The Biz

It's been two and a half years since ABC News' Bob Woodruff suffered a massive brain injury while reporting in Iraq. Further proof of his remarkable recovery will be seen on August 6, when ABC airs China Inside Out: Bob Woodruff Reports (10 p.m. ET), an hour-long special that looks at the global impact of the country's rapid economic expansion.

Woodruff was a lawyer when he first went to China in the mid 1980s. He was hired by CBS News to be an interpreter during the uprising in Tiananmen Square, an event that launched his journalism career. He recently talked to the Biz about his continuing return to form.

TVGuide.com: You've been back at work for a while now. How are you feeling?
Bob Woodruff: I'm getting better. It’s unbelievable to me. For me to have a conversation with you two years ago would have been difficult. Just my ability to come back to journalism has been a miracle to me. To do some of the stories that I think are important — China, international stories, certainly the environment, which we’re doing a lot of reporting on.

TVGuide.com: You're an anchor on Planet Green!
Woodruff: You got it. It's an issue that the next generation — my kids — need to know more about.

TVGuide.com: Do you still have any major physical issues from your injuries?
Woodruff: I've still got aphasia. That's a loss of words and names. It's still a problem, but nothing like it was before. I still have moments where I can't remember names of friends and some words. I've figured out many different ways to make the points I need when I've forgotten words. Doctors say that's not something that's going to disappear. But I've made a massive improvement every month.

TVGuide.com: Does that make doing live TV tricky for you?
Woodruff: I'm different live than I used to be. I've been on live. Sometimes you can't really tell any difference from before. Other moments you can. As long as people want to accept that and the reality I now live in, then I'll be on more and more. It's not the same kind of word skill I had before. Fortunately, I understand everything I need to talk about. Here and there I will forget words.

TVGuide.com: How was reporting on the China of today compared to the time when you were working with CBS News on their coverage of Tiananmen Square?
Woodruff: In Beijing, back in 1989, we drove bikes and there were hardly any cars on the street. Now it's jammed with them. There were people who lived in rooms with holes in the floor for a toilet. Now there is a middle class kind of life. The growth of these cities is immense. When I was there most of my Chinese friends never even thought they'd leave China. Ambassadors were the only ones I knew that were outside of the country. Now there are Chinese all over the world, not just in the United States.

TVGuide.com: And you traveled around the world to show China's growing economic influence.
Woodruff: We went to Angola. It's a country where China is trying to rebuild railroads, buildings and highways in return for access for oil. They've become the largest importer of soybeans from Brazil...China is expanding around the world and we need to know more about it. On Wall Street, you see huge amount of money (China) is pouring in to help the United States get through its debt. The United States has the global power in the world the past century. Before that it was Britain. China may be next.

TVGuide.com: What other stories do you have in the pipeline?
Woodruff: I continue to do a lot of reporting on Iraq war veterans. I want to make sure that people do what they can to help them and give them the kind of dignity they deserve. I want people to know how they are doing and know what they are about when the come back from the war.

Jay Leno showed up incognito at the Television Critics Association on Monday to ask the inevitable questions about his future to NBC Entertainment co-chairmen Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff. Haven't we just seen this act? Yes, just last week when ABC chief Steve McPherson was quizzed by a disguised Jimmy Kimmel about that network's possible pursuit of Leno. Doesn't anybody have an original idea in this business?

Leno came up with the idea of the appearance in an effort to make amends for his remarks in USA Today last week that indicated that he's leaving the Peacock network after his Tonight gig is up (his final Tonight Show appearance has been set for May 29). "He felt a little bad about the USA Today piece," Graboff told reporters, adding that Leno continues to be in talks about a new role at NBC.

But there's no sign that the two sides are close on agreeing on a deal to keep Leno at the network. NBC insiders have already come to terms with the notion of him working elsewhere.

"We're really trying to work with him to come up with alternatives other than telling jokes at 11:30 at night on NBC," Graboff said. "In this day and age we believe there is room on a regular basis for him to be on our air. We have to convince him to do it. If he doesn't, we respect that."

They've actually been talking about a new role for Leno since 2004 when he agreed to a five-year contract at Tonight which included handing off the hosting job to Conan O'Brien on June 1, 2009. Time flies when you're still No. 1 in the ratings. Leno is clearly having a hard time letting go. He kicked off the chatter about his future with a joke on Tonight about moving to ABC. His recent comments to USA Today ("I am definitely done with NBC") were "taken out of context" according to an NBC spokeswoman. NBC insiders say Leno means well, and doesn't want the job pulled away from O'Brien. "Jay wanted this transition to be smooth and cooperative and collegial. I think him coming here today was a clear message that he was not bitter he wants to go out on top," said Graboff.

