• Daytime’s new icon? Anderson Cooper brought his silvery hair and serious demeanor to daytime television today, just in time for a TV landscape lacking a new Oprah. Why the change? Well, according to Business Insider, Anderson Cooper’s primetime ratings on CNN have severely fallen over the last two years; they say that his new daytime talk show could help save his career. A few clips from his first show are already online; some of his first guests were members of Amy Winehouse’s family (not a bad get, by the way, Anderson!). In this clip, they say that her death was not caused by illegal drugs. source

• nice When asked to react to news that Ashton Kutcher would replace Sheen on “Two and a Half Men,” he had this to say: “Kutcher is a sweetheart and a brilliant comedic performer.” And he has way more followers than Charlie.
• not-so-nice However, Chuckie had more to say to the producers of the show. “Enjoy the show, America. Enjoy seeing a 2.0 in the demo every Monday, WB,” he said. Hear that? That’s the sound of a man with a chip on his shoulder. source

• situation Donald Trump, best known of late as host of NBC’s hit show “The Apprentice,” has made waves of late for his birther stances, and is making waves about a possible presidential run.
• problem If Trump runs — which he may, based on his recent bluster — NBC may have a real problem: They’ll have to give up a still-popular show that draws ratings — or give equal time to other politicians. source

• +1% the increase in the total audience on all cable and broadcast television channels in 2010
• -7% the decrease in Fox News’ total audience – they’re still on top of the cable news game
• -34% the decrease in CNN’s total audience – the worst of any cable network, period source

• » Time to bring back “Pop-Up Video”: Behind CNN, the second-biggest loser in cable was VH1 (down 31 percent), which, unlike big gainer The History Channel (up 34 percent), is unable to bank on an antiques-and-pawn-shop lineup to pump up the ratings.

• 3.58M the number of people who watched Obama (the candidate) on The Daily Show back in 2008
• 2.92M the number of people who watched his wife Michelle on the show a few weeks later
• 2.84M the number of people who watched Obama (the president) on the show last night source

• » And we must point out, kids: Jon Stewart did a hilarious intro before he introduced Obama last night. But the conversation went on so long that it never aired. Fortunately, Comedy Central was able to introduce us to the joy that is “Keeping the President Waiting.”

• $20 million cost, but goddamn, that was some good TV

• » So, who pays the bill? Well, you would assume the mining company that owned the mine, San Esteban Primera, but they’re nearly broke. So state-owned company Codelco has owned the effort, paying $15 million of the total cost, with private firms paying the rest. Expect lawsuits and criminal charges.

And here are the big winners:

• 3.4 million number of viewers CNN got in the first hour of the rescue
• 7 million number of viewers Fox News got in the final hour of the mining escapade

• 4M pageviews per minute on news sites at the peak of the mining incident
• $7,000 worth of sunglasses given away to the miners by Oakley
• $41Mthe amount of free advertising Oakley got in the process source

• 1.1 Conan’s rating during his fifteenth week of the “Tonight Show”; he was beating Letterman at this point
• 0.9 Leno’s rating during HIS fifteenth week of the “Tonight Show”; he’s currently tied with Letterman source

• 8.8 the sketch show’s rating last night, its highest since November 2008
• 88 the age of Betty White; we’re pretty sure that’s no coincidence source

• bad Toyota gets a rare “do not buy” rating from Consumer Reports for its Lexus GX 460 SUV.
• worse The company, already weathering the storm of bad publicity, halts sales of the car. Ouch. source