Among Leno’s final guests? Camera pitchman Ashton Kutcher.

I wonder if Jay will introduce all the kids who were born to staffers during his brief (but waaaay too long) prime time tenure, as he did when he left “The Tonight Show” last fall.

Speaking of that gig, Jay returns as host of “The Tonight Show” on March 1.

Bands with members between the ages of 13 and 21 years old have been playing their original tunes live on Fox 7’s “Good Day Austin” for a chance to win a prize package valued at $1,000. The package includes the shooting and production of a music video and the opportunity to perform at a private BMI event in March.

The five semifinalists, determined by Internet voting, are performing on the show this week. Casino played Monday and Midnight Riot performed this morning. Invisible Target plays Wednesday morning, Neon Noodle on Thursday. Side Effects closes out the week on Friday.

The top two bands, chosen by an industry panel, will perform original 15-minute sets in the final event, which will be streamed on the station’s Web site. Visit that site to enter for tickets to attend the final battle.

The broadcast garnered a 46.4 rating, compared to a 42.1 overnight measurement for last year’s game (a ratings point represents 1,149,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation’s estimated 114.9 million TV homes). The overnight numbers for this year’s game were the largest since the New York Giants took on the Denver Broncos in 1987.

UPDATE: The Associated Press has added that Sunday’s Colt’s-Saints match up was watched by more than 106 million people, making it the most-watched program in television history (surpassing the 1983 finale of “M-A-S-H,” with 105.97 million viewers).

Another interesting Nielsen measurement concerned commercial viewing. The Dorito’s ad with the little boy drawing the line with his mom’s suitor was stopped and played back in 15 percent of homes with the digital video recorder, the company reports.

The David Letterman/Jay Leno/Oprah Winfrey ad came in second and the Snicker’s ad with Betty White and Abe Vigoda came in third place.

The Snickers spot gets a vote just because Betty White is so ridiculously awesome.

The Bridgestone ad was a throwback to the kind of clever, manic Super Bowl ads we used to see (and the special effects were great).

Lots of people didn’t like the Denny’s “screaming chicken” ads, but I thought the one that I included below was really good. It played off the company’s previous ads, so it could also be very short … nothing extraneous here. Besides, it reminded me of the Burger King ads from several years ago where the chickens wanted to be chicken fries. Hey — chickens are funny.

My vote for the worst ad? It’s a jillion-way tie between anything GoDaddy.com, Taco Bell or Boost Mobile put on screen (thanks for soiling my memory of 1985 Bears QB Jim McMahon, Boost Mobile).

The Bud Light, Doritos and Car Max ads didn’t do a lot for me either, nor did the decidedly sexist tone of most of the ads.

Finally, I put the controversial Tim Tebow ad below, which turned out to be neither that controversial, funny nor inspiring.

You can see many of the Super Bowl commercials at Hulu.

What were your favorites? Sound off below!

David Letterman:

Snickers:

Bridgestone:

Denny’s:

Tebow:

At several points in HBO Films’ “Temple Grandin,” Claire Danes — as the autistic titular character — gets excited, angry or confused and begins to shout in a voice reminiscent of Dana Carvey channeling Jimmy Stewart.

I don’t mean this as a criticism. In fact, I mention it only to point out that Danes so completely immerses herself in her character that her performance becomes refreshingly free of actorly artifice — who would choose that voice on purpose? — no easy feet when saddled with such a sympathetic, disability-sporting, Emmy-baiting role.

The lack of conscious craft is perfect because the autistic but ingenious Grandin herself, with a photographic memory that translates words into images and processes everything literally, is more or less incapable of guile.

We meet Grandin as a young girl, in the summer between high school and college. Anyone who’s had a great teacher — somebody who really understood them — will sympathize with her angst over leaving science Professor Carlock (David Straithairn). Carlock was the first to realize that Grandin heard words as pictures and used this knowledge to reach and teach her, instilling a love of the subject that led her to achieve a Master of Science in Animal Science degree.

Flashbacks depict Grandin as a toddler who did not speak until she was four. Her mother Eustacia (Julia Ormand) desperately loves her daughter and longs to cuddle, but refuses to coddle, her (the actual Temple Grandin credits her mother’s enforcement of a strict, 1950s upbringing as being instrumental in her eventual achievements). Ormand’s Eustacia is frustrated by a daughter who refuses to communicate and won’t allow herself to be hugged.

During that transitional summer at her Aunt Anne’s farm, Grandin identifies with the cattle and becomes fascinated by a contraption used to confine them, clamping around their necks and squeezing them at the sides to prevent movement. She sees how this calms the creatures and, in the midst of a panic attack, throws her own body into the device, which instantly comforts her. Handy with a saw and ingenious with angles and measurements, Grandin assembles her own “squeezing machine” at college. Mistaken by the faculty and other students for a sexual device, the contraption nearly gets Grandin expelled and further ostracizes her from her taunting classmates.

The second, post-college half of the film is more entertaining but somewhat less successful than the first, but that’s only because it feels a little rushed as Grandin builds confidence, learns self-control and discovers how to exploit the unique talents her condition provides, eventually revolutionizing the cattle industry by preaching efficiency and humane treatment. Facilities that Dr. Grandin designed account for half of the cattle handling in the United States.

The film, shot in and around Austin, is beautiful to look at and director Mick Jackson employs a creative visual technique to show how Grandin views and processes the non-Autistic world that surrounds her. The photographic clicks and stills the director employs when Grandin focuses on details could easily have been overused, but Jackson uses them appropriately, if not sparingly, and they occasionally provide moments of humor as well as keen perception into Grandin’s mind: when a teacher tells her the permission slip for a college project smells as if it had been signed by half of the cows in the pasture, Grandin’s mind instantly produces a photo of herds of cows sitting behind desks with pens. Jackson also uses repetitive images of doorways: Grandin sought out actual doors to walk through (and lock into her memory) when transitioning into each successive period of her life.

