» Gary Susman

Back in 2004, when NBC promised Conan O'Brien that he'd get to host 'The Tonight Show' in five years, the gig looked like a career-crowning achievement. Today, however, it looks more like an albatross.

O'Brien has the dubious honor of hosting the flagship late-night program on NBC at a time when the network is mired in fourth place, when his own ratings have plummeted, when the desperate cheapness of the Jay-Leno-at-10PM experiment seems to be dragging down both prime time and late-night, and when what's left of the proud Peacock network is about to be sold to a cable service provider.

At least Conan's not the captain of this Titanic; he's more like one of the fiddlers desperately sawing away at "Nearer My God to Thee" as the vessel sinks. But then, he has no obligation to go down with the boat. Maybe, as San Francisco Chronicle TV columnist Tim Goodman suggests, it's time for O'Brien to jump ship.

As Oprah Winfrey plots the winding down of her daytime show and moving her operation to southern California, she seems to be getting a head start at exploring the local culture: sun, sand, suburbs, steamy sadomasochistic sex...

That's the gist of a forthcoming hour-long series that Winfrey's Harpo Films is creating for HBO, according to Variety. It's a bit of a departure from the upbeat, uplifting fare Oprah is known for; instead, think 'Californication' with a sex change.

Recently, we were inspired by 'Parks and Recreation' to write a feature listing TV shows that overcame a rocky launch. Sadly, the reverse seems more common: shows that start strong but finish weak.

Our latest inspiration is the ongoing death spiral of 'Heroes.' (This week: Mohinder does something stupid! People's powers go awry at inopportune moments! Adrian Pasdar, pictured, looks like he'd rather be anywhere else!) Here's a once-inspired show that seems to be going down in flames after having run out of ideas.

Other times, shows peter out because of casting changes, bad writing or bizarre creative decisions. In each case, however, the audience feels betrayed and often deserts the show, leading to ratings death and what-went-wrong autopsies. Here's what went wrong on nine other good shows gone bad.

Charlotte lives!

Or does she?

'Lost' executive producer Carlton Cuse confirmed in a tweet yesterday that Rebecca Mader - whose character, anthropologist Charlotte Lewis, died onscreen last season - has returned to the cast for the sixth and final season. On his Twitter feed, he wrote, "We are very happy to welcome Rebecca Mader back to LOST. Just saw some dailies of her new work. Awesome."

Is the hidden hand of Aaron Sorkin behind the forthcoming Fox cop series 'Jack and Dan'? Maybe not, but the team Fox is building for the show certainly looks like a Sorkin alumni reunion.

Star Bradley Whitford and newly-hired director Tim Matheson (pictured, right) and co-star Diana-Maria Riva have all worked on Sorkin's 'The West Wing,' while Whitford and Riva went on to work on Sorkin's 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.'

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Matheson has been hired to direct 'Jack and Dan,' an hour-long series about a pair of mismatched Los Angeles cops. Whitford will play Dan, a lecherous, alcoholic burnout who remains on the force because of a long-ago act of heroism. His partner is young detective Jack (Colin Hanks), whose insistence on doing things by the book has all but stalled his career.

Charlie Gibson may be leaving ABC News' top job, as nightly 'World News' anchor, voluntarily at the end of the year, but that doesn't mean he's making nice with his successor, Diane Sawyer.

A report in the New York Post cited anonymous sources at ABC News as saying Gibson is openly hostile toward his former 'Good Morning America' co-host. "Charlie has always given Diane the stink eye," an unnamed ABC insider told the Post. "He bad-mouths her openly and often."

It's easy to make fun of Glenn Beck. We've done it here, and Beck even does it himself (as on the November cover of his Fusion magazine).

But over the last couple of weeks, as Beck lay recuperating from appendicitis, he's been the target of numerous satirical skewerings, from such parodists as 'Saturday Night Live,' 'The Daily Show,' and 'South Park.' Some of these barbs have gone beyond mocking his on-air antics and have gotten viciously personal. Not that we want to be the Beck-lash police, but to paraphrase a well-known Britney Spears fan, is it time to leave Glenn Beck aloooone?

Who'd have guessed that Larry Charles - the mysterious director known for his ZZ Top beard and for aiding and abetting the comic provocations of Larry David and Sacha Baron Cohen - was a big ol' sci-fi fanboy?

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Charles is working on two sci-fi-themed TV comedy pilots. In October, he signed on to rewrite the Fox pilot 'Boldly Going Nowhere,' a comedy set on a spaceship, the brainchild of 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' creators Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton. And now, he's signed with 'Terminator: Salvation' director McG and NBC to co-produce a semi-scripted series, which Variety says revolves around a group of small-town sci-fi fans who make a fan-film version of their favorite canceled show.