After the vicious back and forth that was the Conan O’Brien/Jay Leno Tonight Show saga, Jay is returning to his hosting gig at 11:35 p.m. tonight. NBC is standing by its decision to bring the once-Number One late-night host back to his old spot, but after the way the network treated Conan, we’re not so sure viewers will follow. Conan fans, for one, are pissed. And Conan’s fans are young and cool, the kind of viewers who are too cool to watch late-night TV (unless its hosted by Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert), which is probably the reason Conan’s ratings suffered so much up until those final weeks. But they’re also the kind of viewers advertisers love. In choosing Jay over Conan, NBC is aging itself, and the network doesn’t seem to care.

Following Conan’s own advice, we’re trying not to be cynical about the whole mess. Instead, let’s look at it practically. Jay has some image rebuilding to do, and this teaser, isn’t winning him any friends from Team CoCo. Not surprisingly, Jay has pulled out all the heavy-hitting guest spots, filling the coming week with Olympic athletes, Sarah Palin and Jersey Shore cast members, which are certainly an attempt to draw younger viewers. But will they bite?

A lot of people are avoiding the Conan angle of this story and focusing on that other late night host: David Letterman. The CBS late night host claimed the number one ratings spot after Jay decamped to 10 p.m., and he had been swiftly beating Conan ever since. So although NBC used to be able to charge more per 30-second ad spot during Jay’s show than CBS could for Letterman’s, now they’re reportedly even. Many are predicting Letterman’s chances of staying on top are slim.

In terms of making a comeback, Hollywood blog The Wrap called Jay “bruised and battered. “We’re not so sure viewers will hold a grudge against Leno,” writer Josef Adalian said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s a straight line back to No. 1 for the Chin.” The Los Angeles Times pointed out that although Jay will probably win back his former audience, the future of the franchise is still unknown. When Jay does decide to actually retire and leave the show altogether, who will be the heir to his late night throne? With Conan out of the way who does that leave…Jimmy Fallon?

We say Jay should focus more on tonight and the coming weeks — working to rebuild his audience and attracting back Conan’s loyal following — and let NBC worry about the future of the show post-Leno. Keeping that in mind, The Vulture offers some ideas for jokes Jay could use to open tonight’s show.

(Photo via NBC)

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More evidence that no good can come from sexy photos on the Web: bronze medal winning snowboarder Scotty Lago was sent packing from Vancouver after racy pics of him and his provocatively placed medal surfaced last week. (The Frisky)

Ugly Betty’s Becki Newton is set to star in an NBC pilot for a dramedy called Love Bites, which “chronicles several loosely connected, modern stories of love, sex, marriage and dating.” Newton will play a social worker who’s a virgin. (Hollywood Reporter)

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Though it’s hard to tell since Hilary still has her hair up, you can tell that she’s had her hair done – the dye job is better and it’s perfectly styled into the ponytail.

In other news NBC is set to lock down its fall schedule on May 19th, which could bring us the announcement of Hilary Duff’s new show!

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E! reports that Hilary Duff will appear in an upcoming episode of Law & Order: SVU. It sounds like a single guest appearance, vs a guest arc, but that’s still great news!!

According to a poll we did in January, only 7% of you wanted to see Hilary Duff on Law & Order: SVU. Most voted that she should be on Heroes. I hope she chooses to do Heroes as well!

Photo by Jason Mitchell/BuzzFoto.com

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Which NBC show should Hilary Duff do a cameo on? [POLL RESULTS]

• 30 Rock 60 – 8% of all votes
• Chuck 39 – 5% of all votes
• ER 33 – 4% of all votes
• Friday Night Lights 27 – 4% of all votes
• Heroes 348 – 47% of all votes
• Kath & Kim 14 – 2% of all votes
• Knight Rider 18 – 2% of all votes
• Law & Order: SVU 50 – 7% of all votes
• Lipstick Jungle 55 – 7% of all votes
• Medium 26 – 4% of all votes
• The Office 71 – 10% of all votes

By far, you’d like to see Hilary Duff appear on Heroes, and I’d have to agree with you there! I think it’s the biggest show on NBC, the one that could get Hilary the most recognition and acclaim (look what it did for Kristin Bell!). After that, your votes showed that you’d like to see Hilary take on The Office, one of the shows she showed a preference for earlier.

Only time will tell which show(s) Hilary will want to be a part of this year. I’m excited no matter what she chooses!

“Heroes” ‘Our Father’ Episode 312 — Pictured: (l-r) Hayden Panettiere as Claire Bennet, Robert Forster as Arthur Petrelli, Masi Oka as Hiro Nakamura / CanWest Media

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As we knew before, Hilary Duff is currently working with NBC to put together a show. Hilary gets to “call all the shots,” as she jokes, although they don’t yet know what the material will be yet.

“I think I would like to do something funny, so probably a comedy. It’s hard to sit here and say, ‘I want to be this character and this character.’ I would like to do something funny … or I would like to kick ass or something. [I'd want to] be some kind of — not a superhero, but some young person that’s empowering and that does something no one expects from her, like take care of problems.”

Given Hilary Duff’s other efforts to empower young people, and to stand up for good causes, this sounds like a great thing to look for in a character. I think television could use more shows with empowered young women.

The one year agreement with NBC also entitles Hilary Duff to make cameo appearances on various NBC shows. So, she’s looking at which NBC shows she’d like to make guest arcs on.

“I would love to do something on ‘The Office.’ ‘30 Rock’ is great, very funny.”

But what is YOUR opinion? Here is a poll with all active NBC shows that Hilary could likely take part in:

Leave a comment if you think she should be in more than one of these shows! Or say why you made your choice!

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As part of her one-year signing agreement, Hilary Duff will star in a yet-to-be-titled comedy series, as well as appear on several other NBC shows as guest star. Hilary Duff will sit down with writers at NBC to come up with ideas for her new series. She will be able to pick through projects already under development with NBC to see which one she likes.

“Hilary is an incredible versatile talent with a huge following whose career we know will continue to soar on NBC. We are confident we will develop great ideas that would feature her vast talents and are thrilled to have this opportunity.” – Teri Weinberg, Executive Vice President of NBC Entertainment.

This will be Hilary Duff’s first return appearance to television in a lead role since the completion of her Disney series Lizzie McGuire. Hilary currently has several movies on upcoming release including Foodfight!, Greta (as photographed above), Safety Glass, and Stay Cool.

Sources: E!, People, Variety ; Image: Greta Productions LLC for Whitewater Films

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