Ellen DeGeneres will make her Oscar debut as host for the 79th Academy Awards telecast.

DeGeneres is the host of the syndicated talk show "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," which this year won its third Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show and earned DeGeneres her second Emmy for Outstanding Talk Show Host.

DeGeneres has twice hosted the prime-time Emmys telecast and co-hosted the show in 1994. She received praise from critics and fans for her first solo Emmy stint, which took place shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

It's in television that DeGeneres has made her mark. Her big-screen film credits include "EDTV" for director Ron Howard, "The Love Letter," "Goodbye Lover," "Coneheads" and "Mr. Wrong," in which she starred with Bill Pullman.

"The Daily Show's" Jon Stewart was a critical success as host of the Oscars this year, but there was a ratings decline from 2005, when Chris Rock served as host. An estimated 38.8 million people watched, down 8 percent from last year and the worst since 2003, according to Nielsen Media Research. Except for the 2003 count of 33 million viewers -- when "Chicago" took Best Picture -- the Oscars hadn't dipped below 40 million viewers since 1987, the Associated Press reported.

ABC will broadcast this year's Oscars live from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Feb. 25.

(Associated Press)

Letterman re-ups with CBS

David Letterman is planning to outlast Jay Leno in late-night television.

CBS Corp. and Letterman have agreed to a four-year contract extension that will keep the comic on the "Late Show" through the 2009-10 television season, according to two executives familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity Thursday because the deal wasn't fully done.

That would keep Letterman, 59, on the air past NBC's planned 2009 hand-off of the "Tonight" show job from Leno to Conan O'Brien.

Leno and Letterman have been competing in late-night since 1993 after NBC chose Leno for "Tonight" and Letterman jumped to CBS.

For most of that time, Leno has had the upper hand in the ratings. For the past year, Leno has averaged 5.71 million viewers each night to Letterman's 4.16, according to Nielsen Media Research. That gap is more than 200,000 viewers wider than the previous year, mostly due to Letterman's audience shrinking, Nielsen said.

Letterman has suffered through health problems in recent years that has led to some speculation that he might not want to do the job much longer. Heart surgery in 2000 and a case of shingles in 2003 kept Letterman off the air for brief periods.

But Letterman has apparently concluded that he's up to the challenge of competing with O'Brien, who took over Letterman's NBC show after the move to CBS.

NBC announced two years ago its unusual long-off succession plan, done primarily to prevent O'Brien from moving to another network.

Spokesmen for CBS Entertainment and Letterman would not comment on negotiations. The agreement was first reported Thursday in the Hollywood Reporter.

(David Bauder, AP)

'Crashers' crash NBC

The characters played by Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in "Wedding Crashers" may have been nice enough guys, but would you really want them at your nuptials?

That question need not be purely hypothetical, thanks to Ashton Kutcher and NBC.

Kutcher's production company, Katalyst Films, has joined forces with the network and New Line TV to create a six-episode, hidden-camera series called "The Real Wedding Crashers." And while it won't involve the stars of last summer's hit film, it will, in fact, send a troupe of improv actors to disrupt wedding receptions.

The network hasn't said when the show might make it onto the air.

(Zap2it.com)

NBC's 'Football' thinks Pink

NBC and ESPN have been bantering back and forth over whether "Sunday Night Football" or "Monday Night Football" is the marquee NFL game of the week. Now they can argue over which game has the better theme song.

"Monday Night Football," of course, has Hank Williams Jr. and his football-ified version of "All My Rowdy Friends ...," performed this year with an all-star band featuring Clarence Clemons, Bootsy Collins and Little Richard, among others.

NBC has countered with Grammy-winning tough-girl pop star Pink, who sang the "Sunday Night Football" theme song when the Peacock started its new football franchise on Sept. 7. That was a Thursday, so that version had special lyrics.

The song, "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night," matches gridiron-specific lyrics to the music of Joan Jett's tune "I Hate Myself for Loving You.

(Zap2it.com)

Bierko, Sagal get 'Legal'

Craig Bierko and Katey Sagal will be joining ABC's "Boston Legal" for several episodes this fall, leading a parade of guest stars on the David E. Kelley series.

Constance Zimmer ("Entourage"), "Invasion" star Tyler Labine and frequent Kelley collaborator Anthony Heald ("Boston Public") will also appear on the show, Variety reports.

Bierko ("Cinderella Man," "Scary Movie 4") will make his first appearance in the show's second episode of the season, scheduled for Sept. 26. He'll play a defense attorney whose client (Ashton Holmes, "A History of Violence") is accused of murdering a judge.

Sagal will play the accused's mother in the story line, which will run for several episodes.

Zimmer, meanwhile, will play a new lawyer at Crane, Poole & Schmidt.

(Zap2it.com)