Conan O'Brien.
TIME magazine unveiled its “TIME 100” list of influential people today, and because it’s hard to be influential without the use of TV, television folk are all over it. The more-or-less TV-related personalities on the list include Conan O’Brien, Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, Neil Patrick Harris (written about by Joss Whedon), Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof (of LOST), Lea Michele, Simon Cowell, Ricky Gervais, Glenn Beck and, depending how you define her sphere of influence, Sarah Palin (entry written by The Nuge!).
Because people will have arguments with the list—that being sort of the reason such lists exist—I should say up front that I had little to do with choosing it, other than (like the rest of the staff) submitting some suggestions and writing the item on Cuselof. The actual list-culling happens at a pay grade much higher than mine, so I can’t really speak to the inclusion and exclusion process (but editor Rick Stengel writes about it here). But I want to hear your comments, so tell us: who would you have put on and kicked off?