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CBS Corp. (CBS) said Friday it expects to report adjusted earnings of 42 cents to 44 cents a share in the third quarter, adding that the economic slowdown has hit advertising revenues. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research estimate earnings of 42 cents a share. snip

For you students who have been fans of the Simpsons since way back in your Pogs days, you know it goes without saying that Homer Simpson screws up… a lot. But for once, in this clip, Homer’s blunder is not his fault at all. He did the right thing, he voted for Obama! Alas, the machine wouldn’t let him… instead it changes his vote to McCain every time. It’d be funny if it didn’t seem eerily plausible. (And just plain eerie, seriously, listen to the opening music.) As Simpson says, “This doesn’t happen in America, maybe Ohio, but not in...

If you have Dish Network, turn to channel 73. You will find a continual running advertisement supporting Obama from 6:00 pm until 4:00 am every day from now until the election.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008: Joy calls Sarah Palin a few names, inclusing "DUMB" and more, MUCH MORE!!! Barbara Walters confronts Elisabeth Hasselbeck and asks her why she keeps defending Palin all of the time. These broads are totally losing it in this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_GjgZseFRc

No matter how Jeffrey Immelt spins this $15 billion worth of capital raising, it clearly smacks of a desperation move after Wall Street was losing confidence in the coglomerate's ability to perform. General Electric, of course, is the parent company of NBC Universal. The breaking news is that GE plans to sell $3 billion of "perpetual preferred" stock to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, and plans to sell at least $12 billion of stock to the public. It's a similar deal to what Buffett did last week with Goldman Sachs, which not coincidentally arranged for this GE deal, too. GE's share...

General Electric said Thursday that national advertising is suffering at NBC Universal, an apparent first acknowledgment since the economic crisis began. Local station groups have said their business is ailing, but companies such as News Corp., which runs Fox, and CBS have indicated their broadcast networks are not experiencing any softness. Nonetheless, GE said its cable operations are "extremely strong," and indicated that it does not expect NBCU's total results to be lower than forecast for the July-September period. "As some sectors of the economy have pressure, that hurts some of the national advertising like in the auto segment," CFO...

All eyes are on Wall Street and Washington as government leaders seek to come to terms on a bailout of the much-endangered U.S. economy. But well before the credit crisis reached these proportions Americans were cutting personal spending down to necessities, and marketers were cutting their spending in response. Just how much becomes apparent looking at the latest data from TNS Media Intelligence on ad spending for the second quarter and for the full first half of 2008. Total ad spending on all media for the months April through June fell 3.7 percent. That's the steepest decline since 2001, during...

Premiers Thur. Sept. 25 @ 8PM ET/PT

Molly Sims achieved perfection at the Metropolitan Opera’s 125th Season Opening Night Gala.

Our attention yesterday was not on the 2008 Emmy Awards itself, but on the red carpet, where the ladies stepped out in stunning gowns and fantastic frocks. See, who wore what last night… Brooke Shields opted for a fuchsia ruffled Badgley Mischka gown. Olivia Wilde was amazingly chic in her Reem Acra gown. Kyra Sedgwick showcased grace and elegance in a white L’Wren dress with crystals detailings.

ABC News is laying off "a handful" of full-time and part-time staffers at its Washington, D.C., bureau, a network source confirmed, marking the latest in a number of job moves and cuts there. ABC News had no official comment. There was no word on how many staffers would be affected, but according to one source, the number is less than one-dozen. Another source said they would include at least a technical director, an audio engineer, a director, an operations producer and perhaps a scheduler, who determines what shifts people work. The cuts come because the network will no longer staff...

BACK IN THE HEYDAY OF THE TELEVISION WESTERN, the 1950s and 1960s, there were more horse operas than any other type of show on the air, and many, like Wanted Dead or Alive, managed to tell a credible story in only 30 minutes, and do it in black and white with just a few commercial interruptions. The first episode was actually a spin-off from the hit western "Trackdown" starring Robert Culp as Texas Ranger Hoby Gilman. That episode, titled "The Bounty Hunter," ( this episode has also been listed as "The Bounty Man" ) introduced Steve McQueen as Josh...