As for Leno heading to ABC, the earliest that could happen is January 2010. Leno's contract runs through 2009 and he can't have formal discussions with a new employer until October of that year.

There's been speculation that NBC is going to get cold feet and not make the change (which would mean a massive penalty fee paid to Conan O'Brien). That simply isn't going to happen. NBC's corporate parent General Electric is big on planning for the future, whether it's in the turbine engine division or the guy telling jokes at 11:30. And that guy will be O'Brien.

More TCA Coverage:
• Fall TV Press Tour: A Guide to Our In-Depth Coverage

One of the network morning shows recently did a piece about how the bad economy is keeping some couples from getting divorced.

We were reminded of it when watching CBS News president Sean McManus and CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric's address (via satellite from New York) before the Television Critics Association on Friday. We're not saying that money is what's keeping CBS News and its ratings challenged star together. But whatever conversations Couric had with network bosses about leaving the network earlier this year have reached an impasse. It's not likely that Couric, as disappointed as she might be in how she's fared at the anchor desk of the CBS Evening News, is going to walk away from $15 million a year. Likewise, CBS News is not ready to pay her to go away.

"It's not true," McManus said when asked by a reporter whether Couric will depart after the presidential inauguration in January, as many have speculated.

Couric also denied that that there was an exit date tied to inauguration. "We have no plans to part company anytime soon," she said. "We always assess how the show is doing and what direction we want to go in. Clearly when you work for an organization you have ongoing discussions. But I'm very committed to the people here and very committed to the product."

Fortunately for CBS News, Couric is a great pro who works hard and cares about serious news. She's genuine when she talks with pride about the work she's done on the CBS Evening News. "I spend every day being focused on doing the best job that I can," she said.

But the fact is, the program is still a distant third in the ratings behind NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and ABC World News with Charles Gibson, hitting record lows as the overall audience for network evening newscasts continues to erode. McManus says CBS News is focused on the quality of the newscast, not ratings. But the numbers will still ultimately decide whether this TV marriage can be saved.

Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel together in late night at ABC?

If you listen to ABC Entertainment president Stephen McPherson, it could happen.

At his Wednesday session with the Television Critics Association, McPherson diffused the inevitable question about Jay Leno jumping to ABC by having Jimmy Kimmel pose as an out-of-town reporter. ("If you were to even talk to Jay Leno, wouldn't that be like contract tampering? Wouldn't that be illegal? Couldn't you go to jail for that?") Very funny. But it doesn't change the equation. If Jay Leno doesn’t stay with NBC after he's done with the Tonight Show in May 2009, ABC is favored to become his new home. And McPherson acknowledged that’s OK with him. "Someone like Leno doesn't come along every year," McPherson said when cornered by reporters after his press conference. "That's a huge possibility."

What about Kimmel? "We love Jimmy," McPherson said. "He's a part of this network. He's a star that is building for us and is going to be an asset for us for many years to come." If the network pursues Leno, Kimmel will be in on those conversations. "The Leno talk is not something that's going to go on behind closed doors and suddenly be sprung on somebody," McPherson said.

No official talks have taken place, but you can bet both Leno's people and ABC execs have silently mouthed the words "call me" to each other.

Is there room for both late night talkers? "I think there's absolutely room for both," McPherson said. Kimmel recently signed for another year with ABC and his contract will probably be up again around the time Leno is available next year.

If Leno is paired with Kimmel, there is little doubt that Leno would get the 11:30 slot. Leno has said that his job is to tell jokes at 11:30, something he can't be guaranteed at Fox or in syndication. If Kimmel stuck around he would stand to benefit, getting a strong compatible lead-in to his show and eventually taking over the 11:30 slot (he's 40 while Leno is 58).

But there's more. McPherson also said moving Kimmel to 11:35 p.m. is also "a huge possibility" and described late night as "potentially a growth area for us."

Of course, all of these scenarios mean dislodging ABC's current late night occupant Nightline. The news division is clearly hearing the drumbeats about late night changes. The PR department of ABC News has been touting Nightline's recent strong ratings performance against The Late Show with David Letterman.

McPherson dodged a question about the future of Nightline in light of all the speculation about more late night talk and comedy on ABC. "I have no idea because Nightline doesn't report to me," he said.

It's a call that somebody is going to have to make soon.

More ABC at TCA:
• Fall TV Press Tour: ABC's Life on Mars to Amp Up the Mystery
• Ready for Scrubs: The Next Generation?
• ABC Announces Fall Premiere Dates
• Eli Stone Puts its "Faith" in Katie Holmes
• Exclusive: October Road Cutie Lands on Mars

Success means never having to say you’re sorry.

