• Is NBC close to resolving the mammoth mess it has on its hands? TMZ reports the network has reached a deal with Conan O'Brien (in which he'll leave NBC with some amount of money, and Leno, in turn, will take over The Tonight Show). Others, however, say the negotiations continue and NBC chief Jeff Zucker's been playing hardball with O'Brien. So who knows. Fortunately, Conan has lots of exciting options to consider when he finally walks out the door.
• Related: NBC announced its new, post-Leno primetime lineup today. [NYT]
• George Clooney will host a live telethon on Jan. 22 to benefit earthquake victims in Haiti. ABC, NBC, MTV, HBO and CNN will all broadcast it. [EW]
• Why isn't Fox News covering the tragedy in Haiti? Because rehashing faux controversies involving President Obama always comes first, duh. [MM]
• Avatar could top Titanic and become the top-grossing movie in history this weekend. In related news, it seems the Avatar backlash is in full swing.
• Robert Pattinson won't be Tobey Maguire's replacement in Spider-Man. [E!]
• American Idol creator Simon Fuller is starting up a new company. [LAT]
• Editor & Publisher is back in business under new ownership. [E&P]
• Is the ratings dry spell at MTV almost over? MTV execs hope so! [LAT]
• The cleanest and dirtiest cafeterias in the media industry. [DF]

• NBC finally confirmed yesterday that it's canceling Jay Leno's 10pm show and moving him back to late-night. Whether Conan O'Brien stays at the network or jumps to Fox remains an open question for now. [NYT, TMZ, NYP]
• More bad news for NBC: The network expects to lose money broadcasting the Winter Olympics from Vancouver later this year, which would be a first. [NYT]
• Sarah Palin has signed on to join Fox News as a contributor. Exactly what she'll be doing there—and how much she'll get paid—is unclear. [NYT]
• In case you missed the front-page Times story about Fox News CEO Roger Ailes yesterday, he makes a ton of money for Rupert Murdoch, doesn't get along much with Murdoch's kids, and hates liberals. Oh, and he's armed. [NYT]
• TV news: NBC has ordered six new drama pilots for the fall now that the network is moving Jay Leno out of primetime; CBS reports it's close to signing David Letterman and Craig Ferguson to new contracts; and Fox is renewing Glee for a second season, which should come as a surprise to no one.
• Simon Cowell wasn't kidding when he said he was leaving American Idol? He'll depart the show after the current season to host The X Factor on Fox. [LAT]
• As many as 1,200 AOL employees could get pink-slipped this week. [NYT]
• Avatar continues to rake it in. The movie was No. 1 for a fourth straight weekend and has now grossed $1.34 billion around the world. [MTV]
• Erica Hill is saying goodbye to CNN and is joining CBS News. [NYDN]
• Tucker Carlson's politics site, The Daily Caller, launched today. [WaPo]
• Did NBC try to poach Barbara Walters last year? Seems so. [HP]

• Is NBC shutting down Jay Leno's 10pm show and moving him back to late night? Is Conan O'Brien out of a job? NBC isn't denying that a schedule change has been discussed, but it's not saying much more than that for now. [NYT]
• ABC News is reportedly in negotiations with Ted Koppel to bring him back to the network as the anchor of This Week on Sunday mornings. [Politico]
• CNN is handing over the 1-3pm slot to Ali Velshi starting on Jan. 18. [NYT]
• Forbes has sold off its landmark building on lower Fifth Ave. to NYU. [NYO]
• Despite the standoff between Cablevision and Scripps, ratings for the company's two cable outlets, HGTV and Food Network, are up. [AdAge]
• Tucker Carlson's new website, The Daily Caller, launches next week. [WI]
• Avatar's streak continues: It's now the No. 2 biggest movie ever. [THR]
• A Blockbuster video kiosk is coming to a Duane Reade near you. [NYCTB]
• Fox is delaying the start of its sketchy new reality show. [THR]
• Break out a tissue: The Hof is leaving America's Got Talent. [People]
• Lady Gaga was the special guest on Launch My Line last night. [Gawker]
• Did ABC News buy George Stephanopoulos a booster seat when he joined the Good Morning America team? That's the rumor, at least. [Popeater]

• The cover of Vanity Fair's February issue will likely turn plenty of heads: It features a barechested Tiger Woods pumping iron. The photo by Annie Leibovitz was taken before the Woods sex scandal unfolded, however. [VF]
• Is New York Post editor Col Allan retiring? That's the rumor, although Allan says it's just "wishful thinking" on the part of the Daily News. [NYM, Politico]
• Cable spats: Fox and Time Warner reached a deal in their dispute on Friday. But Cablevision customers are still without the Food Network and HGTV.
• Dick Clark has clearly seen better days, but ABC's NYE telecast was No. 1 on Thursday night. NBC's Carson Daly-hosted program came in No. 2. [Variety]
• Disgraced ex-Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich will be one of the "stars" on the next season of Celebrity Apprentice, you'll be thrilled to hear. [UPI]
• Ten years after he presided over the merger of Time Warner and AOL, Jerry Levin now says it was all a big mistake and he's really, really sorry. [THR]
• Good news! The ad market for newspapers, magazines is looking up. [WSJ]
• Arianna Huffington and Glamour's Cindi Leive plan to sleep a lot in '10. [HP]
• Avatar was once again No. 1 at the box office this weekend. The film has now grossed more than $1 billion around the world since it was released. [THR]

