Good ratings happen to news networks when things get bad. Fox News, CNN and MSNBC posted big double-digit gains from their Hurricane Katrina coverage.

ABC is acting like a Park Avenue heiress who shops at the 99-cent store -- it's a network on top of the world, looking for bargains.

If consumers could give back their inefficient analog bandwidth, cable operators could give consumers even hundreds of more digital channels -- as well as giving them, of course, a nice increase in their monthly bill.

The so-called "positive" TV marketplace has been, in reality, an emotionally negative market for just about a year.

My name is dumbfounded. NBC has seemingly found a successful half-hour sitcom. "My Name is Earl" helped the network run away in winning the second night of the season.

TV viewers spent hundred of thousands of dollars on a version of the poncho Martha Stewart wore on her release from prison, two days after everyone on the new syndicated show "Martha"-- including Stewart and the audience -- donned that poncho. But will ponchos still be the rage next year, or even next week? Maybe it doesn't matter.

Dan Rather played a small part in an ironic night at the Emmys. On the night he and Tom Brokaw appeared on the Primetime Emmys stage to honor their departed colleague Peter Jennings, the Emmys witnessed a 30 percent gain in ratings from a year ago. Too bad Rather couldn't get those big ratings doing balanced, straight-ahead TV news.

All those Emmy awards -- what will happen to them, especially those given to actors who have won too many? Will the trophies be put on the bookcase or the mantel - or taken for a dip in the pool?

With a possible Microsoft/Time Warner deal in the works, MSNBC might soon just stand for--MoStlyNBC. MSNBC has struggled for years--mostly in fourth place--to be somewhat competitive in the cable news race, and its venture with Microsoft could be threatened by the ripple effects of a possible deal in which Time Warner would sell AOL to Microsoft.

Reality show concepts have seemingly been exhausted--diva fights, eating insects, losing weight, singing, modeling, lawyering, building houses, and back-stabbing have all been done. What's left? Jail time!