At his Monday session at the Television Critics Association, Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly didn’t get defensive when asked if he was "satisfied with the content" of his network’s squirm-inducing lie detector game show The Moment of Truth. In fact, he embraced the show. "This is Fox," he said. "We never give up our DNA… Fox is free to do those kinds of things and we're going to continue to do them. So no excuses for it."

What ever happened to the crazy Fox we once knew? When you walked into the ballroom for the network's TCA session, there would always be some nasty issue that sat there like a boil that needed to be lanced (Paula, O.J., Michael Jackson, Joe Millionaire — we could go on). You could see the entertainment president staring out into the audience as if he or she was watching for sniper fire.

Now Fox has ratings (No. 1 in viewers and the 18 to 49 demo), classy scripted shows (House, 24), the only slightly slowing steamroller that is American Idol and the most buzzed about new series going into the fall in J.J. Abrams' Fringe.

"I think (this) is a really healthy place to be at this point in the network, which is not precluded from doing anything," Reilly said. "You know we can do shows that are perhaps more traditionally franchised, not as niche-y by nature. We can do quality dramas. We can do Moment of Truth. We can do Secret Millionaire."

Indeed, no one is humiliated in its new reality series Secret Millionaire, in which undercover entrepreneurs give away money to worthy people and causes. Well, at least we don't think so. Fox seems to be able to have it both ways. It can be edgy, subversive and Fox-like when it needs to be. Or not.

But Reilly does see room for improvement. Fox is virtually out of business when it comes to live action half-hour comedies. "We need to rejuvenate our comedy brand," he said. He’s enlisted the creative team from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to develop a new series, Boldly Going Nowhere, which he described as "The Office in space." He also acknowledged that as Fox’s programming has broadened over the years its audience has gotten older. That's why the network is redoubling its effort to develop animated shows for Sunday night, which consistently score strong ratings among teens and young adults.

Reilly also noted that Fox execs have been huddling with the producers of American Idol in the hope of coming up with ways to keep ratings robust next season, like more half-hour results show. "You will see some fine-tuning," he said. Any big changes for Randy, Simon and Paula? "No changes in the judges," he said.

Complete TCA press tour coverage
• Fall TV Press Tour: 24, Fringe, Truth Talk & More
• Fall TV Press Tour: Prison Break's Big Reunion, Spin-off News, More

By the time the 2008 race for the White House is decided, NBC News political director Chuck Todd will have the most famous TV beard since Mitch Miller (Google him). Before joining NBC in 2007, Todd toiled for 15 years at Hotline, a newsletter for campaign insiders. The experience gave him a deep knowledge of the political process. Now he's a must-watch analyst on NBC and MSNBC — even inspiring two fan Web sites, VivaChuckTodd.com and ChuckToddFacts.com. Unauthorized Todd-worshiping merchandise is also available online. The Biz recently caught up with the goateed guru of all things electoral.

TVGuide.com: Do you think you'll soon reach a point where you'll be contractually obligated to keep the facial hair?
Chuck Todd: I've been teased that there were previous regimes at NBC News where this beard might not have lasted this long. I don't know. My late father would be proud. He had a beard all his life. He looked like Nero Wolfe.

TVGuide.com: What is it about you that viewers are responding to right now?
Todd: It's a little bit of dumb luck in this respect. The Democratic primary contest suddenly got decided in the weeds. There was a delegate fight. It became a fight about the rules of the process, not about who got the most votes in a state and who won a state. It became about the next level down which is back to the way all nominating contests used to be decided, which was about delegates not votes. I happened to spend 20 years caring about these delegate rules and the primary calendar and all these things that I used to have to keep up with at my previous job at Hotline. Suddenly it became useful information.

TVGuide.com: It feels as if the Democratic primary race became more complicated, your value to NBC News grew.
Todd: If somehow I have a lengthy career in television, it will all be thanks to the Democratic National Committee's rules and by-laws committee.

TVGuide.com: But you really love this stuff.
Todd: I love the minutiae. At the Hotline, our job was to know everything going on in politics down to the county and district level. It's a trade publication for campaign politics so you've got to know everything, not just presidential elections. I used to like to mock these people at national networks — "Yeah, every four years you get to be an expert on politics. Well guess what? When the presidential campaign is over I have to start caring about the Pittsburgh mayor."

TVGuide.com: Your other passion is sports.
Todd: It is. It's the same part of the brain. For a few years I worked at a sports publication. I realized that I missed politics and that you shouldn't make your hobby your full time job. It was a sports business publication and suddenly I'd go to a baseball or football game and I'd wonder, "Who's got the pour, Miller or Anheuser? What kind of signage do they use?" It was like, "Hey, wait a minute — I've got to get back to politics."

