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VP Joe Biden to visit Jay Leno on Friday

Days after it was revealed that “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” posted its lowest-rated second-quarter since rival talk show “The Late Show with David Letterman” launched on CBS in 1993, NBC is looking to the Obama administration for help.

The network said on Tuesday that Vice President Joe Biden would stop by Leno’s show for the third time on Friday. Biden first visited the Burbank set in March 2007, as a U.S. senator. He returned in October 2008, as a vice presidential nominee.

Biden is scheduled to share the spotlight with Adrien Brody and musical guest Chris Isaak. Maybe, Biden and Leno can swap notes over their ratings problems. If politics isn’t your thing, Letterman has booked Kate Hudson, Indy 500 Winner Dario Franchitti and musical guest Sarah McLachlan.

While Leno still leads Letterman, his Q2 ratings fell to their lowest levels among total viewers, adults 18-49, and adults 25-54 since 1993, according to Nielsen data parsed by Deadline.com.

Late night gets political as Leno, O’Brien and Letterman look to the future

Conan O’Brien’s departure from NBC’s was ugly from the start, but now that it’s over, and Jay Leno is about to reclaim “The Tonight Show,” who has come out looking like the bad guy? This is important because if Leno and O’Brien end up competing against each other in the same time slot (with O’Brien on Fox or another network), how the public views each of them could affect their ratings. Leno himself has acknowledged he has been getting bad press as a result of the shakeup, with fellow talk show hosts David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Rosie O’Donnell accusing him of pushing out O’Brien. But judging by a poll of 65,000 respondents at celebrity website PopEater, the controversy doesn’t seem to have hurt Leno that much. Forty-four percent of respondents said they would watch Leno over O’Brien if the two were to go head-to-head in the 11:35 p.m. time slot, with only 33 percent opting for O’Brien. Leno enjoys the advantage of having reigned as the top-rated late night talk show host from 1995 until he gave up “The Tonight Show” in May 2009. After he left, David Letterman’s “Late Show” on CBS climbed to the top of the heap. Can Leno reclaim some of those viewers from Letterman when he returns to “The Tonight Show”? Letterman has launched a nasty campaign against Leno, mocking him every chance he gets on his show. Meanwhile, Leno has tried to take the high road, calling O’Brien a “great guy” during his show Monday. But of late he has fired back at Letterman during his monologues. With Letterman “going negative,” and Leno having given what amounted to a speech on Monday with his side of the story, this late night war has turned into something like a political campaign. For his part, O’Brien has ravaged NBC during his monologues, and he has never returned Leno’s favor by also calling him a “great guy.” Despite the hipster “I’m with Coco” campaign that has emerged, especially online, in support of O’Brien, his $32.5 million payout may hurt his image. True, we are in the age of corporate executives getting away with million dollar bonuses after their own failures, and Conan has scored sympathy for securing money for his staff. But wouldn’t we all like to walk away with say, $30 million, after seven months of poor ratings, weak reviews and (to use one of O’Brien’s jokes) not even a new haircut? In a PopEater poll, only 28 percent of respondents said they feel sorry for O’Brien now that he has received his huge payout, and 38 percent said they never did. With none of the talk show hosts seeming to have a monopoly on public sympathy, they may want all want to work harder on their campaign skills, because this new age for the talk show arena looks to be as cut-throat as ever.

(Additional writing by Christine Kearney)

Top 5 late-night jokes about Conan and Jay

Conan debacle inspires comic digs galore

It has become a battle of who can win the most sharp-tongued digs.

Conan O’Brien’s statement released two days ago that he will not be bullied by NBC back into a later timeslot has sparked a competition over which late night host can squeeze in as many quick fire NBC slaps in their opening monologue as possible.

 On Wednesday night O’Brien was more combative in his comedic tone than the previous night, in a message directed to “the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it too.”

He also took a direct dig at executives talking about the strong audience “American Idol” receives at rival network Fox – where it is speculated O’Brien may eventually move to: “When they heard that, NBC executives said “That’s not true, there’s no such thing as an audience of 30 million people.”

 But David Letterman predictably has been able to be even more aggressive calling NBC executives “pinheads” and “nitwits” and “twits” after his own tumultuous relationship with the network in the early1990s following more than a decade with the network. Last night his nightly top ten was based on messages left on NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker’s voicemail and he also took potshots at Leno himself.

The jibes delighted the audiences and left others wondering how far can their zingers go? How long will NBC give the hosts ample fodder for laughs at their expense? Can Leno and NBC turn it around?

No one wins in David Letterman blackmail arrest

David Letterman, victim, victor or philanderer?

