Las Vegas 

        They are both legends, forever famous, and each with demons that have significantly disrupted their lives. I spent the day today, like so many, with controlled images of Tiger Woods; and I spent tonight surrounded by the music and very controlled images of Elvis Presley.

       I don’t think it is a complete coincidence that as I watched the mostly upbeat and entertaining “Viva Elvis” from the Cirque Du Soleil people here in Las Vegas tonight, I kept thinking about Tiger Wood’s remarks earlier in the day.

    “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to,”  was part and parcel of Tiger’s confession. It seems Elvis Presley lived much the same way, but at least initially in a more innocent way.

    “I thought I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy the temptations around me,” said Tiger.  By virtue of the film clips seen in “Viva Elvis,” my guess is that Elvis certainly enjoyed his temptations too.

    “My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never have before,” said Tiger clearly in the midst of deep therapeutic treatment to try and change his ways. And maybe this is where the similarities end. My sense is that Elvis never really did look at himself, and as he descended into a variety of personal abuses, there was no one around to tell him, to catch him, and make him turn his life around. As you may recall, Elvis Presley died when he was 42 years old. An autopsy revealed that he had 10 different prescription drugs in his system in enormous quantities.

    Elvis Presley, in death, is now a packaged and very profitable commodity. But, to not overstate the obvious, he is dead. Tiger Woods may have made the first steps today to crawl out of an extraordinary hole, and presumable when he turns 42, Woods will be alive and healthy and hopefully with an in-tact family life.

   The world’s of press and publicity have been completely different for Tiger and for Elvis, and while I think much of the media coverage today has been excessive, at least the press did not look the other way, when all of Tiger’s demons surfaced to the forefront. For Elvis, the press did look the other way, until it was too late. 

   Here’s hoping that for Tiger himself, and all those he has harmed and hurt; the ultimate outcome will be better than the fate of Elvis. Maybe they won’t be so similar after all.

        By all accounts, this was a wonderful Super Bowl. The statistic favored the Colts, the story favored the Saints; and when push comes to shove I'll pick an emotional story over cold hard statistic anytime. (I picked the Colts on the air to win, because my greed occasionally overwhelms my own good sense),. Still, the biggest surprise, the most effective "sneak" of all, however was not on the field, but rather in a very quick and very funny TV spot featuring three unlikely co-stars; David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno. In a moment, I'll provide you the link that will tell you the details surrounding the making-of the commercial. But first, here is why I am, more or less, responsible for the whole thing.

      Here is something that you and I understand, that TV executives, people who run TV stations and those who run networks have never understood; audiences do NOT care about channels or networks or any other kind of designation. The KTLA Morning News is popular NOT because it is on KTLA, but rather because of the people who work on the show, on the air and behind the scenes. If our show was on channel 5, or 45, or 405, it really wouldn't matter much. 

     When we first started our show, I had the then bold idea to actually, OMG, talk about other stations on our air. On channel 5, I would talk about the news on channel 4. For a long time we presented our Paul Moyer quote of the week, a very popular feature. Very early on, something that would never be "allowed," I actually did my portion of the show from the brand new set at KCAL channel 9. Hilarious, if I do say so myself.

      There has long been a paranoia in TV circles that if we talk about another station or another show on on another station we are driving our audience to that other show or that other station. Well guess what, you are going to watch "American Idol" on channel 11 anyway, doesn't matter if I talk about it on channel 5 or not. I know it, you know it, and after pounding it into the heads of suits for years, they finally realize it too.

      So, having opened the door for the cross-pollination between competing TV entities, let me offer another bold suggestion. This time to my pals at CBS. If I were you, I would not only allow Neil Patrick Harris to replace Simon Cowell on "American Idol," I would encourage it. CBS has the contract on Neil for his work on "How I Met Your Mother," and so it would be impossible for him to take a permanent job on 'Idol,' unless CBS said it would be okay. They won't and they should. It would make him an even bigger star. Sure it would help a rival show on Fox, but it would also help Neil's own sitcom too...a lot.

     Clearly, both CBS and NBC executives had to give permission and did allow an NBC star and rival Jay Leno to be featured in a spot promoting David Letterman. Finally executives doing the right thing. And just think, it was only, well, nearly 20 years ago that I helped open the door to all of it.

    Here's the story behind the ad;

KTLA's Sam Rubin inspires Dave,Oprah and Jay Ad

    Did you see the ad? What did you think?