TVGuide.com: You were a good enough French horn player to earn a college scholarship.
Todd: There was a moment when I was deciding where I was going to go to school, and I thought am I going to do this music career thing or not? I chose not to, but that didn't mean I didn't want music to help pay for school. If I went to one school, and pursued a career in music, I'd probably have ended up as a high school band director somewhere. But I knew I wasn't good enough to be in some symphony. My father said I'd never be big enough to get a scholarship in sports, "no matter how good you think your jump shot is. Go play the French horn and you'll be surprised how much free money was out there." And he was right.

TVGuide.com: Do you vote? Not everyone who has a job like yours does.
Todd: Yes. My feeling is I am lucky enough to know more people about who these people are. I'm doing a disservice to myself if I don't vote. I get all this extra information. Who am I not to vote?

TVGuide.com: What do you think of the fan web sites about you?
Todd: It seems like the right thing to do is be embarrassed about it... but it's kind of cool. It's harmless, and I hope it stays harmless. It's better to have a fan site than a hate site.

TVGuide.com: Is there a secret about yourself that you'd like to reveal?
Todd: I would probably quit my job tomorrow if somebody asked me to be the play-by-play guy for University of Miami college football.

Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown has always tried to stay on the high road during his career. That wasn't so easy as cable news went on a tabloid spree (before its recent addiction to presidential politics). Starting this week, Brown is back on the air as anchor of the PBS' Wide Angle. The summer documentary series digs deep into international stories in a way you won't see on commercial news outlets (check out the lineup here). In the fall, Brown returns to his other new job as a journalism professor at Arizona State University. He recently brought the Biz up to speed on his post-CNN life.

TVGuide.com: What do you like best about your new situation?
Aaron Brown: The joy of the PBS audience is that they want to know stuff. It's not that they are smarter. I've never thought that. I just think they are more patient with the journalistic learning process. They want to know stuff and they don't need to know it in the first five seconds. They are not sitting there with the remote control in their hand.

TVGuide.com: The traveling you're doing for Wide Angle is taking you back to your years at ABC News. When they said get on the plane and go, you went.
Brown: I got on the plane and went every time everywhere for the eight years I worked for Peter Jennings. I just feel like I did that again the last two days. But it's fine. I had enough of one time. It's kind of like a cramp – it's OK if you know it ends. If you thought it was chronic pain, you'd kill yourself. (In September) I go back in a classroom with kids I love. It's a shock to me that I ended up in an academic setting. It's helpful to remember I never went to college.

TVGuide.com: What's your initial reaction to your students' impressions about how the TV journalism business works? Is it a bit of a shock to you?
Brown: Yes. Their view of the business is very broad. They see it all as "the business," as everything from the Travel Channel to ABC. I saw the business when I was their age as the networks and local TV. Their view of television is much broader. They are also incredibly cynical. A lot of that has to do with the Iraq war. They just saw journalism failing. It's not really their fault, but they haven't seen a lot. A lot of what I do is showing them things. It's a history class in many ways. Twenty-year old kids have never seen (TV footage) of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. How can a high school history teacher not have shown them that? The medium of television news was born that weekend. It's amazing the stuff they haven't seen. Their world begins at Columbine.

TVGuide.com: What do they gain from seeing what came before that event?
Brown: Understanding where the business came from, how it changes events, how events change it, how technology changes both, is important. That's what I teach. The fact that I lived a fair hunk of it is helpful, because I'm really honest with them about the good and bad of it.

TVGuide.com: You've certainly experienced the good and the bad.
Brown: Yeah. I was on a rooftop on the best day our business ever had on 9/11 and I was in the chair Robert Blake was arrested for murdering his wife. The joy in my life now is whatever else there is going to be, there are not going to be any more Anna Nicole Smiths or Robert Blakes in my life.

TVGuide.com: The cable news business sort of shifted under your feet in the years you were in it. You were hired as a guy who could report and anchor live for hours, but the business became more about personalities.
Brown: I think it did. Fox found its audience and the business was redefined as a business that loved or needed big broad opinionated personalities. When you look at what's successful on cable, that's what it is. Whether its Keith Olbermann, or Lou Dobbs or Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity – they tend to be big broad opinion guys. I was a news anchor of a different time. The people that I admired and taught me my craft were very traditional news anchors. Peter Jennings was the best news anchor ever born, not withstanding, he was a traditional news anchor. Before that the people I admired were reporters who became anchors. That's how I saw myself. That's how I thought I should do the job. If I sat down to do the job tomorrow, I'd do it exactly the same way.

