Charter wants Comcast assist! Analyzing Jay Leno. RIP Pete Seeger.

After the coffee. Before getting in State of the Union mode.

The Skinny: I’ve watched the first two episodes of Fox’s “The Following,” and while the producers have done a good job coming up with compelling and creepy new characters, I’m not sure I’m up for another season of murder and mayhem. It’s very draining. Tuesday’s headlines include the latest twist in Charter’s efforts to buy Time Warner Cable. Also, movie theater owners want shorter trailers and media pundits are busy analyzing Jay Leno’s final interviews. And the music industry lost a legend in Pete Seeger.

Daily Dose: On Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell will hold his pre-Super Bowl press briefing. The question is whether the league will also announce then who has won the rights to a one-year deal for Thursday football. The league is staying quiet but one TV insider said if Fox got it, the league would announce this week since the network also has Sunday’s Super Bowl. But if it is a different network -- such as NBC -- the announcement would wait until next week, the insider said. We’ll see soon enough if that prediction pans out.

Conquer and divide. Charter Communications is working all the angles in its attempt to acquire Time Warner Cable. The company is now willing to even sell off some of Time Warner Cable’s key assets -- including its New York City operations -- to Comcast Corp. Such a move would allow Charter to up its offer to acquire Time Warner Cable. Comcast already has operations all over the East Coast, including Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, and would like to add New York City to its holdings. Still, Comcast doesn’t want to partner with Charter on what has been to date an essentially hostile bid for Time Warner Cable. Charter would have to buy Time Warner Cable and then turn around and sell off parts to Comcast. The latest from the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.

We’re back baby! Comcast Corp. added over 40,000 video subscribers in the fourth quarter. It’s the first time in several quarters that the nation’s largest cable giant added video homes. Still, for the year it lost over 300,000 video subscribers. Comcast also said revenue at NBCUniversal was up 7%, thanks in large part to improvements at the NBC network. An early look at the numbers from the Associated Press.

And how about no ads while we’re at it? The National Assn. of Theatre Owners wants studios to cut the length of movie trailers to two minutes from the average length of 2-1/2 minutes. It also doesn’t want to run trailers for any movies that are not opening for 150 days or more. The changes are being recommended because consumers are tired of long trailers that give up too much plot and drag on. My only fear is that by trimming the trailers, the theater owners will use the found time to jam a few more advertisements on the screen. More from the Los Angeles Times.

Take that! Director Quentin Tarantino was already mad that his new script “The Hateful Eight” had been leaked. Now he’s furious that the Defamer, a blog that is part of the Gawker Media empire, got ahold of and published the script. He’s filed a suit against Gawker, which says the company is in the business of “predatory journalism, violating people’s rights to make a buck” and has gone “too far” this time. Details on the suit from the Hollywood Reporter.

Analyzing Jay. With Jay Leno getting ready (again) to exit his gig as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show,” old debates resurface about what his part may have been in Conan O’Brien’s troubled short run behind that same desk. O’Brien supporters have accused Leno of undercutting his would-be successor. Leno backers counter that it was O’Brien’s job to lose and, well, he lost it. Variety and Vulture try to read between the lines of Leno’s recent round of exit interviews.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Folk music legend Pete Seeger died at the age of 94. Public radio personality Madeline Brand is back on the air at KCRW.

Follow me on Twitter. We’ll hit all the right notes. @JBFlint.