TVSquad

Do you ever watch Deadliest Catch and ask yourself, "How do they stay up for three days straight, pulling pots?" It would be good to know if you are a fan of the Olympics, because NBC is going to have some 3,600 hours of coverage from the games between TV, online, and mobile. The main network alone will have 225 hours over the 17 days.

On TV, there will be seven networks combining for the coverage, including NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Telemundo, Universal HD, and Oxygen. All 34 sports will get airtime, and 75% of that will be live on the east coast. Apparently all that coin they dropped to get the games gave NBC the stroke to get most of the key finals scheduled in the morning in Beijing, which will be prime time on the east coast. That prime time selection will include all 32 finals for swimming, four nights of gymnastics (featuring Alicia Sacramone, pictured), beach volleyball, and the marathons.

Have you been wondering where Joe Scarborough has been on Morning Joe the past few weeks? The titular star of the show has been off the air, missing all the doings with Senator Hillary Clinton suspending her campaign for president and Senator Obama Barack becoming the presumptive Democratic candidate.

For months and months of the primaries, Joe and the Morning Joe team were in the thick of it every morning ... and then Joe was gone.

Well, the reason for Scarborough's absence is due to a family illness. In May, Joe's wife Susan gave birth to their son Jack. Unfortunately, Jack wasn't due to arrive until August. He was severely premature, weighing just 2 lbs., 3 oz. He had to be kept at the hospital in an incubator and fattened up. As of this Monday, his weight was up to 4 lbs., 10 oz. and the doctors declared he was ready to go home.

Morning Joe regulars Willie Geist and Mika Brzezinski went on the air Tuesday with the story and assured viewers that Joe will be back on camera soon. I wish the Scarboroughs well and hope baby Jack continues to thrive.

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• The estate of the creator of Mr. Ed is suing MGM for royalties.
• Here's a complete guide to the (possible) strike and what we can expect on Monday.
• Jaime Weinman has some thoughts on CBS' sitcom strategy.
• There's a new cartoon coming, about John Oates' (of Hall and Oates) mustache, who play rock music and fight crime.
• Boy Meets World star Ben Savage is joining Chuck, playing Nicole Richie's husband.
• CNBC + a jar of mayonnaise = either a really gross rumor or a really stupid rumor.
• Did you know that there's a Rock Paper Scissors league, and Fox Sports will telecast the tournament in October?

Who would have thought that there would be on television this category, this trend of personality known as the "money honey?" They're the beautiful girls who give us the financial news and stock numbers on the cable news networks.

It all started with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo (who actually trademarked the "money honey" title a while back) and now it has extended to others as well. There's ABC's Bianna Golodryga (that's her in the pic), who is being touted as the big new money gal, MSNBC's Erin Burnett, Fox Business Network's Alexis Glick, and...well...the entire on-air staff at the Fox Business Network, actually.

My father is a former economics major who spent 30 years as a mortgage banker before starting his own company (which does economical things so complex that to my simple mind, they might as well be magical). One of the things that constantly irks him is the loaded language that the nightly news uses to describe our economic situation: words like "crisis," "downturn," and, worst of all "recession."

Now, anybody who has spent more than forty seconds online in the last six months can see that we are, more than likely, in the middle of a recession brought on by a downturn in the real estate market because of the current credit crisis. That said, I'd like to ask the question: would we be better off if TV simply lied to us about all of these things?

The Fox Business Channel, which launches on October 15th, is trying to overthrow CNBC as the go-to network for news on money, business, and stocks. It's also going to be HOT.

Take a look at the female members of their on air anchor team. The women in the pic to the right are (clockwise from the top left) Alexis Glick, Jenna Lee, Dagen McDowell, and Rebecca Gomez. I'm getting a Charlie's Angel's vibe from this. "I took them away from all that. And now they work for me...my name is Rupert."

Lots of changes this week in the land of TV news:

• Liz Claman is leaving CNBC. She was going to renew her contract, but decided she wanted to go some place else. She has to wait 90 days, however, because of a non-compete clause in her contract. She's been with the financial network for almost 10 years. I remember Claman from her days on Channel 7 in Boston.

Isn't there a rule where you can't say something about yourself or it automatically makes it untrue? Like if you call yourself "hip" or "cool" then that means you're not hip or cool?

I thought of that when I read this piece (scroll down) about CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. Several years ago people gave her the nickname "Money Honey" because she talked about finance on the network and...well, look at her. It was revealed that Bartiromo herself had trademarked the "Money Honey" phrase last year, and now Hamptons mag tells us why. She's starting her own show titled Money Honey.

How is she going to be able to say "Hello and welcome to Money Honey" with a straight face? Will she wear bikinis and evening gowns for various stock segments? Will there be Money Honey Dancers to entertain viewers?

[via TV Newser]

Can we save the Earth through music?

Of course not, don't be stupid. However, that doesn't mean you can't catch the twenty-four hour Live Earth global concert series on TV starting this Saturday, July 7.

