The world awoke this morning to the chirping of little birds resembling Kristin Chenoweth and Neil Patrick Harris, perched at a podium in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, announcing nominations for the 60th Emmy Awards. While most rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, we sat bolt upright as usual and sprinted to the window, our furious note-taking chronicling a few snubs, surprises and plenty of the conventional wisdom we've come to expect from the annual ritual.

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The latest installment in the "Gee whiz, Flight Of The Conchords are kicking goals eh bro, aren't they?" department is the news that their second season will be bigger and better than the first, and - in news that will have the tabloids wetting themselves in anticipation - that it will shine a light on the rivalry between New Zealand and Australia.

In other words, chuck another shrimp in your Chilly Bin, because the stereotypes will be sure to delight all!

Sayeth Conchord Bret McKenzie:

"We have just started ten weeks of writing the second series and we are definitely going to explore the rivalry between Australia and New Zealand at a Government ambassadorial level. One storyline is one of us ending up in a relationship with an Australian."

The first series, which aired in the US last June and is gathering a cult following on Channel Ten in Australia, has undertones of the country's rivalry and McKenzie says American viewers warmed to that.

In other news, upon hearing this, the queue of Australian starlets trying to make it in Hollywood/New York and desperate to play Bret and/or Jermaine's potential Aussie love interest can now be seen from space.

So, we're all loving Channel Ten's Sunday night of fun, Big Brother, Rove, Flight Of The Conchords, right? Of course we are!

Therefore, let's see Jemaine and Bret bang out a brilliant ditty about (and sounding freakishly like) David Bowie to celebrate.

Also, Mel from A Wild Young Under-Whimsy has just posted a very nice "piece" discussing the new Conchords single, the video clip for said single, the original footage from the television show where the single originally appeared, and an eight year old video of the pair performing a very early version of it on a New Zealand public access television show. Go and check it out, please.

New Zealand's ex-struggling musical comics Flight Of The Conchords keep kicking goals since breaking the US market; first they were picked up by HBO, signed to SubPop, then they won a Grammy for Best Comedy Release, and now they're even charting in the states.

Naturally this means our local press, tired of Australians' not succeeding overseas (see: Oscars "disappointment" etc), will soon do a number on Flight Of The Conchords and claim them in much the same way we did Russell Crowe, Crowded House and Whale Rider.

The self-titled album from Flight of the Conchords, who have their own show on cable channel HBO, sold 52,000 copies in the week ended April 27, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan.

In the process, they outsold pop idol Ashlee Simpson, whose new album opened at No.4 with 47,000 copies. Bittersweet World marks her first release that did not go to No.1.

Top work, eh bros! Stick that in yer chilly bin and, er, smoke it.

Although beating Ashlee Simpson to chart supremacy doesn't really wash with the whole 'struggling musos' aesthetic of their show, who cares? Coldplay have been singing songs about failing and being unlucky in love for years now!

We are most chuffed to discover that Channel Ten have bought the rights to the TV show Flight Of The Conchords and it will (at last, perhaps, just maybe - MAYBE!!!!!) end up being shown in Australia before the year is through!

After becoming an internet and TV sensation, and picking up a Grammy Award along the way, one can only wonder what the three more popular acts have achieved compared to Flight of the Conchords.

The comedy team/folk music duo of Bret McKenzie, 31, and Jemaine Clement, 34 are two Kiwis who worked clubs for years building up a cult following before getting their big break.

Their eponymous TV show portrays the pair trying to make it big in New York City after leaving New Zealand.

Each episode is punctuated with outbreaks of their quirky songs.

Network Ten has bought the rights to the TV series and may screen the show in Australia later this year.

If you need a reason to feel excited about being able to dive into the beautiful comic minds of Bret McKenzie and our future husband Jermaine Clement, we urge you to watch the following clip.

We hadn't watched this in over a year (thanks to Ms Fits who originally gave us the gift of FOTC, incidentally), and now we're swept up in sickly, sticky, stalky adoration of the lads again.

Every TV nut (well, isn't that all of us here?) has, at one point or another, spent a little time fantasizing about certain fictional characters on their favorite shows. These fantasies tend to be either soft-focus daydreams (say, dreaming up elaborate schemes in which they "bump" into you at a party) or something a bit more hard-core (picturing them while giving your significant other the old in-out). On that note, the clever list-makers over at EW decided to compile a Top 30 reader's choice collection of the small-screen boys and girls who most frequently make cameos in those illicit fantasies. But, with no offense to the site's readers, we have some serious vetoes to charge. After the jump, our picks for who falls under Strongly Agree (the predictable Jim Halpert) and those we brand as a Vehemently Disagree (four words: Bree. Van. De. Camp), as well as the most erroneous, mind-boggling oversight missing from the group:

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· 2008's January box office is up 18% over last year, thanks to both newly released, pump-and-dump triumphs like Cloverfield and steadier earners holding over from December, like National Treasure and the Chipmunks movie. [Variety]
· Fox's still-disappointing Moment of Truth (current number of lives ruined by the televised revelation of their past sins: 0) falls off sharply from last week's huge premiere numbers, but still finished behind only American Idol on the night. [THR]
· Where in the world is Oscar-nominated U.N. messenger of peace George Clooney? At U.N. headquarters, trying to convince headshot-wielding staffers to let him put down his Sharpie long enough to fill them in on the atrocities he just witnessed in Darfur. [Variety]

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If this year's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue of People left you wanting - sure, few of us would argue with their choice of sexiestest man Matt Damon, but the Shemar Moore-calibre also-rans were frequently lacking - we direct you instead to Salon.com's Sexiest Man Living 2007. Bringing together 26 of the hunkiest guys for the thinking woman and Gay, their list recognises the pasty, the paunchy, the bespectacled (Ira Glass, Judd Apatow, 2007 Alec Baldwin, etc.) celebrities that send their editors into a sexy-man lather.

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· This is what you're missing out on if you ever make the mistake of changing the channel from QVC.
· Even in Bali, Mel Gibson can't get "sweaty" and "bleary-eyed" without somebody sticking a camera in his face. Will this man never know peace?
· Who could've guessed that astronomers would be Star Trek fans?
· It appears that Pam Anderson's relationship progressed at least as far as the drunken-marriage-license-filing stage.
· The Flight of the Concords on the best part of fame: "Jemaine went to the Viper Room the other night, got to the door and the woman said, '$10, please.' Then somebody turns to her [mimes whispering] and she goes, '$5, please.' That's my favourite experience. Not free, but celebrity discount - half-off entrance to a club."
· We knew we'd seen that Spector look somewhere before.

Bad news today for fans of foul-mouthed patriarchs of dysfunctional surfing dynasties who suddenly find themselves periodically levitating upon the arrival of a simple, Christlike drifter in their lives: HBO has cancelled John from Cincinnati, the network's baffling first attempt at filling the void left by The Sopranos. Devotees of series creator David Milch will be happy to learn that HBO is trying to extend its development deal with the writer, whom they hope will have more luck transplanting the relentless, operatic profanity of previous hit Deadwood to another series, possibly one set in a group home for sufferers of Tourette's Syndrome. [A quick note to HBO: If you don't renew Flight of the Conchords for another season, we're dropping you, no matter how many Gabriel Byrne and Alan Ball shows you put on.]

• 'John' is out of the game [THR]