Simon: No. I think he really was trying to play by the rules. And if he appeared to lose control, it's because it's live TV, and both the guys on stage are good enough at using live TV that they know they can get away with anything.

The rules say you can only go five feet from your chair, they'll go 10 feet. What, is Tom supposed to wrestle them to the ground? If it says you can't respond to your attacker, they'll respond to your attacker. What, is he going to stuff his tie in their mouths?

They will do what they want to do. They are good players on the stage. They know how to game the system.

• Earlier: Overtime, Again, For the Biz Channels...

Lest I give you the impression that "Strategy Room" is Roger Ailes' take on "The View," it's not all females all the time. The hosts rotate among Fox News' stable of anchors and correspondents, and sometimes after the pre-roll ad ends, there's no real introduction from said host. It's like being parachuted into the middle of a discussion...

As for CNN...

Pencil in the "AC360" webcast as a work in progress. Correspondent Erica Hill (a former Headline News colleague) hosts a live stream broadcast at CNN.com during the commercial breaks in Cooper's show. This gives her a chance to show off plenty of off-the-cuff personality and also sneak in more questions of in-studio guests...

> Update: Greta Van Susteren is keeping us honest (her words, not mine). From her GretaWire blog:

I just read an article on tvnewser.com about webcasting and OOPS they forgot GretaLiveWire!! (I just realized they also forgot Tammy Haddad who does live coverage of big political events on the web. She is the one of the best known webcasters in the business but they forgot her, too. OOPs. Click here.)

Well, Greta, the blog post was a pick-up of a story that reviewed just the FNC and CNN Webcasts. There are others out there too, including Katie Couric's convention and post-debate Webcasts discussed in this Saturday New York Times story about Couric.

Dr. Gupta also reports on little-known medical decisions involving past presidents going back to the administration of Abraham Lincoln and continuing through to the current campaign.

The special premieres tonight at 8pmET/PT and reairs at the same time tomorrow night.

The copyright infringement notification stems from this ad currently playing on the McCain-Palin site. It includes grainy images and audio of reporting from Fox News correspondent Eric Shawn. The notification states, "Fox News requests that you immediately cease and desist from any further use of the copyrighted material and that access through the Website to the Material, and any other Fox News materials, be immediately disabled."

Two weeks ago, NBC sent a cease & desist to the Obama campaign after it used images of Tom Brokaw and Keith Olbermann in a campaign ad.

Click continued to read the email...

The promo focuses on bad advice regarding Wachovia that Cramer apologized for and his dire warnings about the market on the Today show earlier this week.

"The last thing you need is bad advice. The last thing you need is CNBC's Jim Cramer," warns the ad.

The promos are running on FBN and FNC, as well as through local avails on CNBC in many of the biggest markets (including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles). The print ads ran in the New York Times and Wall St. Journal today, in the National section.

A CNBC spokesperson tells TVNewser: "CNBC has the most affluent and educated audience on TV and they are not easily fooled by publicity stunts. Jim Cramer is one of the most knowledgeable and insightful market commentators in business news today. Given that 'Mad Money w/ Jim Cramer' has more viewers than all of FBN's shows combined, the business and investment community clearly agrees."

An FBN spokesperson responds, telling TVNewser, "We'll let the words of the investment community speak for themselves," pointing to this post from Seeking Alpha ("Very irresponsible. Financial suicide. Cramer should be suspended") and this on InvestmentNews.com ("Mr. Cramer is a 'fear monger'").

Click continued to see the TV promo (via the New York Observer)...

Until today.

ABC News senior producer Tom Nagorski writes on the World Newser blog about how the bus got stuck in Iowa.

"Fortunately a big Iowa cornfield has plenty of heavy machinery, and via the kindness of our hosts a big John Deere tractor was soon at hand, and within minutes our wheels were turning again," he writes.

Leno asks Maddow about her role as "commentator" which allows her to add "a little bias." "I think of it as a point of view," she said.

Leno took a shot at picking her political affiliation. "I would guess liberal, but the Sarah Palin glasses could throw me," he joked.