The married “Late Show” host’s revelation that he had sex with female staff members from his show, and that he worked with authorities to have an alleged blackmail culprit arrested, places Letterman in the odd position of having apparently vanquished a social parasite, but at the same time having his dirty laundry uncovered in the process.

Certainly, the audience was on his side during Letterman’s 10-minute exposition of what he first described as a “little story” he wanted to tell them. The audience clapped and laughed at even the most awkward moments of his tale, such as when he admitted to, as he put it, the “creepy” detail from his life at the heart of the alleged extortion plot, namely that he had sex with women who work on his show.

At one point, an apparently befuddled Letterman said, ”Now why is that funny?”

The question is whether Letterman’s television audience is also inclined to laugh off the whole affair. It seems no one can win in this whole debacle, not Letterman, not his family and not the women who were involved with him.

Certainly, Letterman himself seemed chastened by the whole thing, saying that he was motivated to protect his family and also his job.

“48 Hours” producer Robert Halderman has been arrested in the alleged extortion plot. (Read about that here). Celebrity news website TMZ reports that Halderman was forced to pay about $6,000 a month in child support back in 2007, in what will surely be picked apart as a possible motive for his alleged $2 million extortion scheme.

Jack Black gets musical pass for profanity on Letterman

In the same broadcast that saw him apologize to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for a joke about her daughter, late-night TV host David Letterman was back on controversial ground again during his show on Monday night, when comedian Jack Black inserted an “F-word” into his impromptu song. 

It was the kind of “fleeting expletive” that recently became the subject of a high profile case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided that the federal government can fine broadcasters for airing a single expletive blurted out on a live show. Fortunately for Letterman, his guest’s brief foray into profanity aired after 10 p.m., which means that it does not risk a fine from the Federal Communications Commission.

Black’s use of the “F-word” can be heard at the end of the video in the link below (warning: Fan Fare has not edited it out). He was talking about a song that he would like to record, and then things turned blue.

Normally, “Late Night with David Letterman” and similar talk shows bleep out profanity of the kind Black used on the program. But apparently they just missed it on Monday night.

Did the fleeting expletive go too far? Or is it alright for late night?

UPDATE-Confused David Letterman backs down over Palin daughter jokes

Talk show host David Letterman says he was “guilty of poor taste” after causing a stir with some sexually suggestive jokes about one of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s teenage daughters, admitting he confused 18-year-old intended target Bristol Palin with her 14-year-old sister, Willow. The comedian’s 7-minute-plus discussion of the controversy during his Wednesday show can be seen on the video link below:

Todd Palin, the governor’s husband, has accused Letterman of making a joke about someone “raping” his younger daughter. Neither girl was directly named in the original joke, which also namechecked New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez.

Letterman responded, “I would never, ever make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl. I mean, look at my record. It has never happened.” The comedian also invited the governor to appear on his show, but suggested she leave Todd at home.

Here’s the update. On Friday, Palin was back on the attack against Letterman. She told Matt Lauer of the “Today” show on NBC that, “You and anybody else are extremely naive to believe that very convenient excuse of David Letterman’s the other day.” By that, Palin meant Letterman’s statement that he was joking about Palin’s 18 year-old daughter, whose pregnancy was widely commented on last year, and not her 14 year-old daughter, Willow. The full video link is below:

What’s the deal with Joaquin Phoenix?

Joaquin Phoenix’s flat-footed appearance on Wednesday night’s “Late Show with David Letterman” had the audience laughing as the actor let Letterman’s pointed, mocking questions go unanswered.

But maybe Phoenix is angling to have the last laugh with his professed retirement from acting to take up a career in hip-hop music?

Even though he has insisted in interviews with Reuters and others that he is not trying to fool anyone, some people are wondering if the whole thing is an elaborate  put-on. 

Wearing dark shades and a suit, Phoenix seemed unable to answer Letterman’s question about why his is quitting acting after ”Two Lovers,” which opens on Friday.

 ”It’s not really an easy thing to explain, it’s something that’s been a part of my life for a long time. It’s weird to like come out on stage in front of a bunch of other people and just talk about it,” Phoenix said.

At other times during the 10-minute interview, Phoenix stuck his gum under Letterman’s desk, swore at the show’s band leader Paul Shaffer, claimed ignorance that his latest movie is loosely based on a story by Fyodor Dostoevsky and changed the subject of his quitting acting to ask about Letterman’s cut thumb.

Oscar-nominated Phoenix’s new bearded appearance has taken fans by surprise. Remarking on the new look, Letterman asked him, “Can you tell us about your days with the Unabomber?,” a reference to a murderous and bearded U.S. radical who lived in the woods and grew a beard.