Conan To Replace Leno

CONAN O'BRIEN will have the distinction of being the only person who can say he replaced DAVID LETTERMAN and JAY LENO. NBC announced yesterday Leno will retire from hosting The Tonight Show in 2009, at which time O'Brien will step in as the new host. Leno released a statement saying he had designs on handing over the show's reigns to O'Brien since March when he signed a contract extension to stay on The Tonight Show for another five years.

Look out, Omarosa. You're not the only loudmouth to come out of the "Apprentice." Recent castoff Stacey J., who owns a Harlem Subway sandwich shop franchise, just hired celebrity PR man Ronn Torrosian to stretch out her 15 minutes of fame into, maybe, 16 minutes. Stacey told us "I didn't go on the show to have my name slandered by girls who are just a sorority clique and are very weak-minded,"

Two new shows that started strong this fall may be in trouble: one of them is "Joey", NBC's highest-profile sitcom of the season: since its premiere 2 weeks ago, ratings have fallen by 20% -- but the news is even worse for "L.A.X.", the Heather Locklear show on Monday nights, which is set at the L.A. Airport -- it debuted strong with 13 million viewers -- but the following week, the audience had shrunk by 40% -- last night's episode was crucial to the show's survival -- if that trend continues, you can kiss it goodbye -- and if "Joey" keeps losing 20% of his audience every two weeks, he's also got problems...

REGIS PHILBIN loves to talk, but he's opening his mouth for something other than conversation with his latest endeavor. The popular TV personality has a new album coming out today called "When You're Smiling". It features Reege belting out some classic tunes.