Anderson Cooper makes it official…

By now you’ve probably all heard the news that really isn’t news at all. Yep, that’s right, Anderson Cooper, the king of understated elegance and class — in his personal life at least. His talk show, which we used to LOVE, has become kind of circus-freaky lately — has officially come out as gay. Not really surprising, I mean, hello, the dude wore Prada suits when he hosted “The Mole” back in the day, but, in my  mind it’s always good when a major celebrity comes out.

And it’s even better news when a major celebrity comes out and nobody really cares or makes a big old deal about it. That’s the way it should be. Congrats on coming out, dude, but, seriously, try to reign in the crazy next season on “The Anderson Cooper” show. It’s gone a wee bit off the rails…

Anderson Cooper’s new show!

Oops…while sitting here drinking my coffee and watching Anderson Cooper interview the cast of “Sister Wives” I realized that I had left Cooper’s new daytime talk show off our list of “must see TV” in my previous post. Sorry, Coop!

I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but, Cooper’s new show is kinda awesome. He’s hard-hitting, probing, sarcastic, geeky and best of all, he is totally hilarious. Yep, I said it, the dude is funny!

We’ve been hardcore Cooper fans since his days hosting the late, great reality show “The Mole”, and though I dig his “serious” work on CNN, I gotta tell ya, Cooper looks really comfortable on daytime TV. Seriously, he’s a natural…

Still not buying it? Well, consider this. Christine stayed home sick from work yesterday, watched several Tivo-ed episodes of Cooper’s show and was totally, 100% healed. Now, if that’s not a glowing recommendation, I don’t know what is. The age of Oprah is officially over…long live the new king of daytime TV!

So long, Rosie Radio…

OK, I don’t know about y’all, but, I was still mourning the loss of Oprah (I’ll talk more about that in another post), so, when I heard that another one of my old standby’s, Rosie O’Donnell, was ending her daily talk show on SiriusXM radio this afternoon, well, I just about broke down.

I mean, hello? Who is a self-respecting SAHD — Stay-at-home-Dad, for those of you unfamiliar with the parent code — supposed to turn to for much needed laughs, tears or whatever on a daily basis? Urgh, it’s almost enough to make me start watching Ellen again. Just kidding, I still hate that old scab.

But, back to someone I love. In case you hadn’t heard, Rosie is launching a new daily TV talk show on Oprah’s OWN network in the fall, so, she’s leaving for much greener pastures, but, that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna miss her.

I know Rosie Radio was only on SiriusXM for a year and a half, but, I listened to that show EVERY SINGLE DAY. Seriously, Rosie rocked. She was smart, funny, political, and best of all, Rosie and her cohorts could say whatever the hell they wanted because it was satellite radio. So, whoo-hoo, bring on the F-bombs, baby!

Anyway, SiriusXM is gonna be playing repeats of the show Monday thru Thursday and Rosie’s long-time Exec Producer Janette Barber is getting her own SiriusXM show on Fridays, so, that will help lesson the blow a bit. But, trust me, nothing will take the place of having Rosie and company chatting in your ear while you drive home from the park with a sleeping toddler. Ah, the memories…

Best of luck on your new gig, Rosie! We’ll miss you…

“Alexa Chung” gets the axe…

While catching up on our “Alexa Chung” episodes over the weekend, Christine, Greta and I were stunned to hear an emotional Chung proclaim on last Thursday’s episode that not only would that be her last episode of the year, but also, her last episode…bum, bum, bum…ever! Ahhh! Say it ain’t so, Alexa!

Alas, a quick Google search proved that it was indeed so…and that MTV had canceled our beloved “It’s On With Alexa Chung”. Urgh…so sad!!

I mean, I know the show suffered in the ratings and that ill-advised retool at the start of season two certainly didn’t help, but Chung really seemed to find her groove in the last few weeks, and the show had finally settled into what it was meant to be all along: a fun, goofy half hour chat show with music.

