Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant -- and we can all be thankful she is a healthy 16-year-old. Now industry executives wonder about the health of the Nickelodeon brand name, now that Spears continues as a star of its teen show, "Zoey 101."

Feel like nominating the TV advertising market these days? Sure. Just don't give it any big awards yet. NBC will broadcast the "Golden Globes" awards on Jan. 13. CBS' "Grammy Awards" and ABC' "Academy Awards" will follow in the weeks to come. Will TV writers interfere?

The Federal Communications Commission wants local TV stations to get closer to its customers -- and what better way than requiring those outlets to run more local programming? But this is not just more local news. We think it smells like something circa 1970

Starting in January, NBC's "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" will return with fresh advertising, fresh guests, but no writers helping things out. No monologues, no sketches. Just guests and music. What more do you want in a late-night show? For networks the answer would be: big-time, high-premium, national advertising.

Internet advertising keeps soaring - now some 25% higher this year, to $20 billion. But advertisers are still unsure about comparing one site to another, and unsure about the differences in research. Media measurement has seemingly gotten in the way of all the Internet-lovin'.

Drugs and baseball found a new slump yesterday, as scores of players past and present were linked to taking performance-enhancing drugs -- including major stars the likes of Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, and Miguel Tejada. The question remains: Will baseball put its TV advertisers into the same swing and abyss? <

TV networks have been looking at getting rid of those costly upfront presentations for years -- and next year there's a strong likelihood that'll happen. But what about the actual upfront advertising market itself? Will it be still be important for advertisers to secure top programming for an entire season just before the start of the season?

The upside-down formula of prime-time programming and prime-time advertising pricing continues to accelerate and revolve. Media agency executives are increasingly making sky-high scatter network deals for 2008 for programming which they are not too sure will be around come March, April or May. How expensive? "CPMs are outrageous," says one media buyer.

Political advertising -- by way of 2008 being a Presidential year -- will give a nice kick in the pants next year to some TV stations that are suffering this year. One wonders whether TV broadcast networks will get the same results.

Considering all the focus on independently owned, mostly single cable network companies (Hallmark Channel and Oxygen, both in the news), one wonders what might happen now to the TV Guide Network. TV Guide, TV Guide Network, and other assets of Gemstar-TV Guide Inc. agreed to be purchased by the large digital media technology services company, Macrovision, for $2.8 billion.