It didn't take long for media critics and bloggers to start whining over how much time NBC News and its cable network are devoting to the death of Tim Russert.

"The Russert coverage will be remembered as one of the most embarrassing chapters in television journalism history," wrote whiner-in-chief Hal Boedeker of the Orlando Sentinel.

Too long. Too sentimental. Too self-indulgent. Boedeker and others are certainly entitled to rant. But to suggest that the coverage was a disservice to the viewer shows a complete lack of understanding about cable news works and the TV landscape in general.

Let's look at the news value of Russert's death. Here was a guy who had been at the top TV journalist in Washington for more than a decade and was only getting bigger during the 2008 presidential campaign. He was a rare instance of someone who was an iconic TV presence and still vital to the national conversation. In an instant, he was gone. There has never been an occurrence like that in the history of television. The death of ABC's Peter Jennings, arguably a more dominant presence at his network than Russert was at NBC, was monumentally heart breaking. But once the news was out that Jennings had lung cancer, his coworkers and the public had months to prepare for the end.

The sudden departure of Russert is likely to have an impact on the coverage of the presidential campaign in ways that we won't know until well after November. The Sunday morning public affairs shows have a major role in setting the agenda for the campaign and Meet the Press was hot seat where guests squirmed the most. What happens with the program over the next few months is bound to be a story.

Russert also happened to be a colorful figure and a really good guy. All of the nice things his colleagues and friends have said about him in recent days were actually true.

So do those points justify round the clock cable news coverage on MSNBC? If you care about Tim Russert, yes. If you don't, Nielsen Media Research says the average TV household has more than 118 channels to choose from. If you want to look at the same footage of floods in the Midwest, you could have watched CNN, Fox News Channel, Headline News or your local non-NBC affiliate. Let's not forget the Internet.

Russert's death was a big story that happened in NBC’s house and the network owned it. It was a story that many viewers wanted to immerse themselves in, judging from the boost in MSNBC's ratings the weekend after he died. The public was not disenfranchised in any way by MSNBC's saturation approach. To think otherwise, is to live in the past.

Related Russert News:
• This Week, Brian Williams Will Meet the Press
• The Biz Asks: Who Will Be Russert's Successor?
• Remembering Tim Russert, TV's Political Enthusiast
• TV Guide's Last Interview with Tim Russert

Executives at NBC News are still reeling over the death of friend and colleague Tim Russert. But soon they will have to come up with a plan about how to proceed with their coverage of the 2008 Presidential campaign, which includes picking Russert's successor at Meet the Press. While we believe there are only two real candidates for the job, here's what we think about all the names that have been thrown out there.

Tom Brokaw: If he took the job on an interim basis — a possibility — the former NBC Nightly News anchor could give Meet the Press the gravitas that Sunday morning viewers like. It could also help heal the shock of losing Russert. But corporately, NBC rarely goes for short-term solutions.

David Gregory: The best and most logical choice in light of his experience as chief White House correspondent and his Russert-like fearlessness as an interrogator. CBS News was eyeing Gregory to succeed Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation, but his contract with NBC runs well into 2009.

Chuck Todd: The network’s political director was recruited by Russert. He's getting better on the air all the time. With Gregory at Meet the Press, he would be a strong choice for Russert's behind the scenes role as Washington bureau chief and sit at the side of NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams during convention and election night coverage.

Chris Matthews: The Hardball host is simply too partisan and a lightning rod for criticism. He’s also fallen out of favor at NBC News. His contract is up next year and the network only wants to keep him at a lower salary.

Joe Scarborough: After being adrift for years in MSNBC’s prime time line-up, he's finally getting some traction with Morning Joe, the show that replaced Imus in the Morning. But his Republican partisan background is still too fresh to viewers and Washington insiders for him to be a credible choice.

Katie Couric: Russert first brought her into NBC News and she's made politics a priority at the CBS Evening News. But if the traditional evening news audience doesn’t like her, it's hard to imagine that she’d catch on with the even the stodgier Sunday morning public affairs viewer. If Couric does return to NBC News, she's going to have to wrap her mind around the idea of being on MSNBC.

Related Russert News:
• Remembering Tim Russert, TV's Political Enthusiast
• Brokaw to Tribute Russert on June 15 Meet the Press
• TV Guide's Last Interview with Tim Russert
• Meet the Press' Tim Russert Dead at 58

Watch any TV news roundtable with Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria and you can be sure the discussion will have some nutritious calories. Now Zakaria has got his own roundtable. Starting June 1 at 1 p.m. ET on CNN, he'll host Fareed Zakaria — GPS, a weekly hour devoted to international affairs (the initials stand for global public square). Each Sunday, the show will include a 25-minute interview with an important world player (former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the first guest). Zakaria recently shared his global wisdom with The Biz.

