Former “Knots Landing” star Michele Lee will be in town later this month for a cabaret stint at 54 Below (West 54th). It’s her first time back on the New York stage since 2010, when she played Feinstein’s at the Regency, performed at Carnegie Hall with Michael Feinstein and appeared in Nora Ephron’s play, “Love, Loss & What I Wore.”
Les’s cabaret show will run for three nights — Jan. 30, 31 and Feb. 8 — at 8 p.m. each night and features a variety of Broadway hits (from shows including “Seesaw,” for which Lee snared a 1974 Tony nomination) and songs from artists including Joni Mitchell. She’s assisted by her conductor/arranger Ron Abel.
Lee recently played Scott Baio’s mother on the Nickelodeon sitcom “See Dad Run” and appeared in in ABC’s “How to Live With Your Parents,” which aired last spring.
She also appeared in the 2004 big-screen comedy “Along Came Polly,” which starred Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston.
Trivia note: Lee appeared in all 344 episodes of “Knots Landing,” which aired on CBS from 1979-93.
More dinner clubs: STARZ and Fabien Cousteau are hosting a dinner Tuesday at The Explorer’s Club in support of the network’s upcoming pirates series, “Black Sails,” which premieres Jan. 25 with Toby Stephens, Hannah New, Luke Arnold and Zach McGowan (all attending Tuesday night’s fete.
Jimmy Kimmel’s ’Net gain
Add this one to the #probablynot category.
Was it just a coincidence that ABC on Monday was hyping the numbers for Jimmy Kimmel’s YouTube Channel — just one day after NBC used a chunk of Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards promotional airtime to relentlessly hype Jimmy Fallon’s Feb. 17 takeover of “The Tonight Show” from Jay Leno?
According to ABC, the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” YouTube Channel has amassed 3.7 million subscribers as of Jan. 13, doubling that of Fallon’s YouTube Channel (1.9 million subscribers). For the calendar year of 2013, Kimmel’s YouTube channel accumulated over 620 million video views, up 85 percent over 2012, according to ABC.
But turnabout is fair play. Some at NBC News last week suggested to TV writers (including yours truly) that we take undertake a “more serious investigation and analysis” of comments ABC “World News” anchor Diane Sawyer made in a recent Ladies Home Journal interview regarding her future at the network. Just sayin’.
Last, but not least . . .
Tom Green interviews fellow AXS TV host Dan Rather on Thursday’s hourlong “Tom Green Live” (9 p.m.) . . . “The Rachel Maddow Show” won cable’s key adults 25-54 news demo last week at 9 p.m. (325,000 viewers on MSNBC) . . .
Mo Rocca’s series, “My Grandmother’s Ravioli,” will return for a third season later this year on Cooking Channel.