Just who are the city's biggest media titans supporting this November? Below, details on the campaign contributions of Jeff Bewkes, Dick Parsons, Barry Diller, Jann Wenner, Bob Wright, Mel Karmazin, Robert F.X. Sillerman, Ben Silverman, and a handful of others.

The state of American game-show relations achieved a dizzying new high Tuesday night when Ice-T, Joan Rivers and their respective broods faced off in a very special episode of Celebrity Family Feud. It hardly seemed a sure thing at first; we doubted Ice and host Al Roker could outdo their tasteful wife-for-hire exchange at the top of the show, or that Rivers could overcome the tremulous, post-Russell Crowe Fucking SlutGate gunshyness in time to produce for a national audience. But the rapper more than picked up the slack in the very first feud, wringing potty-mouthed ignominy from Roker's loaded solicitation, "Name something that's slippery and hard to hold on to." And while we may never know the true degree of Ice's ensuing, bleeped filth or his earlier, "Watch it, Al" threat to Richard Dawson's debauched spiritual heir, the possibility that we could love again after The Moment of Truth was never clearer or more reassuring. [NBC via RedLasso]

While we never expected Celebrity Circus to be a magical panacea that would cure us from the premature onset of the summer television doldrums, it's fair to say that we here at Defamer HQ were all more than a little bit pumped to watch last night's premiere. After all, as proud Gen Xers, we have fond, kitsch-filled memories of watching Lynda Carter dodge knives and William "The Greatest American Hero" Katt rock the shit out of the Giant Wheel Of Death. So when perfect '80s-storm plundering Ben Silverman announced plans earlier this year that NBC would be airing the show, we marked and calendars and began dusting off our bean bags and hot air popcorn poppers in preparation for what we thought was going to be an awesome night of television. But much to our dismay, our dreams were shattered when we found out that Celebrity Circus wasn't a one-time event where everyone comes together to celebrate the spirit of, well, circusness. Rather, we were hoodwinked into watching yet another entry in the tiresome reality "competition" genre, filled with yet another panel of judges with distracting accents and/or speech impediments. What a drag.

In light of the news that Ruler of the Universe Ryan Seacrest will soon be hosting a show on NBC called Momma’s Boys, we’re both delighted that the highlighted wunderkind has decided to ignore all the inevitable backlash, and disappointed that the show will be using mere mortals as contestants. Of all the male celebrities out there, Ryan is undoubtedly one of the most clear-cut examples of how we imagine our worst nightmare of a "Mother May I?" type to be, but he’s certainly not alone. Below, we nominate a few of our own submissions to the casting call printed in Backstage this week for “candidates who should be ready to be humiliated,” in celebrity form of course:

· From clingy dresses to canine masturbation, from mean-spirited reviews to disappointed Cosmo swillers doling out handjobs, we found ourselves oversexed in our city.
· The same cannot be said for Clay Aiken — he's pregnant!
· We were accused of being part of an "extraordinary smear campaign" after passing along a tip about Dan Aloni's alleged angry outburst on the Fox lot.
· Angelina Jolie gave birth to two lovely, genetically perfect children named Isla Marcheline and Amelie Jane. Wait, no she didn't. That left Entertainment Tonight paying the ultimate price.
· George Clooney bought Sarah Larson a one way ticket to Dumpsville.
· Lindsay Lohan's lesbian love was generously endorsed by Michael Lohan.
· Ben Silverman forgot to sync his Blackberry, enraging Ari Emmanuel [sic].
· We found out Kirsten Dunst wasn't drunk or drugged, just depressed. Then her pants caught fire.
· Sharon Stone got bit by the karma chameleon.
· The season finale of 'Lost' left us all wondering who's in the casket? Hint: he feels good!
· 50 Cent pulled a Left Eye (allegedly).
· We saved you $150K.
· Rachel [sic] Ray was in hot pursuit of extra virgins in the afterlife.
· We wept a little on the inside when Bill Murray's halo was tarnished.
· The End Of Ideas train kept plowing forward, picking up motormouth cops and ouija boards along the way.
· ScarJo CloneGate!
· We paid tribute to the dearly departed Sydney Pollack and Harley Korman (and angered a number of humor-challenged readers along the way).
· The next time we end up drunk in Tijuana, we are definitely getting that Patrick Swayze Centaur tattoo.