TVGuide.com: How many people have asked you why you're naming your show Global Positioning System?
Fareed Zakaria: [Laughs] You know what, you’re the first. Let me put it this way: One of the attractions of the name was the fact that it had a groovy acronym. We're trying to prove that international affairs can be hip and cool.

TVGuide.com: So you're embracing the dual meaning.
Zakaria: Yes. You'll see with the graphics we embrace it.

TVGuide.com: You're a go-to guest when news shows want analysis of global issues. Did you have to be talked into being locked into a show every week?
Zakaria: Yeah. For me the part that made it attractive was that I could construct my own show and do something that would have some impact. I love being a guest on other shows, but this is ultimately more fulfilling. The one show that I will continue to be a guest on is The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, if he'll have me. It's not competitive with CNN and it's too much fun.

TVGuide.com: You're always yourself on The Daily Show. You don't try to be funny. You deliver the same kind of information that we see you provide in other venues. You let Stewart do the jokes.
Zakaria: Precisely. If you think of something funny, you go with it. But people who come there with canned jokes, it's a disaster. Jon Stewart is funnier than you. He's also very intelligent. You can have an intelligent conversation with him and he'll figure out how to make it funny.

TVGuide.com: You've been ranked in a couple of places as one of the top intellectuals in the world. How do you be an intellectual on television today when everything tends to be quick and dumb?
Zakaria: I'm going to try. That's part of the challenge here. When I talked to [CNN chief] Jon Klein about the show I said I would want it to be a different show than some of the other stuff on CNN. He was receptive to the idea of a show that would be more thoughtful and more deliberative. The centerpiece of the show is going to be a 25-minute interview — a one-on-one conversation. I think that in a sense sets the tone. I think there's a way to make conversation and analysis compelling.

TV Guide.com: How do you get viewers to care more about international news?
Zakaria: Things happening around the world are affecting you and me. The connection is not drawn very clearly. One of my challenges is to draw that connection better. During the Cold War, we were interested because we were scared that Russia and the United States were going to go to war. We were scared that Russia was going to take over the world. Every country became a battleground. [Today] people are trying to scare us about terrorism. But one sign that we don’t think this threat is on the same order is that it isn't taking. The thing that scared us most about the Soviets was the ideological threat — the idea that the world could be seduced by their alternate vision of how to order society. No one thinks the Islamic fundamentalists have a compelling alternate vision. We're not as engaged and interested. We're interested enough that we want to beat up bad guys. But we're not interested enough to find out what's going on in Pakistan, why is there an interest or rise in the Taliban. That's my challenge, to get people interested in the world without being scared of it.

TVGuide.com: Your new book, The Post-American World, examines the idea that the days of United States being the dominant super power in the world are dwindling. Other countries are catching up in so many different ways. This might not be a popular notion with the cable news audience. Have you been confronted much about this idea when you go on these shows to talk about it?
Zakaria: I'm surprised at how little push back I've gotten. What I'm describing is really happening around the world. You can see it palpably when you travel. I think most Americans feel it even sitting here. I think you can draw what conclusion you want from it, but the fact that we are going through this historic shift. I don't get a lot of push back on that fundamental fact.

We've been hearing a lot of industry whining lately about how technology is ravaging the traditional TV business model. Starting next season, Fox will actually try to do something about it.

One reason viewers love watching their favorite shows on digital video recorders is because they can skip through commercials. And who can blame them? Network ad and promo time has been creeping up for years. So next season, Fox will designate two of its new drama series as "Remote-Free TV" which will carry at least 50 minutes of program content per hour compared to the usual 42 to 44 minutes.

That means the typical load of commercials and promos will be cut nearly in half. Fox will try the experiment in its new sci-fi series Fringe, which is set to air Tuesdays at 9, and Dollhouse, airing Mondays at 8 starting in January. Fox entertainment chairman Peter Liguori says he is committed to keeping the limited number of spots on the two shows for the full season.

Fox sales chief Jon Nesvig said advertisers are always asking for the first or last positions in a commercial pod, so that viewers will see their spots before they can skip through them or flip the channel. With "Remote-Free TV," "We won't have much else," Nesvig told The Biz after the network's May 15 presentation.

Obviously, Fox hopes it can charge more for the spots that run on Fringe and Dollhouse since they'll be fewer of them. But there's no guarantee there will be an immediate financial gain. "Some advertisers will recognize the value of it and they'll set the market," says Liguori. "We have no idea."

