Has Erin Andrews re-signed with ESPN?

With Erin Andrews' contract expiring this week, John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal reported the following tonight on Twitter:

"Erin Andrews will be staying at ESPN, according to Jim Miller, who is teaming with Tom Shales to write the definitive book on the network."

Miller and Shales wrote the outstanding "Live From New York," chronicling the history of "Saturday Night Live," so ignoring their scoop isn't wise. However SportsByBrooks has followed up on this and discovered that no new deal has been signed.

So it remains to be seen what will become of the ESPN sideline princess who has clearly made a name for herself as a celebrity through the disgusting peephole situation she was victimized in and her recent turn on "Dancing With The Stars," in which she placed second. Her contract situation has been a hotly debated topic of late, with Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch doing an excellent job of examining her career prospects within sports.

If I were advising Andrews, I would tell her to use this opportunity to cross over into entertainment while maintaining a role in sports, since she seems to really love them. ESPN and ABC are corporate cousins. If I were her, I would seek some opportunities to host shows rather than just report from the sidelines (maybe anchor SportsCenter from time to time), increase the profile of her sideline gig (to say, the NBA Finals, Monday Night Football or the ABC Saturday night college football package), and also get some entertainment opportunities on ABC with appearances on a show like "The View" and the ability to host red carpet events such as prior to the Academy Awards (are those on ABC?).

Her star will never be brighter than it is right now so she has to take advantage of it.

New leadership at Dunder Mifflin?

This autumn, the seventh season of The Office will commence on NBC. And it appears that will be the last one with Michael Scott running Dunder Mifflin.

Steve Carell has confirmed that he will leave the show following the season. Following his original seven-year contract, Carell is pulling out (that's what she said). But apparently the show could still go on. Carell thinks it can be fine without him and with ratings strong, it's unlikely that ratings disaster NBC would pull the plug. How they would replace him remains to be seen. Does Jim return to the boss's chair? Do they bring in a new leader? Will the show not completely suck? All questions to be answered.

Enough already

The production house of "Knight and Day" seem to have struck some sort of deal with DirecTV where its commercial runs repeatedly on ESPN. During the NBA draft last night, the commercial ran seemingly twice per commercial break and its on during all of the World Cup commercial breaks.

And not different commercials either. The same one every time, the one with the Us Weekly rave about it, talking about Tom Cruise being at his "Jerry Maguire best!" It also includes Cruise and Cameron Diaz rolling on the beach, giving us all a quick look at Diaz's cellulite. Clearly, the editors didn't do their jobs on that shot.

Anyway, I hope the "Knight and Day" people realize that by flooding me with commercials for this movie, it reduces my chances of seeing it from "almost none" (I'm not one to support the actor that ruined Katie Holmes for all of us) to "none." That commercial has guaranteed I won't see it in theaters, won't rent it from Blockbuster, won't order it on NetFlix and won't watch it on cable. So good job, guys.

Most entertaining team of the draft? Clippers, for sure

Thoroughly enjoyed the Clippers draft. First, they used their lottery pick on Steve Urkel (a.ka. Al-Farouq Aminu, pictured with a mortified David Stern) and then they traded a future first round pick to OKC for the draft rights to Eric Bledsoe. So some year in the not-too-distant future, Kevin Durant will be welcoming a lottery pick to a stacked elite contender in the West while the Clippers sit on the sideline with a 26-win team and $31 million in cap space no free agent wants to take. God love the Sterlings!

David Silver to marry Megan Fox

Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox are engaged. How on earth could this:

...manage to score this:

Rue McClanahan passes on

2008: Estelle Getty. Dead.
2009: Bea Arthur. Dead.
2010: Rue McClanahan. Dead.

2011 isn't looking so good for Betty White.

At least he has a Super Bowl ring

I just heard that Fox has canceled Michael Strahan’s show, “Brothers.” Who ever could have seen that coming?

The Big Bang Theory goes boom...or, so I think

As one of the few people who actually enjoys The Big Bang Theory, let me state two things for the record:

1. I'm not sure whether or not Kaley Cuoco is hot. My mind changes seemingly every episode.

2. The show is headed down a steep slope and I'm beginning to fear that it's going to become a disaster by following the exact same path that Friends went down. And let there be no doubt that, after three seasons, Friends became a complete disaster.

The Big Bang Theory has had one underlying theme throughout: Leonard's crush on Penny, and subsequently dating Penny. Beyond that and character development, virtually episode has pretty much stood on its own in that you haven't really had to see other episodes to understand what is going on. That's a trait I tend to believe enhances a comedy. The first couple years of Friends were great because of this (and because they hadn't turned the male characters into women yet). Seinfeld and Cheers became the two greatest comedies of all-time largely because of this. But on last night's episode, Penny broke up with Leonard because she couldn't say "I love you" to him after he said it to her.

Uh oh. This has Ross and Rachel written all over it and that's a bad thing. That's a really, really bad thing. That's the sort of thing that can ruin this show. I always felt that once the writers inevitably decided to bring Leonard and Penny together, they had to stay together for the sake of the show. Now? Danger ahead.

Coco goes cable

It's official: Conan O'Brien is going to cable, joining TBS for an 11 pm ET show beginning in November. Get ready for numerous promos during TBS' coverage of the baseball playoffs in October (although for once, I'll actually watch one of these TBS shows).

Conan wrote the following on his Twitter page:

"The good news: I will be doing a show on TBS starting in November! The bad news: I'll be playing Rudy on the all new Cosby Show."

It had been thought Coco (a nickname bestowed upon him by Tom Hanks) would go to Fox but for whatever reason that deal didn't come together. I will be watching Conan on TBS and will continue to watch Letterman on CBS (both will be via DVR, most likely, given other life factors) and will continue to ignore Jay Leno as much as possible. I continue to hope that one day Leno's rating will sink to ridiculously low depths. Like, hopefully tonight.

Here's hoping Conan brings Max Weinberg and Andy Richter to TBS with him.

UPDATE: The Los Angeles Times reports that it is a five-year deal and that Conan will have ownership of the show as opposed to being the host of a show owned by the network. Thus, if he wishes he can take the show with him to another network if things don't work out with TBS. Also, the show airing at 11 pm forces George Lopez out of his timeslot and to midnight. Unlike Conan, who refused to option of moving The Tonight Show to midnight in order to facilitate that weasel Leno's return to 11:30, Lopez is said to have no problem with the move and is happy to have Conan on board with TBS. Plus, I have no idea what TBS' current lead-in to Lopez is but I'm sure it isn't anywhere near as strong as Conan will be, and Lopez has to be thrilled about that.

Worth noting that Conan is bumping Lopez, much like Leno was supposed to bump him, but I won't fault Conan because A) the move has Lopez's blessing and B) I like Conan and hate that weasel Leno.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A perusal of my DirecTV on-screen guide tells me that the current lead-in for Lopez is Sex and the City reruns. Blecch.