ABC eliminated 15-20 management positions in broadcast operations and engineering (BO&E), the department that oversees technical operations for the network. The cuts, which were announced in a memo Wednesday, include three at ABC News in Washington, D.C., according to a source, where ABC has cut back or moved a number of positions already as a result of the move of Nightline production to New York. But there were cuts in New York and Los Angeles, as well. The memo suggested that the cuts were not part of an IBM-conducted review of ABC processes and procedures currently underway, stating that the...

When MSNBC announced the other day that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews were being replaced as co-anchors of the cable network's nightly political broadcast, the news was widely taken as evidence that the grownups at the parent network are looking to salvage NBC News' reputation for balance. And who can doubt that Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams--who've had to squirm before the likes of Jon Stewart, pretending to be something other than appalled by the nightly goings-on at MSNBC--had a major hand in this move? snip Indeed, this was just the most recent signal that the network, having long refused...

Who thought this TV blog would get this political this fast? But we are living in the home stretch of a once-in-lifetime Presidential election, and TV and the media are at the center of it like they haven't been since the days of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. The spirited and happily civil response through the night to my last post about the ways in which Keith Olbermann has damaged the credibility and integrity of NBC News (built over more than 70 years if you include radio) makes me think we can take a similarly balanced look at the role...

More Americans than ever are watching TV online, about a fifth, twice the number two years ago, despite the fact that the viewing experience doesn't come close to that of watching on a TV screen. Just why is interesting. As it turns out, avoiding commercials plays only a minor role, and it's actually less a factor than it was two years ago. The big reason people watch TV online is the flexibility it affords. A study by the Conference Board, the New York research outfit, reports that 55.4 percent of respondents said they watched TV online so they can see...

The industrywide "Stand Up to Cancer" telethon averaged a modest 10.3 million viewers during its hour-long simulcast on ABC, NBC and CBS Friday. On a Friday night at 8 p.m. before the new broadcast TV season began, the ratings weren't expected to be blockbuster, but the show was still the night's most-watched show on broadcast TV, according to preliminary data released Sunday by Nielsen Media Research. The two broadcast networks that didn't run the special, Fox and the CW, had more viewers together than the telethon.

Rachel Maddow is so Keith Olbermann's protege, she's supposedly trying to get people fired. Just like her mentor! "Maddow tried to replace all the staffers who work on the 9 p.m. time slot, which she takes over on Monday, but management refused," claims the indefatigable Page Six. This would be, of course, Dan Abrams' former team at Verdict. And ya know who Olbermann can't stand? A one Dan Abrams, who for a time played MSNBC general manager, and thus, Olbermann's boss, but the two never clicked, and neither wanted to pay mind to the other. You'd expect, then, that the...

At almost exactly 10 PM Eastern, my Brighthouse cable went completely black. My dad, who lives on the other side of town, called and said that he's having the same problem. I've tried calling Brighthouse and their line is constantly busy, so it must be affecting a large number of people. My dad and I, of course, smell something fishy, especially since my Internet service, which is also provided by Brighthouse on the same cable, is working just fine.

Norah O'Donnell is anchoring in an outdoor studio thing, interviewing Sen. Kay Bailey-Hutchison, and you cannot hear a darn thing with all the yelling & screaming from anarchists in the background holding up posters and other 9/11 conspiracy theorists holding up signs that say that the US government is to blame for 9/11. Nice job, MSNBC. Move it inside!

<p>EXCLUSIVE: After weeks of checking out rumor after rumor, I'm finally able to pin down details of the long-overdue shakeup that's ahead for NBC when this fall's primetime schedule shapes up to be an unmitigated disaster. Someone has to shoulder the responsibility, and both Ben Silverman and the Reveille development exec he brought with him to NBC, Teri Weinberg, now deservedly have big fat targets on their foreheads. Staying in charge will be Marc Graboff and Katherine Pope who both have been trying to keep NBC up and running while Weinberg continually f***s up and Silverman regularly goes AWOL. For instance, last Thursday was Ben's first day in the office all month after attending the Beijing Olympics and guesting aboard Elisabeth Murdoch's yacht. (Elisabeth's Shine Group bought Ben's Reveille productions which put $60+ million directly into his pocket). But a pressing issue has been Silverman's partying ways, especially his excessive off-hours drinking and drug-taking, which has not only been visible to but also prompted complaints from Hollywood's TV community. "When he's around, he is totally engaged and focused and not in an altered state of consciousness. But that's when he's around. Literally, he has not been around from August 1st until August 28th, and you can't run a network programming group and not be around for the month of August," an insider tells me. So NBC is faced with two personnel problems simultaneously: Weinberg and Silverman.</p>

I was happy to see a new source on the 'net...Pajamas Media doing some television. But frankly I was a bit dismayed to see the cost involved. Seems a bit pricey to me. Anyone else feel the same way? I'm all for capitalism. If they can make it work, then go for it. I'm just surprised the new venture is starting out at this seemingly high a level. Will it be offering something worth the price?