• Sad news, Tyra fans: This season will be her last, she says. [People]
• Avatar was No. 1 at the box office this weekend with $75 million in domestic receipts. The movie has raked in $617 million globally thus far. [THR]
• The game of chicken between Fox and Time Warner Cable continues. [USAT]
• MSNBC's new schedule will focus more on "the day's big stories" and less on "personality-driven programming"—during daytime hours, at least. [AP]
• Get ready for lots of remakes of old TV shows in the year ahead: Charlie's Angels, Hawaii Five-O, and The Rockford Files are all in development. [NYT]
• Also: Get ready to pay for lots of online news in the near future. [NYT]
• What else is in store for the media for 2010? A handful of predictions. [LAT]
• Tiger Woods' advertising partners haven't fared well in recent weeks. [WSJ]
• Director Roman Polanski, now under house arrest at his Swiss ski chalet, has issued his first statement since his arrest back in September. (He's really thankful for all your support and warm wishes, just so you know.) [Reuters]
• As rumored last week, TMZ is branching out with a sports site. It's also smarting from an "exclusive" this morning that was actually a hoax. [NYT, TSG]

• Diane Sawyer's World News debut lifted the newscast's ratings a bit. [LAT]
• As for Sawyer's performance last night, some critics weigh in. [NYT, WP, BG]
• Chris Albrecht, who served as HBO's chief executive until he was fired for pulling a Chris Brown on his girlfriend, is now in charge of Starz. [DH, NYT]
• The second episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians has set a new ratings record for the series and E! Congrats, America. You must be very proud. [THR]
• In related news, Kim has replaced Paris in TV's dirtiest burger ad. [NYDN]
• In other random TV news, CNN has made a minor change to its lineup; and Joan Rivers, who ditched E! in 2005 after a dispute over money, is back.
• It may have been Google that decided not to buy Yelp, not vice versa. [Bits]
• Is TMZ planning to launch a sports-related site? It's looking like it. [PC]
• Hollywood grossed $10 billion at the box office in '09; it's a new record. [AP]
• Kim Peek, the savant who inspired Rain Man, has died at age 58. [NPR]

• Diane Sawyer made her debut this evening as anchor of ABC's World News; Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the night's big attraction. [AP]
• Avatar pulled in $73 million at the domestic box office (and $232 million worldwide), although it would have made more if it hadn't snowed. [LAT, NYT]
• Yelp walked away from a deal to be bought by Google over the weekend. [TC]
• Radio giant Citadel Broadcasting Corporation has filed Chapter 11. [NYT]
• Jay Leno's already bad situation appears to be getting worse. [B&C, NYP]
• Howard Stern is in the middle of tense contract talks with Sirius XM right now, which is why he's threatening to leave the satellite radio company. [AP]
• Twitter will turn a profit in '09, although it still isn't worth $1 billion. [BN]
• Kim Kardashian plug products on Twitter for $10K/tweet. No joke. [AdAge]
• Useless year-end awards: Taylor Swift was named the AP's "entertainer of the year"; Madonna was deemed the "most famous celebrity of the decade."

Despite ongoing economic collapse, American audiences are still finding the cash to reward studios for producing the most mediocre slate of films in memory with attendance at US theater up five percent in the past year.

• The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are feuding once again. [DF]
• Thanks to a $200 million investment in new printers, Mort Zuckerman's Daily News can now print any page of the paper in color! Exciting! [Crain's]
• Does the fact Glenn Beck is a highly paid pitchman for a gold company explain why he promotes it on Fox News show every night? Probably! [NYT]
• MSNBC is changing up its daytime lineup a bit, just so you're aware. [NYT]
• Despite the recession (and $12 tickets), film attendance was up in '09. [LAT]
• The New York Film Critics Circle announced its yearly picks today. [AP]
• Congress is devoting (wasting?) $30 mil. to battle music/movie piracy. [THR]
• Disney's The Princess and the Frog dominated the weekend box office [THR]
• CNBC has poached the WSJ's Nikhil Deogun as its new managing editor. [NYT]
• Sarah Palin's book tour is over. "Now what?" Good question! [LAT]

• Diane Sawyer has confirmed that she will end her decade-long run as co-anchor of Good Morning America this week. Friday's her last day. [LAT]
• Meanwhile, Chris Cuomo's role at ABC is up in the air. He's denied rumors he plans to jump to NBC, and may end up as co-anchor of 20/20. [NYDN, prev]
• Today was the deadline for New York Times staffers to take the buyout package that was offered to employees last fall. A list of people expected to exit the paper in the near future is now making the rounds. [Gawker]
• NBC might be ranked fourth in the ratings, but Comcast says it has no plans to sell NBC Universal's broadcast TV business when it takes over. [AP]
• MTV's Jersey Shore is one of two new reality shows stirring up criticism; now Domino's Pizza has decided to pull its advertising from the show. [NYT, TVG]
• Oxygen is developing a new reality show with Russell Simmons that will "focus on the women in his life." That should be interesting. [THR]
• Is Nancy Grace responsible for pushing a woman to commit suicide? [AP]
• John Stossel is happier at Fox than he was at ABC, unsurprisingly. [TDB]
• The Blind Side surpassed New Moon at the box office this weekend. [MTV]

