NBC's search; more bad news for Billy; Mark Burnett speaks; debate ratings; 'Vice News Tonight' debuts; Clinton camp objecting to Wikileaks coverage

By Brian Stelter & the CNNMoney Media team Searching for more "Trump tapes" Scooped by the WashPost last week, and under scrutiny by critics who wonder if it slow-walked the Trump tape to protect Billy Bush, NBC News is redoubling its effort to examine past behavior by Trump. On Monday, NBC News president Deborah Turness emailed seven of her top producers and "launched a hunt for 'Apprentice' transcripts, even down to loggers of the tape," a source says. "Mass hunt underway." NBC, of course, is just one of many news organizations in pursuit... Contractual complications: Burnett cannot share "Apprentice" clips Dylan Byers reports: Mark Burnett says he does not have the legal ability to release footage from "The Apprentice" -- denying reports that he is intentionally withholding footage that may harm Trump. MGM now owns Burnett's production company. So in a joint statement Monday, Burnett and MGM said that "despite reports to the contrary," "various contractual and legal requirements" restrict any release of unaired video.  Apparently referring to a BuzzFeed story, the statement said, "The recent claims that Mark Burnett has threatened anyone with litigation if they were to leak such material are completely and unequivocally false." BuzzFeed stands by the story... Read more from Dylan here... More bad news for Billy Bush Carson Daly will co-host the 9am hour of Tuesday's "Today" show as Billy Bush's suspension continues. Sources at NBC say it is highly unlikely Bush will ever be back on the show. Here's my story... With more to come on Tuesday... In the meantime, this Page Six story is getting shared by NBCers. It says "Bush brazenly bragged to NBC staff about the vulgar Donald Trump tape while covering the Olympics in Rio." It's really late at night now... No immediate comment from NBC News...  -- Plus: Don't miss Bill Carter's column for CNNMoney about NBC's tape "dilemma..."  -- People mag says Bush is "devastated..." Nancy O'Dell responds Great point from a regular newsletter reader: "What's amazing to me is that neither Trump nor Billy Bush has apologized directly to Nancy O'Dell or Arianne Zucker... and no one in the media seems to have noticed."  On Monday night's "ET," O'Dell spoke about the 2005 video. "I didn't ask to be a part" of this, she said... "There is no room for objectification of women, or anyone for that matter, not even in the 'locker room...'" Chloe Melas wrote about her comments here...  -- ICYMI: "Access" co-host Kit Hoover got emotional while defending Bush... Four weeks till the election, and Trump is campaigning against... CNN Trump tweeted Monday afternoon: "Wow, CNN got caught fixing their 'focus group' in order to make Crooked Hillary look better. Really pathetic and totally dishonest!" This was a ridiculous right-wing meme earlier in the day. CNNPolitics' Eric Bradner replied: "This is a lie. Pamela Brown was describing the segment so focus group members would know what was being discussed." CNN PR's statement: "It's absurd to think she was coaching the focus group in any way..." Some news orgs skipped online surveys this time  Just like he did after the first debate, Trump touted unscientific online surveys to claim that he won the second debate. But there's been a change: "Time, CNBC, Fortune, and The Hill did not post web polls asking readers who won Sunday's contest. Each of the news outlets had regularly done so in the past," BI's Oliver Darcy reports... Bill O'Reilly sees a corporate media conspiracy? On Monday morning Bill O'Reilly claimed that "at least three" news organizations "have ordered their employees to destroy Trump." He added: "I can't say who they are right now, because I don't have it nailed down, but I am 100% convinced..." Erik Wemple's response is on point... Check it out here... Stuff you might have missed today  -- John Oliver "destroyed" Bush with this montage...  -- Samantha Bee on the latest episode of "Full Frontal:" "You're going to hear the p-word and it doesn't stand for 'presidential...'" (hat tip Brian Steinberg)  -- Amy Walter with the debate tweet of the day: "Imagine if Trump had called a press conference to read wiki leaks docs instead of his panel of Bill Clinton accusers..."  -- Vox's Sarah Frostenson: "Trump interrupted Clinton 18 times. She interrupted him once..."  -- "When Trump went low, Steve Bannon found a new direction: Lower." Margaret Sullivan's latest...  -- A great read by Adrian Carrasquillo: "As Trump Falters, Ana Navarro Is Having The Last Word..." "Vice News Tonight" premieres Brian Lowry reviews the premiere of HBO's daily newscast "Vice News Tonight:" "While Vice has promised a sort-of reinvention of the staid nightly news format, what it delivered merely played like Short-Attention-Span Theater. Nor did the principal conceit -- dispensing with an anchor sitting behind a desk -- feel revolutionary; rather, the effect resembled a harder-edged Millennial version of the old Saturday-morning staple 'In the News.' There were several interesting topics squeezed into the 23 minutes of news content, including a lightning round of items to kick off the show, and an amusing recap titled "Yesterday on the Internet" to close it. In between, though, the half-hour would have benefited from fewer stories allowed a bit more room to breathe..." Twitter still talking to Salesforce Potential buyers for Twitter are in short supply. But execs are "continuing deal talks with at least one suitors," Salesforce.com, NYT's Mike Isaac reports. