Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.
Although I'm generally a 'Today' show loyalist, for the next two weeks, I'm going to be a 'Good Morning America' fan.
Why? Three words: The Winter Olympics.
Every two years, since NBC started carrying the Olympics, they turn their top-rated morning news show into essentially the Games' morning recap show. Sure, you still get that first half hour of pure news, but after that, the show becomes all-Olympics, all the time, from examining the personal stories of the athletes, to travelogues about whatever exotic locale the Games are in that year, to deep, 'SportsCenter'-like examination of the previous night's results.
But that's not the part that annoys me the most. When the hosts go out and try to do the Olympic sports themselves, the cringe factor goes up exponentially. Especially when Matt Lauer and Al Roker are involved.
It looks like Ellen won't be the new Oprah after all. If I were Oprah, I'd be very relieved. I wouldn't want someone taking over my soul and inhabiting my body solely for "ratings."
This ends speculation that Ellen would "become the new Oprah" in the wake of Oprah announcing she will end her show in September of 2011. If she did take Oprah's place though, it would have been interesting to see if Stedman came with the deal.
Dick Cavett should have a talk show again. We need someone on regularly who is a bit calmer, a bit more thoughtful/smart than what we have now. Charlie Rose is fine, but Cavett would be a welcome addition. Last night he was on 'Late Night' and Jimmy Fallon even recreated the set from his '70s talk show! After the interview (after the jump), Cavett does a magic trick.
If you've never read the 1994 book 'The Late Shift' by New York Times media writer Bill Carter, you've missed one of the great television books. It's a fascinating, odd, and most importantly, true (truth really is stranger than fiction when it comes to late night) look at the late night wars (the first one, not the second) that happened after Johnny Carson left 'The Tonight Show.' Now Carter says he's working on a sequel.
Carter told Keith Olbermann on MSNBC's 'Countdown' (video after the jump) that he couldn't tell him everything about what's going on in late night because he had to leave something for the book. He then said a sequel was in the works. If it's anything like the first one it will be a must-read.
'The Late Shift' was made into a goofy but entertaining film starring John Michael Higgins as Dave and Daniel Roebuck (Arzt on 'Lost') as Jay.
If you were watching carefully during the now-momentous Letterman/Oprah/Leno promo for the 'Late Show' that aired during the Super Bowl, you'll notice that Dave was not wearing an #18 Peyton Manning Colts jersey, like he did in the 2007 promo with Oprah that kicked off this series. Instead, he wore a #70 Colts jersey, a number which is not on the team's current roster.
When I saw the promo for the tenth or eleventh time (for some reason, I still get a kick out of it), I vaguely recalled that #70 was the number for Art Donovan, a Hall of Fame defensive lineman for the then-Baltimore Colts in the '50s and '60s. He was also a frequent TV presence in the '80s and '90s, telling hilarious stories about his playing days on Letterman's shows, as well as many others.
He's young here (it was 41 years ago!), but you can already see his style of humor in place. Not sure why it sounds so echo-y and metallic. That's either because of the age of the audio or perhaps that's what it sounded like on AM radio back then. The Internet Archive has more info about the show, and according to them, the woman that Dave calls is his then-wife Michelle.
I don't know how much crossover there is when it comes to Barry Manilow fans and Ozzy Osbourne fans. But I guess it's possible to love "Copacabana" and "Crazy Train." The other night Jimmy Kimmel had both singers on his show, so there were fans of each in the audience. Jimmy tried to figure out which one a certain audience member came to see.
[Watch episodes of 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' and other shows at SlashControl.]
It looks like NBC is doing a little house cleaning at their web site. Not only is all of Conan O'Brien's 'Tonight Show' content gone, but the 'Tonight Show' section is gone completely.
If you take a look at NBC.com and go to the drop down menu where all of the shows are listed, there isn't even a 'Tonight Show' listed anymore. There is a listing for 'The Jay Leno Show' if you want to check that out, though I'm not sure why you'd want to.
Maybe they're retooling the 'Tonight Show' site for when Jay makes his return in a few weeks, but it would be a shame if, when the site comes back up, all of Conan's stuff is still gone. I mean, isn't he a part of the show's history, even if that part only last for seven months? It's fine to replace Conan's face on an NBC mural, it's another thing to wipe him from the network's history altogether.
One of the things I love about "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon' is Fallon's enthusiasm. When he laughs hard at something, it's real, sincere goofiness, not a fake showbiz laugh. Like last night when he introduced TV Mash-Ups, NBC's big plan to get back on top.
Of course, there's no way in hell I'd watch shows called 'Hard Nips' and 'Front Butt.'
Although I'm generally a 
Here's tonight's TV lineup (all times Eastern).
It looks like 
If you've never read the 1994 book 
Here's tonight's TV lineup (all times Eastern).
Here's tonight's TV lineup (all times Eastern).
Since we saw that rather stunning 
It looks like NBC is doing a little house cleaning at their web site. Not only is all of Conan O'Brien's 
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