The “Weekend Today” team packed their bags and headed west last week, spending a night at a survival camp in the desert for a segment that will air this weekend.

Lester Holt, Amy Robach and Jenna Wolfe left their creature comforts — and their BlackBerrys — behind for a trip to southern Utah, where they spent a night at an overnight survival camp with no tents, sleeping bags or stoves. The trio navigated the desert, cooked dinner over a fire and even slept in a cave (reportedly with little more than a blanket). Watch a clip of the segment, which will air in two parts on Saturday and Sunday, here:

Meredith Vieira‘s final “Today” show was filled with laughs, tears, surprises — and a lot of music.

Bruno Mars‘ “Just the Way You Are” was a sort of theme song for the two hours. Vieira also got a serenade from Carole King singing “You’ve Got a Friend,” then, in the following segment, Matt Lauer led Vieira and the entire “Today” show team for a show-stopping, live rendition of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” in which members of the “Today” family: Al Roker, Ann Curry, Natalie Morales, Kathie Lee Gifford, Hoda Kotb, EP Jim Bell, Amy Robach, Lester Holt and Jenna Wolfe — as well as Abe Vigoda and Jimmy Fallon on guitar — led Vieira through the studio, into the control room, onto Rockefeller plaza — dancing and singing, wearing t-shirts proclaiming their love for Meredith.

• Here’s the show open. We’ll post more videos later.

Viewers are leaving comments on Today’s Facebook page and via Twitter with the #goodbyemeredith hashtag.

• Here’s the retrospective video…

• And here’s the “Today” team saying goodbye at the end of the show…

Former New York Jets sideline reporter Jenn Sterger will serve as a ringside reporter for Fuel TV’s upcoming Hometown Throwdown.

Sterger interviewed amateur fighters during the pair of one-hour specials taped early last month in LaCrosse, Wis.

Hometown Throwdown is set to air in June and contestants are competing for the Hometown Hero title.

It marks the first job for Sterger since The Daily Line on Versus was canceled last November.

Sterger’s agent, Mark Turner, told the New York Post that “Jenn has also had discussions with a number of media companies and has been in talks about a variety of opportunities.”

The “Today” show holiday party at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers brought in some holiday cheer and celebration for 15 years as the #1 morning program. The party started at 11:30amET (for those who got up for work at about 3amET), and ended at around 3pmET on Thursday.

The most coveted NBC drink at the party was the “Zucker punch,” named after the NBC president Jeff Zucker whose unofficial send off was also commemorated at the party. The “Zucker Punch” wasn’t the only NBC-staff-themed drink on the menu: JIM BELL-inis (“Today” EP Jim Bell), LAUER Sours (Matt Lauer), Bloody Merry VIEIRAS (Meredith Vieira), ROKER’s Dark and Stormy (Al Roker), ANNhattan (Ann Curry), Veuve CliqHODA (Hoda Kotb), Pinto LEE GIFFORD (Kathie Lee Gifford), LESTERita (Lester Holt) AMYmosa (Amy Robach) and JENNA and Tonic (Jenna Wolfe).

“Today” anchors Lauer and Vieira were there, along with James Blunt who gave a surprise performance. TVNewser learns that before Bell introduced Blunt as the surprise guest, a few “Today” staffers thought that the “cute waiter” looked a lot like James Blunt.

Matt Lauer has already shot down the rumors, his co-anchor Meredith Vieira calls them “a bunch of lies,” and Lauer’s weatherman-pal Al Roker says “everything is fine” with Lauer and his wife Annette Roque.

But the stories of Lauer’s infidelity continue with another cover story in “The National Enquirer” this week, this time involving other members of the “Today” show family including Natalie Morales and Jenna Wolfe. The story has prompted this response from NBC News:

The allegations surrounding Matt Lauer are completely inaccurate and unfounded. These accusations are reckless and harmful to the Lauer family. Equally reckless, irresponsible and inaccurate are the accusations about his “Today” show colleagues. Matt and his wife have spoken out on this on the record and will not be discussing it further.

Last week’s Enquirer story got widespread, mainstream pickup in publications including the Daily News and Los Angeles Times.

The Today show’s Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford will host the 15th Annual NLGJA Headlines & Headliners benefit this Thursday night in New York.

Some of the other TV types in attendance: From Fox News Jamie Colby, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Megyn Kelly, Geraldo Rivera and Kelly Wright; from NBC News, Natalie Morales, Amy Robach, and Jenna Wolfe; from CBS, Manuel Gallegus and Erin Moriarty; from HLN, Jane Velez-Mitchell; Jeanne Moos from CNN and from CNBC, Carl Quintanilla and Trish Regan.

Click here for more information and to attend…

Last year at this time we brought you the 2008 TVNewser Challenge — eight questions about what will happen in the coming year. With more than 25,000 total votes cast, the results were set. In a year of some sketchy predicting ability by the “experts,” how did you do with your predictions?

• In the closest vote of the Challenge, 47.83% of you thought NBC Nightly News would finish first while 47.60% thought it would be ABC. In the end, although it was close, the NBC’s have it.

• None of our five choices left the anchor chair during 2008; in fact, two got a contract extension. Maybe we should have put Alan Colmes in.

