The Morning Fix: Conan hits the TBS stage! Megan Fox burns Bay bridge. CBS' 'Big Bang' bet

After the coffee. Before getting through the last of the upfronts! 

He's back!! Conan O'Brien was charged up and charming for his first day at work at Turner Broadcasting's TBS. O'Brien, who was booted off NBC's "Tonight Show" earlier this year, was the main attraction at a star-studded presentation Turner made to advertisers Wednesday in New York City. O'Brien told reporters after Turner's presentation that there is "no way the show won't be influenced by what I've gone through." Asked to elaborate on that, O'Brien cracked that he'd be "more of a man" physically, but "much weaker" emotionally. He said he did not have a dream first guest yet. Seems safe to say it won't be Jay Leno. More on Turner Broadcasting's big day from the Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg and USA Today. 

CBS makes a big bang. CBS made a bold move in its fall schedule, moving the Monday hit "The Big Bang Theory" to Thursday nights in the hopes of recapturing the glory and the advertising dollars NBC had with "Friends." The network also shifted "CSI Miami" to Sunday night and "Survivor" to Wednesday night. Charlie Sheen and his $1.2-million-per-episode paycheck will stay put at Mondays at 9 p.m. More on CBS' strategy from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Variety and Vulture.

Outfoxed! Megan Fox will not be in director Michael Bay's next "Transformers" movie. The outspoken, sultry star's option for the latest sequel was not picked up by Bay, according to Deadline Hollywood. Fox's PR team later issued a statement saying the decision not to take part in another "Transformers" was hers. Somehow we doubt that. After all, it's not like "Jennifer's Body" cleaned up at the box office or she showed a ton of comedy chops hosting NBC's "Saturday Night Live." We're guessing, as is everyone else, that there were finally some consequences to dissing Bay every chance she got. 

Staying independent. Producer Michael London, whose films include "13" and "Sideways," has had to adjust to the new financial realities of being an indie producer as the business has gone from, in his words, low-risk, high-reward to high-risk, low-reward. He talks shop with the Los Angeles Times' Claudia Eller. 

That's all folks! Maybe not. Warner Bros. is on a mission to revamp Looney Tunes with a new series and even some 3-D versions, according to the New York Times. At least this time the company isn't tampering too much with the looks of Bugs, Daffy, Sylvester (my favorite) and the rest of the bunch. But somehow I doubt that new Looney Tunes will really capture the intelligence, sarcasm and deviousness of the originals.

Univision's big push. Spanish-language broadcaster Univision is going to introduce almost two dozen new television series to advertisers Thursday afternoon, per the Wall Street Journal. Already, the No. 1 Hispanic broadcaster, Univision is betting there will be more ad dollars aimed at the Latin audience. On the business side, it owns many of its new shows. No word on whether majority owner Haim Saban will create a Spanish version of "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" now that he has the rights back. 

Strange bedfellows ... or not. The Hollywood Reporter says that Deadline Hollywood editor Nikki Finke is in talks to take a consulting gig on the HBO series "Tilda" that the pay cable channel is developing and that bears a more than passing resemblance to the Hollywood scribe. Dave Poland's Hot Blog had some fun with this one. 

Inside the Los Angeles Times: John Horn looks at the release strategy for the Bollywood film "Kites," which includes two different versions of the movie: one for South Asia, and the Brett Ratner version for the rest of the globe. Kenneth Turan on documenter Frederick Wiseman. 

Don't you want to hear my rants about the Redskins? Follow me on Twitter at: twitter.com/JBFlint

-- Joe Flint

Spanish network Estrella launches but will its star shine or fade?

Jay Leno isn't the only one in Burbank taking a big gamble today. LBI Media Inc., a Burbank-based family-owned broadcaster, has picked today to launch a Hispanic television network.

Estrella TV will reach about 70% of the nation's Hispanic television households. LBI Media is the parent of Liberman Broadcasting, which owns several major-market television stations including KRCA Los Angeles. Several other broadcasters including Hearst Television, Belo Corp. and Sunbeam Television have signed on as affiliates.

KRCA has already become something of a presence in the Los Angeles television market as the station has made some inroads on its bigger competitors Univision and Telemundo. Its prime-time ratings jumped 30% in the 18 to 49 demographic in July. 

Still, this is hardly the ideal time to launch a new channel, particularly a broadcast network. Besides a tough economy, Univision and NBC Universal's Telemundo are also fairly entrenched and have stronger television stations carrying their programming.

LBI has been feeling the pains that every broadcaster has as of late. For the second quarter of 2009, its revenues fell 16.4% to $28.4 million. Operating income was off 5.6% to $19.2 million.

None of this worries Lenard Liberman, executive vice president of LBI who co-founded the company with his father Jose. They bought their first radio station in 1988 and expanded into television in 1998 and now own seven television stations and 22 radio outlets. 

Early on, Liberman recognized that he couldn't compete financially with the much bigger Univision and Telemundo. So instead of trying to buy pricey telenovelas, Liberman went with cheaper programming he could produce himself. "We went from producing one show a week to 60 hours a week," he said. Now the company has a library of more than 5,000 hours. Most of their content is reality, talk and variety as well as some news programming. Many of the shows and formats developed for KCRA will transition to Estrella. 

In 2007, Liberman raised $200 million and began to think national. Because the company is already producing the bulk of its content, its programming costs won't rise dramatically with the expansion into a network. The company plans to program original material six days a week (Monday through Saturday) from mid-afternoon through prime time. It will keep 60% of the ad inventory from its affiliates. It's a fairly low-risk venture, but the challenge will be promoting Estrella nationwide especially because many of its affiliates are digital signals that are not established in the marketplace.

"I don't want to be cavalier and say we're going to beat Univision," Liberman says, but "I think the future is bright."

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Lenard Liberman. Credit: LBI Media