Sounds like a great TV story -- one that encompasses a TV producer, kickbacks, and advertising dollars. A longtime former publicity executive of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- the group that owns the rights to the Golden Globes Awards -- now claims in a lawsuit that the head of the group, Philip Berk, demanded "commission" from a TV advertising buy NBC got from Chrysler

Let out a good "boo." TV critics do it all the time -- sometimes in their writing, other times in a big room when asking TV performers questions.

"There's like a pirate ship feeling to this show." Conan O'Brien says his TBS show isn't at all "The Tonight Show" -- but more like a program on the high seas, looking for treasure. Maybe that's what more TV shows should feel like.

romises, promises. Everyone in television needs to make them -- but what is actually delivered can look a lot different. Comcast has to make more than its share -- all to get done what many think will be a media merger with NBC Universal that might wreak havoc on adult consumers, independent filmmakers, competitors -- and apparently kids.

Monday-morning quarterbacking of the Consumer Electronics Show: When it comes to future TV hardware/software/digital services, it's hard to place a bet: Google TV? Apple TV? Roku? Hulu? The networks doing their own individual thing? Forget keyboards, joysticks, iPads -- what about "gesture" entertainment technology?

Some TV stations are complaining that the Oprah Winfrey syndicated show has become too much of a promotional vehicle for the new Oprah Winfrey cable network, OWN -- especially in some recently broadcast "Winfrey" episodes.

So what is rerun programming really worth these days? It depends whether it has a digital deal, maybe a Netflix deal. The answer is probably a lot less than you think. Even so, no one knows for sure.

Sure, Facebook might be worth $50 billion -- that's easy to figure out. But the more interesting news is that someone dared to take a change on somewhat older media and proved -- after only a few days -- to be successful: The new Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN, will be profitable this year -- actually getting into a "positive" cash flow.

Just one move of your TV-enabled thumb, index, or pinkie is what TV entrepreneurs big and small are really looking for.

TV producers keep trying to create something new, from the old. "WWE Tough Enough," which was taken off the air by MTV back in 2003, looks to make another try on USA Network, which is the long-time TV distributor of "WWE Monday Night Raw," still one of the top-rated cable TV shows.