Maddow talked about her "It's Pat"-segment guest, Pat Buchanan. "Pat is smart and funny and a lot of his views are incredibly toxic and weird, but he's fun to talk to," she said.

Click continued to see the interview...

"Everyone else is focusing on the candidates and politics, I'm focusing on individuals and the individual's right to vote," Shawn told TVNewser today, as he was in the field following another lead.

As the election draws near, tips to a special email inbox [voterfraud@foxnews.com] have been pouring in. "In the last week, we've received 1,500 emails," said Shawn, which represents about half of all the emails received by FNC since the inbox was set up a couple months ago. "I'm trying to read each and every one of them." Much of the focus for the past few weeks has been on the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a group that helps register low-income Americans.

Shawn and FNC producer Becky Diamond have "traveled around the country," looking for fraud; in Alabama, where there are allegations of absentee ballots being sold for 20 bucks or crack cocaine; or in Florida, where optical scan machines being tested in preparation for the 2008 election are already revealing thousands of lost ballots; or the hundreds of thousands of military votes not being counted from Arizona because they didn't reach the States in time.

But what is Shawn's forecast for Election Night '08? Here's a hint — not good.

Among our 800+ followers, we've got CBS, FNC, CNN and PBS. We have our premiere Twitterview interviewee, CNN's Rick Sanchez (and his boss).

But last night, TVNewser added a new friend — Dancing With The Stars. We're not sure why Bruno, Carrie Ann and Len want to know about the TV news industry, but we're not complaining.

• Follow TVNewser on Twitter.

• 7-11pmET - Wall Street Crisis: Is Your Money Safe? ("On The Money" and "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch" are preempted)

7 - Larry Kudlow & Michelle Caruso-Cabrera
8 - Maria Bartiromo & Mark Haines
9 - Mark Haines & Dylan Ratigan
10 - Bill Griffeth & Sue Herera

• 11pmET - Mad Money
• 12amET - Fast Money
• 1amET - Saving General Motors (A CNBC special produced before this week's drop in GM shares not seen since Nov. 16, 1949.)

....And here's FBN's schedule.

• Tonight - Happy Hour preempted

• Saturday, 10am-2pmET - Your Questions/Your Money with Eric Bolling & Jenna Lee.

• Sunday, 8-9pmET - Special Report with David Asman.

• Sunday/Monday, 11pm-5amET - Simulcast of Sky Business Australia.

....And from Bloomberg.

• BloombergTV will be live all weekend covering the G7/IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington, DC.

Tom Brokaw was played by SNL alum Chris Parnell (earlier this year, he portrayed Jim Lehrer during another debate sketch), who focused his attention on Brokaw's strict adherence to debate rules. Other parodies included Brokaw's teleprompter mishap and his choice of questions.

And once again, the debate was made to look like it was on CNN (and not NBC or MSNBC).

Featured in the sketch was a very famous SNL alum, who asked the "candidates" if the Chicago Cubs would ever win a World Series (and speaking of Chicago, Bill Ayers got a mention). Click here to see the sketch...

Distribution and channel placement are working against the News Corp. network. Grover writes, FBN "is available in only 42 million homes, compared with 95 million for CNBC. Even in the homes that can receive FBC, it is often found way up in the so-called digital tiers." [Note to the BW editor: you may want to get your acronyms straight: It's FBN, not FBC.]

BusinessWeek "estimates about 32,000 have been tuning in daily during the meltdown." Which is interesting to note because a year after its launch (Sept. 29, '97 - Oct. 26, '97) Fox News channel averaged 20,000 daily viewers, and 30,000 in prime time.

And about that extended weekend programming, FBN EVP [and CNBC alum] Kevin Magee doesn't miss an opportunity to take a shot at his competition: "We're dealing with the real issues that are hitting people at home, and they're selling girdles," Magee says of CNBC. Grover also talks with an analyst who "predicts [FBN] could break even by 2011," a year earlier than it took FNC.

Meanwhile, FBN continues to alter its programming as the markets continue to tank. The network preempted Alexis Glick's regular morning show "Money for Breakfast" today. Instead, Glick anchored "Special Report" from the NYSE from 6am-9amET. Because, well...a menu of investment advice doesn't seem very appetizing right now.