Something unexpected happened this week while I was watching NBC's "The New Normal," which after four episodes has distinguished itself as the best new sitcom of the fall season. As the characters assembled around a table for dinner and began exchanging their sometimes combustible views on election-year issues, I suddenly started thinking about "The Draft Dodger," an episode of the comedy classic "All in the Family" way back in 1976 that also featured a politically super-charged dinner scene that reflected conflicting attitudes of its era.

Bill Feininger, SVP of media measurement for FourthWall Media, began his career as an engineer at Honeywell, and after several other positions moved to Nielsen Media Research where he worked in interactive televisions and advanced advertising. His current job at FourthWall involves the launch of a new and exciting set-top-box data analytics service, Massive Data. In my interview with him, Bill talks about his work at FourthWall, his responsibilities in building an analytics business collecting set-top-box data from 1.3 million homes and growing, the profile of the Massive Data footprint, the impact of connected TV on the measurement business, and …

The 64th Primetime Emmy Awards presentation on Sunday brings with it one of the most exciting award-show cliffhangers in recent years: Will AMC's "Mad Men" become the first dramatic series ever to receive five consecutive awards for Outstanding Drama Series?

With the conclusion of the presidential campaign's convention phase, it seems apparent that television is becoming increasingly irrelevant to this year's election. Oh sure, the campaigns will try to battle it out over the airwaves, and television will continue to provide the loudest microphone, but the real decisions will probably be made by voters who aren't even following the campaign on TV.

Want to increase your online revenue per click? Try television. I'm not kidding. We just ran a series of tests that show conclusively that television advertising boosts revenue per click for online and offline marketing channels, even social media & affiliates. Overall, the studies revealed a definite positive halo effect of TV over time on a wide range of online and offline marketing channels including radio, print, direct mail and word of mouth.

Remember when the audition shows on Fox's "American Idol" became must-see television specifically because Simon Cowell was so unforgiving with his withering condemnations of sub-par singers? The opposite is true of NBC's "The Voice" and Fox's "The X Factor." On those shows, the auditions are all about playing to the viewers' emotions and instantly investing them in the outcomes of certain performances. It's not about waiting for people to make fools of themselves; it's about hearing the next moving or inspirational story and then anxiously waiting to see or hear how the judges react to the performance that follows.

Josh Chasin, chief research officer of comScore, is an expert in IP measurement who launched his career at Arbitron and is currently overseeing all research initiatives at comScore. ComScore has four core business models, from audience analytics to advertising analytics to Web / monetization analytics and mobile operator analytics. In my interview with him, Josh talks about his work at comScore, the changing metrics in the online world, out-of-home insights and the importance of understanding how the online world works and evolves in terms of content delivery. Josh also shares his views on what the media landscape will look like …

Another terrific series that did much to designate the last decade as a new golden age for dramatic television will come to an end next week. I'm speaking of "Damages," the consistently chilling legal thriller starring Glenn Close as ruthless attorney Patty Hewes that began life in 2007 on FX, where it ran for three seasons before moving over to DirecTV for its final two.

Chris Moschovitis and Anna Murray of tmg-emedia are on the forefront of Big Data management and analytics. President Anna Murray started her career as a broadcast news producer and quickly transitioned into the Internet, while CEO Chris Moschovitis has a background in the hard sciences: physics, math and computer science. This combination of talent positions their company in the forefront of analytics as it applies to Big Data sets in the media sector. In my interview with them, Chris and Anna talk about tmg-emedia, data-driven journalism, the fear of change in today's executive suite, the future of data use in …

Jerry Seinfeld's new online show for YouTube is generating a fair amount of attention; if you had created the best sitcom in history, all your creative endeavors would, too. The premise of the show is that Seinfeld borrows a classic car, calls up one of his comedy pals, and the two of them go out for coffee. This is all edited down to 10 to 15 minutes and posted on the "Comedians in Cars" channel on YouTube.