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey "is now not averse to selling the company as long as it is what is best for the integrity of the product." Read more... "Comedians in Cars leaving Crackle?" NYT's John Koblin and Brooks Barnes report: "In a potential blow" to Sony's streaming service Crackle, "Jerry Seinfeld's hit online series 'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' is on the market." With Seinfeld's contract expiring, his reps "have been in talks with the likes of Netflix and Hulu about taking over distribution..." Read more... Debate night in America About the ratings Nielsen's official # for Sunday's debate: 66.5 million. That's a roughly 20% drop from the 84 million who tuned in for the first Clinton-Trump debate. Why the drop-off? Mainly "Sunday Night Football," as Frank Pallotta wrote here. But there's speculation that the ugly, bitter nature of the presidential campaign also had something to do with it. "I think people are repulsed by it now," a senior TV exec commented. Here's my full story... CNN up, Fox down versus debate #1  During and after the debate, CNN topped Fox News not only in the 25-54 demo, but also in total viewers. In fact, Sunday night represented CNN's most-watched general election debate ever. Meanwhile, Fox News was down from debate #1. A wise emailer (with no connection to either network) offers this theory: "A lot of Republicans simply gave up after what happened the past two weeks, especially on Friday... It's like watching your favorite baseball team play Game 4 of the World Series when you're already down 3-0, and no team has ever come back from that..." (CNN also covered the Trump tape and the fallout more aggressively than Fox, IMHO... CNN's #'s were way up all weekend long...) The emailer's secondary explanation for the overall 20% decline: "A lot of parents didn't want their kids to watch after the Trump video, and then Trump's behavior afterward led tons of people to worry it was going to be a rated R (or worse) debate..." About the moderating Michael Grynbaum writes: "They dug for revelations, extracting news nuggets... They pressed for specifics, interrupting the candidates to demand concrete strategies... And they posed blunt, provocative questions." Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz "seemed to cast off the hand-wringing pressures on this year's crop of moderators," and the "immediate response was praise from many journalists and some grumbling from partisans..." About Ken Bone Dylan Byers emails his two cents: What the Ken Bone thing is really about: How Twitterverse often chooses meme-ification and thinly veiled mockery of the electorate over focusing on politics and policy. People might act like they're celebrating him, but they're also making fun of him. They're treating him like a simpleton for their own enjoyment. For reporters, at least, isn't that time better spent focusing on the question he asked (about energy policy) or on one of the many unprecedented things said at last night's debate... like, say, the Republican presidential nominee suggesting he would jail his opponent?  -- AP's Julie Pace comments: "In all seriousness, Ken Bone is such a good reminder that it's sooo much more satisfying to talk to voters than politicos..." Was this the "pilot" for Trump TV? On Monday's "New Day," I observed that Trump acted like a host on a hypothetical "Trump TV" network: Shoring up his base... Recycling lines from his rallies... And generally acting like a GOP primary candidate...  -- Peter Wehner is thinking the same thing: "He's auditioning for his next entertainment gig. On Sunday night, he was thinking of his brand rather than his campaign, his future audience share rather than his electoral vote count..." Tuesday morning on "New Day" Bill Carter and I will be back in the 6:50am time slot... 28 days till Election Day Clinton campaign: "Media needs to stop treating Wikileaks like it is same as FOIA" Clinton campaign press secretary Brian Fallon: "If you are going to write about materials issued by Wikileaks, you should at least state they are product of illegal hack by a foreign govt... Russia actively trying to boost Trump is way more important than how our campaign's tweets are crafted, but is getting fraction of coverage... Media needs to stop treating Wikileaks like it is same as FOIA..." Erick Erickson's soul searching  Dylan Byers says it's a must-read: This powerful, personal essay from Erick Erickson on his complicated history with Trump: "I have gotten lots of praise this year for being so strongly against Trump, but the truth is that I should have done it sooner.... I should have trusted the Lord and done what was right instead of dawdling hoping events would change that could spare me a difficult decision." Here's the rest... Notes and quotes  -- David Frum tweets: "The NYTimes and Washington Post told you the truth about Trump. Fox News and talk radio lied to you. You might keep that in mind in future..."  -- Liz Spayd's latest NYT public editor blog post: "Why'd You Do That? Printing Donald Trump's Vulgarities"  -- CNNMoney's Hope King reports: "#Thisis2016 rallies Asian Americans against racist encounters" For the record  -- Ashleigh Banfield is sharing her engagement story! (The Daily Mail)  -- And speaking of engagements: Via Playbook: Andrew Kaczynski, senior editor and reporter at CNN's KFile who just left BuzzFeed, recently got engaged to WSJ banking reporter Rachel Louise Ensign..."  -- AMC has ordered a fourth and final season of "Halt and Catch Fire..." (Variety)  -- Via entertainment editor Megan Thomas: "Fraggle Rock" has been digitally remastered and will air on HBO at the end of this year... (A.V. Club)  -- Chloe Melas reports: Drake breaks an American Music Awards Record by picking up 13 nominations... (CNN)  -- More from Chloe: Shailene Woodley was arrested for criminal trespassing -- and she filmed the entire incident on Facebook Live. She was attending a silent protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline... (CNN) Tell us what you think... What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email... 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