ABC has finally realized that popular, busty, vacuous Internet anchorwomen do not translate into popular, busty, vacuous television anchors. The network is severing its one-year relationship with Amanda Congdon, who shot to Internet fame hosting the videoblog Rocketboom. So what now?

We hear that ABC News vlogger Amanda Congdon's contract won't be renewed. Congdon, who came to fame at RocketBoom, started contributing to their website late last year. She has been quite productive recently—taking tours of homes in Santa Barbara and talking about angry iPhone buyers. No word yet on the state of her contracts with DuPont.

From Amanda Congdon to Tay Zonday — virtually every inane, pop culture Internet video "star" of the last few years who have made YouTube indispensable to millions of... Internet People! Depicted in Flash animation in under three minutes by Dan Meth, music by Dan Meth and Micah Frank.

The YouTube/CNN debate delivered sophomoric (but stereotypical YouTube) softballs. And any remaining hopes were dashed by the Iowa Republican debate hosted by ABC's George Stephanopoulos. The Disney-owned network, like YouTube, implemented user voting in its video-submission process. And, predictably, the result was more "America's Funniest Home Videos" than New England Town Hall. ABC adroitly crafted its call for citizen submissions to market its televised event, not raise the level of political discourse.

[UPDATE BELOW]What's up with the bubbly former host of Rocketboom, which was supposed to be the Internet's first huge news show before it leveled off? According to the London Times, Amanda Congdon's show for ABC News is "currently in the world's top 40,000 blogs," which puts it somewhere below great-soups-ive-eaten.blogspot.com. But Congdon has always been proud of her second career as a host for corporate stunt videos, and she recently starred in an American Express ad (shown below) shot in San Francisco. It's for a good cause, in a way: AmEx is giving away up to $5 million for a world-improving project to be selected by its customers. Metaphor-makers rejoice: The "cable car" carrying journotainer Amanda through the city in this video is a fake. Okay, okay, a "replica."

ABC and Dupont brand Amanda Congdon addresses some salient issues concerning the Virginia Tech tragedy:

• The Post names the "9 Hottest Celebs on the Web." These include Amanda Congdon, Tila Tequila, and Brooke Parkhurst. [NYP]
  

I am not subject to the 'rules' traditional journalists have to follow. Isn't that what new media is all about? Breaking the rules? Setting our own?

• Read all about Hassan Elmasry, the Morgan Stanley portfolio manager who's trying to take the Times out of Sulzberger family hands, and the man responsible for tearing Pinch Sulzberger a new one at the late February board meeting. (In PowerPoint, no less!) [WSJ]
  

• Ex-Rocketboomer Amanda Congdon's got a new job—as a shill for DuPont. [AdAge]
  

The variety of stars at tech conferences used to be limited to bloggers, startup innovators, designers and programmers identifiable only after a glimpse at a name badge. But a new class of celeb is rising with more recognizable star power: videobloggers, often good-looking and engaging, practiced at being entertaining, and a prime target for conference-long entourages. Other techies love hooking up with a less nerdy brand of internet celeb. At this weekend's South by Southwest conference, star vloggers included Casey and Rudy from sci-fi show Galacticast and ABC News vlogger Amanda Congdon. The biggest star by far, though, was Ze Frank, host of the one-man "The Show," who cruised a few parties, hosted the annual Web Awards, and performed a Powerpoint stand-up routine at a Buzzfeed party. Prediction: "Fun" conferences (full of the geeks who do the actual work of Web 2.0) like SXSW will have more vlogger presence than "business" conferences like the upcoming suit-heavy Video on the Net. (photo by Scott Beale)

• MTV names reality TV queen to head programming. Expect lots more pimping and punking! [MediaPost]
  

Many thanks to the bajillions of readers who sent in nominations for the Vlog Hot poll. Prepare for a veritable blizzard of democracy as the poll launches today with over 80 video bloggers competing in 14 gendered heats (plus semis and finals!) for the big giant prize of ... what exactly? Oh yes, a photo shoot or acrylic statuette. And if you deny both prizes, we will make the statuette of you without your consent and give it to your worst enemy for use in eldritch voodoo rites. After the jump, enjoy the first clash of titans with Newsbabes Heat 1. Warning: Contains Congdon. Multiple voting now enabled!

If you can't see the voting mechanism below, we can't help you. We don't know how it works either. You might try turning off firewalls and turning on cookies. Note that you can now vote more than once! And why not? You should be able to vote once per day in any of these polls, showing true devotion to your favorite vlogger by suborning the more casual, ephemeral love showered on her or his opponents. Again, if you have technical problems with that, don't call us. For amusement only, far as you're concerned.

We recently received a solicitation from video chat site Paltalk to see if we'd like to join in an interview with Amanda Congdon. Talk about a short memory. A few months back, Paltalk got in touch with Gawker for a chat with Congdon and Arianna Huffington. We cooperated, on the condition that we'd get to run a highlight clip on Gawker. Unfortunately (for us), things did not go as planned.First, we asked for reader queries, and received the expected raft of obscenity and foolishness. There were a few gems, which we dutifully compiled for use. However, we'd have to settle for just Arianna, as Amanda, now on West Coast time, wouldn't be interviewed until the New York staff was well into the second half of happy hour. So fine, Huffington solo.

Paltalk prez Joel Smernoff showed up at Gawker HQ to set up the video feed, and our own Intern Heather (now Editorial Assistant Heather) asked the questions. By all accounts, Huffington handled even the coarsest questions with characteristic aplomb, and all present were dutifully amused. You'll never know though, because after a day of silence, Smernoff finally responded to our "where's the damn clip" emails:

Okay, we know we asked for Sean Delonas before, but this is much, much better. Ladies and gentlemen, from the people who brought you Journalist Gets Tased and Publicist Gets Tased, we are proud to direct you to Rack Gets Tased. This is pretty much how our dreams play out every night, so it's nice to see in real life.

SCOTT KIDDER — Have you been watching Amanda's Congdon's much-hyped A/C on ABC? In her second episode for old media powerhouse Disney, she posts the question: "I wonder if citizen journalists will ever be taken seriously?"

• Vivendi decides to hold on to its NBC Universal stock in spite of the fact that Jeff Zucker is allegedly a dick. [NYP]
  

NICK DOUGLAS — Good deals are obvious. Great deals are not. News Corp's $580-million purchase of MySpace was "Murdoch's Folly" no more when Google paid $900 million to power MySpace search. In that spirit, here are the top nine business moves from 2006 that don't make sense — at first. Below, the video that started Deal #1.

It's here, it's here, the Amanda Congdon show is here! If you're willing to sit through a thirty-second Sheraton commercial and ignore the thousands of pop-unders ABC inflicts on you, you can catch The Rack in all its unfettered, Steely Dan-clad glory. We watched it with the sound muted so as not to be distracted while we were getting off, but the Times' Virginia Heffernan reviews the performance:

Are you excited for tomorrow? You should be: It marks the debut of A/C on ABC, the new web-whatever-the-hell-it-is from Amanda Congdon, who "blasted out of the blogosphere," according to the promotional copy. What's Amanda's goal? "To bring the best of the web - all of its content, all of its culture, even its potential for social change - to the ABC News digital audience." Best of all, A/C on ABC will be interactive: "[T]alk to Amanda, ask her questions, help her shape her program." Worried that working for a professional news network may somehow drain Amanda of the exuberance for which she is so justly celebrated? Don't be! If the placement of those buttons on this ad are any indication, ABC has a pretty good handle on her appeal.