We learn this from Drudge:

MOVE OVER, OLBERMANN, RACHEL MADDOW TOPS MSNBC RATINGS!

[AND SHE BEATS LARRY KING, TOO]

CABLE RACE, TUES, SEPT 16

HANNITY/COLMES 3,136,000
O’REILLY 3,060,000
GRETA 2,908,000
HUME 1,977,000
COOPER 1,828,000
RACHEL MADDOW 1,801,000
SHEP SMITH 1,724,000
KING 1,710,000
OLBERMANN 1,635,000
GRACE 1,166,000
DOBBS 1,156,000
HARDBALL 821,000

Poor Keith. Rachel Maddow’s got the juice. She just might be MSNBC’s Sarah Palin. Which would make Olbermann, presumably, Joe Biden?

UPDATE: Mark Finkelstein at Newsbusters.org has a great take on the news — plus some quite revealing commentary from Joe Scarborough this morning.

Anyone have experience translating what Larry King says?

We’re stumped by a reference he made last night during his discussion about the Paris Hilton for president ad.

According to the CNN transcript:

KING: The first part of this video, which we didn’t show, takes some major shots at John McCain’s age. You have me in it. I’m rubbing my eyes and you show that.

MCKAY: It was out of love.

KING: I did not take it as a slur. Hey, as Don Ripple said, what are they going to do to me?

Don Ripple?  We don’t know a Don Ripple.  We’re betting he meant Don Rickles.  Which would make sense if someone called Larry King a hockey puck.  But we don’t see that anywhere.
Any guesses whom Larry was referring to?

In the new Weekly Standard, Steve Hayes has an excellent profile of “Airplane!” director David Zucker, whose new movie “An American Carol” is a farce of Michael Moore’s Hollywood.

It’s a great read, but this moment particularly stands out:

Robert Davi, who plays the lead terrorist in the Zucker film, joins us as the discussion turns from policy to the cable pundit shows. Davi is one of those actors with an instantly recognizable face–he was the villain in the Bond film Licence to Kill–but whose name is unknown to most of the country.

“I can’t stand Keith Olbermann,” says Davi. “Jesus Christ, I want to slap that guy.”

At 1:07 in the below video, you’ll get an idea of what that just might look like.

Gotta love this opening to a Yeas & Nays item today:

Katie Couric became household name during her time on NBC’s “Today” show, as she would dress up as Peter Pan or SpongeBob SquarePants, sing and dance, and discuss “barbecue facts and myths.”

But now that she’s a big-time news anchor on the “CBS Evening News,” she’s moved past those frivolous days. At the National Organization for Women’s Intrepid Awards Gala Thursday, Couric didn’t really care to talk about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s new hairdo or what fun items she plans to travel with when she heads abroad to cover Sen. Barack Obama’s trip abroad. “I don’t do frivolous questions,” she said.

Well, we do… at least, frivolous pictures …

This video might be too frvilous, too, if only for the fact that she’s a big-time news anchor in it…

Cheers to St. Petersburg Times TV critic Eric Deggans for asking the best question of the day.

Here’s his setup from his coverage of Katie Couric talking to TV critics yesterday:

On the question, for example, of why all three network news anchors are traveling with Democratic candidate Barack Obama on his trip to Iraq next week, Couric was candid: Obama’s organization was smart enough to invite the press along.

“It was very deft on the part of the Obama campaign,” she said, noting she spent time in McCain’s campaign headquarters for a story to air next week. Had McCain invited reporters when he toured four Middle East countries in March, they would have considered it, she said. Although, “Obama going to the Middle East is a bigger story.”

And here’s Deggans’ retort:

My question: Why are such high-powered journalists depending on campaign staffers to invite them to cover the news, anyway?

Yes!

A reader below notes this story from a few days ago in the Los Angeles Times:

Coming soon to Hollywood: Larry King Square.

Courtesy of Los Angeles City Hall, the intersection of Sunset and Cahuenga boulevards will be named in honor of the longtime CNN talk show host today.

We haven’t been this happy for Larry King since that wonderful moment with Marlon Brando ….

News on Larry King, from TV Newser:

Harvey Weinstein announced today that the publishing arm of The Weinstein Company has acquired the rights to publish Larry King’s “definitive autobiography,” What Am I Doing Here?

It’s an age-old question about Larry King we’ve all been wondering, so we’re glad to finally get some answers.  Of course, others have tried asking that, with little success.