• With Simon Cowell leaving “Idol” after this season wraps, Fox needs to face the music and grasp that a massive chunk of the audience is going to jump ship with Simon. Americans have abandoned TV shows for far less.
• MTV News correspondent (and resident “American Idol” expert) Jim Cantiello • On the effect of Simon Cowell’s departure from “Idol” after this season. Cantiello goes further, saying, “I love ‘American Idol’ too f—ing much to see a ghost of its former self limp around on stage.” Dude, get a grip. It’s just a TV show. Albeit a high-rated, iconic and extremely influential one. source

• failing The former home run king’s rep has been in tatters since his infamous congressional testimony in 2005, where his blatant non-answer may as well have been an admission.
• job McGwire was recently hired by his old team, the St. Louis Cardinals, as the team’s hitting coach. The job could’ve left him open to harsh, probing questions from the press.
• chance Bob Costas of the MLB Network offered McGwire the chance to air out whatever he wanted to air out. McGwire took the bait – a huge get for the young network.
• plan Before he simply just admitted to it, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer spent a month coordinating a media blitz. It worked pretty darn well, Ari. source

• Apparently, he feels burned. Wouldn’t you? After months of doing a bang-up job on “The Tonight Show,” the host is reportedly thinking of leaving the network, according to the New York Post. Word on the street is that he’s being coveted by Fox, which might just be ready to have a late-night talk show that doesn’t suck. Stay tuned to this dial for more on the best drama NBC’s had in years … source

• What did the network do to him? I don’t think anyone’s preventing people from watching Conan. Once they give you the cameras, it’s on you. I can’t blame NBC for having to move things around. I hope Conan stays, I think he’s terrific. But there’s no rules in show business, there’s no refs.
• Comedian Jerry Seinfeld • Criticizing the idea of Conan O’Brien possibly switching to another network after the Jay Leno debacle. Seinfeld thinks that was a good idea too, saying, “I also think this was the right idea at the wrong time. I’m proud that NBC had the guts to try something.” Also, he made some weird comment about the AOL/Time Warner merger which made him sound like an idiot. Remember, this is the guy who did the terrible Microsoft commercials with Bill Gates. source

• $48M the size of “Avatar’s” fourth-weekend box office take, making it the first four-week movie champ since “The Dark Knight”
• $429M the movie’s total domestic box-office take, which is within shouting distance of the $533 million take of “The Dark Knight”
• $1.3B the movie’s world box-office take, which is just $500 million shy of “Titanic’s” $1.8 billion haul; this is gonna be huge source

The winners

• viewers After losing five months of first-run dramas on NBC (who had perhaps some of the best ones on TV for a long time), they’re coming back. That’s good.
• Leno Ten to one, Jay Leno is getting his old time slot back – and probably his audience. Considering he was supposed to be retired by now, this rules for him.
• cable This flub-up by a major network helped other major networks – as well as cable networks like TBS, A&E and TNT – gain ground and mindshare.

The losers

• Conan The “Tonight Show” host is probably the biggest loser of all – losing his hard-fought-for perch thanks to corporate manhandling. If we were him, we’d walk.
• Carson Ten-to-one, the “Last Call” host is going to lose his time slot thanks to this. We know the guy’s a tool and always has been, but come on! That isn’t freaking fair!
• NBC It’s going to take a long time for the network to fix the wrongs of what they’ve done to their viewers and the creative community. They screwed up. Badly.

• For us right now, instead of trying to reinvent, going back to basics is probably the smartest play.
• NBC Universal Television Chairman Jeff Gaspin • Regarding the changes to the network’s late-night schedule (which, by the way, he confirmed), but in a broader sense, the entire network. NBC has spent the last few years trying to shake up its business model – getting rid of the traditional television upfront, working on innovative advertising deals and coming up with ways to save costs that turn the traditional network television model on its head. “The Jay Leno Show” was really the crux of a long period of corporate thinking. Gaspin’s basically admitting the whole idea was a failure. Wow. source

• Empire State of Mind, indeed. During last night’s NFL playoff game, a preview for SNL – featuring Charles Barkley as host and Alicia Keys as the musical guest, hit. And oh man, is it something. Barkley, with that drunk driving incident well behind him, did his best Alicia Keys, and wow, was it something. Never do this again, Sir Charles.

• $80 million paycheck to Conan if he gets bumped source