• We asked whether the Today show would “maintain its dominance” or “lose ground to GMA.” 49.29% of you thought “Today” would maintain its dominance while while 37.63% thought the program would lose ground. In fact, the “Today” show had a very strong 2008 consistently beating second place GMA by more than a million viewers. The Total Viewer gap increased from 13% (616,000) in 2007 to 26% (1,134,000) in 2008.

• 71.34% of you were right that Shepard Smith will continue what he’s doing (but in a new studio) at 7pmET.

• Despite a big push by Nancy Grace in December, 45.42% had it right that Campbell Brown‘s 8pmET show on CNN would finish #3 in the time slot.

• The cable news show most likely to be canceled was a runaway in the voting, and the majority got it right: 57.67% of you thought it would be “Tucker” and an additional 10.19% were sort of right about CNBC’s “The Big Idea.” (Shelved, not canceled.)

• Then there’s Fox Business Network. 52.46% thought the new net would not be close to CNBC in the ratings, and although that’s somewhat vague, it’s probably closer to the truth than “competitive with CNBC.” So we’ll keep an eye after year two.

• The Weekend Today anchor race was decided, by not being decided. We asked who would be the co-anchor with Lester Holt: 34.4% said it would be Amy Robach, 31.67% said Jenna Wolfe and 33.92% voted “Neither.” In the end nothing has changed — Robach anchors Saturday, Wolfe on Sunday. Should we vote again?

Which brings us to 2009.

Later today — The 2009 TVNewser Challenge!

We had been hearing rumblings about the segment months ago, and on Thursday, the Today show aired Jenna Wolfe‘s day as an NBC page.

Some former pages featured in the segment included Willard Scott, Today show director Joe Michaels and many others in the control room (and from other networks: Regis Philbin and Ted Koppel).

As a former page, I have to say she did a good job — made the requisite corny jokes and sat at the usual uncomfortably packed lunch table.

Click continued to see the segment, featuring a cameo from Brian Williams…

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Did you see that?

Today marks the final airing of MSNBC’s Olympic Update, which aired for two weeks from 5-7pmET. While enjoying strong ratings from an Olympic coverage lead-in, it amassed largely negative press. Terms like “Amateur Hour,” and “Mean-Girl insults,” were used, as were statements like, “The two seem to have worse chemistry than Barber and Eli Manning.” MSNBC message boards were full of negative reviews as well.

The “Barber” refers to Tiki Barber, who co-hosts with Jenna Wolfe in Beijing and Tamron Hall in New York.

As an example of the uncomfortable chemistry, here’s a bit from yesterday’s show:

Wolfe: What do you tell people that your nickname is?
Hall: My nickname is T-nice because all the crew members say I’m so nice.
Wolfe: No, no, no. Let me explain what your nickname is. TP, my friend. Tight Pants Tamron. TP-Tamron.
Hall: Tight pants. I’m going to kill you. Tight Pants Tamron. Well, let me tell you, today I lived up to my name. You have no idea, thank you very much.
Wolfe: Oh, we have some idea.
Hall: Yeah. Well, I — you know, I’m not going to comment because it’ll be on a blog and we’ll have to deal with it later.

Indeed. Also, apparently Wolfe is known as J-Date and Barber is Tik-ster.

But the most talked about moment of the last two weeks relates to a segment featuring Brian Williams and a discussion about “total medal count.” Newsday and the New York Daily News have stories today about the YouTube hit.

“Tiki and Jenna were discussing total medal count versus gold medal counts and Tiki’s words were unclear,” said an MSNBC statement about the matter.

Keep that in mind, while clicking continued to see the Barber clip…

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CJR’s Robert Weintraub is not a fan of Tiki Barber. At least not TV’s Tiki Barber. In reviewing MSNBC’s Olympic Update, Weintraub writes the show “looks to replicate a morning show vibe during the cocktail hour. But as far as Barber is concerned, it’s Amateur Hour…he’s becoming appointment television, and not for the right reasons…precious few have been handed such prestigious announcing slots with so little experience…Barber has his dream gig, apparently, but this viewer, for one, would prefer he don shoulder pads and helmet again.”

And Rick Kushman of McClatchy Newspapers pulls out the sabre for co-anchor Jenna Wolfe and her “Mean-Girl insults about coaches, athletes, even a weightlifter who got hurt — and her saying, ‘This is what bothers me.’”

“You feel bad for Barber, who at least tries to be professional, because they all end up sounding like adults trying to be cool teens. But they aren’t funny enough or insightful enough to be anything but icky,” Kushman writes.

The reviews aside, the ratings for Olympic Update have been stellar. The NYTimes’ Bill Carter, writes the show “increased its audience on Monday night 252% compared with the previous Monday. The network’s prime-time lineup, which followed, was up 30%.” And through Wednesday, MSNBC has won the 5pm hour in Total Viewers and the 5-7pm time period in the A25-54 demo among the cable news networks.

TVNewser hears Olympic Update was added to the MSNBC schedule late in the game. You have to wonder what more planning might have meant. But if the numbers hold, the criticism might be meaningless.

(hat tip ICN)