Fox News Moscow correspondent Dana Lewis is leaving the network, TVNewser has learned. And after 12 years in Russia, he’ll also be moving out of his Moscow home. Lewis tells TVNewser, he’ll be “pushing on to new adventures still to be determined.”

Before FNC, Lewis was a correspondent for NBC News. He was one of the first correspondents to enter Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Before NBC, Lewis was a reporter and anchor for CBC news and CTV News in Canada.

Lewis says he’s leaving Fox on “the best of terms,” opting not to take a post in the Jerusalem bureau as he’s looking for a more Western locale for his school-age sons. Lewis last reported for FNC on June 1 from Jerusalem.

Lewis’ departure comes during a week of sudden renewed interest in Russia among Americans, thanks to Anna Chapman and the supposed Russian spy ring.

MSNBC’s “Way Too Early” host Willie Geist made his debut as Matt Lauer‘s fill-in on the “Today” show today, increasing his visibility 25 fold, from a couple hundred thousand viewers to about 5 million. Geist filled in for Ann Curry earlier this week on the news desk, but this was the first time he was at the anchor desk from 7am onward.

This got us thinking about who gets chosen for the plum spots at the nation’s #1 morning news show when the regulars are out.

NBC has no shortage of female anchors who can fill in for Meredith Vieira — Curry, Natalie Morales, Amy Robach, Tamron Hall.

But what about male fill-ins? MSNBC is often seen as the farm team for NBC News. Think: Williams, Holt, Morales, Robach, etc. But what male current MSNBC host would be trusted in Matt Lauer’s chair? Scarborough? Olbermann? Ratigan? Matthews?

Often, these fill in slots are worked in to the talent contracts and it’s no secret that Geist has the confidence of some people pretty high up at NBC. So will we see more of him on the “Today” show? Stay tuned. But as of tomorrow he’s back to his regular gigs at “Way to Early” and “Morning Joe.”

• Earlier on MediaBeat: Willie Geist on His Show and Staying at MSNBC

25-54 demographic: (L +SD)

Total day: FNC: 328 | CNN: 123 | MSNBC: 126 | HLN: 140

Prime: FNC: 632 | CNN: 145 | MSNBC: 248 | HLN: 206

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Beck:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:
	474	346	349	766	622	509	444
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	KingUSA:	Brown:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	133	91	95	79	149	208	201
MSNBC	Matthews:	EdShow:	Matthews:	Olbermann:	Maddow:	Olbermann:	Maddow:
	100	109	134	244	290	208	151
HLN	Showbiz:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	Behar:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	70	166	171	249	155	219	159

Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

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Fox News Channel host and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is taking his show to broadcast syndication.

According to TVNewsCheck, Twentieth television is rolling out a six week preview of “The Huckabee Show” on the Fox Television Stations in seven markets, including New York, Boston and Dallas.

The show will be separate from his Fox News program “Huckabee,” but will feature a very similar format. It will be taped in New York in front of a live audience.

Twentieth Television, the Fox Stations Group and Fox News Channel all fall under the watch of FNC founder and chairman Roger Ailes at News Corp.

Syndication is a popular route for talk show hosts, with its lucrative deals and (potential) national reach, as Oprah Winfrey can attest to. Though as the broadcast stations have been hit hard by the recession and competition from cable and the Web, fewer and fewer mega-deals have been signed.

Matt Taibbi (right) thinks CBS News correspondent Lara Logan “sucks.” He said so in a blog post on RollingStone.com this week:

But now we get CBS News Chief Foreign Correspondent Lara Logan slamming our own Michael Hastings on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” program, agreeing that the Rolling Stone reporter violated an “unspoken agreement” that journalists are not supposed to “embarrass [the troops] by reporting insults and banter.”

Anyone who wants to know why network television news hasn’t mattered since the seventies just needs to check out this appearance by Logan.

