Monday Belongs to Megan Mullally

ByABC News
September 18, 2006, 2:55 PM

— -- NEW YORK (AP) - She got the itch at David Letterman's desk.

Megan Mullally, long an audience fave on "Will & Grace," had already moonlighted once or twice as a guest host on other talk shows. But subbing for a laid-up Dave in March 2003 - and feeling comfortable, relaxed and in her element - Mullally had a revelation, right there on "Late Show"!

"It had never occurred to me that hosting a talk show was a job that you could actually have," she says, chuckling that such a truth could somehow have eluded her. "It had seemed like a very far-fetched profession. Like being an astronaut."

Now she's about to blast off with her own weekday talk-variety hour, "The Megan Mullally Show," premiering Monday (check local listings for time and station). Her first guest: Will Ferrell, which is not a bad get.

But the show will be more than star chat. Mullally also promises comedy and music. And, as a singer who starred on Broadway in the musicals "Grease" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" and who fronts her own band, Supreme Music Program, she will occasionally favor viewers with a song.

"We're gonna get away from the celebrity culture a little bit," she adds, explaining that regular folks will be an important part of the guest mix. "We want to remind people that everybody's special and has a story to tell."

Launching in tandem with the show will be a Web site where viewers are invited to upload short films and other self-expression that could possibly appear on the air.

"We want to encourage people to explore their creativity," she says.

Monday will mark the end of a lengthy process for Mullally that began with pondering what to do with her life once "Will & Grace" (and her dream collaboration with co-stars Eric McCormack, Debra Messing and Sean Hayes) had run its course.

A spin-off sitcom for her character - the riotously fabu Karen Walker - was explored.

"But doing `Will & Grace' for all that time was so satisfying, I don't have that much to prove to myself in that regard anymore," she says. Besides, she had the talk-show itch.