When I saw the press release, I rolled my eyes. "Rita Cosby gets a rare behind-the-scenes look at one of the most famous brothels in the United States, the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, in a special report airing Thursday, November 10," it said.

The prior weekend, Rita and producer Steve Forrest flew out to the ranch to obtain "exclusive, unprecedented footage of the Bunny Ranch process." (I wonder what ended up on the cutting room floor.) And while I rolled my eyes, viewers didn't: On Thursday, Rita averaged 604,000, making her program #1 on MSNBC.

The broadcast spurred a heated conversation on this MSN group. "I don't know what depresses me more -- the fact that MSNBC stooped this low to get ratings or that people actually tuned in," a poster says. But another person writes: "I can't blame MSNBC one bit for going full-bore tabloid with Rita's show. She's good at it and people want to see it."