After withdrawing her name from Emmy consideration, Katherine Heigl explained her decision this way: She wasn't "given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination." Well how's that for a 1-percent-self-deprecating/99-percent-attacking statement? Clearly, Heigl wasn't happy with what the writers were giving her on Grey's Anatomy, and speaking to the press is the only way to have your voice heard! And so began rumors that Ms. Izzy wanted off to show so she'd have more time to peruse better money-making adventures, like film. But far be it for Heigl to make her own decision, maybe it would be the writers she insulted that would decide her fate on the show. Thus, the rumors that her character would develop a brain tumor this season, and maybe die, as Us Weekly reported earlier today. But if Heigl's Izzy does develop a brain tumor, expect her to rebound victorious — if the official word from ABC is to believed.

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Nikki Finke is making a big deal out of Jay Leno's comment on last night's Tonight Show that supposedly hinted at a future with ABC: "Last night on NBC's The Tonight Show, Jay Leno was doing his Monday night 'Headlines' segment when he held up a magazine cover with a picture of himself and a cutline that said Host of The Tonight Show on ABC'. When the few laughs died down, Leno looked into the camera and smirked, 'It's like a headline from the future.'"

This is, supposedly, evidence that Leno will be headed to ABC after his deal with NBC is up in 2010 (though he's pushed off the air in 2009 when Conan O'Brien steps in).

But don't read too far in to this. Not only in Leno legally barred from even entertaining offers until November 2009, but the ABC option has long been on the table — as has every other network and syndicate out there.

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American Broadcasting Company did it again!

For two years in a row ABC has topped GLAAD’s list of the most queer inclusive network and cable channels. FX came in second, while basically every other channel received big, fat failing marks:

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As of last week, NBC's Today scored its 655th consecutive week winning the ratings game, putting it in the top spot for 12 straight years and counting. "Since the start of the year Today is up about 3 percent, leading Good Morning America, which is down 6 percent, by about 1.2 million viewers a week." And in case you weren't wondering: "The Early Show on CBS trails far behind the other two programs." [NYT]

Chaunce Hayden, the Steppin' Out editor whose name regularly appeared in Page Six until he found himself embroiled in a false report about a Bam Margera and Lynsi Smigo sex tape, is the center of this Radar profile, which lists his various past careers: male stripper, car washer, failed punk rocker, bartender, swimming pool digger. Hayden acknowledges that nobody actually reads his publication, which is littered around New York and New Jersey, which might be a growing concern because until lately, it's been his single entry into getting his gossip items, and his name, in the press. Then the Post banned him (Smigo has since filed a $10 million defamation suit against him and the paper); MSNBC blacklisted him after a he caused a commotion on Joe Scarborough's show; he's persona non grata at ABC, when he went on-air to report Diane Sawyer had just shushed him; and Howard Stern would like to see him dead after Hayden said, on ABC, that Stern should be looked at for insider trading for allegedly leaking details of his then-impending move to Sirius. Interesting, though, that Radar is reporting all of this. Not because the gossip industry isn't the pub's territory — it is — but because paragraphs like this:

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When a trio of ABC News writers were asked to sign a waiver agreeing not to be compensated for checking their BlackBerry when they were off the clock, a mini debate began between the news network and the Writers’ Guild of America, East, which wants to make sure its members aren't being required to maintain a 24/7 workplace without compensation. The dispute, since resolved (though the Times doesn't explain what terms were reached), raised an issue we often hear from media types with and without guild representation: Everybody wants a BlackBerry, but nobody wants to be required to be on call after they leave the office. And now, the issue reintroduces itself at none other than the Times: Later this summer, as the newspaper's IT department switches to Microsoft Exchange, staffers will be able to access their company email on practically any smartphone, not just BlackBerrys. Meaning the iPhone-toting geeks will also be expected to interrupt their sleep when their gadget dings. Suckers.

Is Good Morning America going easy on its celebrity guests? The morning shows have always been the place for creampuff interviews where talent can plug their latest TV and film projects while their publicists stand by ready to pull rank if an anchor so much dares as violate their "Do Not Ask About X" agreement. But perhaps ABC's morning show is all too eager to please A-list (and below) stars.

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Was the coverage of Tim Russert's death really overkill? It might help to put it in perspective by, for example, comparing the amount of air time Russert posthumously received to the amount Peter Jennings did when he died in August 2005. And while that might be the most accurate comparison, keep this in mind: Russert died while still manning a broadcast, while Jennings died three months after his sign-off; when Russert died, there were big-ticket news stories to cover, while Jennings' passing took place during a lull in major events. The numbers are below.

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If you want to listen to the abridged audio version of Barbara Walters' over-hyped memoir, you can forget about hearing one thing in particular: moaning coming from the upstairs bedroom. That's because the five-disc, six-hour spoken edition of Audition cuts out the most talked about talking points: "None of her romantic relationships outside of her three marriages — not even the most-publicized revelation from the book, her secret romance with former Massachusetts Senator (and then married) Edward Brooke — are anywhere to be found." Some readers (listeners?) might view this as the publisher cheating consumers out of the most interesting, raunchy details of the TV vet's life, but don't go crying to them; they're standing by their "abridged means edited" excuse. And Cindi Berger, Walter's publicist, says that her client "approved the abridged version of the book," but just didn't feel the love stuff was important enough to include. "The focus was just to be about her work," Berger explains. "The men in her life was not her priority." Somebody should have told her endless publicity tour that.

Is Good Morning America exec producer Tom Cibrowski, left, being shown the door? That's what what inbox insider claims. If our source is right, Cibrowski is meeting with ABC's top execs next week, before his contract is up, to see what can be done about his "his temper" which was "gotten so bad that the nastiness is starting to show on the air," which we already chronicled here.

ABC's The Mole, which put Anderson Cooper on a map other than his mother's, returned to the network last night after a weeks-long semi-subliminal advertising campaign. And performed terribly, with a mere 1.9 rating for the 18-49-YO demo. [MLM]

CNN's Jessica Yellin will explain, in a blog post, what she really meant last night when she told Anderson Cooper there was pressure from top network execs, at her old ABC job, to play nice with the Bush administration during the beginning of the Iraq war. [TVN, earlier] Did somebody shit where she didn't mean to?

Surprise! When that little war in Iraq was beginning, television news execs pressured producers not to air stories critical of the Bush administration. That was always sort of known, but like Fight Club, never talked about.

And then last night, CNN's Jessica Yellin, who used to get a paycheck from ABC News, told Anderson Cooper all about it: "The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings."

Responded Cooper in exasperation (that she'd admit to it?): "You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?" Video below.

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Charlie Gibson has been giving Brian Williams a run for his ratings — so do you really think ABC is going to let him go? Uh uh. So sit on your hands while Gibson's agent finds out how much they can gouge Disney for while he resigns his contract, and while Diane Sawyer continues to fume. [NYT]

So after all the chatter about what Katie Couric's big announcement on this morning's Today show would be, and the revelation that she and NBC's Brian Williams and ABC's Charlie Gibson would be announcing a joint one-hour cancer telethon, here's the big reveal. And yes, Katie's legs are on display.

So was it hard to get the competing networks to work together on this? Of course not!, says Katie: "It was wonderfully easy, really. I think the opportunity to do something for the greater good, to set aside our competitive differences, to raise money and awareness for something that affects all of us … I think everyone said, 'Yeah, let's do it.'"

The only question that needed sorting out, then, was which network's morning show would get to make the big announcement. Guess that decision was made from a ratings standpoint.

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