Interesting that Taibbi thinks network news “hasn’t mattered since the seventies.” It’s network TV news that has kept his father, NBC News correspondent Mike Taibbi (right), employed for more than 15 years. Matt Taibbi even targets NBC in his screed against Logan:

And true, most of the major TV outlets are completely in the bag for the Pentagon, with two of them (NBC/GE and Logan’s own CBS, until recently owned by Westinghouse, one of the world’s largest nuclear weapons manufacturers) having operated for years as leaders in both the broadcast media and weapons-making businesses.

Matt’s dad worked for CBS during the days of the Westinghouse ownership. Westinghouse sold its defense business to Northrup Gruman in 1996 and sold CBS to Viacom in 1999.

As for Logan, a CBS News spokesperson tells TVNewser, “Anyone who watches Lara’s reporting, whether it’s from a war zone or anywhere else, knows it’s journalism of the highest caliber.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper picked up yet another award for his Haiti earthquake coverage on Sunday. This one — the LA Press Club’s Presidents Award — was presented to him by Sean Penn. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was also in attendance.

As part of his separation agreement with CNN, Larry King has the option to join another network or media outlet when he leaves his nightly show, two people familiar with the agreement tell TVNewser.

King has already committed to doing occasional specials for CNN, but his agreement with the network allows him to also work elsewhere as soon as this Fall, provided it isn’t at a direct CNN competitor such as MSNBC or Fox News.

King’s previous contract with CNN had been set to expire in June, 2011. Last week, King and CNN executives negotiated a separation agreement that gave King the specials as well as the ability to talk with other media companies. The final terms, which remain private, were agreed upon by both parties on Friday.

While King is free to talk to other networks, a source close to the veteran CNN host tells TVNewser that for now King is committed to his talk show.

Update: In his first television interview since announcing his decision, King elaborated on what he will do next to MLB Network’s Greg Amsinger: “This let’s me do anything I want, I can do commercials, I can do sports,” King said. Amsinger also asked King if he was interested in joining the MLB Network team. “Would I like to join MLB? Absolutely yes,” King told him, noting that baseball is one his passions.

A source also confirmed what King had said on his program last night, that Ryan Seacrest is his choice to replace him on CNN. However, there are a number of issues that could prevent the “American Idol” host from joining the network.

Poll: Who Will Replace Larry King?

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CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer is no stranger to controversy. He has been parodied on “South Park” and of course there was his epic confrontation with Jon Stewart last year.

Still, the guy can’t seem to catch a break. This week The Daily Beast released an excerpt from an upcoming book which claims that by giving former baseball player Lenny Dykstra a platform to give stock advice, he may have inadvertently abetted a fraud scheme.

Yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave his own take on Cramer… while bring interviewed by CNBC.

When asked about what he thought of some of Tesla’s detractors, including Cramer, Musk replied: “I would say yeah sure Jim, we are no Bear Sterns, but I think we are going to do ok.”

Backstory here.

The video is after the jump.

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With Larry King announcing his impending departure comes the obvious question: who will be next in the 9pmET time slot?

As strange as it sounds, the logical answer might be Piers Morgan. There was an surprising amount of chatter earlier this month about Morgan and CNN. The fact that we haven’t heard a peep in the past week could mean that the deal is already done. On the other hand, CNN/US president Jon Klein tells the LA Times’ Matea Gold that the network is “not in negotiations” with Morgan.

But Morgan’s name isn’t the only one that’s been in circulation. Marketwatch’s Jon Friedman writes today, “CNN has two options for filling the high-profile 9:00 p.m. timeslot: Katie Couric or somebody else.” Couric, though, may not be pursuing anything with the network.

Last night, King himself suggested Ryan Seacrest would be a good candidate for the job. Jeff Probst also recently expressed interest. And then there’s the idea of moving Anderson Cooper into the slot or even moving Joy Behar from HLN.

POLL TIME. (You knew this was coming.)

Who Will Take Over for Larry King?online surveys

Which television newser purchased a floor in this Upper East Side apartment building according to the NY Observer? Answer after the jump.

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