Judgment Day

TUBE TALK In the short term, the David Letterman-Ted Koppel brouhaha has benefited both men. According to Nielsen, Letterman's viewership last week went up 20 percent from this time a year ago. Koppel's went up only 1 percent from last year but up 12 percent from the previous week. Of course, Jay Leno is still beating them both....

Long before Robert Altman became the Oscar-nominated director of ''Gosford Park,'' he used to make industrial films. Now, the 77-year-old director's career has apparently come full circle, as he's shot a series of promotional spots for E! Back then, of course, he didn't have the ability he's shown in movies like ''Gosford'' and ''The Player'' to draw an all-star cast. Starring in the five spots are Dustin Hoffman, Lisa Kudrow, Minnie Driver, Ving Rhames, and Eric McCormack. Each ad features one of the celebs acting out a famous scene from a movie while ostensibly going about daily business at home. The commercials will debut during E!'s Oscar coverage on Sunday....

It's just like ''The Real World,'' except that all the roommates are naked babes. It's Fox's upcoming two-hour special ''Girl Next Door: The Search for a Playboy Centerfold,'' a reality contest produced by Bunim-Murray, producers of MTV's ''Real World.'' Here, 12 participants (including a college student, a mom, and a stockbroker) have been living on a Playboy-owned estate since January, competing to be the featured Playmate in the magazine's July issue. (Runners-up will appear in a nude photo spread in the issue.) The rules of the competition and the criteria for winning are unclear, except that the final decision will, of course, be Hugh Hefner's. Fox will probably unveil the show (if not the contestants -- this is still broadcast TV, after all) during May sweeps.

Appearing on ''The Real World'' itself, or on sister MTV reality series ''Road Rules,'' is also a good way to get into the pages of Playboy. The May issue features ''Real World'' alumnae Flora (she of the busy love life, from the Miami season) and Beth (from the L.A. season) and ''Road Rules'' campers Veronica (from the eighth season) and Gisela (season 10)....

It's a good thing, then, that the researchers behind a new study of sex and violence on TV didn't wait. According to the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, the levels of sex and violence on broadcast TV in prime-time have actually gone down over the past couple years. What's more, the drop was twice as steep on premium cable, despite shows like ''The Sopranos'' and ''Sex and the City.'' Only on basic cable was violence up, while sexual content remained the same. Measuring instances of sexual content (including just talk), the study found the most highly sexed show on broadcast TV to be UPN's ''Girlfriends,'' while the most violent broadcast show was the now-defunct ''Xena: Warrior Princess.'' The most violent show on basic cable was USA's ''La Femme Nikita.'' (The study also examined theatrical films and found levels of sex and violence unchanged). Scholars looked at a sample of 284 TV episodes each from the 1998-99 seasons and the 2000-01 seasons....

Joan Cusack, star of the canceled ''What About Joan?'', could be headed back to TV in the fall of 2003, this time in daytime. She's in talks to develop a show syndicated by Disney's Buena Vista Television, with a format that would mix celebrity and civilian segments. She'd tape the show in Chicago, her hometown, perhaps filling the void that will open when Oprah's syndicated chatfest closes up shop.