♦ NBC's Ben Silverman says he hasn't managed the "unrelenting press attention" as well as he could have, and he's doing better than most people assme, a sentiment echoed by his close pal, Donny Deutsch. [TVDecoder]
♦ Harbinger's Phil Falcone says he has no plans to dump his investment in the New York Times. [Reuters]
♦ MTV is pulling the plug on TRL. [WSJ]
♦ Mark your calendars: Jeanine Pirro's court show debuts next week. [HuffPo]
♦ Current and former staffers at the LA Times are planning to file suit against owner Sam Zell. [LA Observed]
♦ How writers in Hollywood are dealing with the "new comedic landscape." [NYO]
♦ Product placements have earned less airtime on network TV compared with the same period last year, according to Nielsen. [AdAge]
♦ How the financial meltdown will affect Hollywood. [THR]
♦ Jeff Zucker, Mel Karmazin and Steven Rattner weigh in on the state of the media biz. [Portfolio]

Ben Silverman—dubbed by some "the Russell Brand of TV execs" as much for his ids-gone-wild approach to the job as for his untamed nest of rock-star hair and penchant for ultra-skinny jeans—has found himself in recent months the source of much industry deathwatch chatter. By now we're well aware of the criticisms—long absences from the development fold, turning a blind eye to VP-on-showrunner affairs, signing his name and likeness over to a line of Graffix bongs, etc. None of this, however, seems to be of much concern to Ben, who has devised an ingenious way to profit off the one thing NBC has over the other guys: a lack of viewers. He explained the concept to Variety:

We all know Luke Russert is the house wunderkind at NBC news, presumably brought in to engage the youth audience during this historic election. As a youthful guy, Russert naturally blogs. And guess what. He's annoyingly free of self-awareness. A sample:

• David Letterman had his second-highest ratings of the year last night thanks to Barack Obama's appearance. [THR]

As we more or less said, before, MSNBC's switch from all-crazy-pundit all-the-time (their two most unbalanced talking heads anchoring convention coverage? what can possibly go wrong!) to the more traditional "boring old guy who'll accept your bullshit with a smile" approach is a cowardly retreat by MSNBC president Phil Griffin, giving in to the outdated old methods of NBC News head Stave Capus and NBC head Jeff Zucker. It's a return to the "beat CNN at their game" idea, only that "game" is boring and they'll never beat them at it. Today's Observer explores the decision to kick Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews back down to their pundit kids table. It's a victory for the "serious" journalists of Washington, DC, and a terrible defeat for people who enjoy television.

Last we heard from sources on Madison Avenue, Google's TV advertising business was a joke. Only 200 clients had signed up for it in almost a year. Its ad targeting tech, unlike Google's sophisticated Web ads, judges whether or not an ad is relevant based on whether viewers click away while it plays, even though Google itself says 96 to 97 percent of the audience stays tuned in to a channel no matter what ad plays. So why did NBC today announce it would let Google play middleman for its cable networks, which include Sci-Fi, Bravo, Oxygen, MSNBC and CNBC?Easy: Google TV exec and Michael Steib used to work for NBC. Leaning on old colleagues is one of his favorite tactics for getting ahead, Steib told Crain's when the magazine named him to its list of "Forty under 40":

There is some shadow sect of people—pasty-faced, red-rimmed eyes, yellow teeth, the stench of cheese product on their breath—who must, simply must!, watch television on tiny picture phones. And the like. This undiscovered continent's worth of Americans have clamored so loudly for these techmologies that NBC and iTunes, after a year-long feud, have struck up a partnership anew. Episodes of your favorite shows like Chuck and Gemini Division will once again be available for download on the Apple music and media "store," for a buck ninety nine. HD shows for $2.99. What this means for web service Hulu, which streams some NBC shows for free, is unclear. Though I guess they could maybe exist together, as the dark Underspecies of people furtively watching Heroes on their iPods, while they rumble on a bus bound for Rochester, are not necessarily the same shut-ins who watch old episodes of New Amsterdam on their computers, holed up in their darkened spare rooms. And I guess that's really what America is all about. Diversity. [Variety]

Chalk up a rare victory for NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker in doing what few can: He stared down Steve Jobs and won. NBC shows like Heroes and Battlestar Galactica are returning to iTunes, but on NBC's terms. Almost exactly a year ago, NBC packed up its toys and left Apple's iTunes store over a pricing dispute. Apple insisted on sticking with one price for TV shows. But with today's announcements of new iPods, Jobs showed off NBC shows available again — at $0.99 for old shows, $1.99 for new shows, and HD for $2.99. NBC shows represented roughly 40 percent of iTunes video sales before they vanished from the store.

• Catfight! Marie Claire will be launching a reality show on the Style network called Running in Heels. The show will follow staffers like Nina Garcia and is expected to compete with archrival Anne Slowey's Stylista on the CW. [NYO, AdAge]

When Olympian gold medalist Michael Phelps was announced as the host of Saturday Night Live's 33rd season premiere, we had a couple concerns about his acting ability — worries that, frankly, weren't alleviated by his monotone presenting at last night's VMAs. Fortunately, SNL all-star Kristen Wiig has the right idea about how best to utilize Phelps — and it's by putting focus on his most unassailable trait, his body:

So MSNBC going back to more "traditional" election coverage? Looks like that David Gregory ascendancy everyone predicted back before the Rachel Maddow ascendancy is finally happening! All because Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams are embarrassed by those loud shouty people and Jeff Zucker's in serious trouble with the rest of the Illuminati. Well it's a stupid, stupid idea, for many reasons. Reasons which we'll explain below.

