TVSquad

If you thought the celebrity driven feud between The Daily Show's Jon Stewart and Mad Money host Jim Cramer was over, get ready to sigh a big breath of "Oh holy crap, here we go again."

That's if you completely believe the quote that the New York Post's Page Six gossip column picked out of an upcoming Time Magazine interview with the CNBC host without reading it in its proper context. So take it with a Lot's wife-sized grain of salt, and if you do automatically believe it, I've got an investment scheme that you might want to get in on.

The newspaper claims that Cramer is biding his time and that Stewart will "answer" for his vicious showdown on Stewart's show.

When Jon Stewart announced before a studio full of deafening cheers and Stephen Colbert's deafening silence that Barack Obama would become the 44th President of the United States, the show seemed to be in an interesting pickle.

Could the show be just as funny as it had been under an administration that didn't blur the line between setups and punchlines? Could Stewart and friends find the funny in a president who inspires more love and fear in people than a teddy bear with a switchblade?

So let's grade The Daily Show's first 100 days under socialism President Obama report card.

NBC head honcho Jeff Zucker is apparently getting himself involved in the war of the words between CNBC and Jon Stewart. He called Stewart's criticism of the network "absurd" and "unfair."

I hate to admit it, but I actually agree with Zucker to a point. CNBC's reputation did take a beating from this recession, and I wonder if they did hardball the executives like Stewart said they should, the companies could have cut off access and made reporting that much more difficult. I'm not saying CNBC was right in what they did. I'm simply saying that I somewhat understand why.

It's easy for someone like Stewart to call them out on this sort of thing. Being on a network called Comedy Central, most newscasters relegate him to the position of "cable clown." The Daily Show doesn't actually investigate news, unlike CNBC. It does something more akin to a half-hour opinion column based on the work of other news programs.

The war of words that erupted between The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the CNBC network started with Stewart's righteous rant over CNBC's lackadaisical coverage of the crumbling markets and ended last night. Or did it?

It officially went to Defcon 3 when Mad Money host Jim Cramer, CNBC's biggest name (which I assume is a lot like being the biggest star on UPN), got caught in the crosshairs.

Thankfully, the news media has been there to cover this feud from the first "#*$& you" to the last "lighten up" that culminated last night when Cramer and Stewart sat down for a face-to-face face-off on The Daily Show. Thank you TV news! You're the gossipy older sister I never had.

At least we know one thing about Jim Cramer: He may not have been able to predict the collapse of the Dow, but at least he has the cajones to face the comedian that's tearing him to pieces.

That's right, folks: Cramer will be appearing on The Daily Show on Thursday to defend himself in the war of funny he's gotten into with Jon Stewart and his writers. If you didn't see TDS last night, Stewart shot back at Cramer, who went on various NBC shows to defend himself against TDS' "turd mining," as Stewart called it. In this case, it was a compilation of clips that showed Cramer sticking with Bear Stearns shortly before its 2008 collapse. That, of course, was after Stewart and company ripped CNBC as a whole for missing the current crisis. Video of last night's segment, which was dubbed "Cramer vs. Not Cramer: Basic Cable Personality Clash Skirmish '09!"

CNBC analyst and Mad Money host Jim Cramer has been in a few controversies lately, from comments he made about what we should do with our stocks to picks that he has made. Now Cramer has said this:

"We should hound them in the supermarket, we should hound them in the ball park, we should hound them everywhere they are. We should make fun of them and we should point fingers at them and we should tell them that you have no shame."

I know, you probably think that Cramer is talking about reality show contestants, but he's not.

So we've had the first Presidential debate, and the Vice Presidential debate takes place tonight at 9pm ET (on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, PBS, CSPAN, probably The Weather Channel and Noggin too). While newspeople involved in the debates range from good (Jim Lehrer, Anderson Cooper, Bob Schieffer) to bad (Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos), there are several journalists who never seem to be involved in the debates for one reason or another. Maybe the debate committees and the campaigns don't want them, or maybe the anchors don't want to do a debate, but I can think of a few people I'd like to see moderate these things.