Sarah Palin was Sarah Heath, a sports reporter for TV station (KTUU Channel 2) in the 1980's. Here is a clip of Sarah Palin (a.k.a. Sarch Heath) doing a report.

Premiers Thur. Sept. 25 @ 8PM ET/PT 18 new contestants will compete for the $1 million prize in the jungles of the equatorial African nation of Gabon. Who will be the sole Survivor?

On first blush, NBC's Beijing Olympics promotion for its other TV shows has come in underwhelming. "Deal or No Deal"--back from a two-week layoff due to the Olympic coverage--lost 18% of its prime-time ratings to a Nielsen preliminary 2.8 number among 18-49 viewers. Last year's season average was a 3.4 rating. Also underwhelming for most of the networks on Monday night were their respective ratings concerning coverage of the Democratic National Convention. NBC was tops among the big three networks for their 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. coverage, with a 1.5 rating. CBS earned a 0.9 number, and ABC took...

The new season of America's Next Top Model will include Isis, the show's first transgender contestant. "My cards were dealt differently," Isis, 22, told Us. The aspiring model is from Prince George's County, Maryland, and describes herself as "a woman born physically male."

Polish TV to say goodbye to the famed lektor? 21.08.2008 The Ministries of National Education, Culture, and Science and Higher Education want to introduce subtitling on Polish television instead of the famed lektor: an actor who voices scripts over the top of an original soundtrack. During a debate at the “Dziennik” daily headquarters, Ministers Barbara Kudrycka and Katarzyna Hall said that subtitling, especially of English programming aired in Poland, would increase English proficiency in the country. Merely one third of Poles have a knowledge of English, making Poland linguistically inferior in comparison to other countries in the European Union. Minister...

Sen. John McCain seems to be a bigger fan of national cable TV advertising than Sen. Barack Obama, according to Nielsen data released Thursday. McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate, has run more than twice as many national cable TV ads as his Democratic counterpart Obama, Nielsen said. In its “pre-convention scorecard,” the ratings firm said that between June 4, when campaigning for the general election started, and Aug. 1 McCain placed 526 national cable ads. Obama ran 142 national cable ads, according to Nielsen. Obama and McCain ran a combined total of 127,513 local TV spots, with McCain buying...

The McCain campaign isn't taking Andrea Mitchell's cheating claim [0] made on Sunday's "Meet the Press" lying down. Politico reported [1] moments ago that campaign manager Rick Davis has sent a strongly-worded letter to Steve Capus, president of NBC News, sharply criticizing Mitchell's suggestion that the Arizona senator had somehow cheated at Saturday's Saddleback Civil Forum.In it, Davis expressed concern that: "the level of objectivity at NBC News has fallen so low that reporters are now giving voice to unsubstantiated, partisan claims in order to undercut John McCain;" "Mitchell did what has become a pattern for her of simply repeating...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.—Donald Trump will soon be Ed McMahon's landlord. Trump announced Thursday he would save the television personality's Beverly Hills mansion from foreclosure by buying it for an undisclosed amount and leasing it to McMahon. The developer told the Los Angeles Times he doesn't know McMahon personally, but acted out of compassion because helping out "would be an honor." McMahon, 85, who was Johnny Carson's sidekick on the "Tonight" show for three decades, has not worked for about 18 months because of a neck injury. He defaulted on $4.8 million in mortgage loans with Countrywide Financial Corp.

CNN announced on Tuesday that it would assign journalists to 10 cities across the United States, a move that would double the number of domestic cities where the cable news network has outposts. But in a reflection of the way television networks are reinventing the way they gather news, the journalists will not work from expensive bureaus — rather, they will borrow office space from local news organizations and use laptops to file articles for the Internet and TV. When news happens, they will use Internet connections and cellphone cameras to report live. “We are harnessing technology that enables us...

