Republicans and Democrats are divided as ever with their favorite TV shows, new research shows. Jay Leno is a conservative GOP favorite. Liberal Dems like Letterman. Shocker: Jon Stewart does better among lefties than Pat Robertson. And it's too bad for struggling NBC that the entire Nielsen panel isn't made up of liberal Democrats: five of their scripted shows are favored by them. And yet, even as some right-leaners, want to chop federal funding for PBS, they seem to be watching it. Among the top-25 shows with the highest concentration of self-identifying conservative Republicans: three are on the Pretentious Broadcasting …

It was difficult not to be impressed with Kathy Timko as she made what appeared to be her first public appearance last week since taking over Canoe Ventures. For a business that has seemed to harbor doubters from day one, she seems to have found a way to move ahead with a mix of deference and confidence.

As Viacom began expressing doubts about major drops in Nielsen ratings at Nickelodeon, CEO Philippe Dauman cited an alternate ratings source, set-top-box data, as evidence of possible under-counting. A comparison between Nielsen and that data shows Nickelodeon may be doing better than Nielsen's tracking in key dayparts. Take Saturday and Sunday mornings in October (8 a.m. to 12 p.m.), Nielsen shows a 10% drop. Set-top-box data provider Rentrak shows a 5% increase.

For a while now, Arbitron's COO Sean Creamer has been inferring that the portable people meter (PPM) could play a more prominent role in TV measurement. During comments last week, a J.P. Morgan executive wondered whether the company had offered Viacom help recently -- it was tongue in cheek. But the dominant radio measurement company has invested heavily in the PPMs, so why not look to gain revenue with them in other fields? And Arbitron is using an initiative with the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) and its out-of-home TV ratings service to gain a foothold.

In this month's "Leaders & Bleeders," Disney gets high marks for succession planning and ABC's new hits under Paul Lee, while CNN has an interesting approach to grabbing election-year dollars from the ideological Fox News and MSNBC. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon ratings are down and shaking up Viacom, while "Conan" ratings are down, though TBS seems content.

For years, Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen has offered keen insight on the media sector, so when she goes guru, it's one of those cliched E.F. Hutton situations. On Thursday, she weighed in on topics from the value of content (huge) to the future of Rupert Murdoch's company post-"News of the World" (promising) to Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal (Comcast "stole" it). How much credence should be placed in predictions she offers? Looking back on ones made a decade ago sitting across the table from Charlie Rose, a good bit. She had some misses, but some darn good hits.

Despite the hoopla about social media driving interest in new fall shows, network marketers probably shouldn't abandon inserts in entertainment magazines or planes tugging banners over beaches. Which is a bummer considering using Facebook and Twitter is a lot cheaper than buying pages or hiring pilots. Even with half the world on Facebook and Twitter generating more traffic than the Jersey Turnpike on a holiday eve, new research suggests social media will remain just a tool in launching new shows. Among social media users ages 13 to 54, a Knowledge Networks survey found only 5% said the platform is "very …

The TV industry has struggled to find a widely accepted measurement system for video on demand (VOD). Now, with viewership rising, Nielsen is floating a new approach that could help launch a viable VOD advertising business. Nielsen is talking with clients about an "On Demand C3" metric, which would meld live, time-shifted and VOD viewing into a single C3 number. The product might carry a sleeker "ODC3" brand. Hopefully, it won't take on ODC3TVE : On Demand C3 TV Everywhere.

A Credit Suisse report charges cable operators with failing to come to terms with the threat today's teens pose to their business over the next decade. Dealing with questions on whether a generation reared on free Web content and Netflix will subscribe to their pay-TV services, they often go with a short-sighted argument. Still, as long as they control the broadband pipes, they might be able to put their heads in the sand because there aren't too many more attractive businesses over the long term than one giving wide reign to set prices for access to online video, one of …

On Nov. 1, @PD335 tweeted praise for "Unguarded," the critically acclaimed ESPN documentary about a basketball star whose career was torn apart by substance abuse. But, he wasn't entirely satisfied, expressing frustration that Irish whiskey Jameson was a sponsor. "I don't know why, but that struck a wrong chord," @PD335 said. He wasn't the only one suggesting on social media that the Jameson involvement was insensitive. ESPN took the blame this week, but Jameson deserves some, too. In response, Poynter's Jason Fry spoke with ESPN about the matter and the network acknowledged it made a mistake. In consultation with an …