TVSquad

Meet the Press, NBC's venerable (six decades!) political affairs news program and a staple of Sunday morning TV, has been in flux ever since the untimely death of Tim Russert. Tom Brokaw has been sitting in the big chair, brought out of semi-retirement and keeping the show together in Tim's stead. But NBC has confirmed that Brokaw is leaving on December 7. They have not confirmed who will become the new face of Meet the Press.

Last week, Bob speculated about Ted Koppel joining NBC to anchor the show, and he was certainly be a credible choice. Tina Brown at The Daily Beast web site has another idea; she says that Rachel Maddow should take over Meet the Press.

My first reaction to Brown's idea was, "No, not Rachel." But that was just because I wouldn't want Rachel to give up The Rachel Maddow Show, her prime time MSNBC show. I enjoy her daily take on the world of politics. She's smart, insightful, a good interviewer, and despite her liberal leanings, surprisingly critical of the left. She could bring all the critical thinking to MTP.

Here's some news that's bound to equally thrill and displease readers. MSNBC has given Keith Olbermann a new four year deal, ensuring that Countdown with Keith Olbermann remains in the cable's primetime lineup. For fans of Olbermann, the prospect of Keith's continued commentaries and his clever interpretation of the news is a good thing. For those who loathe the man -- and there are just as many detractors as fans -- this is one more reason to be ticked off with MSNBC.

The fact is that TV success doesn't depend on having everybody love you. There are many stars, in fact, who are polarizing figures. Either you love them or you love to hate them. The point is that you don't ignore them. So, Keith Olbermann will remain a part of the public discourse and that means the best media feud of the decade goes on -- Olbermann versus Bill O'Reilly.

It's about 12 hours later and as I look back on MSNBC's Election Plaza broadcast, I can see things a bit more clearly now. Overall, the "place for politics" did a fine job covering the most historic presidential election in my lifetime. It wasn't the most dramatic, but it was living history.

History was in the making because we knew going in whether the Dems or the Reps won, an African-American or a woman would be in the White House by the end of the night. MSNBC captured that political reality with images and by letting the camera run long after Obama's speech just to watch the faces of the people -- including Oprah and Jesse Jackson, both in tears -- celebrate in joy.

The prognosticators and pollsters were all on target by choosing Obama/Biden as the winners, so that means nobody's at Gallup or Fivethirtyeight.com is losing his/her job.

MSNBC has summarized how historic this is -- Keith said it best. "This is man on the moon historic." He's right. Nobody will ever forget where they were when the first African-American U.S. President was elected.

11:18 John McCain is conceding. He's a class act. A person sometimes shows more about himself in defeat then in victory. McCain recognizes that this is a great moment in history and he must acknowledge it gracefully. He's doing it well. I especially like his mentioning the passing of Obama's grandmother. He's taking the blame for the loss and calling for unity. I think he couldn't say it any more plainly or with courage. Call me crazy, but this sounds like the McCain of 2000. Very classy.

MSNBC is perking along. Either they're getting better at the results or I'm getting more comfortable with all their bells and whistles and commentary.

8:48 David Gregory is good as a traffic cop. He's bouncing the focus around from Chuck to Chris to Ann to Lester really well. He's interviewing Obama's campaign chief strategist David Axelrod now. He doesn't look worried. He looks like Mr. Whipple, but he doesn't look worried.

8:55 Tom DeLay, former House Majority Leader -- is talking trash. He claims Nancy Pelosi is going to push President Obama around. Hmm...he sounds pretty bitter. Of course, he was forced to resign when he was indicted for election fraud.

If you're a regular watcher of MSNBC, the Election Night coverage feels like a suped-up version of the usual prime time line-up. They're calling it Election Plaza, overlooking Rockefeller Center, with giant screens, flags and -- my favorite -- the map of the United States on the ice skating rink.

6:30 The main desk is set with David Gregory center-most, Chris Matthews to his right, Keith Olbermann to his left. Yes, Keith is on the left. It some ways it looked like the last supper, only without the food.

6:45 My main problem with MSNBC is this framing device showing information on the right, the top and the bottom of the screen. This is what Lewis Black was screaming about at the Emmys in 2007. There's too much information on the screen. This reminds me of ESPN coverage of the NFL Draft.

Every single media outlet, whether it's the major networks, the cable news networks, print, radio, online, and carrier pigeon, will be covering the election tonight. And that includes us!

Starting at 7pm ET, TV Squad will be doing election posts. We'll be covering all of the networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC and Comedy Central. We'll have several posts during the night and several posts after we find out who the next President is. This could be around 9:30pm or it could be around 11:15pm. It could even be 4am, though I'm not sure how many of us will still be awake at that time.

These won't be posts that analyze state results or exit polls or voting trends or who's ahead and who's behind. We'll be doing the fun stuff, like what mistakes the anchors make, what Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have to say, what anchor on FOX News cries because Obama is ahead, and the cleanup procedure at MSNBC if Keith Olbermann's head explodes from a McCain win. Tune in tonight!

Ben Affleck is the host of Saturday Night Live tonight, which will also feature an appearance by Senator John McCain. No word on what McCain is going to do on the show, but it would be fantastic if he could appear in the sketch where Affleck plays Keith Olbermann.

Yup, Politico.com is reporting that the NBC show is finally going to spoof the MSNBC host. In fact, they are going to portray Olbermann as (and I quote from the article) "a deranged person living at home with his mother." Sources on the set say that somehow the real Olbermann got past security yesterday afternoon and watched Affleck and the cast rehearse the segment. Olbermann says he liked it and thought it was funny.

This is going to be must-see TV tonight. Actually, SNL has been pretty all must-see this campaign season. I can picture Affleck as Olbermann. He has sorta the same shaped hair and head. Maybe one of the other guys can play Bill O'Reilly.

