Eddie Murphy may have lost his edge, but he's been around a long time and can smell an ambush coming. He dropped out as the next Oscar host and Billy Crystal was lured back after an eight-year absence.
I'll bet you anything that the morning after the show, all the critics will be saying he wasn't half as good as the old Billy.
The Grammys have gone on quite well without a master of ceremonies for seven years. Now CBS has announced it will use LL Cool J, star of its series NCIS: Los Angeles, to host. It's not just cross-promotion. The network administered a test and Cool J was the only actor under contract who could pronounce the names of Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha.
The Emmys are a hopeless cause, but hosts in recent years, including Jane Lynch and Jimmy Fallon, have gotten graded on a significant curve. After the five-headed reality-show hydra-host of 2008 (Tom Bergeron, Jeff Probst, Howie Mandel, Ryan Seacrest, and Heidi Klum), absolutely anything seems magnificent.
The only easy gigs are in country music. Reba McEntire was doing fine as the genre's designated hostess, but she had a conflict a few years ago between the CMAs and her quilting club.
So Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood were brought in and now they are apparently serving as country's award ambassadors for life.
I'm told that hosting the Tonys is pretty civilized. The Broadway crowd is unfailingly polite and enthusiastic while the camera is on. They just viciously gossip about you during commercials.
What else you got? Riddle me this, Good Wife. So the Chicago D.A.'s office is out to prosecute Will, a campaign that everyone knows is a thinly veiled vendetta against Will for his intimacy with the D.A.'s estranged wife, Alicia.
