First, the upcoming: Neil will be taking part in Days 17 and 18 of the SF Sketchfest. On January 30th at 8pm, and January 31st at 7pm, Neil will be appearing in “Celebrity Autobiography” alongside Rachel Dratch, Lesley Ann Warren, Fred Willard and more. Tickets are $35 for the event, taking place at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco, California, and you can purchase them here.

FOX today released their American Idol schedule for season 9. The show kicks off on Tuesday January 12th, in Boston. Neil sat in on the auditions in Dallas, which are set to air Tuesday, Jan. 26 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT).

The year is almost over and Neil is appearing on “best of” lists all over the place, including People magazine’s most intriguing people of the year, and places him at #2 on Buddy TV’s Breakout Star of 2009 list.

His Emmy’s hosting gig makes AOL TV’s Top Moments of 2009, Canada.com list him on their 2009 “Naughty and Nice” list, there’s an Honourble Mention on AfterElton’s 2009 Visibility Awards in the Theatrical Event category, for his Tony’s hosting gig. And for HIMYM, he makes TV Guide’s 25 Best Performances of the Year.

Reacting to his Golden Globe nod, Neil joked that he’d like a gift from CBS. “Maybe this year CBS or Fox will give me a new car. Didn’t they do that with all the ‘Will & Grace‘ people once? Didn’t they give them all Miatas for getting nominations or something? One can dream!”

Finally, Advocate.com has a little more from Neil’s acceptance speech at the Trevor Project event back on December 5th.