After the jump, my top five.

Who would have thought that there would be on television this category, this trend of personality known as the "money honey?" They're the beautiful girls who give us the financial news and stock numbers on the cable news networks.

It all started with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo (who actually trademarked the "money honey" title a while back) and now it has extended to others as well. There's ABC's Bianna Golodryga (that's her in the pic), who is being touted as the big new money gal, MSNBC's Erin Burnett, Fox Business Network's Alexis Glick, and...well...the entire on-air staff at the Fox Business Network, actually.

Looks like a lot more celebs are lining up to be on Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice than I thought.

So far, the Donald has signed Joan Rivers, Carmen Electra, Jim Cramer of CNBC, Naomi Judd, George Foreman, Pete Rose, Tony Hawk, Danica Patrick, and Jeff Gordon. That's quite a mixture of sports figures, comics, and really loud financial analysts. I wonder if Foreman will try to punch Trump if he tries to tell him how to sell things.

Trump says that there are over one hundred celebrities who wanted to be on the show (guess they'll have to wait until Celebrity Apprentice 2). Trump also reveals that Britney Spears and Paris Hilton have some interest in being on the show, and he's going to try to get Lindsay Lohan too. Oh, that would be great if they could be on the same team, wouldn't it? What could their team name be?

Ever since Don Imus made his little, um, faux pas a while back, viewers have been wondering who will eventually take over his morning slot on MSNBC. Right now they have a rotating group of hosts, including Joe Scarborough, David Gregory, and Jim Cramer, but several execs (including network GM Dan Abrams) have been impressed by Scarborough.

Right now Scarborough hosts a nightly show, Scarborough Country, at 9pm after Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Scarborough will again host the morning program next week, and a decision about a permanent host should be made very soon.

What is CNBC? Is it a business news channel, or a comedy channel, or a talking-head channel? I have a hard time keeping it all straight. Confusing me even more is that the cable network is developing an animated show based on the comic strip CEO Dad which could turn into a 30-minute series.

What?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the network with an identity crisis will air one-minute shorts cut from the show's pilot episode. It could then return as a 30-minute show in the fall, although there is no definite answer on that as of yet.

For all you CNBC fans who can't get enough breaking news about Wall Street, money, stocks, bonds, and corporate deals have a new place to hang out: CNBC.com has re-launched.

A quick look around the site and you'll see lots and lots of numbers and lots and lots of colors. You get a live stock chart, exclusive online-only content (for example, this morning they had an interview with Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Michael Moskow), a video player, daily schedules and diaries, and a ton more. It's all very busy and the layout out could be a bit better, but it will be a good resource.

There was a time - in the mid to late 90s - when I was sort of addicted to watching CNBC. Those days have gone, but it's good that the info is still there at the click of your remote control (and mouse).

(Note: the main CNBC.com page is for financial info. If you're looking for the page for the TV network CNBC specifically (show info, schedules, pictures of Maria Bartiromo), then you should go here.)

[via TV Newser]

There was about a year and a half when I was completely addicted to CNBC. It was the mid to late 90s, around 97 or 98, when I was starting to write more online and became fascinated by how technology was driving the economy and stock market to new heights. I remember having CNBC on all day along (along with CNN and MSNBC), and I loved seeing all the numbers fly by the bottom of the screen. Sure, I had no idea what any of it meant, but CNBC also had a lighter, pop culture bent to it that made it entertaining. I watched Power Lunch every afternoon, I waited for interviews with the CEOs of companies I was intererested in (like Steve Jobs from Apple - that was a big comeback story), and I even got to know the anchors and reporters (oh, Maria Bartiromo!).

Then the bubble burst and people didn't really enjoy watching CNBC anymore. And now it's really a shadow of what it used to be. But now two guys are trying to make it good again. Ex-Today producer Jonathan Wald and ex-60 Minutes producer Josh Howard have been brought on to pump new life into the business network. The duo plans more documentaries, as well as other big changes for the network.

What do you think needs to be done to CNBC to make it better?