in the upcoming 21 Jump Street movie? He tells Entertainment Weekly he hopes to, which just adds some points to his already full cup o’ coolness.

- Saturday Night Live hosts and musical guests for March: Zach Galifianakis and Vampire Weekend on March 6, and Jude Law and Pearl Jam on March 13.

- George Lopez is starring in a big-screen, live-action/CGI SpeedyGonzalez movie , and he says it won’t feature the stereotype-projecting Speedy of the original 1950s cartoons.

- And, though viewers seem to love the guilty pleasure aspects of kiddie beauty pageant shows like Little Miss Perfect and Toddlers & Tiaras, not so much for grown-up beauty contests: the Miss America pageant has yet again found itself homeless, as TLC has dropped the annual event from its primetime plans.

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• Filed in Boob Tube to Big Screen, Lost, Saturday Night Live, TV News
• Tags: Glee concert tour, Johnny Depp 21 Jump Street movie, Leno returning to Tonight Show, Pearl Jam Saturday Night Live, Rockford Files Dermot Mulroney, Zach Galifianakis Saturday Night Live

EW.com reports that the fan campaign to get Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels to extend an invitation to the legend – no, the national treasure – that is Betty White, to host SNL, is close to becoming a success.

The catch? White wouldn’t host an episode an alone, because of concern that the 88-year-old Emmy winner shouldn’t have to “shoulder the burden” of hosting a whole 90-minute show by herself.

Fair enough, though, instead of bringing back a slew of former SNL-ers to co-star with White in a “Women of Comedy” episode, as EW.com reports is likely to happen, why not take the opportunity to make something truly awesome happen and reunite Betty White with fellow Golden Girls star Rue McClanahan (who turned 75 earlier this week) and Mary Tyler Moore Show cohorts Mary Tyler Moore, Cloris Leachman, Valerie Harper and Georgia Engel to host SNL?

THAT’S a Women of Comedy line-up! Among them, Engel is the only one who hasn’t won an Emmy (though she’s been nominated five times, most recently for her stint as Robert’s mother-in-law on Everybody Loves Raymond).

And lest anyone complain that the Emmy-winning sitcom legends might not draw an audience to the show – a ridiculous statement, obviously, when nearly half a million people have signed on to the Betty-for-SNL Facebook campaign – consider that both White and Leachman are still active in primetime. White will star in TV Land’s fall sitcom Hot in Cleveland (with Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick), while Leachman is attached to the sitcom pilot Keep Hope Alive, My Name Is Earl creator Greg Garcia’s quirky comedy about a twentysomething guy who becomes a single dad when his one-night-stand babymama ends up on death row.

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• Filed in Saturday Night Live, TV News
• Tags: Betty White, Betty White SNL, Saturday Night Live

Mad Men star Jon Hamm returns this weekend (Saturday, 11:30PM ET, NBC) for his second stint as Saturday Night Live host, and here’s the first promo, in which Hamm and cast member Fred Armisen discuss the correct pronunciation of musical guest Michael Bublé’s name:

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• Filed in Saturday Night Live
• Tags: Jon Hamm SNL, Michaael Buble SNL, Saturday Night Live, SNL

Best line from last night’s Mark Wahlberg Talks to Christmas Animals skit on the last new SNL of the year (and the decade): “Hey partridge, how’s it hanging? Where’s your pear tree? Oh, there it is. So, you were in that song, ‘The 12 Days of Christmas.’ I was in The Happening … did you see that movie?” Aside from his digital videos, his Mark Wahlberg impersonation is Andy Samberg’s best Saturday Night Live bit:

Host James Franco’s monologue was also funny – he poked fun at his college career and his new General Hospital gig – but the second best holiday-themed skit of the night came late in the episode: Vincent Price’s 1954 Christmas Special. Bill Hader continues to prove himself to be one of the most talented, versatile SNL stars ever, and it was fun to see Franco, who starred in TNT’s 2001 biopic of James Dean, reprise the role:

By the way, NBC has announced the host/musical guest line-up for the first two new episodes of 2010: On January 9, Charles Barkley returns as host for the second time, with musical guest Alicia Keys, and on Jan. 16, Ugly Betty star America Ferrera hosts for the first time, with musical guest Green Day. Can’t wait to see if Kenan Thompson busts out his Barkley impersonation in a Barkley vs. Barkley showdown …

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• Filed in Saturday Night Live, TV News
• Tags: Bill Hader, Kenan Thompson, Mark Wahlberg Talks to the Animals, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live 2010, Saturday Night Live Christmas, SNL, SNL 2010, SNL Christmas

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

- An early reviewer of the MacGruber movie, based on the Saturday Night Live skit, says the flick is the best SNL-inspired movie since Wayne’s World. Party on, Garth, indeed.

- History Channel is launching its first reality competition series, Top Shot, in 2010, and in keeping with the network’s theme, the show will feature shooting contests, using various weaponry from the past.

- Musician-turned-horror filmmaker Rob Zombie may be directing an episode of CSI.

- The whole blackmail scandal involving pics of Full House and ER star John Stamos? The pics allegedly were just him posing with fans … hmmm, those were some pretty lame blackmailers, no?

- Showtime is launching a weekly news show about racing, called Inside NASCAR. The series premieres in February.

- TNT has greenlit a second season of the Dylan McDermott cop drama Dark Blue.

- Advertisers are pulling their commercials and one ethnic group is calling for a boycott, but it’s hard to believe anyone’s in such a tizzy about MTV’s new reality series Jersey Shore that they’d make death threats to people at the network.

- Four seasons in, and Dexter just earned the best ratings in the show’s history for last Sunday’s penultimate season four ep. The much-anticipated season finale airs Dec. 13 (9PM ET) on Showtime.

- TLC is airing a Cake Boss marathon on Dec. 28, and viewers get to pick the eps that will air. Vote here.

- And tonight on a very busy primetime schedule: Brick is having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit on The Middle (8:30PM, ABC); It’s the Glee fall finale (9PM, Fox), the last ep of the show ’til April(!); A scene from Speed is tested on MythBusters (9PM, Discovery); Jay wigs about Gloria and Manny’s Christmas plans on Modern Family (9PM, ABC); Felicity and The Unit cutie Scott Foley guest stars on Cougar Town (9:30PM, ABC); Babs Walters unveils her list of the Most Fascinating People of 2009 (10PM, ABC); Top Chef names a season six winner (10PM, Bravo); Christian finds himself deeply in debt on Nip/Tuck (10PM, FX); Adam tries to scarf down five huge sandwiches in five minutes on Man vs. Food (10PM, Travel); Steven Seagal: Lawman is back on the case on A&E (10PM); Guy Fieri guests on Dinner: Impossible (10PM, Food Network); Spectacle: Elvis Costello With … debuts season two as Elvis chats with Bono and The Edge (10PM, Sundance); Which team will win the Real World/Road Rules Challenge (10PM, MTV)?; and G4 premieres Campus PD (11PM), a reality series that follows the unique (read: lots o’ sloppy drunk students) challenges of being a college campus cop.

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• Filed in Saturday Night Live, TV News
• Tags: Cake Boss, Dark Blue season 2, Dexter season 4 finale, Jersey Shore boycott, John Stamos blackmail, MacGruber movie, Rob Zombie CSI, Showtime racing series