The cost of the production on the shows will also increase, since at least one extra scene will have to be shot to fill the added time. But if the plan works, more people will be sitting through those commercials and the money will follow. Meanwhile, the viewers are getting more show and shorter interruptions.

Nesvig first raised the idea of addressing the issue of commercial clutter after watching TV while on a hotel treadmill. As Liguori relates, "We were in the scheduling room and [Jon] said, 'I've got to tell you, there are a lot of commercials on the air.' We all started riffing on it."

Maybe more executives should spend their time watching TV the way viewers do.

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• Fox's Fringe, Dollhouse to Run with Half the Ads

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Comedy is hard for network TV these days. But CBS thinks it's worth it. The network's big move for the 2008-09 season is to start a new sitcom block on Wednesday night. Encouraged by the strong post-strike ratings performance of its Monday line-up, CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler wants to see if The New Adventures of Old Christine can stand on its own at 8 pm on the night. The payoff could be big. Advertisers like sitcoms. They skew younger than most dramas. Their content is less problematic. Unlike serialized dramas, they can be repeated. And there are not a whole lot of them on in network prime time anymore.

Can Christine cut it? Let's put it this way — the bar is pretty low. CBS started this season with Kid Nation, which was delivering less than a 2 rating in the advertiser-coveted demo of viewers aged 18-to-49. If Christine can do a 2-and-change, and the new comedy Project Gary can hold onto most of those viewers at 8:30, CBS will be ahead of the game. If either of the shows falters the network has another known quantity, Rules Of Engagement, to put in the hour.

CBS gave its strongest new sitcom, Worst Week, the 9:30 time slot after Two and a Half Men. While single-camera comedies have never worked on CBS, Week depends on over-the-top visual gags. The clips went over big with the Carnegie Hall audience at CBS's upfront presentation on Wednesday.

The network could also see a net gain on Tuesday with the move of the durable Without A Trace to Tuesday at 10. Jerry Bruckheimer's new show Eleventh Hour is it bit on the dark side, but should work after CSI on Thursdays. And give CBS credit for not caving into the rabid (but small) group of fans who clamored for the return of Moonlight. Will its replacement The Ex List do much better on Friday at 9? Who knows? But broadcast networks will niche themselves out of existence if they stick with shows that have limited appeal instead of taking as many shots as they can at creating big hits.

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In one of those last-minute instances that occur in a network scheduling session, someone at the CW decided to change the title from one of its new series from How To Teach Filthy Rich Girls to Surviving the Filthy Rich.

Perhaps the CW has survival on its mind. As the struggling network served drinks before unveiling its new schedule to advertisers on Tuesday (thank you!), industry types were wondering out loud if the CW would be around a year from now.

That being said, the network appears to be going into 2008-09 a bit leaner and more focused. The new version of 90210 looks like "Gossip Girl West." Surviving Filthy Rich takes the decadent teen milieu to Palm Beach, Florida.

One Tree Hill lives on. The marketing campaign theme could be: Horny Teens Welcome Here. We kid. When you include America’s Next Top Model and the new Stylista (a reality competition where young people compete for a job at Elle magazine and be subjected to Devil Wears Prada-type abuse), CW will have a pretty good audience flow of young female viewers through the first three days of the week. If it makes it to 2009-10, it can build that out to a fourth night and beyond.

As of now, the rest of the week will be a hodgepodge of what’s left: the aging Smallville and Supernatural on Thursday and Everybody Hates Chris, The Game and a repeat of America’s Next Top Model on Friday.

Sunday has been handed over to production company Media Rights Capital (sounds like something you'd hear about on CNBC), but the actual shows were not announced.

Over at ABC, entertainment president Stephen McPherson is going for a do-over of the strike-interrupted 2007-08 season, with a few tweaks. The final 13 episodes of Boston Legal will play out on Monday at 10 where its older audience appeal is more compatible with Dancing With the Stars.

Every year ABC picks up a show that its execs like but that most viewers are ignoring. This year, it's Eli Stone, which gets another chance on Tuesday at 10 pm/ET. Life On Mars, based on the BBC series about a cop transported back to the 1970s, lands in the 10 pm/ET slot on Thursdays after Grey's Anatomy. The other new show for the fall is Opportunity Knocks, a series from Ashton Kutcher in which a neighborhood is transformed into a game show set. Think of it as "Extreme Makeover: Goodson-Todman." It will air Tuesday at 8 pm/ET, before Dancing with the Stars. ABC has also thrown in the towel on scripted series for Friday, moving Wife Swap and Supernanny onto the night with 20/20.

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If the annual spring ritual known as the network television upfront soon disappears, historians will say the end began on May 12, 2008 as ad agency execs marched into something called the NBC Experience.

