Butt.

The Year with Katie Couric (ABC) – According to Katie Couric, 2011 – which she celebrates/mourns in tonight’s interview-heavy special – was a year of “revolutions, disillusionment, disappointment, frustration, despair, courage, and hope.” Years 0-2010 had all that, too, but no “Whitney.” This year was awful.

Community (NBC) – Fall in love with/cry to “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” all over again. Fun fact: it’s the only episode of “Community” co-written by Dino “Starburns” Stamatopoulos, the creator of “Moral Orel.”

Beavis and Butt-Head (MTV) – Has any resurrected comedy ever come back stronger than “Beavis and Butt-head” has? “Futurama”? Not quite. “Family Guy”? Aw HELL nah. Other series starting with the letter “F”? Probably not. (Screencap via)

Thursday Night Football: Jacksonville at Atlanta (NFL) – I’ll say it again because it seemed to work last time: Josh is in the semi-finals in three of his fantasy leagues, in two of which he has MJD. I don’t think praying for 375 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns is asking too much, right?

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia/The League (FX) – Season finale time for both. Favorite episode for each this year: “Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games” and “The Lockout.” I love me some single-setting shenanigans and Dirty Randy.

Late-Night Guests: Tom Hanks convinces My Morning Jacket to play “That Thing You Do!” on Letterman; Al Michaels, Elle Fanning, and Robin Thicke clarify why they hate Cris Collinsworth on Leno; Robert Downey, Jr. explains to Lenny Kravitz that he was the original Precious on Kimmel; Sean Hayes and John Hodgman act smugly on Ferguson; Dax Shephard tells Kunal Nayyar that the popularity of “The Big Bang Theory” is leading us towards Idiocracy on Conan; Jon questions Matt Damon on whether Scotty still doesn’t know on The Daily Show; and Daniel Craig blah blah Colbert…let’s look at a picture of Rooney Mara, instead.

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(File photo)

It’s been widely rumored for the last month that Katie Couric would leave her position as the anchor of “CBS Evening News” after five years, and now it’s finally unofficially official: Couric will announce her departure this week, and CBS has tapped “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley to take her place.

This week, Ms. Couric is planning to acknowledge… that she is leaving the “CBS Evening News” after five years. Then, as soon as she returns from London, where she will be anchoring the network’s coverage of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday, CBS will announce her successor during the first week of May.

Ms. Couric’s contract with CBS ends on June 4, and the network is said to want a month for a transition. Scott Pelley, a correspondent on “60 Minutes,” is expected to succeed Ms. Couric. [NYT]

Such a relief to hear. What a whirlwind month of not caring about and ignoring this story it’s been. I can’t wait for the hubbub to settle down so I can continue doing everything exactly the same way.

Ordinarily I shy away from buttcam videos like this, but this absolutely has to be shared: in a 1994 episode of “The Today Show,” Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel stumble through the minefield of a nascent Internet and the difficulty of translating the “@” symbol into the spoken word.

Gumbel: I wasn’t prepared to translate that… That little mark: the “a” with the ring around it?
Lady on the right: At?
Gumbel: See, that’s what I said. Katie said she thought it was “about,” but I’d never heard it said — I’d seen the mark, but never heard it said — and then it sounded stupid when I said it.

Really? Jesus. I mean, come on: it’s called the “at sign.” It doesn’t get much more straightforward than that. And then there’s this:

Gumbel: What is the Internet, anyway? … What, do you write to it, like mail?

Haha, no, silly. You use it for pornography and to share pictures of cats.

I adore videos like this. It’s like going back in time and seeing people terrified by the first cars. “A horseless carriage? But how does such a beast operate?”

[via @mikeryan]

Because my penis has a pay-per-view contract, I have yet to try out Chatroulette. But it’s hard not to notice everyone else noticing it, and when everyone on the Internet starts paying attention to something, then reporters unfamiliar with the Web are sure to follow.

Which brings us to last night’s “Daily Show” (video below). Jon Stewart examined the media coverage of the Internet’s latest dong-rich phenomenon:

Chatroulette is a lot like Russian roulette, but instead of one bullet and five empty chambers, there are five cock-filled chambers and one chamber for reporters who think they’ll be breaking the latest tech trend. Only to find themselves surrounded by cock.

…and then turned to a segment in which he went on Chatroulette and encountered various dicks, as well as media heavyweights like Katie Couric, Brian Williams, and Keith Olbermann. EDIT: “…he went on Chatroulette and encountered various dicks, Katie Couric, and Brian Williams.”

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Mom?

Oh man. These pictures of Katie Couric are why blogs were invented. As a human being, I feel badly that these harmless and fun photos of her at a wedding (or somesuch) in 2006 will be blown up and taken out of context and used to discredit her. As a blogger, WOO HOO! CHECK OUT THIS COUGAR’S MOVES! Shake it, baby! Yeah, work that ass!

I’d like to go on record and say that I would totally hit that. I feel kind of bad objectifying a news anchor like that, but to be fair, I’d want Brian Williams to watch.

[Gawker]