Television Hosts

Billy Crystal stepped in Thursday to host the 2012 Academy Awards, replacing Eddie Murphy who bowed out after producer Brett Ratner left the show under a cloud of controversy. Word of Crystal's appointment came just 90 minutes after telecast producers Brian Grazer -- who replaced Ratner on Wednesday -- and Don Mischer said in an interview they had not settled on a host and were mulling five candidates. "Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions.

Ricky Gervais couldn't stop laughing. The self-effacing British comedian was announced Monday as the host of the 67th annual Golden Globes and he couldn't help cracking himself up trying to articulate why. "I don't know! Maybe I'm cheap? They're saving on presenters now because they all need goody bags," he said with a giggle. "No, no, someone must have said, 'Is there like a fat shmuck from Britain who doesn't know our ways and would think this is a real honor? Who'd do it for a giant pizza?

Tom Bergeron The approach: Always game and appropriately wry. Best moment: The physical comedy -- skipping around the stage and futzing around with Heidi Klum. Worst moment: None. The man has hosted "America's Funniest Home Videos" for years and puts up with Samantha Harris weekly. He rises above it all. -- Heidi Klum The approach: Calm, cool, collected -- and fierce, baby. Best moment: Getting dropped on the floor by Bergeron and looking good doing it. Worst moment: Having to be stripped down by William Shatner -- and feign surprise -- as a cap to the reality hosts' prolonged and awkward opening.

Conservative commentator Glenn Beck is leaving CNN Headline News for Fox News Channel, where he will host a weekday show at 5 p.m. starting next spring. His daily radio show is heard by nearly 7 million people, ranking him fifth in popularity behind Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Laura Schlessinger, according to Talkers magazine. Beck sensed growth opportunities at Fox, which appeals to a more conservative audience and has many more viewers than CNN Headline News.

WE'RE on a first-name basis with them: Tyra is fierce, and Ty wipes tears even as he swings a hammer. Their accessories are iconic: Howie's got models with briefcases, and Jeff presides over fifth-graders. And then there are those signature lines: Padma doles a gentle blow ("Please pack your knives and go"), while Heidi's kiss-off is less than sweet ("You're out."

Whoever believes there is nothing to fear but fear itself has never wet his pants onstage. It's an experience Hugh Jackman is hoping not to repeat when he hosts the 81st Academy Awards tonight, although a case of nerves is understandable: Along with producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark, Jackman's been tapped to add pep and popularity to a show suffering from steadily declining ratings.

What makes consumption so easy is its focus on what makes it to the shelf; capitalism's byproducts are hidden away, necessary consequences best left unseen. Mike Rowe, who hosts the Discovery Channel immersion show "Dirty Jobs" (9 p.m.

In a much-anticipated interview with conservative nemesis Bill O'Reilly, Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday that the troop surge in Iraq had "succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated" and "beyond our wildest dreams." But despite expressing his most positive assessment of a military buildup he opposed, the Democratic presidential candidate made no concession on what he said is the more crucial issue of Iraq's political stability. "The Iraqis still haven't taken responsibility," Obama said during the seven-minute segment on Fox News' "O'Reilly Factor," an interview the talk-show host had sought for months.

After a week of caustic jokes, jawboning and behind-the-scenes negotiations, "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien is leaving NBC to make room for the return of Jay Leno to late-night TV. An announcement could come as early as today and will settle, at least in public, the acrimonious maneuvering among the comedians, their respective camps and NBC in the wake of its decision to shuffle Leno from prime time and back to his late-night slot, which O'Brien...