The "duh" in the title is because it has always seemed to me like CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck belonged on Fox News all along, because it seems to be more in line with his way of thinking and his viewpoints.

Beck has signed a deal with Fox News Channel to host a daily show at 5pm (and a weekend show in the future). The deal has been described as "multi-year" and "multimillion-dollar." There have been rumors that Beck was going to eventually move to the network ever since he was seen eating with FNC head Roger Ailes. No word yet on when Beck will leave Headline News.

This will give Keith Olbermann more fodder for his frequent rants against Beck. Sure, he could do them if Beck was still at CNN, but it's probably going to be more convenient to have all of his targets (Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity) all in one easy-to-find place.

Personally, I'd rather see Nancy Grace leave Headline News than Beck. She annoys the hell out of me for so many reasons.

This was bound to happen. When NBC Universal decided to purchase The Weather Channel earlier this year I'm sure there were some questions as to how this would affect the network's Weather Plus operation. You mean you don't know about Weather Plus? Sure you do! It's the 4-year old digital content operation that paired the network with their affiliates to air its content on their digital channels. It's also what MSNBC and CNBC have been using the last few years during times of severe weather.

Well, the answer to if both Weather Plus and The Weather Channel would be run simultaneously has been answered: they won't. NBC News President Steve Capus said Weather Plus operation would be phased out in stages through the end of the year, affecting both on- and off-air staff. There is no word if any of the Weather Plus technology or staff will be integrated into other aspects of the News division or into TWC in general.

Conventional wisdom says that vice presidents don't matter much when it comes time to vote, that people ultimately make their choice based on who's running for president. However, when it comes to debates, VEEPs are the main event.

The Nielsen numbers are in for last night's debate between Vice Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin and they're huge -- 69.9 million viewers watched the VEEP debate. That's a whopping 17.5 million more viewers than Barack Obama and John McCain drew for their first debate last Friday night.

Why were so many more people tuned in for Biden-Palin? There are a few reasons, starting with the curiosity about Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

As this election season turns into the home stretch, whether you're for McCain or Obama, this is a very exciting time in politics -- and I find myself really missing Tim Russert quite a lot. This point was really driven home for me when I watched Tim Russert's show Meet the Press last week. Tom Brokaw has been a really good anchorman and reporter, but -- I'm sorry -- he's not a good moderator. He's just not. He doesn't get involved in the questioning enough. He doesn't ask the penetrating questions. He doesn't do his homework like Russert did to be right on top of the facts and catch politicians spinning rather than speaking the truth.

Like I said, Brokaw is not in his element with Meet the Press. Fortunately, he's only doing MTP until after the election. I give him credit for stepping in when Russert died unexpectedly and there was a network crisis. However, looking to the future, NBC needs to find the right person to take the big chair. NBC News chief Steve Capus is reportedly thinking about a rotation of hosts, including Chuck Todd (NBC's political director) and David Gregory (host of Road to the White House, MSNBC).

In a move that can be considered either a turn back to neutral coverage of political events or a fearful tactic to curb further criticism on their network, NBC News has decided to dump Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of NSNBC's election coverage. Replacing them on the upcoming debates and election night will be White House correspondent David Gregory.

Some say the decision to drop the two most popular personalities on the network from the coverage stemmed from what critics both within and without the organization feared was the channel's perceived shift to the political left (though, many have said that MSNBC has always leaned left as opposed to FOX News that leans right. Apparently, none of their shoes have the same-sized heels.). Others say their demotion stemmed from numerous complaints that came after Olbermann's rant after a 9/11 tribute video was shown at the Republican National Convention. Then there are those who feel their on-air tiffs during the coverage resembled something out of Gossip Girl.

I thought I'd get this in before we get too far away from the Republican National Convention.

Conan O'Brien sent Triumph The Insult Comic Dog to St. Paul last week to cover the convention, and as usual the results are hilarious. He manages to get an interview with CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Well, at first Cooper just sends him a note from across the convention hall (I won't spoil for you what the note says) but Triumph finally gets a face-to-face interview with Cooper, where he lays down an awesome dig at MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews that Cooper laughs at (Cooper should be looking at Triumph during the interview but keeps looking at Robert Smigel instead).

Triumph also gets Wolf Blitzer. Actually, Wolf doesn't talk to Triumph, but that doesn't stop the dog from thanking Blitzer for keeping his porn name even after he got into journalism. There's also a mention of Law and Order, thanks to Fred Thompson, and he screams to Greta van Susteren and other pundits and hosts.

After the jump is the video (in two parts).

The most famous Rachel on TV today isn't the same one that made Jennifer Aniston a star. And it's Rachael with the extra "E" that's the syndicated star of a talk show that won the Emmy in 2008. But the newest Rachel on the air is MSNBC's plucky new host of her own show, Rachel Maddow. Like Aniston, Rachel Maddow's hairdoo is fashionable, and like Ray, Maddow's very personable. However, The Rachel Maddow Show is worlds apart from Friends or 30 Minute Meals/The Rachael Ray Show. Maddow is all about politics, current events and things that, by and large, are important.

In some ways, The Rachel Maddow Show is a spinoff of Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Maddow has been a regular sub for Olbermann, proving her prowess to MSNBC, and her show has a cushy spot between the first run of Countdown at 8 p.m. ET and the replay at 10 p.m. For the premiere episode, in fact, Keith appeared as Rachel's first guest -- a crossover from the end of Countdown where Rachel was interviewed in the last segment before the close. This was a smart move, sort of like a bridge from his show to hers, a bridge to somewhere if you will.

The new studio for Maddow has the quality MSNBC look, glass top desk, plasma screens, obnoxious -- but expected -- graphics on the bottom and bugs and flags reinforcing information as it's spoken.