Despite some hits Steven Tyler took from others when he announced he would be a judge on “American Idol” (we are looking at you Kid Rock) it looks like the decision is paying off.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, sales of Aerosmith music have skyrocketed since Tyler took his seat at the judges table.

Based on data from Nielsen SoundScan, Aerosmith’s 1994 compilation album “Big Ones” increased in sales by 260% after the “Idol’s” premiere.

(EW.com) — Who will fill Regis Philbin’s seat on ABC’s “Live! with Regis & Kelly?”

Here are 10 names making the industry rounds as potential pairings for Kelly Ripa. Some of these celebrities been previously reported and others are new. At least a couple, we’re told, are non-starters. ABC, unfortunately, has no comment. Here’s what we think:

New York (CNN) — After more than 40 years in television, Regis Philbin is retiring from the small screen.

Philbin, 79, made the announcement Tuesday at the start of the long-running “Live with Regis & Kelly.”

“This will be my last year on this show … but there is a time, there is a time that everything needs to come to an end for certain people on camera, especially certain old people,” Philbin said.

The show, now in its 23rd season in national syndication, began as a local morning show in New York in 1983.

Kathie Lee Gifford joined Philbin in 1985 on the show and it debuted three years later nationally as “Live with Regis & Kathie Lee.”

Ree Hines writes:Just one month after Cookie Monster released his “Saturday Night Live” audition video and started his Betty White-worthy Facebook campaign, the big blue guy’s TV dream came true.

The “Sesame Street” regular shared the stage with host Jeff Bridges for a Christmas duet over the weekend.

Whoopi Goldberg has apparently buried the hatchet with Bill O’Reilly.

The “View” co-host made an appearance on Tuesday’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” where the two discussed Whoopi & Joy Behar’s “View” walk-off during O’Reilly’s visit to the morning show last month.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: ‘The View’

“Here’s what I want to know: what did you guys say about me after you left?” O’Reilly asked, in a preview clip posted by FOX News.

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“I said that I thought you did not realize how hurtful…” Whoopi started to explain before the TV talker jumped in.

Move over, Betty White – another TV legend could be hosting “Saturday Night Live” thanks to Facebook: Cookie Monster.

“Me know many of you think of me as cookie-eating fanatic bordering on glutton. Actually me prefer the term ‘cookie enthusiast.’ But there more to me than that,” the “Sesame Street” star says in a video on the “Cookie Monster Should Host Saturday Night Live” Facebook page. “And me want to show the world. So, me think that it time to branch out beyond me cookie-eating career. Me ready for next logical step: hosting Saturday Night Live.”

Ree Hines writes: “Facts of Life” star Mindy Cohn, better known as Natalie to her ’80s fan base, will appear on the season premiere of “What Not to Wear.”

Much like “Blossom’s” Mayim Bialik two seasons before her, Cohn’s visit is all about being in the market for a marketable new look, and hosts Clinton Kelly and Stacy London are only too happy to help her out.

(PEOPLE.com) — A month after the death of her mother, Whoopi Goldberg is still reeling from her loss.

“I’m still in the processing phase,” she said backstage at AARP’s national event, Orlando@50+. “It’s really hard to believe that she’s gone.”

Goldberg’s mother, Emma Johnson, passed away from complications following a stroke on August 28. The loss is difficult to get used to.

“I used to talk to her every day,” says “The View” co-host. “I’m still in the habit of talking to her, you know, but I just wish she were here with me.”

Anna Chan writes: The lawns are still impeccably manicured, and the houses spotless. But after the season seven premiere, the families inside those homes are struggling to wake up from their nightmares.

That’s because the show dropped a couple of doozies on the ladies of Wisteria Lane, and no one got it worse than the Solis family. Bree finally told Gaby that it was Andrew who ran over Carlos’ mother all those years ago, and Carlos discovered that Juanita was switched at birth and that the other family is nowhere to be found. The two desperately kept the giant secrets from each other because, as Gaby said, “Except for this … measly, ignorable blip, our life is perfect. And I won’t let anything change that.”

Sources close to “American Idol” are saying that producer Nigel Lythgoe is indeed returning to the show he helped create. That opens the door again for wild speculation about who might sit at the judges’ table when the audition rounds with the judges begin taping.

Lythgoe said last spring that he thought Usher, Elton John and Paula Abdul would make a winning panel.

Don’t hold your breath if you’re waiting for Usher or Elton John, but Paula? She’s a wild card. She tweeted on Tuesday night this Winston Churchill quote: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.”