NEW YORK — With 1,096 essays for “60 Minutes” under his belt, Andy Rooney will deliver his 1,097th on Sunday’s broadcast. And it will be his last as a regular contributor.

The 92-year-old Rooney will announce his departure at the end of the program, where he has been featured since 1978, CBS News announced on Tuesday. It will be preceded by a segment in which Rooney looks back on his career with “60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer.

“There’s nobody like Andy and there never will be,” said Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and “60 Minutes” executive producer.

All My Children” star Susan Lucci has found an outlet to speak on the cancellation of her long-running soap. According to the New York Post, the actress just added a scathing epilogue to the paperback edition of her book, “All My Life: A Memoir.”

Lucci, who has played Erica Kane on the ABC soap since 1970, spills on the behind-the-scenes action that she says caused the soap’s cancellation, and specifically sticks it to ABC Daytime head Brian Frons.

The ABC exec, she writes, “has what, for me, is that fatal combination of ignorance and arrogance.”

A series of shocking eliminations on “American Idol” last season left many fans and critics wondering if the voting system was in need of an overhaul. Now it seems the bigwigs behind the scenes are wondering about the very same thing.

After the ouster of early favorite Pia Toscano and the unexpected boot for metal man James Durbin, many blamed the powerful pop, country, and cute-guy-loving voting bloc of young girls. But how can the show effectively reduce the impact of that tween vote? In an interview with TVLine, “Idol” executive producer Nigel Lythgoe revealed that one option under consideration is simply to reduce the number of votes anyone can make.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Elizabeth Smart is taking a job with ABC News as a commentator focusing on missing persons and child abduction cases.

The Utah woman who was kidnapped from her bedroom at knifepoint, raped and held captive at age 14 by a Salt Lake City street preacher can provide viewers with a unique perspective, network spokeswoman Julie Townsend told The Associated Press on Thursday.

NEW YORK – Despite efforts to strip government funding for public broadcasting, PBS chief Paula Kerger said the federal budget deal retains most of the money that President Barack Obama had set aside for public television and radio stations.

The deal allocates nearly $430 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a 0.2 percent cut from what the president had proposed. PBS is also due to receive $6 million to help public TV stations make the transition to digital services, less than it had hoped for, and another amount for an education initiative with the funding to be determined by the Department of Education, she said.

NEW YORK, April 7 (UPI) — Barbara Walters, Ben Stiller, Paul Reiser and Marlo Thomas are to be presenters at the 2011 TV Land Awards in New York, organizers said.

“Hot in Cleveland” stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick, as well as the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City” — Cindy Barshop, Kelly Bensimon, LuAnn de Lesseps, Alex McCord, Sonja Morgan and Jill Zarin — are also confirmed to hand out prizes at Sunday’s festivities at the Jacob Javits Center.

The ceremony is to air on TV Land April 17.

LOS ANGELES – The nation’s largest cable TV company, Comcast Corp., took control of NBC Universal after the government shackled its behavior in the coming years to protect online video services such as Netflix and Hulu.

The deal closed shortly before midnight EST on Friday.

The takeover gave the cable-hookup company 51 percent control of NBC Universal, which owns the nation’s fourth-ranked broadcaster, NBC; the Universal Pictures movie studio and related theme parks; and a bevy of cable channels including Bravo, E! and USA.

NEW YORK — One advantage Oprah Winfrey might have in establishing an identity for her new television network is that many of her competitors are in the same situation, even if they’ve been around for a while.

Some of the biggest existing cable networks that are aimed at women — Lifetime, WE, Hallmark and Oxygen — are in some degree of transition as Winfrey’s OWN prepares for its New Year’s Day debut. The goal is to distinguish themselves so OWN won’t siphon off viewers.

“They have to ante up and come out fighting,” said Shari Anne Brill, longtime industry analyst and founder of “The Brill Beat” blog.

Could U2’s Bono end up with a show someday on Oprah Winfrey’s new cable network, OWN, which launches on Jan. 1?

It’s certainly a possibility, according to Lady O herself! According to a new feature in The New York Times, Oprah said she recently approached the rock star with the idea.

Hollywood, California (CNN) — Larry King, America’s interviewer-in-chief, ended his record-setting career as CNN’s prime-time, talk-show host Thursday night with a serenade from Tony Bennett, a greeting from President Obama and a “Larry King Day” proclamation from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Those guests and others capped his 25-year run behind the microphone with CNN.

“Welcome to the last ‘Larry King Live.’ It’s hard to say that,” King said in his opening remarks to his last show.