It was a pleasant surprise to recognize local actors on the big screen, including Hyde Park Theatre’s Ken Webster as a draftsman and Steve Uzzell of San Marcos as the psychologist who recommended that 4-year-old Grandin be permanently institutionalized.

Grandin encourages those working with autistic children to try and get them to “tune-in.” That’s good advice in relation to this movie for anybody with access to HBO. Temple Grandin premieres at 7 p.m. CT Saturday, Feb. 6 on HBO. It repeats at 10:45 p.m. Saturday, and plays on Sunday, Feb. 7 at 4:45 p.m. For other showings next week and beyond, visit the HBO Web site.

Thursday night, I attended the Texas premiere of HBO Films’ “Temple Grandin” at the Austin Convention Center. Partially filmed in and around Austin, the film tells the story of a young, autistic woman (Claire Danes) who grows up to become a teacher, author, animal scientist and autism advocate.

I missed the pre-show food, cocktails and schmoozing with the hundreds and hundreds in attendance, many of whom worked on the film in some capacity, but the event was definitely a mutual love-fest between HBO and the local film making community. The movie itself was entertaining and beautiful, and the short, post-show Q&A with Dr. Grandin herself was insightful, if only for the revelation that Danes (who didn’t show up for the event, though nobody really expected that she would) pretty much nailed it.

“Temple Grandin” premieres Saturday at 7 p.m. on HBO. I’ll have a full review up soon.

According to CBS affiliate KEYE’s Web site, the tryouts will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday at 11410 Century Oaks Terrace (between the Apple Store and Victoria’s Secret).

You’ll need to bring a completed application for the show (available at the KEYE Web site, where you’ll also find other requirements to try out). KEYE staff will tape audition DVDs and send them to “Amazing Race” producers, along with would-be contestants’ applications.

If you make the cut, you could find yourself on Season 17 of the Emmy-winning show. And you’ll be following in the footsteps of a Central Texas team that will be seen on Season 16, which starts airing Feb. 14. Jody Kelly is a personal trainer from Round Rock. She’s on a team with her granddaughter Shannon Foster, a Southwestern University grad.

That must mean ‘Lost’ is back!

Join me here at 11 a.m. central time to chat about seeing Boone, Charlie and some of your other dead favorites; the alternate time lines; the “other” others; whether or not Sayid is still Sayid (and if he’s not, who — or what — is he?); and for the love of Jacob, help me understand why Desmond was on Oceanic Flight 815b.

See you then!

If the “Lost” spoiler video leaked online Friday was real, we’ll know within the first few minutes of tonight’s Season 6 premiere whether Jack’s hydrogen bomb reset plan to keep Oceanic flight 815 from crashing worked. Still, five seasons of unanswered questions remain. Writer/producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have promised to answer many of them, but there’s no way they’ll be able to get to them all in the remaining 18 hours, beginning Feb. 2 at 8 p.m. on ABC (a try-and-catch-up recap airs at 7 p.m., just before the season premiere).

So what are the most burning remaining questions? Here is my list, in no particular order (see my explanation of these questions by clicking here.)

What’s the story with Libby?

Why can’t pregnancies come to term on the island?

Update: I’ve seen the first hour of the new season, and one of those questions is definitively and awesomely answered in that episode.

So, what questions do you still have?

Sound off!

“It was a very open process,” Cotti says. “They came to me and said, ‘We’d like to renew your contract.’ I thought about it for about a week and told my news director that I needed to be home more with my family. And they totally understood and were very supportive.” Cotti is married to Texas State Representative Mark Strama; the couple has two daughters, a 3-year-old and a 6-month old.

Cotti, who started at KTBC as a morning reporter and graduated to the City Hall beat, says her plans to leave were not long in the making.

“I had thought about what it would be like,” she says, “but I had not made that decision until they came to me and said, ‘We’d like to renew you and we need an answer.’ So, to be fair and give them time to find a replacement, of course, I wanted to let them know as soon as I’d made the final decision.”

Cotti will be have her hands full at home. In addition to spending more time with her kids, she is starting a home-based video production business. “I’m going to be editing videos for small businesses and families, home videos,” she says, “because I love the storytelling aspect and I still want to have a creative outlet.” The broadcasting experience she gained at KTBC should help in that endeavor. “It’s going to be storytelling using video and that’s what I did at Fox,” she explains. “I’m excited about it.”

She expressed thanks to the viewers who have followed her career and she hopes that they will continue to watch. And she had kind words for station management, too.

“This is a business that is notoriously stressful and my bosses at Fox were absolutely as understanding and flexible with me as they could have been,” she says. “I’m very thankful for that because this industry isn’t always known for that.”

No word yet on a replacement for Cotti, who has promised to keep us apprised of her future endeavors.

On thing never mentioned by anyone during this broadcast? The fact that it took Leno a long time to make up the ratings hit “The Tongiht Show” suffered when he took over from Johnny Carson in 1992.

Frankly, after listening to so many average Joes and Janes blather on about the controversy (and try to apply an Oprah fan’s “touchy-feely” aesthetic to it — my gosh, these people feel so deeply) I’m more tired of it than ever.

If you’re not, check out the video by clicking here:

Mr. LENO: Hey, doll. Hey, doll

WINFREY: How are you?

Mr. LENO: How are you? You look beautiful.

WINFREY: Thank you. Well, thanks for letting me come to talk to you.

Mr. LENO: Well, thanks for coming. I appreciate it.

WINFREY: Yeah. I’m glad to be here, because you seem to be the man everybody’s talking about.

Mr. LENO: Lucky me.

Click here to read the full interview.