NBC is in the news big time this week. First off, NBC's ratings for its Wimbledon Men's Final broadcast was phenomenal - the best in 8 years and the best for a finale without a contending American since '91. Second: its purchase of The Weather Channel for $3.5 billion - this is well below the $5 billion that the owners of The Weather Channel, Landmark Communications, had wanted for the property when it first started......

Oops, so there is something more to look forward to this month on TV: the July 17th premiere of "The Gong Show" on Comedy Central. The show will be hosted by Dave Attell and judged by (among many others): Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Brian Posehn, Adam Carolla, Kate Walsh, Andy Dick, Ron White, Dave Navarro, Greg Giraldo, Jim Norton and JB Smoove. 7:00pm Tom Jones TCM - (1963) With Albert Finch as Tom Jones,......

So the producers called SAG's bluff and told them to go do their strike vote - not much new to report on there. What there is to report on is the fact that ABC's "Wipeout" continues to get strong ratings after coming in as TV's most highly watched summer premiere. I guess the majority of the American public were not privy to Spike's "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" and thus don't have the sense to......

The Screen Actors Guild was handed a final offer yesterday by the producers (AMPTP) which the SAG was going to review in detail today. Reports say that movie production has already halted, does the same go for TV? Reality TV, like the social disease it is, just keeps going on since it functions outside of these contracts. TV Junkie is thrilled to learn that AMC is going to go ahead, probably after this whole SAG......

With nine hours left in their contract, the TV Junkie is really wondering what will happen with the Screen Actors Guild situation. Our guess is that the SAG will blink first since somehow, even just discussing talent receiving additional percentages of DVD sales is simply off the table for producers. Looks like TV is for old folks folks as the LA Biz Observed is highlighting a summary of a report from Broadcasting & Cable noting......

Kind of a slow weekend ahead folks, even on the movie channels, Sunday's programming is particularly deplorable. Rejoice though, in the news that Sony, within the next three years, will be offering a video-downloading service through all its key products, including its televisions, computers, music players and videogame devices. It plans to give most of its products network and wireless capability in that same window of time. Yup, download Hollywood movies through your PS3, etc.......

The Screen Actors Guild contract runs out on Monday, yup, the day is fast upon us, and it looks like, according to the Hollywood Reporter, the SAG will attempt to extend their contract instead of vote for a strike. This will keep the studios' projects moving forward while the SAG and AFTRA get in lockstep (or not) and the SAG decides what its deal-breaking points are (or not). The SAG is becoming very aware of......

Good news, you may continue to watch as much online porn as you want without your broadband provider building that into your profile - that is, only if you are using Charter Communications. After announcing 6 weeks ago that they would start to monitor their customers' activity in order to sell target profiles to advertisers, Charter is backing away from that position after running into protests from Congress as well as consumer groups. Perhaps Charter......

Tonight a double-travesty is occurring: the broadcast of both "Wipeout" and "I Survived A Japanese Game Show". Both of these shows take a good idea (for immature jerks like myself), Spike TV's "Most Extreme Elimination Challenge" aka "MXE", and turn it into garbage. "MXE" is an overdubbed (by members of LA's comedy troupe the Groundlings) and hilarious replaying of episodes of Japanese gameshow, "Takeshi's Castle" while "Wipeout" and "I Survived A Japanese Gameshow" are......

- Unless you've got some specific sports events you want to watch this weekend, things are pretty slow on the tube - you'd better hope your Netflix came in. Finally: The AP reports that only one song per film can be nominated for an Academy Award. If you're a glutton for abuse and subject yourself to watching the Oscars on TV, you might remember being overwhelmed with songs from Disney's "Enchanted" this year as well......

Tomorrow the 10 day countdown of the SAG contract expiration begins. Reuters reports that the TV studios are already bracing for a strike even though the SAG has yet to vote to strike. Some TV shows have 2 or 3 shows for the upcoming season in the bag already but most do not. Even if the SAG chooses not to strike, because there is no contract signed as of today, there will be some effect......

As we reported yesterday, Jon Voight is going to be on "24" and now we learn from THR that William Hurt will be joining his The Big Chill co-star, Glenn Close, on FX's "Damages" this Fall. "Damages" was easily one of the top three programs of the year in 2007 and the addition of Hurt is beginning to solidify a picture of how the second season will function - Hurt will have regular role for......

Late last week The Hollywood Reporter noted that Jon Voight has signed on to be Jack Bauer's nemesis in the upcoming season of "24" (shooting now in South Africa). Do you think it's enough or is "24" so stale now that no addition of talent can save it? 8:00pm The Middleman ABC Family - Series Premiere. "A young woman is recruited by a secret agency to fight evil." Lord help us. 9:00pm Dirty Jobs: Brown......

Variety is reporting that the upcoming NBC "The Office" spinoff has made its first hire: Aziz Ansari from MTV's "Human Giant" whom LAist interviewed a couple months ago and whom the TV Junkie met at the Ashton Kutcher SNL post-party in April). While the show title, other cast members, and method of launch is unknown to the general public, it is known that the show will debut this winter in the 9:30pm timeslot, right after......

Ladies, you're in luck, you have a chance to date TV hunk Brad Garrett, and who wouldn't want to? The question is, based on current trends in California, why is he limiting candidates to only females? If you desperately want to be a part of the new reality series, Dating Brad Garrett, video auditions are being accepted starting today. 6:00pm Lakers-Celtics Game 4(!)(not 3) ABC - A good chunk of LA will grind to a......

