Ted Koppel's last "Nightline" show is to air November 22.

HBO has reportedly offered him a three-year-contract promising many millions upon millions of greenbacks in exchange for 14 hours per year of programming.

Some HBO executives have been heard grumbling that after their "Rome" debacle, in which they paid out lots of money to produce the series and then fiddled as the ratings sank, the company should be more prudent about shelling out big time, especially for documentaries which, because of their intelligent content and lack of semi-naked dancers, don't go over so well with the average boob tube viewer. Furthermore, Koppel and some of his ABC associates, who would also be in on the HBO deal, say they will not ink anything until their time with ABC is up.

Hearing of the potential deal, Neil McFarquwhar, president of the American Nerd Association, said: "Ted Koppel has done for the American nerd what no nerd before him succeeded in doing." (By Scott Rose)