I’m not kidding, the last few episodes were golden, baby…A-list talent, crazy skits, cutting-edge music by bands you’ve never heard of…it was awesome. So, to have the show yanked from the schedule just when it was really starting to cook with gas is just plain cruel. Thanks, MTV, for the worst Christmas present ever!

So, as we mourn the loss of the best daytime talk show in years, I’ll leave you with some pics of our favorite Alexa Chung moments from both seasons. She might not brighten our afternoons anymore, but the memory of the lanky, hipster queen of UK chat will live forever in our hearts…

Long live Alexa Chung!

“It’s on with Alexa Chung”

Other stay-at-home parents might dig “Regis & Kelly”, “Oprah”, “The View” or even the train wreck that is the fourth hour of the “Today Show”, but in this household, we are all about Alexa-freaking-Chung!

Haven’t heard of her? Well, neither had we until her new talk show “It’s on with Alexa Chung” debuted a couple of weeks back on MTV. Apparently Chung is a fairly well-known former model/chat show host in the UK. All I know is that she’s funny, entertaining, and best of all, totally sexy in a goofy, self-deprecating way — which makes her even sexier in my book! — and that Greta and I have become HUGE fans of this show in the past couple of weeks.

Of course I think Greta mostly likes the cool colors on the set and stuff at this point, but, I do know that she downs her bottle much more calmly with Alexa Chung cheekily interviewing celebrities in the background. Maybe it’s the cool UK accent, who knows?

All I know for sure is that if you find yourself home at 11:30AM on a weekday, you gotta check this show out. Chung’s interviews are fresh, lively and often genuinely hilarious, and she goes out of her way to involve the audience in any number of bizarre games and contests throughout the show.

One recent episode had Chung and her cohorts trying to break a few world’s records on the air. She had one dude trying to break the record for making the most peanut butter and jelly — she called it jam, of course, which made me love her even more — sandwiches in a minute while another event had Chung seeing how many purses she could hang on former “Destiny’s Child” star Kelly Rowland. Crazy, huh?

But crazy has never been this fun, so, check out this awesomeness before MTV cancels it. I’m sure my old ass is not even remotely the demographic they are aiming for with this show, which was supposedly designed to be a replacement for the late, great “TRL”, but I think most of you out there will love it.

What worries me the most are the bored, vacant looks of the tweens in the audience. Their lifeless stares when Chung cracks a first-rate joke tell me that unless she seriously rocks the ratings, her show might be in trouble. So, get out there and spread the good word, amigos…Alexa Chung rules!

Martha and Conan share a 40 for the road…

Don’t know if you guys have been watching “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” this week or not, but tonight is Conan’s last show from New York City before coming west in a few weeks to take over as host of “The Tonight Show”.

And though the shows this week have all been hilarious — we missed Carrie Fisher unfreezing the Masturbating Bear from carbonite, but it sounded awesome! — perhaps our favorite guest star has been Conan’s old pal, Martha Stewart. Showing up unannounced on Wednesday night’s show, Martha brought some now-classic clips of Conan’s 2002 appearance on “Martha Stewart Living”.

We’d seen the clips before, and the two have appeared on each others shows dozens of times over the years, but this last little visit on the old set in NYC was really sweet. TV bullshit aside, you can tell that these two really like each other and seeing as we love both Martha and Conan, seeing them together is like TV geek nirvana! Wow!

But even more awesome was the final parting gift Martha brought Conan. To commemorate a now-legendary visit to his show back in the days of Andy Richter, Martha brought Taco Bell bean burritos and a pair of ice-cold 40 ouncers for her and Conan to share. It was hilarious!

I’m sure Martha will make many a return visit to Conan’s show when he moves out here, but I gotta tell ya, seeing those two drink malt liquor while noshing on Taco Bell on the old Late Night set left us both a little verklempt.

Seriously, we’re gonna miss that shit when he moves up the dial an hour to 11:30. So, best of luck with the new gig, Conan, and here’s hoping we don’t weep too much while watching your final show tonight…

Conan’s last new show from NYC airs tonight at 12:35AM on NBC.