What's the bigger scandal in Kim Masters' recent rundown of the kerfuffle between Ari Emanuel and Ben Silverman: That Slate published the whole thing with Emanuel's name repeatedly misspelled "Emmanuel," or that Silverman would dare stand Emanuel up not once but twice in meetings with Marvel boss David Maisel and producer/director Peter Berg? We honestly don't know, but for sheer cafeteria-slapfight drama, we're leaning toward the latter:

NBC executives hop back and forth from a certain TV production company with the alacrity of former Pentagon officials working their connections for a corrupt defense contractor. The latest? Today Show producer Noah Oppenheim is moving to Reveille, the production unit started by NBC wunderkind co-boss Ben Silverman. Reveille-now owned by mogul-daughter Elisabeth Murdoch-brought shows such as The Office to NBC. So now Oppenheim will be pitching projects to his former boss on behalf of the very company which made Silverman's fortune. How very cosy. (TV Newser)

Game-changing perfect executive storm Ben Silverman gave the keynote address at the TelevisionWeek Upfront Summit in New York recently (a sorry substitution for a line of high-kicking dogs and ponies on the stage of Radio City, we realize, but what can you do). In it, the programming maverick laid out his bold vision for TV's cross-platform, "log on to NBC.com now to find out if Hiro ever gets off Samurai Island!"-future. From TVWeek.com:

Ben Silverman is NBC's wunderkind programming chief, close friend to the daughter of News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch and, based on a keynote interview he just gave at an industry event, an even bigger corporate whore than fictional network exec Jack Donaghy on NBC's 30 Rock. Silverman outlined plans to leave viewers of some new shows, including Kath and Kim, hanging at close of the broadcast, forced to log on to NBC's website to see how the program ends. The plan would screw viewers even more severely than the time Silverman scheduled the explicit MILF Island episode of 30 Rock during the heart of his new "family night." But, fine, whatever, as a network executive Silverman is pretty much contractually obligated to come up with awful ideas that will never go anywhere. But why did Silverman have to drag Tina Fey into his keynote disaster, and claim she revels in 30 Rock's marketing deals?

Just weeks after NBC unveiled its much-touted, Ben Silverman-approved "family hour"—only to reveal their loose definition of "family" to include the holy hot mamas of 30 Rock's fictional (for now, at least) Mothers I'd Like to Fuck Island, and its inlet of pubescent discovery, Erection Cove—comes news that the network would be repositioning the sitcom in the more engorgement-friendly 9:30 slot, effective immediately:

Earlier this month, NBC's resident rock star Ben Silverman announced his plans to deliver a warm and cuddly hour of programming in NBC's 8-9pm block. But last week's triumphant return of 30 Rock and The Office was notably filled with "vulgarities" one doesn't normally associate with family fun. As Silverman promised during the heart-warming press conference, he intended on making sure the first hour of primetime was "about family, and it's about heroes, real and super. It's good endings and the good guys winning." But as the NY Times points out today, the "good guys" are more likely to get bleeped than share PG lessons with viewers, and "winning" is more likely to be associated with causing erections on MILF Island.

That "MILF Island" episode of 30 Rock everyone was talking about Friday? In which 20 hot moms square off in front of 50 eighth-grade boys at "Erection Cove?" It aired during NBC's "Family Hour," in which the whole family is supposed to be able to gather in front of the TV together. NBC executive Ben Silverman re-launched the concept just 10 days ago. Anyone who took the man at his word — and hopefully few people did — either had a very awkward night or has a very interesting family. Now NBC is trying to rewrite what it meant by "family hour." Here's network exec Mitch Metcalf in tomorrow's Times:

Wunderdouche Ben Silverman unveiled NBC's ambitious 65-week schedule to advertisers today in New York, covering this summer and all of next year with wall-to-wall Steve McPherson ass-kicking action. Included in the programming onslaught: a dreaded Office spin-off and four weeks of primetime Saturday Night Live, Variety reports.

