1 Dr. Oz
Before he became Oprah’s health nut, Dr. Mehmet Oz was a heart surgeon, director of the Heart Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia Medical Center and a best-selling author.
Now, after three years on “Oprah,” Dr. Oz is graduating to his own daily, syndicated TV show.
It’s not as though Oprah has never had a flop (see: “Beloved” or this year’s meandering reality series “The Big Give,” which Oprah herself canceled after one season). But this is afternoon TV we’re talking about – Oprah’s wheelhouse. Think “Dr. Phil” and “Rachael Ray.”
2 Ashleigh Banfield
Ashleigh Banfield was supposed to be the new (bespectacled) face of NBC way back in 2000 when – pretty much overnight – she went from afternoon anchor on MSNBC to the hottest pistol in TV news.
But it all fell apart as quickly as it had come together for her. There were reports she was difficult to work with and sulky.
She wandered in the desert (like Luke Skywalker) for a few years, married, had a couple of kids.
This year, the former MSNBC anchor is back on cable – where she started. Banfield kept the glasses and found new confidence. She joined TruTV (the old Court TV) as the only anchor without a law background – reinventing herself as a legal eagle.
3 Kara DioGuardi
Last year at this time, we couldn’t have imagined what a fourth judge on “American Idol” would add. But here she comes.
A songwriter and producer for half the class of “Idol” already, Kara DioGuardi has everything going in her favor. A long friendship with loopy judge Paula Abdul didn’t hurt – and, despite what you may read, she is very unthreatening.
4 Shailene Woodley
From Jamie Lynn Spears to Bristol Palin, teen pregnancy was all the rage this year. But Shailene Woodley, the star of “The Secret Life of an American Teenager,” is the only one you don’t feel sorry for.
On the show, Woodley plays Amy Juergens, a 15-year-old high school student who becomes pregnant after a one night stand at band camp.
Despite carrying a baby, the 17-year-old actress still conveys the picture of innocence on screen – a good girl who made a one-time error in judgment.
“American Teenager” is one of those rare TV shows that began without much fanfare and has grown pretty much by word of mouth ever since. Now it draws more viewers than “Gossip Girl.”
5 ‘Grey Gardens’
The addictive 1975 feature “Grey Gardens,” the true story of the supremely eccentric aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, will be made into a TV movie for HBO, airing next spring.
The movie – starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore – traces how “Little” Edie Beale (Barrymore) went from glamorous New York socialite to living with her mother (Lange) in a dilapidated, 28-room, Hamptons mansion, filled with feral cats and racoons. The two women, more or less, went mad (together) there.