Bill O'Reilly was the #1 Newsmaker on MSNBC's Countdown tonight, thanks to his quote on yesterday's ticker.

O'Reilly "told his audience that on Election Night, at this hour, nine times as many Americans were watching Fox News as were watching MSNBC," Keith Olbermann explained. "Actually, they had seven and a half million viewers at 8 Eastern last Tuesday, and we had 2.6. That wouldn't be nine times as many...that would be less than three times as many."

And the punchline: "Too bad Billy isn't as good with a calculator -- or a brain -- as he is with a loofah."

NBC Universal is "committed to the current direction" of MSNBC, chairman and CEO Bob Wright says in a wide-ranging interview with TVWeek. "Rick Kaplan has brought a lot to the table," Wright said. "I think MSNBC is cleaner, more straightforward, more predictable and very well produced. We'd obviously like to have a much larger share of the audience than we have today." He says the network needs to learn some lessons from FNC's rapid growth.

Also, Wright says CNBC is in "a good position," since CNNfn is closing its doors soon. (The more important question to ask, of course, is about FNC's plans for a business channel, and how its emergence could impact CNBC.)

And on the subject of CNBC's prime time: Broadening the network's programming beyond business has "always been a bit of a struggle," Wright said. "Actually we were kind of better at that about 10 years ago." (Roger Ailes was running CNBC 10 years ago...Was Bob Wright's comment a coincidence?)

B&C went behind-the-scenes at the networks on election night, and recaps it in this week's print edition. Some of the highlights:

> "At CNN, producers and others whispered about what other networks were reporting—information that was popping up on their Blackberries, thanks to well-meaning friends."

> "Carl Cameron faithfully remained for hours at his post at the site of Kerry's rally in Boston. But at 1:40 a.m., he needed a break. 'Can Carl go to the men's room?' producer [Bob] Males called across the crowded control room to Marty Ryan, executive producer for political coverage. No answer. Males made the command decision: 'I'm sending Carl to the men's room.'"

> When "Susan Estrich lapsed into filibuster mode" on FNC, Brit Hume repeatedly tried to cut her off. "When he finally managed to reclaim the air for a moment, two voices in the control room yelled, 'Cut her mike! Cut her mike!'"

> "Colonel, do you have enough troops on the ground?" That's a question for a military official, right? No. On Fox News around 12:50pm, David Asman quizzed FNC embed Scott Rutter as if he was leading the fight, and Rutter obliged. "We, we, we!" "Our troops!" At one point, Asman asked Rutter about the terrorists "you're fighting." Has he picked up a rifle?

> CNN's Karl Penhaul reports U.S. forces are jamming satellite phone signals, so the network can't broadcast live video from Fallujah. (Lost Remote has details.)

> CBS calls it the "Showdown in Fallujah." On CNN, it's the "Battle of Falluja." FNC seems to be tagging it "Operation Phantom Fury."

> "The cable networks all have great pictures coming in from Fallujah," Joann says. "But unfortunately, their graphics from the 'lower thirds' are blocking much of the action."

> Here's an easy prediction to make: The Pentagon briefing at 2pm today will receive roadblock coverage.

> NY Metro checks out McEnroe, from the audience: "Noon: Audience members begin gathering. There are about 60, almost all tourists lured by midtown hawkers yelling “Free tickets."

> "A CRTC announcement on whether the controversial Fox News Channel can be televised uninterrupted in Canada is imminent, after Global Television gave final confirmation it won't be launching a Canadianized version," the Ottawa Citizen reports.

> Lou Dobbs criticized the mainstream media in an address at the NY Press Club's Conference on Journalism. "We allowed candidates and parties to set the agenda ... and failed to cover important issues," he said. NYU's student newspaper sums it up...

Broadcasting & Cable's take on how the election will impact the "bogus 60 Minutes II story" investigation: "Pre-election, the feeling in some quarters at CBS was that if Kerry triumphed, fallout from the investigation would be relatively minimal. The controversial piece’s producer, Mary Mapes, would likely be suspended or fired, but a long list of others up the chain of command -- from 60 Minutes II executive producer Josh Howard, to Rather and all the way up to news division President Andrew Heyward -- would escape more or less unscathed. But now, faced with four more years of President Bush, executives at CBS parent Viacom could take a harder line on the executives involved."