It was unthinkable that MSNBC could come out of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions without a major, public shakeup of its political news team. The incessant fighting between the cable network's most opinionated anchors — Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough and Chris Matthews — marred the chance to retain all those new young viewers Olbermann has attracted over the past year or two. But now that the other shoe has dropped, with the anchor team of Olbermann and Matthews being replaced by comparatively neutral White House correspondent David Gregory, it would be a mistake to think MSNBC has undergone some sort of deep existential crisis that will pull it back from the brink of becoming the Fox News Channel of the left. The network's ratings growth, driven by Olbermann, has been too good and too long coming, and the lefty anchor (according to the Times) is about to re-up his plush contract, which in any case has three of four yeas left on it. And MSNBC will have done plenty if it simply gets its big-name blowhards acting at a high school level of maturity rather than yelling at one another like a bunch of kindergartners. Network executives appear to appreciate this! From the Times:

Following accusations that the network had veered too far to the left and after months of internal tension, MSNBC has decided to drop Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann from anchoring coverage of the election. David Gregory of NBC News will anchor the debates and election night coverage instead. [NYT]

Touted as a historical television fundraiser and awareness drive across three networks (Fox is sitting it out — stay classy, Rupe!), tonight's Stand Up For Cancer event was momentous enough to commandeer halftime during Thursday's NFL season opener at Giants Stadium. But it wasn't quite momentous enough to keep the sold-out crowd from cascading jeers onto unpopular Giants co-owner/Oscar-winning producer Steve Tisch and innocent bystander Jeff Zucker, whose eventual introduction and comments were only slightly better regarded than his host's, according to a Defamer operative in attendance. (Seriously — did Zucker's infamous My Name is Earl introduction get around to that many people?) A fan captured the video featured after the jump, featuring plenty of middle fingers, chants of "asshole" and a much more benevolent welcome for Zucker-preceder Christie Brinkley. Tough crowd, indeed. [YouTube]

Why is Cindy McCain speaking so slowly and making everyone at the Republican Convention pull embarrassed faces right now? Probably because there are two minutes and God-knows-how-many time-outs and commercial breaks left on the NFL season opener, threatening to keep red-blooded, football-loving Republicans and right-leaning Democrats away from John McCain's climactic speech, just as was feared. Go long, Cindy, go long! [via Wonkette]

• More than 40 million people tuned in to Sarah Palin's RNC speech last night. [AP]

While we found yesterday's 8,000 word New Yorker profile of Alec Baldwin to be an engrossing (if entirely too long) read, we were able to find one person who was less than impressed by Baldwin's long-winded rants about the perils of being impossibly rich and famous: My Name Is Earl creator/executive producer Greg Garcia. In the piece, not only did Baldwin blast the suits who run NBC's programming and promo departments for "wring(ing) the last drops" out of Thursday night comedy staples like Earl and Scrubs while 30 Rock is treated like a "red-headed stepchild", he also indirectly criticized the quality of said shows by labeling both as "done" and "cooked." Naturally, this irked Garcia, who spoke exclusively with Defamer this morning about his thoughts on his show's performance, 30 Rock's ratings and, of course, Baldwin himself:

We suspect the name "Unbox" only ever made sense to Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos. The online retailer has rebranded its video-download store as "Video on Demand." The only other big change: The videos will now play on Macs. They'll continue to be downloadable to viewers' TiVos, Windows Media Centers, and Xbox consoles. Flicks cost $2.99 to $3.99 to rent and $7.99 to $14.99 to buy. Another draw: Unlike Apple's iTunes store, you can get NBC Universal content from Amazon.com. (NBC vanished from Apple's store after a tiff over pricing last year.)

When we think of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, we picture a family-friendly forum where Republican candidates can come to read funny headlines out loud and maybe, finally, meet a real-life black musician. Lately, though, our G-rated suppositions have gone to hell as the lame-duck Leno has regaled the audience with stories about his interest in an underage Jessica Biel and his auto-erotic fantasies involving actress Scarlett Johansson. Into a more ribald chat show, then, does cheeky VMAs host Russell Brand walk — and boy, does he make the most of it:As he sits on the couch next to guest Eva Longoria Parker, a misheard reference to PETA sends the comedian on a tangent that splashes the audience with sexual offers they've likely never contemplated before bedtime. Bold talk when delivered to a Desperate Housewife, Russell, but we're reserving your comedy credibility until you introduce Miley Cyrus to the concept of a Dutch Oven during this weekend's VMAs.

Sitting down with Rolling Stone for a rare interview, David Letterman opened up on his two-step process of alienating and courting some of his most famous guest-emies—towering pop culture figures like Madonna, Oprah, and Richard Simmons—as well as his own plans for retirement. ("I would like to go beyond [my contracted] 2010, not much beyond," he told them.) He was also asked to weigh in on the curious scheduling shift going on at his old network NBC, where top ratings-getter Jay Leno is being forcibly vacated to make room for new The Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien, and his Late Night successor, Jimmy Fallon. No one is more confused about the changes than Letterman: