First week of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" guests announced

The celebrity guests for the premiere week of Jimmy Fallon's new talk show have just been revealed, and he's managed to bring in some big names, as well as some old friends. Robert De Niro (one of the worst "Saturday Night Live" guest hosts of all time) and singer Van Morrison will be the guests on the March 2 premiere. Also slated to appear on the show during its inaugural week: Tina Fey, Jon Bon Jovi and Santogold (Tuesday, March 3); Cameron Diaz and Billy Crudup (Wednesday, March 4); Donald Trump, Serena Williams and Ludacris (Thursday, March 5); and Drew Barrymore and Mario Batali (Friday, March 6).

Guests of the Week: Feb. 16-20, 2009

This is a pretty slow week, guest-wise -- is everyone gearing up for the Oscars? The obvious choice for late night viewers is the final week of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," and NBC's been keeping a lot of the guest bookings under wraps. The White Stripes are so far the only act announced for the final show. We'll keep our ears to the ground and continue updating the lineups page with any new discoveries.

Bonnie Hunt's own chat show is in reruns this week, so she'll stop by "Late Show with David Letterman" tonight and "The View" on Wednesday. Jay Leno should please both sides of the political spectrum with Arianna Huffington (Wednesday) and Dennis Miller (Thursday), while Regis & Kelly cater to boy band fans of the present (the Jonas Brothers, Monday) and past (New Kids on the Block, Thursday).

Rerun alert: Tuesday's "Colbert Report," with Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton and a recap of Glenn Beck's new FOX News show, was one of the funniest episodes in memory.

Dave really, really, really likes U2

U2 will be the guest for an entire week of shows on "Late Show with David Letterman." They'll be plugging their new album No Line on the Horizon from March 2-6. It's the first time a band has gotten a week-long gig on "Late Show."

Guests of the Week: Feb. 9-13, 2009

Talk Show News is soaking up the sun on vacation this week instead of absorbing the cathode rays of late night television, but if we do decide to hunker down with some TV this week, here's who we'll be watching:

David Letterman's got the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover reveal on Monday and will feature an interview with the newly crowned covergirl on Wednesday. In between, the crew of US Airways "Miracle On The Hudson" Flight 1549 fits Dave into their busy media schedule. A pair of reliably good guests, Martha Stewart and stand-up comic Jake Johannsen, will visit Dave on Friday. Loopy "American Idol" judge Paula Abdul has rebooked her date with Jay Leno for this Wednesday. Lewis Black is "Back in Black" with Craig Ferguson on Thursday. Conan O'Brien starts saying farewell to 12:30 with some heavy hitters, including Norm Macdonald (Tuesday), his time slot successor Jimmy Fallon (Wednesday) and Alec Baldwin (Thursday); tell your tween sister that the Jonas Brothers will be stopping by on Friday. (The boys will also be the musical guests on this weekend's "SNL," with Baldwin as the host.) Jimmy Kimmel welcomes a contestant from "Dancing with the Stars" Season 8 on Tuesday -- we're betting it'll be his old pal DAG (David Alan Grier). Demetri Martin plugs "Important Things" on Thursday's "JKL." The wonderful Neil deGrasse Tyson's talk with Tavis Smiley is now scheduled for Friday. Phil Keoghan of "The Amazing Race," Talk Show News's favorite reality show, globetrots over to Bonnie Hunt's set on Friday.

Don't Bother: We love Jimmy Kimmel, but really wish he would stop booking Andy Dick (Wednesday). After the Ivanka Incident, we notice they're only putting him on with other male guests now (actor Grant Show will follow him).

"Chelsea Lately": New air time begins Feb. 16

If you're a "Chelsea Lately" fan, be advised that the popular E! channel show will begin airing at 11 PM starting Feb. 16. It currently airs at 11:30 PM, following a repeat airing of "E! News." On the 16th, Chelsea and the "E! News" rerun will switch places.

"Chelsea Lately" will continue to have additional airings at midnight and 2:30 AM ET/PT.

In a press release promoting the move, E! announced, " 'Chelsea Lately' has shown 18 months of consecutive growth among total viewers since its debut in July '07... The show's largest demo continues to be women 18-34, which has increased 48% from the year-ago time period. With a median viewer age of 35, well below the broadcast late night talk shows, 'Chelsea Lately' remains the clear choice for the young entertainment consumer."

Guests of the Week: Feb. 2-6, 2009

Here are our picks for the guests who will be worth watching during the coming week. Feel free to weigh in if you have a guest to recommend. Though last week, which featured a last-minute addition of Paul McCartney to Wednesday's "Colbert Report," reminds us that everything is, of course, subject to change.

David Letterman welcomes Steve Martin, fresh off his "SNL" hosting stint, on Monday; he stops by "Live with Regis and Kelly" on Tuesday and "The Colbert Report" on Thursday. Good thing he's usually a funny guest, or this would be getting perilously close to overload. Tomorrow's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" features the always hilarious Kathy Griffin. "Slumdog Millionaire"'s Dev Patel (love his real-life British accent!!!) will be on "The Daily Show" Tuesday night, while "TDS"'s Senior Black Correspondent, Larry Wilmore, takes a seat on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on Friday. If you can't get enough of Neil deGrasse Tyson, he's scheduled to appear with Tavis Smiley on Thursday. And we love the strange-bedfellows aspect of Thursday's duo of guests on CBC's "The Hour": Former Prime Minister of Australia John Howard, and the co-star of numerous Kevin Smith comedies, Jason Mewes.

Don't Bother: We realize funny is a subjective thing, but Robin Williams, appearing on Tuesday's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," always gives us the hives when he appears on a chat show. Dial it down a notch, Robin.

Pluggernaut of the Week: A tie between the stars of the upcoming comedies "He's Just Not That Into You" and "Pink Panther 2." Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Aniston, and even phrase-coiner Greg Behrendt will make numerous appearances, and co-star John Cleese will share "Panther" promotional duties with Martin, covering the West Coast while Steve handles the East.

Conan and Jay's "Super" ads

The Super Bowl featured a couple glimpses of NBC's late night stars. First, there was Conan O'Brien's hilarious Bud Light ad:

Yes, that was a real Swedish tag line; well, kind of ("Skillnaden är drinkability": "the difference is drinkability").

Jay Leno showed up in a brief but clever promo, driving a race car with the number "10" on it, plus a license plate reading "FALL," in honor of his upcoming 10 PM time slot. And there was a promo for "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" featuring Martha Stewart and Tina Fey.

As for Jimmy Fallon, he was AWOL during the Big Game, but apparently he did make an appearance during the approximately 42 hours of pre-game coverage.