It appears that Vh1 Celebreality masterminds 51 Minds Entertainment have ridden Flavor Flav all the way to the promised land. Variety reports that the reality television production company, led by Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin, has been purchased by Endemol USA (Big Brother, Deal Or No Deal) for $200 million plus. Cronin and Abrego, who are keenly aware that we're all nostalgic for conversations we had yesterday, are the brains behind has-been resurrection series The Surreal Life, and its seemingly endless chain of spinoffs (My Fair Brady, Strange Love, Flavor of Love — its subsequent spin-offs I Love New York and Charm School...). But what do they really have going for them? As Endemol president David Goldberg explains, a lot of it has to do with them not being named Ben Silverman or Mark Burnett:

The perenially ratings challenged yet highly adored Friday Night Lights has been on life support ever since the WGA Strike shut production down on the show's second season. First, Peacock Emperor Ben Silverman gave the show the Diss Of Death ("Unfortunately, no one watches it. That's the thing with shows. People have to watch them.") in an interview with Radar. Then, the good people over at Bestweekever.tv launched a spirited internet campaign in an attempt to save the show, only to be shut down days later by the shortsighted suits at Viacom. But just when it appeared that the guillotine was ready to fall, Nikki Finke is reporting that the show is set to be picked up for a third season, thanks to a unique partnership formed between NBC and DirectTV.

Quarterlife, the stapled-together-for-prime-time Web-video series about twentynothing artists, flopped so hard that NBC is kicking it off the team. It sucked in a measly 3.1 million viewers during its NBC debut last night — half what programs on ABC and CBS pulled. As penance, "Quarterlife" will be riding the pine on Bravo's minor-league roster. Ben Silverman, cochairman of NBC Entertainment, described the original deal to bring Quarterlife to the airwaves as a "revolutionary step in the creation of television." In retrospect, it's easy to say he should never have bought the show, if only because watching Quarterlife makes me want to punch myself in the face. But would any other Web video have fared better. Perhaps, if NBC had followed this playbook:

Oops! Remember that show quarterlife about bloggy, navel-gazing twentysomethings that started out on the internet and then moved to television and was supposed to have cracked the code of 'puter to tele conversion? Well, as it turns out no one wants to watch the internet on TV. The NBC show, which was snagged by hip and edgy (and increasingly annoying) young exec Ben Silverman, netted a paltry 3.1 million viewers, making it one of the lowest rated entries for that time slot (Tuesday, 10pm) in the network's past 20 years. It's funny though, because 3.1 million viewers is a lot. On the internet. What's the lesson here? Well mostly that it's going to take a little more elbow grease (and, erm, some better content) to figure out this whole making-internet-stuff-palatable-to-regular-folks thing. Oh, and don't make a show called "quarterlife". [Reuters] After the jump, the first installment that aired online.

· Hollywood Out of Ideas: Holy Shit, Now They're Raiding the Game Closet Edition. Universal signs a six-year deal with Hasbro to produce "at least four feature films based on branded properties." Among the classic toys and boardgames in their stable: Monopoly, Candy Land, and Ouija. Bay + Candy Land + Giant Fucking Gumdrops + Marshmellow Explosions = Wicked. [Variety]
· The NBC Universal Super-Exec League of Silver Man, The Zucker, and The Phantom Graboff have connected their powerful Peacock Rings and once again produced the impossible: a 52-week programming schedule. You read that right: 52 weeks. They are truly amazing. [Variety]
· Variety sticks fork in this year's Oscar telecast, declares it done. [Variety]

NBC perfect storm/D-girl disdainer/nerd-hating prom king Ben Silverman has long been filthy rich in the kind of programming savvy that's resulted in translated foreign hits like The Office and Ugly Betty and resurrected, nostalgic sensations like Knight Rider and American Gladiators, but following the just-announced sale of his Reveille Productions to a British firm for $125 million, his net worth will finally approach the value of the intimidating treasure-pile of his primetime creativity.

Ben Silverman is the hard-partying, 37-year golden boy of NBC's entertainment division, and until this week had only one real blemish on his record: the conflict of interest in his buying for NBC many shows he himself created, though his production company, Reveille. No worries, though, because his "close friend" Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of Rupert, has taken his production company off his hands and given $125 million in return. The only wrinkle is that Silverman and Murdoch are still considered sufficiently tight that Silverman has to double-check decisions involving the production company the same way he did when he owned the thing. The friends go back 10 years, and Silverman was once Murdoch's agent. Even with the headaches, the deal is still a wise move; Silverman's financial conflict goes away, and he deepens his relationship with a fellow up-and-coming media executive and her dynastic family by becoming one of her major clients. [LA Times via Time]