TVSquad

There's no doubt that among his peers, Tim Russert was one of the most respected broadcasters in the business. His sudden death from a heart attack in 2008 is still being felt, especially on Meet the Press where David Gregory has assumed the role of moderator but not made the show his own.

As a way of honoring Tim, the Newseum in Washington will create a Tim Russert exhibit. The Newseum is a journalism museum, and the curators have come up with a unique way to pay tribute to Russert: they will re-create Tim's NBC News office as it was on the day he died, June 13, 2008.

This isn't one of those "TV people are so vain!" posts. If you're on television you have to make sure your hair is OK and you have makeup on and all that. I bet even Walter Cronkite wanted to make sure he picked out the right tie in the morning. So this post of David Gregory combing his hair in the middle of a Today story about the moon landing is here not to dump on Gregory but because it's an odd, random tech glitch.

[via TV Newser]

While NBC is committing all its ten o'clock hours next fall to Jay Leno, MSNBC is looking for a ten o'clock star. They want a show to secure stronger foothold on prime time by filling that hour with a new show.

Right now, it presents a rerun of Countdown with Keith Olbermann, but that's not how it's going to remain. Phil Griffin, MSNBC prez, would like to develop a new hour to go along with Countdown and The Rachel Maddow Show, and presumably build on the audience Olbermann and Maddow are generating.

If you're anything like me (first of all, you have my deepest sympathy), you haven't been able to sit still since The Daily Show and The Colbert Report went off the air for the holidays. It also may be because my body has absorbed more sugary fat from the holidays than one of Tyler Durden's homemade soaps.

Both shows returned to the airwaves Monday with new episodes. Both also had cable news celebrity cameos so big, no lightning fast news ticker announcing an accidental nuclear missile launch could draw your attention away from them.

The Daily Show returned with another appearance by CNN's gray-haired uber-anchor Anderson Cooper and an interesting interview with new Meet the Press moderator David Gregory. The Colbert Report picked up former Hannity and Colmes pushover Alan Colmes and wound things up with an interview with CNN reporter John King.

They passed the torch on NBC yesterday. After weeks of speculation, it wasn't either Ted Koppel or Rachel Maddow that received the choice assignment. Nope. It's David Gregory who'll take over Meet the Press -- effective immediately. On Sunday morning's broadcast, interim host and NBC anchorman emeritus Tom Brokaw made it official by officially letting the world know it was a done deal by presenting Gregory on air.

Apparently, some at NBC were miffed that this information was leaked last week, spoiling the big surprise today, but really, there wasn't much suspense. Joel wrote about it. The selection of David Gregory is a safe, solid and somewhat staid choice.

Shortly after Tim Russert's death in June, I speculated on who NBC might pick to host Meet The Press. At the time, I figured that David Gregory was the best choice, given his pedigree as White House correspondent and the decent job he did subbing for Russert in the past. But over the summer and the heat of the election homestretch, I came to change my mind about that.

I saw Chuck Todd and His Goatee take a bigger and bigger role in the coverage, stepping into Russert's nightly role of presenting and analyzing the latest blizzard of polls to come out, and I thought he'd make an interesting choice for moderator. Then Tina Brown floated the idea of Rachel Maddow as moderator, and I was also intrigued, given her rise to punditry stardom and her surprising even-handed manner.

But, if a report from the Huffington Post is to be believed, Gregory will soon be named the moderator of the program. Which is too bad, because this gave NBC an opportunity to do something different.

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.

When Tim Russert passed away earlier this year, the talk of course turned to the topic of who would take over for him on NBC's long-running Sunday news show Meet The Press. Tom Brokaw has been doing the show for several weeks now, but could former Nightline host Ted Koppel be the new guy in the interviewing chair?

Koppel has announced that he and The Discovery Channel have parted ways. He still had six months left on his contract but decided to leave. This is all just speculation at this time, of course, but since he's leaving Discovery early and the end of the year is upon us, it's interesting timing.

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).

The unexpected death of Tim Russert two weeks ago prompted numerous tributes and memorials from NBC and MSNBC, but because Russert was a news personality, they really couldn't re-air Meet the Press episodes or the night of the 2000 election to really show Tim Russert's substantive work.

