TV

Yesterday, it became clear that the rumors were true: Oprah Winfrey will be leaving her network TV show in 2011.

Tim Bennett, CEO of Winfrey's production company Harpo, sent a letter to the local television stations that broadcast her show yesterday, letting them know that "The Oprah Winfrey Show" would be coming to an end in September 2011. After, Winfrey will appear on her cable channel, OWN.

Winfrey will inform her audience of her decision on her show today. The announcement was taped live at 10 a.m. and has already aired on some stations. (The New York Times' media blog has a full description of the announcement.)

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This morning, mediabistro.com's senior editor Donya Blaze spoke with New Yorker columnist and author of "Googled: The End of the World as we Know It," Ken Auletta for our upcoming video series Media Beat. In addition to discussing the book (Nora Ephron helped him out with the title), we asked Auletta about the Letterman extortion plot:

• We'll be launching MediaBeat soon, on mediabistro.com, across our blog network and on MediaBeat.com featuring the biggest names in media, PR, advertising and TV. Stay tuned...

The battle between whether or not to pay for online content made a cameo appearance on last night's episode of "The Office."

When The Wall Street Journal, or "The Wall," wrote a story about Dunder Mifflin's impending bankruptcy, the show's office drones struggled with accessing the article, which was behind a pay wall.

While we know there are many people out there like Michael Scott who would just guess at the ending of the story before paying $1.99 to read it, we're thankful there are people like Jim and Andy who actually have subscriptions and passwords to the site. Take note media world: if characters on "The Office" will pay for it, real people probably will, too.

If we hadn't seen this ad with our own eyes last night on MTV, we would have never believed it to be real. Looks like the network has decided to base an entire reality series on a certain viral video about Jager bombs and new haircuts.

Yes, the upcoming series "Jersey Shore" will take a probing look at the fascinating sub-culture of the fist-pumping guido, a stereotype that has already been mocked to the point of exhaustion. In fact, MTV has already delved into this area a few times for its "True Life" series. Aren't there some less annoying groups of people somewhere beyond the East and West Coasts that MTV could draw inspiration from?

If Comcast ends up with a controlling interest in General Electric-owned NBC Universal, it looks like NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker will be staying on to lead the new venture.

Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources:

"Under the terms being discussed, Zucker will lead the new entity, with no clauses for him to leave after a specific period, the sources said on Tuesday...There has been a lot of speculation about who would head the new company, especially since Peter Chernin -- the former president of News Corp. -- has been advising Comcast.

The sources said Zucker would be chief executive, but no decisions had been made on what role Chernin might play, if any. Discussions about what the new board would look like are ongoing, the sources said."

Comcast has been in talks to purchase a controlling interest in NBCU for a number of weeks, and a deal is expected to be announced soon. By keeping Zucker on, it looks like Comcast is putting its faith in him. But can NBC's recent ratings challenges all be chalked up to the the recently departed Ben Silverman?

Zucker to head new NBCU-Comcast venture -- sources --Reuters

Earlier: Comcast Purchase of NBCU Stake A Done Deal?

(Photo via)

Peter Dunn, president and GM of WCBS-TV, now has the additional job of overseeing CBS' 29 stations across the country.

In an email to staff, obtained by FishbowlNY, CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves writes, "Peter has been a terrific leader in every role he's had at our station group, from President of Sales to running two of our biggest stations. He knows how to deliver results and inspire the best work from his people, and knows the local marketplace as well as anyone."

Dunn replaces Tom Kane who had held the job since Sept. 2005. Kane was previously president and GM of WABC-TV.

Moonves' email after the jump...

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We're not sure how many Glenn Beck fans read FishbowlNY, but if you are familiar with the talk show host's conspiratorial style, you'll appreciate Jon Stewart's impression from last night's "Daily Show."

Related: FishbowlNY Editor On The Menu: Layoffs, Glenn Beck and Election Night

There haven't been too many media deals recently, so today's announcement is exciting. Scripps Networks Interactive Inc., which currently owns the lifestyle cable channels Food Network and HGTV, announced today that it has entered into a joint venture with Cox Communications that will result in Scripps owning a controlling interest in the Travel Channel -- valued at $975 million.

The transaction, which is expected to close in January, will leave Cox with a 35 percent stake in the Travel Channel, while Scipps will own 65 percent. Scripps is paying $181 million in cash and the partnership between Scripps and Cox will take on $878 million in third-party debt, the companies said.

"Adding the Travel Channel, and its related enterprises, provides us with a unique opportunity to meaningfully expand our portfolio into a lifestyle category that's highly desirable to media consumers, advertisers and programming distributors," said Scripps CEO Kenneth Lowe, in a statement on the deal. "Our vision for Travel follows the same script that's made Food Network and HGTV two of the most powerful brands in all of television. By lending our unparalleled expertise in developing successful lifestyle media businesses, we have every confidence that we can build on Travel's strong brand identity and leverage the successes achieved to date by the top-notch team at Travel Channel and our new partners at Cox Communications."

Full release after the jump

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WNET.org -- the parent company of New York's local television stations Thirteen and WLIW21 -- has some good news and some bad news. The good news is WLIW21 (which also happens to be the third most-watched PBS station in the country), is launching a new video portal for their Web site.

Though you can already watch some WLIW21 shows online, starting tomorrow, "You will see a video portal akin to www.pbs.org/video -- a one-stop shop for viewing thousands of hours of national and local programming," a WNET publicist told FishbowlNY. So, for the first time ever, you won't even need a television to zone out to Bob Ross. The future: Today!

The bad news?

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Last month, the New York City Voter Assistance Commission partnered with WNBC and NYC TV to launch the Video Voter Guide in order to give voters non-partisan information about all the candidates running for office as it led up to run-off elections.

Now, with the general elections looming next week, the Video Voter Guide is back, featuring recorded messages from candidates running for Mayor, Public Advocate, Comptroller, Borough President, and City Council from now through November 3.

If you're like us and know very little about any candidate besides those running for mayor, you can watch on NYC TV and WNBC's NY Nonstop channel.

Earlier: Video Voter Guide To Launch Next Week