We view the Olympics as a global sporting tradition and consider ourselves citizens of the world, so we don't have much patience with country-specific broadcasting rights. Thus, we're happy that we (and you) can watch the Olympics live right here on on SAI. (Frankly, we wish we could watch the Olympics on NBCOlympics.com, because their feed is marvelously crisp, but of course NBC is doing everything it can to prevent that. Specifically, NBC is trying to make us watch tonight, on tape delay, when the opening cermonies will be as stale as yesterday's bread. And when they do broadcast events...

Time Warner Inc. reported Wednesday that second-quarter net income dropped 26% on declining profits from its AOL and publishing arms. The New York-based media company (TWX) earned $792 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $1.07 billion, or 28 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Excluding one-time items, it would have earned 24 cents a share. Revenue rose 5% to $11.98 billion. Analysts had been expecting a profit of 24 cents a share on revenue of $11.5 billion, according to a FactSet Research survey. snip In publishing, revenue fell 6% to $1.2 billion as an advertising revenue drop...

While watching ABC This Week, ABC ran a Good Morning America television commercial with the tagline of Michelle Obamab will only talk to Robin Roberts, who happens to be a fellow African-American woman.

This is the video you weren't supposed to see... A practice run of the opening ceremony for the upcoming Beijing Olympics By News Video Wednesday, July 30, 2008 (WJNO) In what is being considered a major breach of the security apparatus surrounding the upcoming Olympic ceremonies in Beijing, China, a Korean television journalist visiting the 'Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium' secretly filmed a rehearsal of the opening ceremony. This video has been banned on most sites based in China, including Sina.com and other large web portals, and has been yanked off YouTube.com entirely. The Korean news report accompanying the video claims...

Viacom Inc., reporting a 6% drop in second-quarter net income, signaled a sharp slowdown in cable television advertising and said its younger-skewing networks, such as MTV and VH1, were being particularly hard hit. The results, the first from a major media company this quarter, suggest that the economic downturn is hurting national television advertising more aggressively than previously thought. Local advertising has felt the pain of the economic slowdown most acutely, with newspapers and radio hardest hit. Viacom had warned that its domestic advertising growth would slow to 3% to 4%, from an original forecast of 7%. But Viacom Chief...

The National Football League, signaling a major shift in strategy, will stream live broadcasts of Sunday-night football games beginning in September, making the contests widely available on the Internet for the first time. For much of its history, the NFL has kept a tight grip on the rights to its games and the use of its images. But with more consumers, particularly younger viewers, turning to their computers for entertainment, the NFL wants to steer the nation's most popular television sport into the digital age. "We are taking a big leap here," said Steve Bornstein, chief executive of the NFL...

THE brainy English teacher who became the central figure in the quiz-show scandals of the late 1950s has broken his silence. Charles Van Doren, 82, is finally telling his side of the story in a first-person account published in this week's New Yorker magazine, which came out yesterday. Van Doren - who lives in Connecticut with his wife of 50 years and still teaches college-level English (most recently at the University of Connecticut in Torrington) - said he decided to go public with his version of the "Twenty-One" quiz-show story for the sake of his grandchildren. The New Yorker story...

Comedian Jay Leno will make his last appearance as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" next May 29, setting the stage for Conan O'Brien to replace him on America's top late-night TV show on June 1, the network said on Monday.

CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan, who just relocated to Washington DC, was the first correspondent to interview Barack Obama during his just-begun, but much talked-about overseas trip. The discussion happened today in Afghanistan and aired this morning on Face the Nation and on CBS Evening News. Politico's Mike Allen reports, of the three network anchors covering the overseas trip Katie Couric will go first, interviewing Obama on Tuesday "in a country that the campaign does not want named for security reasons." Charles Gibson gets Obama on Wednesday, and Brian Williams will go Thursday. Allen writes, at least...

Katie Couric was repeated asked by critics at press tour about reports that she will soon exit her position as anchor of "CBS Evening News." “We have no plans to part company anytime soon,” she says. “There were a lot of speculative pieces that have been spin out of control. I’m very committed to the people and here and the product. I think [the rumors are] dying down considerable. I can’t control what media writers write. Sometimes we live in a bit of an echo chamber. I think people in your room are more fascinated by these things than people...

