2008: Best television

Schedule: Elvis Costello with... (Sundance Channel)

Simply TV's best hour on music. Elvis asks great questions, is a good listener, and even when the subjects are a little laconic (ie: James taylor), their musical performances are relaxed and top-notch. Also points for highlighting some deserved icons, like Elton John mentioning Laura Nyro (and by golly, you can see her influence in his songs now that he mentions it).

Gossip Girl (CW)

No hour on television makes me smile as consistently as this wondrous not-necessarily-guilty pleasure. Ed Westwick's Chuck Bass is a hoot, but it's the magnificent Leighton Meester who carries the show at this point, conveying heartbreak, snark, deviousness, and warmth, sometimes in the same sentence. And New York Magazine's Daily Intel reality checks the following morning are as addictive as the show itself.