When Oprah Winfrey announced she was ending her talk show in 2011, the question immediately arose: who's the next Oprah? Some thought Glenn Beck was the prime candidate, while David Letterman and Conan O'Brien lobbied for themselves. According to Brian Stelter the New York Times, however, the most likely Oprah heir already has a daytime show of her own - Ellen DeGeneres. (more...)

Plus! Lots of! Exclamation! Points! The Shoot, The Interview, The Scandal ALL INSIDE! PLUS! Levi Dishes on the Palins, Fatherhood & STRIPPING DOWN! There was a time, mere months ago, when everyone cared about Levi Johnston's Playgirl appearance. (Those were the days.) It's fair to say, though, that at this point the flame hardly flickers. After all, we all here on the internet really milked this one: wondering if it would really happen, looking to historical precedents and, of course, ogling at the (penis-less!) product. (more...)

The forthcoming fifth season of The Tyra Banks Show will be its last, the host told People today. “I’ve been loving having fun, coming into your living rooms, bedrooms, hair salons for the past 5 years," said Banks. According to People, who scored the exclusive report, Banks will leave to work on launching Bankable Studios, her film production company, and focus on bringing “positive images of women to the big screen." True to form, Banks was motivational in her parting words: "My next huge steps will allow me to reach more women and young girls to help us all feel as fierce as we truly are," she said. (more...)

The year 2009 had many media bright spots, break-out stars, dominating networks and game-changing technologies.  The Mediaite 50 collects the finest, most exemplary innovators and influencers of the year, defining a media moment in time and setting the agenda as we move forward. (more...)

video When Obama gave himself a "solid" grade of B+ in a recent interview with Oprah, it was only a matter of time -- less than a day, to be precise -- before the cable news punditocracy chimed in. As you can imagine, the Fox News faction, represented by Greta Van Susteren, Dana Perino, and Bill O'Reilly, did not take too kindly to it. (more...)

When Oprah asked Sarah Palin about Levi Johnston's Playgirl shoot, she said, "I call it porn." But is it?

The NSFW pictures prove that Levi didn't show us everything -- so to speak -- and the pictures don't include any frontal nudity. The pictures of the 19-year old are no more explicit than what you'd see on an episode of Nip/Tuck and less (homo)erotic than an Ultimate Fight Championship match. Some shower shots with a strategically-placed towel, a naked backside and some steamed-up mirror pics. That's it. (more...)

video Oprah Winfrey confirmed the news that broke yesterday afternoon - she would be ending her show. Brian Stelter reports that the talk show host told her television audience this morning, “After much prayer and months of careful thought, I’ve decided the next season, season 25, will be the last season of ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show.’” Reports say that she is ending her successful daytime talk show in September 2011. (more...)

The secret is out now. As Keith Olbermann points out, it only took Sarah Palin a year and six weeks to name 3 news sources that she reads, and at the top of her very short list sits Newsmax.com. While much has been made of the current White House's attitude toward Fox News, it makes you wonder what a Newsmax-guided Palin Presidency would be like. (more...)

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Sean Hannnity's pre-taped interview with Sarah Palin aired last night, and among the litany of Republican-friendly positions revealed, the former Governor of Alaska and author of Going Rogue finally told Hannity which newspapers and magazines she regularly reads. Why is this important? You'll recall her infamous hiccup in answering the same question asked by Katie Couric. What media does Palin consume? Spoiler alert: not the Huffington Post. (more...)

Oprah. Lloyd Blankfein. Serena Williams. Michael Jordan. Vikram Pandit. George Clooney. Al Gore. Al Franken. No, not the invite list to the coolest party of all time. Just a few of the characters who have shot the bull (and maybe worked out a few deals) in the Oval Office with President Obama since he took office in January. (more...)

Ok, Oprah just got slightly cooler. Mad Men stars Jon Hamm and January Jones will be guests on her show on Monday. And, the entire episode will have a retro-chic 1960s theme to it, including a segment that sounds like Oprah's Favorite Things: 60s edition. (more...)

The sky is falling! Oprah's ratings are down 7% last season, and as is the case with all things, this must have something to do with Barack Obama, somehow. In an article about the ratings decline, the AP quotes an author who says that Oprah's endorsement of Obama has hurt her in the heartland. David Carr follows suit on Media Decoder: he says that Oprah's decline is "understandable against a backdrop of atomizing audiences," but could be because she alienated part of her base by going political. It's a theory, but does it pass the sniff test? (more...)

As if to confirm that the pre-Labor Day news drought is officially over, there's been a ton of movement in the Power Grid this past week. Upstarts have risen, giants have fallen, and Eliot Spitzer has broken into the top five TV pundits. What does it even mean, man? Before we answer that, we'd like to introduce a brand-new feature of the Power Grid. (more...)

For me, the biggest surprise in today's Power Grid results didn't come from the people who went up or went down in the ranks -- it came from Glenn Beck staying in the same place, at least on TV. Beck is currently #10 in the TV Anchors/Hosts category. Beck dominated last week's news cycle with attacks on Obama's health care plan, daring stunts, and even art history lessons, and this past weekend, he successfully called for the head of Obama's adviser Van Jones, who resigned over what seemed to be a small connection to the controversial "9/11 Truther" movement. So why did Beck stay in the same place? (more...)

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Henry Louis Gates Jr., renowned Harvard professor and frequent Oprah Winfrey guest, was arrested at his home early yesterday morning under charges of disorderly conduct. Or at least that's the version of the story that first hit the AP. The version that's since come to light is vastly different. Get ready, this is one of those stories that once the cablers pick up could likely dominate the airwaves for the rest of the week, if not longer. (more...)

The National Enquirer is back! Yesterday they reported how a Meditteranean Cruise Oprah had booked for her staff turned into a scene from The Jerry Springer Show. Plus - no sign up Steadman -  Tongues are wagging! (more...)

Back in the day, the notion behind news magazines was that since they couldn't cover current events as speedily as those freaks of timeliness, daily newspapers, they could provide the depth and context that newspapers supposedly lacked. Today, as newspapers try to brand themselves as the deep, contextual alternatives to blogs, news mags had better bring truckloads of depth and context to the table if they hope to remain at all relevant when their collection of one-to-six-day-old stories hit newsstands. (more...)

Journalists, if you are going to spout off about Twitter, I beg you: Do some research. This has occurred to me frequently since Twitter hit the big time earlier this year, mostly because there have been frequent glaring errors on the part of "mainstream" journalists who write precious little articles about the microblogging service. On yesterday's Reliable Sources, Howard Kurtz hosted CNN's Rick Sanchez -- an enthusiastic Twitter user and evangelist -- and CBS sports columnist Gregg Doyel to discuss the question, "Too Much Twitter?" I wasn't sure what Doyel's qualification was here, but it soon became clear: He was one of those people who had loudly dissed Twitter in print, without actually bothering to actually understand it. (more...)