Seems like everyone is running to the web these days as a secondary broadcast option. NBC did it a long time ago and now a couple more big names are heading that direction. Viacom will be adding an assortment of its shows to Fox-NBC joint-venture HULU - yeah, finally we'll be able to see full length episodes of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" rather than the ridiculous little clips we've been getting off......

As the SAG/AFTRA/AMPTP drama continues, advertisers are still ponying up the big bucks for TV advertising: $9.2 billion in pre-booked ads for the 2008-2009 season. This broad sale of advertising combined with targeted ad sales technology now offered by Canoe Ventures (you got a dog? say "hello" to even more Purina commercials) makes it seem like things are hunky-dory in TV land but they might not be. Some folks are perceiving these as just defensive......

In contrast to the wildly cute meerkates to the right (yes, they're back), some seriously big numbers have been issued by the prestigious Milken Institute has put out an impressive study of the impact of the writer's strike. In summary: - 37,700 jobs lost - $2.1 billion in lost output through the end of 2008 The cascading effects of the strike are what reportedly tipped the state into a recession in early 2008, but......

The SAG and producers meet again today for the 18th time, yeah, the 18th. NBC is putting the hammer down to sell off Olympic broadcasting ad inventory and has been lagging behind FOX and ABC in overall up-front ad sales. Look for ads to get even more annoyingly irritating as NBC offers discounts to existing Olympics advertisers. 9:00pm Farmer Wants a Wife CW - A game of truth or dare reveals the women's secrets; Matt's......

We're coming down to a bit over 3 weeks to go before a SAG strike as the guild resumes talks with producers today. The guild has yet to vote for a strike and sources say that even though fellow actors' guild AFTRA signed a contract last month, SAG is unlikely to rubberstamp a copy of that contract for their members. All I know is that "Mad Men" is coming back to AMC in July so......

Dear aging hipsters, happy fun time is upon you as "Twin Peaks" is now available on Joost. Now go bake some pie. In other news, it looks like HBO's "In Treatment" will get another season once producer Warren Leight gets signed to helm production for the low-viewership, but highly thought of (by some reviewers, myself not included because it seemed to boring and overwrought). 7:00pm Star Trek: The Next Generation SciFi - Cable network premiere......

The big story of the night is the season finale of "Lost". The problem for "Lost"-haters, and they do exist, is that there are very few other options this evening. Programming on ABC is dominated by 3 hours of "Lost" and the other majors are throwing just program repeats or reality contests at it. The NY Times reports that TiVo shamed market analysts by turning a nice profit last quarter instead of a forecast......

If you didn't watch the late Sydney Pollack's "Recount" on HBO on Sunday (and repeated last night), you really should have. Salon.com did a huge write-up last week so it can only be reinforced that it was a high point in television this year. A great cast, well shot, created a nail biter of a show that perfectly illustrated (with humor) how badly the country was ripped off in 2000, and how low the Republican......

So aging favorite David Cook won "American Idol" last night, how could this happen, what with all the texting teenie-boppers? It turns out that viewership by the 12-17 demographic was down dramatically, resulting in 42 as the average age of an "American Idol" viewer. NPR had a great piece on yesterday's "Morning Edition" regarding how the show has somewhat degraded over its 7 seasons: distracted/bored judges; contestants obviously placed by the producers; and rampant product......

Last week we noted that the Dish Network has slowed with regards to new subscribers and now Dish has inked a deal with NBC Universal to present interactive ads to viewers. This could potentially bring them a bit more revenue to make up for the slackening subscribership by increasing the value of ads sold. You may have seen these ads if you have a Tivo - these enhanced ads prompt the viewer to click a......

Just 3 finales tonight but it will be all about "Dancing With the Stars" (pictured right). There's a lot going on around 9pm but I recommend checking out the movie on TCM. For late night TV, Harrison Ford will be on Letterman which is always a good time and tonight's "DWTS" winner will be on Kimmel. 8:00p. NCIS CBS - Season Finale 9:00pm Dancing With the Stars ABC - Season Finale. My guess is that......

We've got (at least) 6 season finales tonight. Speaking of finales of sorts, CNET was bought by CBS for $1.8 billion. In a day where the old school dinosaurs have been shedding their digital assets, it's pretty remarkable that CNET's management pulled off a sale, especially for that amount, for a property that has regressed to not much more than a newsfeed, and product review site. Also, if you remember, CNET actually had original TV......

Hey Dish Network customers, there was a drop of almost 90% in new subscribers to your service last quarter showing that the telcos are becoming even more competitive in the digital TV/broadband space. The company is recording higher profits though so all is not lost if they regroup and get their act together. TV options tonight are pretty poor, even on the premium networks. If the SAG and studios don't get their acts together, nighttimes......

Bye-bye Robert Redford - Sundance Channel is being bought by Cablevision. Why "bye-bye"? Because even though Redford will remain "involved", he will not have an ownership stake and without ownership Redford will essentially be a figurehead. Hey, you thought you could move to a Caribbean island and join a start-up engaging in shady media practices like Valence Media's TorrentSpy and think you could get away with it indefinitely? TorrentSpy was one of those "we don't......

Looks like the SAG and studios have dropped negotiations without reaching a deal so look for a bunch more DVD reviews from me in the next few weeks because it's time to stock up for the summer. It's still springtime and finally my young-man's fancy is turning to love just in time to check out "The Love Boat" reruns on Joost - I can't get enough soft-focus of B and C list celebrities from 25......