Wonderwall

Jane Lynch hosts holiday funnies; Letterman beats Leno in ratings

Zap2it, Thursday, November 4, 2010, 3:15pm (PDT)

By editorial@zap2it.com

Take a break from your leftover Halloween candy with this generous helping of TV snacks."Glee" star Jane Lynch will look back at classic holiday-themed comedy when she hosts "TV's Funniest Holiday Moments: A Paley Center for Media Special." The two-hour special airs on FOX Friday, Nov. 26, the day after Thanksgiving. [FOX]CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" beat NBC's "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" last week in total viewers and the key late-night demos of adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 -- the first time that's happened since Leno returned to "Tonight" in March. [CBS]In other late-night ratings news, "The Daily Show" was the adults 18-49 champ on both broadcast and cable for the month of October. It averaged 1.3 million viewers in the demo for October, while "Tonight" and "The Late Show" each drew 1.2 million, although "The Daily Show's" numbers don't include repeats. [Comedy Central]ABC got the most eyeballs among the broadcast networks on election night, drawing 6.8 million viewers for its midterm coverage. On the cable side, Fox News dominated, outdrawing CNN and MSNBC combined in primetime. [ABC/Fox News]FOX's sci-fi series "Terra Nova" has let most of its writing staff go -- but not for creative reasons. Because the bulk of production won't start until summer, producer 20th Century Fox TV didn't want to pay the writers to sit around. The show will rehire those scribes who are still available next year and look for new writers to replace those who aren't. [Los Angeles Times]In pilot news, HBO has greenlit a comedy that stars Justin Theroux (who's also writing and directing) and Steve Coogan as documentary filmmakers, and FOX has ordered a comedy from John Hamburg ("I Love You, Man") about an estranged father and son who become roommates. [Deadine/Variety]ABC has ordered a reality series from "Survivor" producer Mark Burnett called "Expedition Impossible." It sounds a little bit like his own "Eco-Challenge" and a little bit like "The Amazing Race," but he describes it as an "epic Indiana Jones-style experience." [Deadline]Follow Zap2it and Zap2itRick on Twitter and Zap2it on Facebook for the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.Photo credit: FOX