TVSquad

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).

Probably the least-surprising news to come out of yesterday's NBC sessions was that the network is going to expand Today to a fourth hour. NBC News president Steve Capus and Today executive producer Jim Bell paneled with Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker, and Ann Curry to discuss the move as well as the show's year of transition.

Of course, the show's signature easy-going goofiness was in evidence. Matt Lauer: "I see you all typing away on your laptops, and I'm not going to tell you what your headline should be. But the headline we think should be 'Today show crew boringly happy.'" Meredith joked about kissing a monkey on the show earlier that morning: "I can't get over the fact I kissed a monkey this morning. I initiated it, and quite frankly, I can't stop thinking about it."

Things are not going well for NBC Universal these days. Studio 60 and Friday Night Lights are doing poorly in the ratings, the highly touted Kidnapped was canceled and pushed out to the dead zone known as Saturday nights, and even some of their established shows, like Law & Order, are slipping a bit. Now, it looks like the news division is about to take a direct hit as well.

According to TV Week, NBCU plans to eliminate 700 jobs, about 5 percent of their workforce, in order to slash $750 million off of their administrative and operating costs. The reductions will comprise of buyouts, offers of early retirement and attrition. The biggest department to be affected will be the NBC News, which will go through an extensive streamlining process in order to prepare themselves for the oncoming digital revolution (which is already in full swing, but why quibble.). According to News President Steve Capus, the changes being announced will allow the network to re-invest in new growth areas.