Today's Hottest TV Hotties - Grey's Anatomy's Chyler Leigh and Heroes' Kristen Bell

Let's face it, we're a visual society.

On Thanksgiving, I got into a conversation with an older parent of my friend's boyfriend about how visual our society has become. For him, he was referring to how President John F. Kennedy was helped by his dashing good looks during his run for the White House (this conversation started because I said that Barack Obama was "cool" and that I thought Hilary Clinton would benefit from doing the "Soulja Boy" dance during a stop on the campaign tour).

This could be YOUUUUU (crank that, Soulja Boy), Hilary Clinton.

Of course, in my mind, I was thinking more about how most of my favorite celebrities and singers are incredibly hot. Case in point, my favorite celebrity and personality in all of Hollywood/Nashville is Carrie Underwood, who I believe to be the most physically flawless person to ever walk the planet. I love her music, but if I'm being honest, I know that it helps that I am cognizant of the fact that her face is singing it.

OMG, I am hot!

Again, let's face it, television is filled with a disproportionate number of hotties nowadays who are on the shows to make guys like me watch them. And you know what? It works. It really works.

Taking into account that I am a guy and the fact that males are generally believed to be more visual than females, it works even more.

This got me to thinking, who are the hottest women on television today? Generally, I like to watch TV in silence, much like I watch sports. I don't like it when people talk, nor do I like missing things, then rewinding them on DVR to hear what the person said. I like to watch the show in its entirety and enjoy all of it, in the visual and auditory fun that is the marvelous invention of video.

However, I have narrowed it down to two actresses/characters who force me, a devout television silentist (kind of like a scientist, but without schooling, nor a lot of thinking...ok it just means I like it to be quiet when I watch TV) to repeatedly say, "Oh man, she is really freakin' hot" numerous times over the course of a single episode. I tried to stay away from extremely well known hotties (Grey's Anatomy's Katherine Heigl, rated 78 on AskMen.com) and perennial hotties (Ghost Whisperer's Jennifer Love Hewitt, rated 82 on AskMen.com) and came away with two very different actresses who I believe manage to steal all the eyeballs that advertisers are drooling over every second they're on screen, or in the latter's case, off the screen.

Chyler Leigh (Lexie Grey on Grey's Anatomy)

Katherine who? Wait, there's a hot blonde on Grey's?

Let's suspend reality for a minute and ignore the fact that Chyler is only in her mid 20s and has two children. Let's forget the long masturbation scene with the over-sized dildo from Not Another Teen Movie that makes it hard for some people to see Chyler as a doctor.

Forgot about this one, didn't you? You're welcome.

Kids and dildos aside, if someone told me that another actress was actually capable of making me forget that Katherine Heigl was on Grey's Anatomy, I would have thought they were lying until Chyler Leigh showed up as Lexie Grey, the half-sister of the incredibly annoying, grown-up version of a Dawson's Creek character, Meredith Grey, this season. Her addition to the cast is much more of that of "just another pretty face," as she's actually a valuable member to a cast that has had so many off-screen distractions that it is refreshing to have a regular cast member who isn't carrying a fee-ridden oversized amount of baggage to the set.

Not only is Lexie Grey hot, but she's intelligent and quirky in a way that is neither annoying, nor forced upon viewers. After seeing Chyler on Grey's this season, I realized that Lexie Grey is pretty much the closest thing that we'll ever see to Jennifer Love Hewitt's character from Party of Five, Sarah Reeves, interning her life away in Seattle hospital during a second season of her quickly cancelled spinoff Time of Your Life. Both brunettes use similar speech (in terms of intonation), speak simply, yet with a decent amount of intelligence, tell it like it is when they have to, are naturally beautiful, and are impossible not to look at while they're on screen. Ok and really, they just kind of look like each other.

Kind of similar, no?
Maybe it's just me.

So yes, I know that I'm blinded by her good looks, but I cannot help but be impressed with how Chyler Leigh has managed to make me give a steaming, "two girls one cup" sized crap about Lexie Grey. On an established television show with distinct characters, it's always a challenge to make us viewers care about "the new guy." No one really cared about Mark Sloan on Grey's and while he's a great character, I still don't know if we really do. However, Chyler Leigh has fit right in with the cast, despite the fact that she's a couple years behind the rest of the group. We actually care about her romance with Alex and her dad's alcohol problems. Why?

Because she's hot.

Kidding. Because she's really a strong actress with just the right about of... dare I say it... cuteness to make her lovable and not over the top-quirky-annoying...like I believe some of the characters are on Grey's. So Chyler Leigh, you are hot.

Moving on.

Kristen Bell - (Elle on Heroes, the voice of Gossip Girl on Gossip Girl)

Xoxo, Gossip Girl

This is one of those that I can't really describe. While most got to know Bell for her role on Veronica Mars, I recently became a fan because of her role as the sexually-frustrated and lightning fetish-loving Company captive Elle on Heroes. I remember when I was test-driving my Scion xA, a car that I have the definition of a Love-Hate relationship with, the car salesman (obviously trying to earn commission) told me "A car is like a woman, sometimes you just love it. You might not like everything about it, but you just can't explain it sometimes and you love it" (this was after I told him "The Honda Fit is a better car in pretty much every aspect, so I don't know why I still am thinking of getting this car"... and I still don't know why I did).

And to me, that is Kristen Bell. First, she's blonde and I have always had an affinity for brunettes. Second, she's really not THAT hot based on physical appearance alone (AskMen.com gave her a 74).

Ok, so she's kind of hot on physical appearance alone.

However, like Chyler Leigh to an extent, Kristen Bell is hot because her TV character is hot. Elle on Heroes is a sheltered tease with superhuman powers (so you assume she's pretty athletic) that is just bad enough that it's really hot. We haven't really learned enough about her on the show to really get an identity for her, but what we have seen is evidence enough for me.

Exhibit A

Even with everyone's favorite (and now legal) "it girl" Hayden Panettiere on the show, Bell still manages to stand out in a cast of beautiful, beautiful people and when you look at the cast of Heroes, that's saying a lot.

La la la, I am hot and everyone loves me.

Even more, Kristen is the voice of Gossip Girl on the CW guilty pleasure of the same name. So not only is Kristen Bell hot enough to feature on screen, but her voice is hot enough (and sounds completely different on a side note) to be compelling off screen as well. Unlike the narrator of Mary Alice on Desperate Housewives, Gossip Girl is supposed to be one of the coolest girls around Manhattan and Bell's voice fits the role just perfectly. Not only is she nice to look at, the ultimate "hard to get" tease, but she's also really "fly" and hip with the kids.

S and B were spotted at brunch today. OMG.

Athletic, really horny, a beautiful speaking voice, and a little mysterious, Kristen Bell joins Chyler Leigh on my list of hottest hotties on television today.

Sure, there are other hotties - Olivia Wilde from House, M.D., Autumn Reeser from The OC (if this show was still on, she'd be a top 2), Becki Newton from Ugly Betty come to mind - but these two stuck out to me as the perfect balance of looks and compelling television character that make them absolutely impossible not to notice while they're on screen.

If anyone says looks don't matter on television, it's because they don't watch television.