Will it be CBS vs. MTV?

Is a battle between CBS and MTV in the offing — a battle for control of media giant Viacom?

Oh, probably not. But it sounds like a good story, doesn't it?

Mel Karmazin, president and CEO of media giant Viacom, resigned earlier this week. As a result, CBS chairman and CEO Les Moonves and MTV Networks chairman and CEO Tom Freston were both promoted to co-presidents and co-COOs of their parent company.

Included in the announcement by Viacom's board of directors is that Sumner Redstone, the 81-year-old Viacom CEO, will step down sometime in the next three years. And, given that Moonves and Freston's promotions were announced as "part of a corporate succession plan," one would think that one of the two will succeed Redstone as CEO. The other, presumably, will become sole president and COO.

Gee, this is sort of like way back on "Dallas" when Bobby and J.R. Ewing divided up Ewing Oil for a year to see who could turn the biggest profit and inherit the whole company, isn't it?

Oh, probably not. But Moonves and Freston did divide up the parts of the company they didn't already oversee. Moonves is getting (in addition to CBS and UPN), Paramount TV, Infinity Broadcasting (radio) and Viacom Outdoor (billboards). Freston (in addition to the MTV and Nickelodeon channels Spike, TV Land, Noggin and VH-1) is getting the Showtime networks, BET, Paramount movie studios, Paramount Parks and Simon & Schuster Publishing. We're told they'll share power and each will report directly to Redstone.

Why Karmazin — who was running CBS until it was, um, "acquired" by Viacom and he started running the parent company (who acquired whom?) — resigned is a matter of speculation.

His relationship with Redstone was sometimes rocky, however, and perhaps Redstone — who has, to this point, refused to discuss stepping down even under pressure from his board — wouldn't agree to go unless he was assured he won't be succeeded by Karmazin.

And neither Moonves nor Freston is going to be holding his breath waiting to be Redstone's successor. For one thing, Redstone has spent the past couple of decades outlasting a number of heir apparents. And for another, there are rumors that he's positioning his daughter, Shari (who runs the family owned cinema chain National Amusements), to succeed him.

You see? I told you this was sort of like "Dallas." Or maybe "Dynasty."

Except that nothing that ever happened on those shows was anywhere near as unbelievable as what happened when Freston's MTV produced the Super Bowl halftime show for Moonves' CBS.

Frankly, all of this sounds far more entertaining than most of the programming on any of Viacom's TV networks or the movies released by Paramount. If they made this into a reality show, it would blow "The Apprentice" out of the ratings water.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com