NBC decided to dump the traditional Radio City Music Hall stage show in which new programs are announced, schedules are analyzed and stars are paraded out. Instead, ad buyers snaked through the NBC Experience Store in Rockefeller Plaza where they were bombarded with images and from numerous NBC Universal properties. Late Night host Conan O’Brien described it as “the epilepsy hut.” He joked that the next NBC upfront would be held at a falafel stand on 49th Street.

The 100-day writers' strike provided an excuse for NBC to try this glitzy experiment (its actual fall line-up was announced a month ago, but look for changes once the other networks weigh in with their schedules this week). The development season was delayed, and many pilots for the fall season were not ready to be screened. But the network had its own reason to trot out some new smoke and mirrors. With another fourth place finish in the ratings this season, the message about prime time would not have been good. So why not dazzle the crowd with the stuff that is working in the NBC Universal family — USA Network, the Sci-Fi Channel, Bravo, CNBC and the Today Show? Heck, even MSNBC has a good story to tell lately. And let’s just say you don’t have to know Spanish to enjoy looking at the newscasters from Telemundo. There was even a room to watch trailers from upcoming theatrical films from Universal. I guess some of those films will be on TV eventually right?

Sure NBC wanted to divert attention from its problems with this approach. But after experiencing the Experience, you could see that television really has changed forever. The strike has disrupted the cycle of new shows being developed in the spring and launched in the fall. Yes, the increase in choices is diminishing broadcast network ratings. But more alarming is the generation of viewers who are watching what they want when they want it through digital video recorders and the Internet. We're headed for the day when a prime time schedule that demands viewers show up at a designated time will be a relic of the past. At the NBC Experience, that day got a lot closer.

In 2005, Bill Hemmer became one of the biggest on-air names from CNN to jump to Fox News Channel. He's traveled the world as a correspondent for FNC, but it's taken the 2008 Presidential campaign for him to emerge as a leading anchor for the channel. Paired with up-and-comer Megyn Kelly, Hemmer is now on three hours a day with America's Newsroom and a daily 5 pm show dedicated to political news, America's Election HQ. He's also become a fixture during FNC's primary coverage providing analysis through a multi-touch sensing screen nicknamed "The Bill Board" (not to be confused with CNN's "Magic Wall," although it's the same technology). The Biz caught up with Hemmer after another night of electoral number-crunching.

TVGuide.com: You've done a lot of reporting on big stories for Fox. But on cable news, it helps to have a destination where viewers can find you everyday. Are you finding that viewers have been rediscovering you lately?
Hemmer: I'm flattered that Fox chose Megyn and me to do America's Election HQ at 5. It's a necessary part of our programming. It has helped me have a voice on what I consider to be the most important story facing our nation today.

TVGuide.com: But I've got to believe you're happier.
Hemmer: Oh, entirely yes.

TVGuide.com: As a veteran of cable news, you had a reputation as a guy who could put in long hours on the air. It doesn't seem like you had the real estate to do that at Fox until now.
Hemmer: When I joined Fox there was no room at the inn. We were No. 1 across the board in households and demos. There was no wiggle room. I think we've seen now that opportunity to put all the resources of Fox News Channel together and to do it in that 5 o'clock program. It's been a terrific outlet for us.

TVGuide.com: You felt you had to wait your turn?
Hemmer: Entirely. I think everyone has to. That does not mean the next time a story breaks somewhere that I don't want to be the first one out the door.

TVGuide.com: Why do you think the on-air pairing with Megyn Kelly is working?
Hemmer: That elusive chemistry that people try to find - over the years you figure out that's something that can never be forced. From day one, we had that together on television. She's very eager and intelligent and she picked up television very quickly. She was a lawyer four years ago in the corporate world. She has the ability to grasp a lot of information quickly and interpret it and communicate it. Cable news is a job that requires you to be nimble mentally and emotionally and she has that.

TVGuide.com: You're a very seasoned guy, yet you look young. You don't look like you're sitting there with your daughter.
Hemmer: I take that as high praise. That's proof that it works and we've seen the ratings build.

TVGuide.com: How do you like using the Bill Board?
Hemmer: It's a giant walking, moving, breathing iPhone. I think it's a whole new universe that television is about to explore. You can do literally anything you want with that screen so long as you program it. The creator of it, Jeff Han, told me he did not think there would be a use for it in television only because he hadn't thought about it. Some people consider it a toy or a gadget. I consider it a valuable tool in our election coverage. Meaning and context on a story is very important. Viewers want to be able to decipher these enormous numbers and for us to give context and meaning to all of that, we need a device like the Bill Board.