• Another ex-Post staffer has filed a salacious lawsuit against the paper. [HP]
• Yet another magazine is no more. Giant gave up the ghost today. [Gawker]
• Rupert Murdoch's son, Lachlan Murdoch, is teaming up with media investor Jimmy Finkelstein to bid on a handful of media trade titles owned by Nielsen, including The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, and AdWeek. [NYT]
• The guy who runs Clubplanet.com says that if Maxim's owners don't sell him the mag, it will go bust by March. Maxim isn't impressed. [P6, AdAge]
• One sector of the magazine biz that's doing well: Airline publishing! [WSJ]
• Did BusinessWeek just replace Maria Bartiromo with Charlie Rose? [BI]
• The good news for Jay Leno: His ratings seem to have stabilized in recent weeks. The bad: More people are watching shows they recorded on their DVRs rather than tune into NBC's misguided 10pm experiment. [THR, NYP]
• New Moon topped the box office once again this weekend, as expected. [THR]

• New Moon smashed expectations this weekend, racking up $140 million at the box office and setting a record for the third-biggest opening ever. [NYT]
• News Corp. and Microsoft are in talks to remove News Corp. content from Google and have it appear on Bing, Microsoft's search engine. [FT, Bloomberg]
• O is slumping, so Hearst is now planning to makeover the magazine. [NYP]
• Talks between GE and Vivendi over NBC seem to have hit a roadblock. [WSJ]
• Project Runway's finale generated solid ratings for Lifetime, but it still didn't reel in the number of viewers it did when it aired on Bravo. [WWD]
• Scary: Glenn Beck is now looking to be more of a "political organizer." [NYT]
• Also scary: Lou Dobbs wasn't kidding about running for president. [NYDN]
• Katie Couric: serious anchor by day, sexy dancer by night. [Gawker]

A Wikipedia user put together a list of the 50 highest grossing movies of the decade; only nine of them are not sequels or adaptations, The Wrap points out. And, at a generous estimate, only five are not terrible.

• Another magazine has gone under: Hachette announced today that it's closing Metropolitan Home to "focus its resources" on Elle Décor. [AdAge]
• New York's profile of star Times reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin reveals he's one of the paper's highest-paid staffers and is beloved by the titans of Wall Street, but is not quite as popular with some of his Times colleagues. [NYM]
• Circulation is down—and losses are up—at the New York Post. [NYT]
• GE and Comcast have agreed on a valuation for NBC, which brings the parties one step closer to handing over control of the network to Comcast. [Reuters]
• Condé Nast may be trimming expenses and cutting jobs here at home, but the mag giant is busy expanding its presence in China. [NYP]
• Curb Your Enthusiasm is coming to basic cable. TV Land and TV Guide have picked up reruns of the show and will begin airing them next year. [LAT]
• Google has acquired the mobile ad company AdMob for $750 million. [NYT]
• Last night's Mad Men scored AMC its highest-rated finale ever, although considering it's AMC we're talking about, that isn't saying much. [B&C]
• A Christmas Carol was No. 1 at the weekend box office, although its $31 million gross was weak given it cost $200 million to produce. Meanwhile, Precious' $1.8 million take on 18 screens set a limited-release record. [LAT]

Michael Jackson concert film This Is It grosses $2.2 million on opening night.

It's a day of horrors for Hollywood; the goblins taking over the big-screen for our annual, mandated block when Only Scary Movies Can Be Released. And in the counting house, the scarier news that even U2 may have money troubles.

Can someone please explain why Vince Vaughn's so popular? Seriously. Despite horrid reviews, his movie, Couples Retreat, which starred other, non-advertised celebrities like Jason Bateman, made $35 million this weekend. The recession sure isn't deep enough, huh? [Reuters]

Tucker Max's second week in theaters. Guess how he did. No, really. Guess.

The Final Countdown helped Warner Bros. make $1 billion this summer.

• Tyra Banks is launching a web-based magazine. Tyra: Beauty Inside & Out will feature an "audio 'manifesto' that asks readers to dream big, ignore the haters, celebrate uniqueness and seek the beauty in everything." [WWD]
• James Patterson has signed a 17-book deal with his publisher, Hachette. And all 17 of them will arrive in bookstores before the end of 2012. [AP]
• All the competition online appears to be taking a toll on the Zagat guide series. Sales are down and the company has been laying off staff. [NYP]
• It was a mixed bag for Hollywood studios hoping for a big summer box office. Revenue was up 2 percent, but attendance fell 2 percent, too. [NYT]
• The Final Destination and Inglourious Bastards came in at No. 1 and 2 at the box office this weekend, beating out a handful of newcomers. [LAT]
• Following in the footsteps of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, USA Today is the latest newspaper to launch an online "wine club." [E&P]