Some of the BBC's most senior executives have been awarded pay rises of more than £100,000 in a year when the corporation has been dogged by fakery scandals and job cuts. Jana Bennett, the Director of Vision, who was heavily criticised for her role in the "Crowngate affair" where footage of a documentary about the Queen was wrongly edited for a trailer of the programme, saw her salary rise from £433,000 to £536,000 last year, an increase of 24 per cent. Jenny Abramsky, the outgoing head of Audio and Music, was paid £419,000 last year, a 27 per cent rise...

Some advertisers spooked by bad press over China By Kevin Downey Jul 8, 2008 In just one month, on Aug. 8, NBC will begin airing the Summer Olympics from China, but from the looks of things it's not shaping up all that well for NBC as it attempts to sell its remaining ad inventory. At the least, the Games are looking to be a disappointment for the network, say media buyers. A lot will depend on how viewers and advertisers respond to the Olympic trials now airing. Ad spending will most likely fall short of NBC’s goal of more than...

Journal Sentinel Inc., publisher of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, will cut 10% of its work force by the end of the year because of declining advertising revenue and rising costs, the company said today. The company employs the equivalent of about 1,300 full-time workers. It said in a news release that it would reduce its staff through buyouts, layoffs and attrition. In addition to lower ad revenue, the newspaper has been hit by higher prices for fuel and newsprint, said Elizabeth "Betsy" Brenner, president and chief operating officer of Journal Publishing Group. The cuts mirror those at many metropolitan news...

KTLA-TV Channel 5 laid off a veteran reporter and one of its weekend anchors Monday, part of a handful of cuts at the local station that also included several executives. Weekend anchor Walter Richards and reporter Willa Sandmeyer were let go along with reporter Janet Choi, executive editor of planning Joseph M. Russin and morning news executive producer John Hensley. KTLA, like the Los Angeles Times, is owned by Tribune Co., which is struggling financially because of major shifts in the media business and the softening economy. John Moczulski, vice president of programming and marketing at KTLA, said the cuts...

The broadcast networks have grown older than ever -- if they were a person, they wouldn't even be a part of TV's target demo anymore. According to a study released by Magna Global's Steve Sternberg, the five broadcast nets' average live median age (in other words, not including delayed DVR viewing) was 50 last season. That's the oldest ever since Sternberg started analyzing median age more than a decade ago -- and the first time the nets' median age was outside of the vaunted 18-49 demo. Fueling the graying of the networks: the rapid aging of ABC, NBC and Fox....

Barack Obama has weighed-in on the issue of reinstating the so-called “Fairness Doctrine.” After being repeatedly questioned about the candidate’s position, campaign Press Secretary Michael Ortiz stated in an email message that “Senator Obama does not support re-imposing the Fairness Doctrine on broadcasters.” This position could be yet another one of those “deeply-held convictions” that Obama believes in unequivocally, similar to his long-held position on campaign finance reform. In January of 2007, Obama stated in a CNN interview with Larry King that the public-financing system “works.” Later that year, Mr. Obama challenged Republican presidential candidates to join him in limiting...

Just call me an agnostic when it comes to the fever and the fervor SATC inspires among many women around the world. I simply don’t understand it, don’t get it, and wouldn’t want to have sex in any city with any of those four women. Ahhhh, but what do we straight men really know? We live by our double standards of wanting pretty women in the boudoir who can function as hyper-orgasmic frauleins and bump booty with the best of them, while on the outside, we like our women to be perky mom types, wholesome and sociable.

AS the cable channels that populate the television dial conclude their advance advertising sales, they have something to celebrate: they made much greater gains than the broadcast networks. Preliminary figures for advance sales indicate that the cable channels will collectively sell about $8 billion in airtime to advertisers this season, up 7 to 8 percent from last year’s total. By contrast, the broadcast networks sold about $9.1 billion to $9.2 billion, up about 1 percent over last season. The shift in advertising dollars from broadcast to cable is not new, but it is particularly pronounced this year. There are several...

The liberal press crowed loudly when cable TV’s Keith Olbermann beat out Bill O’Reilly in a key demographic during a recent week, but Olbermann’s ratings success has been isolated and press reports about it have been much overblown, Newsmax has learned. MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” did average 477,000 viewers in the age 25 to 54 demographic during the first week of June, narrowly edging out Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” which averaged 472,000 in that demo, according to Nielsen Media Research. “This marks the first time that MSNBC has beaten Fox News in O’Reilly’s 8 p.m. time slot,” the...