O Brien

This just wasn't Conan O'Brien's year. NBC didn't let him keep his dream job as host of "The Tonight Show," and the red-haired comedian came up short with Emmy voters Sunday night. Instead, "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" kept its winning streak alive, bagging its seventh straight Emmy for variety, music or comedy series. It had been one of the most anticipated categories of the evening, threatening to pose an awkward moment or two for NBC, which was broadcasting the Emmys, and host Jimmy Fallon.

The Fall of the House of Walworth A Tale of Murder and Madness in Saratoga's Gilded Age Geoffrey O'Brien Henry Holt: 384 pp., $30 On our honeymoon, my husband and I wandered up the rickety stairs of the Historical Society of Saratoga Springs to the Walworth Memorial Museum. There, amid homemade biographical posters and breakfronts cluttered with gimcracks, we were surprised to learn the family's lurid history: their name made by an industrious progenitor, only to be sullied by a mad (and dreadful)

Conan O'Brien hasn't even started appearing on TBS and parent company Time Warner Inc. is already bragging about his effect on its bottom line. Although O'Brien's late-night show doesn't premiere on the cable network until November, advertising sales for the show are brisk, Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes said Wednesday. "We saw strong demand for Conan O'Brien," he said in a conference call with analysts Wednesday to discuss the company's second-quarter earnings, adding that the late-night host's upcoming show was drawing an ad rate per 1,000 viewers similar to what he previously attracted on NBC. Time Warner, whose holdings include TBS, TNT, CNN, HBO and Time Inc., said second-quarter net income rose 7% to $562 million in the quarter ended June 30 compared with the same period a year earlier.

Top NBC executives said they have learned their lesson and are trying to build a high-quality prime-time schedule to finally dig themselves out of their programming hole. Their appearance Friday at the Television Critics Assn. gathering in Beverly Hills stood in stark contrast to the last time, in early January, that NBC met the media amid the upheaval surrounding the network's bungled attempt to shuffle out "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien to make room for the return of Jay Leno.

Prescott S. Bush Jr. President George H.W. Bush's brother Prescott S. Bush Jr., 87, the brother of one U.S. president and another's uncle, died Wednesday in Hingham, Mass., after a long illness, according to his family. A retired insurance executive, Bush was the brother of former President George H.W. Bush and the uncle of former President George W. Bush. Bush was born Aug. 10, 1922, in Portland, Maine, the oldest of five children of U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush of Connecticut and Dorothy Walker Bush.

Lots of past Emmy favorites are back this year with notable programs in the miniseries, TV movie and variety show categories, including actors Doris Roberts and Al Pacino, miniseries producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, plus telethon organizer George Clooney. But most noteworthy are Conan O'Brien and Jay Leno competing for best variety series with rival versions of "The Tonight Show." You can almost hear Ed McMahon yelping, "Eow!" TV MOVIES Front-runners "A Dog Year," HBO "Georgia O'Keeffe," Lifetime "The Special Relationship," HBO "Temple Grandin," HBO "When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story," CBS "You Don't Know Jack," HBO Spotlight: HBO has had a stranglehold on this category for the last 17 years, winning 15 times, including the last six consecutive contests.

For more than four decades, the broadcast networks have set aside a week in May for staging splashy presentations in Manhattan to unveil their fall schedules for advertisers. The annual ritual kicks off television's ad sales season, known as the upfronts, when the networks sell more than two-thirds of their commercials for the coming season. Cable powerhouse Turner Broadcasting System two years ago crashed the party. The division of Time Warner Inc. decided to pitch its shows on TNT and TBS during the week reserved for major broadcast networks ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Turner's message: It was now one of the big boys.

How do you reward a "Late Night" host who defeated his programming competition in April? If you're NBC , you make him the host of an award show. The peacock network announced Tuesday that Jimmy Fallon would host the 62 n d Primetime Emmy Awards this summer. "Jimmy was the natural choice as one of the most promising and likable young entertainers who will now have the chance to display his many talents on television's biggest night," said Paul Telegdy, executive vice president of alternative programming at NBC. "His proven skills as a comedian and host — as well as his openness to new ideas — will fully engage audiences and ultimately deliver a lively Emmy telecast."

Whether prompted by the Canucks' media relations department or speaking spontaneously, Vancouver defenseman Shane O'Brien sort of apologized for grandstanding after he fought the Kings' Wayne Simmonds on Friday near the end of the 7-2 playoff rout that put the Canucks in position to end the Kings' season Sunday at Staples Center. O'Brien raised his index finger and gestured to the crowd, palms up, as if to request more applause for his pugilistic feats. Kings Coach Terry Murray criticized him and called him a clown.

NBC Universal is relieved that its winter financial wipeout is finally over. Parent company General Electric Co. on Friday released its first-quarter results, which included, as expected, substantial losses generated by NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Although GE posted a 32% drop in earnings, the company nonetheless beat analysts' expectations. GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said there were signs the economy was improving, along with the industrial giant's profit margins -- except for a couple of problem divisions.