The death of comedian George Carlin on Sunday was just as shocking -- and also attributed to a heart ailment -- but for Mr. Carlin there are many hours of his work available and relevant to rebroadcast. It'll give audiences a chance to re-appreciate his unique brand of comedy. In his long tenure with HBO, George starred in 14 comedy specials. Now, you'll be able to see a few of them one more time.

HBO is presenting a series of encore presentations, including his last concert, George Carlin: It's Bad for You, on Friday, June 27, at 9 o'clock (ET) on HBO (the main channel). The show debuted in March. But that's not all.

There's been speculation about who will replace Tim Russert on NBC's Meet the Press. David Gregory, Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews and Katie Couric were a few of the rumored possibilities. Jovie Baclayon of E! Online reports that Tom Brokaw will be temporarily replacing the tragically-lost news anchor. NBC announced today that the former Nightly News anchor and South Dakota native would take over moderating responsibilities on Sunday mornings. He will guide discussions through the November presidential elections.

Steve Capus, NBC News President, made this statement about Brokaw's decision to step in: "To have someone of Tom's stature step up and dedicate himself to ensuring its ongoing success is not only a testament to his loyalty to Tim, but his enduring commitment to NBC News and our viewers."

After 21 years helming the program, Tom Brokaw retired from NBC Nightly News in 2004.

Tim Russert died of a heart attack last week on June 13th. He was 58.

[via Yahoo TV]

I'm sure a lot of you were scratching your heads over the weekend, wondering how Tim Russert's passing merited the all-encompassing, presidential-like coverage it got, especially on his home network of NBC. He's only a reporter, right? Why the wall-to-wall coverage? Well, first of all, it seems that by all accounts, Russert was one of the most well-liked people in the news business, so the outpouring might have been a function of people mourning a friend who was taken from them too soon. But, I have another, more off-beat theory as to why NBC did a broadcast version of sitting shiva for Russert: it was because they have no idea how to replace him.

Think about it: he wasn't only the longtime moderator of Meet The Press, where he took the venerable show and rejiggered its format, making him the face of the show. He was also NBC News' Washington bureau chief and the main political voice for the network. "It's going to take four or five people to replace Tim," CBS' Bob Schieffer told The New York Times.

For now, though, the immediate question is who will replace him on Meet The Press. Speculation is already underway.

Tim Russert, the chief political reporter for NBC and host of the long-running Meet The Press, died of a heart attack this afternoon. Russert was recording voiceovers for Meet The Press and collapsed.

This is obviously sad and odd because he was young, but it's also crazy because we're in the middle of an election year, and Russert was one of the faces of NBC and MSNBC when it comes to politics. He was an unabashed political junkie and was front and center in this year's election, being involved in all of the primary coverage and even participated in debates along with colleague Brian Williams.

Russert worked in for Democratic Senator Daniel Moynihan's campaign in the mid 70s and in the early 80s worked on Mario Cuomo's campaign for Governor of New York. He joined NBC in 1984 and became moderator of Meet The Press in 1991. He also wrote two books.

Today marks the 60th birthday of NBC's Sunday morning news program, Meet The Press. It's the longest running TV show in history.*

It's funny because when Meet The Press started, there weren't that many TV news shows on the air. Now one could argue that there are too many. Meet The Press isn't really that special anymore. Past hosts have included Lawrence Spivak (who also created and produced the show), Ned Brooks, Bill Monroe, Marvin Kalb, Roger Mudd, Chris Wallace, Garrick Utley, and current host Tim Russert. Some people have said that the show isn't the same anymore because Russert has on guests like Stephen Colbert. I think that's ridiculous, because they've had comics on before. Though I do think the way that Russert conducted most of the interview, faux serious and trying to be jokey too, was odd.

* Longest running show period? Guiding Light, which debuted on radio in 1937 and then switched to TV in 1952.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Not too many people like Viva Laughlin.
• Download a DVD box screen saver similar to the one seen on The Office.
• Bill Cosby? Stephen Colbert? Some are asking what the heck is going on at Meet The Press.
• Are there more cast members leaving CSI besides Jorja Fox?
• EW's PopWatch blog agrees with me about those Bee Movie ads on NBC.
• The behind the scenes story on how Charles Emerson Winchester came to be on M*A*S*H.
• Tim Goodman is not a fan of Tuesday night TV.