Wednesday was so bomb. Late night programming returned, which was quite a relief because now we don’t have to think about how hopeless our lives are and can just watch celebrity interviews instead.

And when Leno returned on Wednesday, he made a joke about how he was writing his own monologue, which was funny, ha, ha, until the Writers Guild of America was like, “Hey, guess what Mr. Funny? That violates our agreement. You’re no better than Carson Daly.” To which Leno was like, “Do you see how I act with my guests? Where do you think I started?

Even without writers, The Tonight Show is still beating David Letterman's Late Show; Leno's mediocrity is that appealing.

Non-SAG member and presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee appeared on The Tonight Show last night to promote himself. We don’t know about you, but when we think about the kind of person we want representing us to the rest of the world, we think about bass players.

After the jump, Huckabee sort of endorses Barack Obama.

CONTINUED »

Just a quick FYI: Owning your own production has its benefits. Because David Letterman’s company, Worldwide Pants, made a separate agreement with the Writers Guild of America, the second-rated late night host can have Screen Actors Guild guests without any awkwardness and/or protests from the WGA.

CONTINUED »

Jay Leno is reportedly reluctant to leave now that he's "at the top of his game." And here we thought a show with canned laughter, predictable punchlines and a devout old-person following was rock bottom. [LAT]

In an effort to beat TMZ at their goal of milking the Lindsay Lohan DUI saga into the maximum number of posts, we bring you this footage of Rob Schneider (a.k.a. Deuce Biga-lohan!) from last night's Tonight Show.

It's the funniest thing we've seen since we involuntarily caught the climactic last 25 minutes of The Animal (without headphones, of course) which is to say the quality—of both the video and the humor—is marginal at best.

Bonus points for Schneider's demonstrative take on the SKRAM bracelet, though.

We had Lindsay Lohan booked on the show tonight but apparently she was already booked…

It's too bad about Lindsay. I thought our competition was Nightline and Letterman. Turns out it's "Cops" and "America's Most Wanted."

I guess you all heard the story by now. Early this morning, Lindsay Lohan was arrested on suspicion of DUI and possession of cocaine. She told cops she was just researching a role for a movie, in which she will play herself.

Didn't she just leave that rehab center in Malibu called "Promises"? I hope you kept the receipt.

I guess this is like the second time this year she's been arrested. Of course, under L.A. law she could do as much as 72 hours in jail. Let's hope she straightens it out.

–Excerpted from Jay Leno's monologue last night, in a Daily News article cleverly entitled, "Deuce Biga-lohan."

In addition to forcing 1,000 of its least employees to ride the Bauer bus of shame every morning, NBC is also struggling with another potentially sticky situation, namely how to placate the longtime host of The Tonight Show after his semi-voluntary retirement in 2009.

And so far, NBC's ideas about how to retain their hold on the late night mainstay (and prevent him from jumping to a rival network) are about as creative as their primetime Fall schedule, which is to say underwhelming.

Meanwhile, while network execs wrestle with the problem of keeping Leno happy (after "prodding" him to step down before he was entirely ready) they also have to ensure that his replacement, Conan O'Brien makes a smooth transition, meaning they'll need to devise a way for O'Brien to attract a wider audience (Leno's median viewer is 52 years young) while still retaining his firm hold on the "unmotivated twenty-something year old pothead" demographic.

CONTINUED »