...That's according to a Cox News puff piece profile today. "Gupta is where he is thanks to a potent combination of brains, ambition, boundless curiosity and a seemingly hard-wired-in-the-DNA zeal for testing the limits of whatever's possible," the story says...
> Update: Calling Jill Vejnoska a "CNN embed," an insider says "her stuff sounds like it comes out of an HR newsletter."

When was the last time you saw a quote from FNC chairman Roger Ailes in a newspaper article? (Think about it.)

Yes, it's been a while. He's been press-shy lately. But the New York Times gets a scoop in Monday morning editions.

"We'll always be the scrappy kids with the nose up against the glass," Ailes says, despite this paragraph from Jacques Steinberg: "...The ratings bonanza presents a conundrum for Fox. It has long presented itself as the scrappy underdog, but its executives acknowledge that such a tactic becomes trickier when the network is ranked No. 1 among cable news channels." It is this morning's must-read...

> Plus: What a cute photo illustration!

> Joe Scarborough was on the mark: While other pundits said the youth vote would be crucial, Joe knew otherwise. He was to-the-point all night. "He called it all, dead-on," one insider points out. And he did it despite terribly bad back pain.

> CNN had more people watching: While FNC had higher ratings, CNN had 38 million unique viewers, versus Fox's 32 million unique viewers on Nov 2. In the CUME, CNN led FNC in every demo. [Update: "Everyone in the industry knows cume is a joke," an industry insider says. "It's worthless to advertisers and it's a laughable that CNN touts it."]

> The Googling monkeys were at work: ABC News was the only network to call all 88 counties in Ohio, so the network could say, with confidence, that there were about 145,000 provisional ballots. "That's something the Kerry campaign and the other news organizations in the country didn't do," a source notes.

> Exit polls aren't God: When it comes to exit polls, the "first and second waves" are always weird. The early numbers may offer demographic trends, but they don't reveal who is likely to win. And as one cable insider put it: "If they were perfect, why would we have elections? They are merely a guide."

FNC chairman Roger Ailes comments on the development of an FNC-inspired business channel: "I can't say much, other than the fact we're in development phases, doing feasibility studies, looking at revenue projections," he tells Jacques Steinberg. He says the network will have "a certain pace, graphics, look the others don't have..."

CBS News producer Kirk Spitzer is going to have a long, long day. He deserves credit for his reporting from Fallujah on Sunday. Spitzer, who is embedded with U.S. Special Forces and the Iraqi 36th Commando Battalion, was with soldiers as they stormed the city's main hospital.

Anchor Mika Brzezinski broke news of the assault just before 5pm in a CBS News Special Report. The CBS Evening News featured "exclusive pictures" from "the first American television journalist inside Fallujah." He is serving as a pool reporter...

> NBC News correspondent Kevin Sites is with the third battalion, first Marine regiment.

> CNN's Jane Arraf and Karl Penhaul are both "near Fallujah." [note to CNN chyron op at 10pm: It's not Panhaul]

> FNC Lt. Col. Scott Rutter is embedded with Task Force 2-2 of the 1st infantry division. FNC's Greg Palkot is embedded with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.

> CBS's Elizabeth Palmer is embedded with the First Marine Expeditionary Force preparing for battle in Fallujah.

> The BBC's Paul Wood is "embedded with US Marines near Fallujah"

> Ann Garrels of National Public Radio is with the USMC on the periphery of Fallujah.

> Add to this list, or update it: E-mail tvnewser@mediabistro.com.

"Media embedded with the Marines are rethinking their [roles]," this Marine Corps story asserts. "Some of them are even reconsidering whether they want to carry through with their original plan of moving with a front line unit." One CNN reporter pointed out that while the Marine was trained for the battle, the media was not...

> More than 30 media reps are embedded with units around Fallujah.

> An e-mail from Johnny Dollar at 6:45pm: "Fox is covering the move into Fallujah, showing video, etc. MSNBC is showing the living habits of wild elephants."

> Geraldo Rivera's wisdom: "There is no way, ladies and gentlemen, that we can leave this alamo in the middle of Iraq as we head toward elections."

> Fox News can't seem to decide: Will it be Falluja or Fallujah?

> The News Hounds say Fox News is treating the battle "like a big rock concert."