What happens when an ongoing TV series like the Republican Presidential debate tour runs two days after Christmas? You hope and pray that some really boring football games piss off viewers who want to survey some key political issues -- and some really weird hair.

Netflix is friends with Time Warner and CBS Corp. We know because both Jeff Bewkes, chairman/CEO of Time Warner, and Les Moonves, president/CEO of CBS, said so at the UBS Media conference. Now Verizon also wants to be someone's friend. Verizon wants to start a Netflix-type subscription video-on-demand business.

What warrants a 64% price increase in this economy? Gas for your car? Your health care premium, perhaps? Try something much more healing, especially to men: football. That's the eye-popping price tag estimate that's probably landing on the doorstep of the NFL's national TV network partners -- CBS, NBC, Fox and ESPN. It will push total annual NFL costs for the networks to over $7 billion.

After years of many back-biting, snarly character efforts. aspirational reality shows -- "Biggest Loser" and "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" among the big names -- seem to abound now. While, in theory, these shows have a spiritual nature, few have really gone to the next step -- incorporating aspects of organized religion. It seems that Rev. Joel Osteen, who heads a big congregation at the Lakewood Church in Houston, wants to have a go at that with none other than reality show impresario Mark Burnett.

Phil Kent, chairman/CEO of Turner Broadcasting Co., says TV networks have their own bucket list. To that end, networks and entertainment companies are already doing well in two "buckets" where they derive big revenues: 1) consumer consumption of shows on a live basis; and 2) consumer purchases of shows in boxed DVD sets.

knew we were missing something in the TV business news cycle: a juicy Nielsen ratings controversy! Viacom says Nickelodeon's ratings mysteriously dropped -- from out of nowhere -- some 11% in mid-September. This was followed by a 17% percent drop in October and 19% in November.