A new battle is about to be fought on the Internet, beginning today.

In one corner: Bill Maher.

In the other: Tom Green.

Two well-known talk-show names are going head to head starting next week with original, high-quality, Web-only TV-type shows. Talk shows, specifically.

Tom Green, 34, the gross-out Canadian comic and Drew Barrymore ex whose MTV talk show ended three years ago, premieres his weekly "Tom Green Live" show at 11 tonight California time (8 p.m. in Hawai'i) from his Hollywood living room, on ManiaTV .com.

He'll go up against HBO satirist Maher, 50, whose 12-episode run of "Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher" premiered June 1 at Amazon.com. "Fishbowl" is taped earlier on Thursdays in Hollywood for Webcasting at the same time as Green's show.

It's not a typical TV showdown: Both shows are available on demand afterward, so each can claim new viewers long after the initial Webcasts.

The shows are part of an increasing expansion of original entertainment on the Internet, now drawing famous names.

"This is the dawn of a new age," Maher said in the opening monologue of his first show. He joked: "I have been miniaturized, and I am in your hard drive right now."

"What's exciting about it," Green said Tuesday, just back from surfing in Costa Rica, "is that outside of me being able to express myself in a way that I wouldn't get to do on television, or no one would want me to do on television, it really is going to be the first-ever live-TV show on the Internet."

Claims of Internet firsts are notoriously difficult to verify. Nonetheless, ManiaTV CEO and founder Drew Massey welcomes the broadband battle with Maher. He says Green's show won't be like his at all. "It's much more down and dirty, more raw and authentic."

While Maher's show is presented by UPS and Cingular, ManiaTV doesn't have a sponsor for Green's show yet, Massey says, although he hopes to have one or more by the time the show launches.

As of now, every 60-minute show will have two minutes of commercials, Massey says, plus "integrated branding," which means Green will "do something" with a product on air. "It's 'The Apprentice' meets the Internet," Massey says.

Green says he approached the Web site about six months ago. Now he has a 50-episode deal. He got his MTV desk out of storage, and Mania provided other equipment.

Traditional television talk shows are his inspiration, he says. He'll take calls and will feature a guest each week. His macaw, Rex Murphy, will be his only sidekick. Says Green: "It's nice to know I have a TV show that can't get canceled, especially when you're me."

So why is Maher doing an Internet-only talk show? For one thing, he's on hiatus from his HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher," which returns Aug. 25. And, as he said in his first "Fishbowl" show: "Money. No, I did this because they promised me they would show me how to get out of a relationship by hitting Control-Alt-Delete."

Amazon is so happy with the first airing that Chris Bruzzo, Amazon's vice president of strategic initiatives, says he's already considering other shows.

He wouldn't release sales or traffic figures, citing company policy, but he does say that Amazon has 57 million "active customers" — those who have purchased something in the past 12 months. According to Nielsen/NetRatings, Amazon had almost 38 million unique visitors in April, the most recent month tallied.

"The show is clearly good for the guests," Bruzzo says. "You can just watch the sales ranks of the Amazon products on the show." He adds that it can be tailored to suit the site's needs. "We don't have a big network schedule to fill."