Here's a list of channels that will be covering the event:

• NBC: 8:00 p.m to 11:00
• BRAVO: 9:00 a.m. on July 7 through 2:30 a.m. on July 8
• UNI HD: 4:00 a.m. on July 7 through 2:00 a.m. on July 8
• SUNDANCE: 4:00 a.m. on July 7 through 2:00 a.m. on July 8
• MSNBC: intermittent coverage throughout
• CNBC: 7:00 p.m. on July 7 through 2:00 a.m. on July 8
• TELEMUNDO: 7:00 p.m. through 8:00 p.m.
• MUN2: 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Starting today and running throughout the week, CNBC will be looking at how Star Wars has changed the way movies are made and financed (it is a business channel after all). This is all in celebration of the movie's 30th anniversary. Reports will also be shown on the CNBC Web site.

I'll admit that I'm a huge Star Wars nerd, but even I think this is a bit too much. I'll sit down for any special that delves into the making of the trilogy, the technology behind it, the mythology, and all of that cool stuff, but I couldn't care less about box office, financing and merchandising. That's obviously part of the whole package when talking about a huge blockbuster like Star Wars, but none of that stuff mattered to me when I first saw the movie all those years ago. The truth is, even if Star Wars wound up just being some cult movie that only a few people saw, it would still be one of my favorite movies of all time.

I have to ask, is anyone interested in an examination of the financial side of the Star Wars phenomenon? Please comment, I'd love to hear your views on this, too.

I was kinda obsessed with CNBC in the mid to late 90s, when the stock and internet boom was in full throttle. The station was quite entertaining, even if I didn't really understand all the numbers. The personalities on the channel kept things lively and fun.

And one of my favorites was Maria Bartiromo, the really hot Wall Street babe financial expert who was dubbed the "Money Honey." I can't remember who dubbed her that, but it fit. And now you can still call her the "Money Honey," only this time it's official. Bartiromo has filed a trademark registration for the term, and it's been trademarked for many things, including coloring books, notepad, comic books, and coupon books.

Wow, a Maria Bartiromo coloring book. I would so buy that.

Bartiromo is in the news for other reasons lately as well.

And you can add other Turner networks to that list too, including TNT and CourtTV.

Nielsen is going to start announcing ratings for commercials, but the above networks don't want to accept them. But they're not the only ones. NBC Universal (well, it's cable nets like USA, Sci-Fi, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo) is also waiting to see if they'll participate, as is ESPN. Cable networks are afraid too many mistakes will be made with the numbers, so they're waiting to see what happens.

Nielsen has tracked the ratings of TV shows for years, of course, but now with DVRs so popular, they're also going to start tracking who's watching what during commercials. They were supposed to start on Nov. 18 but it will now start in December.

FTVLive is reporting that there are rumors going around that two MSNBC personalities, Tucker Carlson and Rita Cosby, are being let go from the network. As we've told you earlier, NBC has laid off 700 people and MSNBC is going through a massive restructuring and Carlson and Cosby might be part of those changes (there are also reports that Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews will be going over to CNBC and MSNBC will go to an all documentary and taped feature format).

But wait! Carlson says it's not true, and so does MSNBC chief Dan Abrams.

Regardless of whether they're gone or not, I still think that making CNBC the news station for NBC is a good idea, if for one reason: they'll get out from under that "MS" in MSNBC and become their own news entity. There were rumors a year or so ago that NBC was going to end its association with Microsoft, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe this could be the first step to rebranding. What does CNBC stand for anyway? Isn't it something like Cable NBC? If that's the case, the change makes sense.

[via TV Newser]

Things are not going well for NBC Universal these days. Studio 60 and Friday Night Lights are doing poorly in the ratings, the highly touted Kidnapped was canceled and pushed out to the dead zone known as Saturday nights, and even some of their established shows, like Law & Order, are slipping a bit. Now, it looks like the news division is about to take a direct hit as well.

According to TV Week, NBCU plans to eliminate 700 jobs, about 5 percent of their workforce, in order to slash $750 million off of their administrative and operating costs. The reductions will comprise of buyouts, offers of early retirement and attrition. The biggest department to be affected will be the NBC News, which will go through an extensive streamlining process in order to prepare themselves for the oncoming digital revolution (which is already in full swing, but why quibble.). According to News President Steve Capus, the changes being announced will allow the network to re-invest in new growth areas.

NBC's new game show, 1 Vs. 100, hosted by comedian Bob Saget, will also air on CNBC beginning on Thursday, October 19. The game show, in which a contestant goes up against a group of people in a trivia challenge and a chance to win one million dollars, will air at 8pm and 11pm for five Thursdays. There's no word on whether the show will continue airing on CNBC beyond that. If you're a fan of the show, this will give you another chance to catch it, or, you could watch it on one network and then invite your friends over to watch it on another network and impress everyone with your amazing knowledge. Better yet, use it to impress women. Ladies love a man who knows a lot about things that are of no significance whatsoever, or so I've been told, by me, just now.