There was minor excitement this morning when "Survivor" exec producer Mark Burnett, here to talk about "Survivor: All Stars," was asked about the "Survivor" after that.

"Who says there's a next time?" Burnett asked, a bit disingenuously, I thought. "It hasn't been ordered or discussed."

A few minutes earlier, in a post-press conference scrum, CBS CEO Les Moonves had assured me that there would be a "Survivor 9" and "Survivor 10," but now Burnett was insisting he knew nothing about it.

Negotiating in the press is a time-honored tradition in this town, but it occurs less often in front of the press. After listening to Burnett moan for a few minutes about how hard it is to find secure locations in a post-9/11 world and saying that if he didn't get a green light in the next couple of weeks, it wouldn't be possible to have a ninth "Survivor" ready for fall, a couple of us scurried over to Moonves, who once again insisted the franchise would continue.

A few days ago -- though it seems like weeks ago -- Burnett was sitting next to Donald Trump, talking about his latest show for NBC, "The Apprentice," while the Donald trashed Moonves.

Now some of us were wondering how well Moonves and Burnett, two of the people who helped change the face of Thursday nights, are getting along these days. It didn't help that Burnett was insisting he couldn't remember whether or not his contract would allow him to take the show to another network or if CBS could continue it without his participation. (Executive producer amnesia is a bigger threat than mad-cow disease in this town.)

An hour later, as I left a session on CBS News' election coverage, Moonves pulled me aside to tell me the network now had a deal with Burnett for the ninth and 10th "Survivors."

I feel so used...