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‘SNL’ Palin Skits: Seen More on Web Than TV

More than half of the viewers for “Saturday Night Live’s” recent skits featuring Tina Fey as Sarah Palin watched the sketches on the Web as of Sept.29, according to a survey conducted by Solutions Research Group. About 51% of viewers…

Fox News Capitalizes on Election in Ratings Race

The wild rides of the campaign for president and the economic turmoil boosted Fox News Channel’s prime-time block to fourth among all cable channels for the third quarter, extending its streak as the highest-rated cable news network to 27 consecutive…

FCC Taps Peha as Chief Technologist

The Federal Communications Commission has appointed Jon M. Peha, Ph.D., as its chief technologist. He will serve as a senior adviser on communications technology for the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis. Dr. Peha comes to the FCC…

Debmar-Mercury Ups Burstein

Syndication distribution company Debmar-Mercury promoted Lonnie Burstein, formerly senior vice president overseeing research and new programming, to executive VP of programming and production. Mr. Burstein now has day-to-day oversight of several original shows on Debmar’s slate, including “The Wendy Williams…

ABC News Ups Prieto, Reiter

ABC News has promoted Al Prieto to vice president of ABC NewsOne. Mr. Prieto will be responsible for day-to-day operations of the network’s affiliate news service, which includes more than 200 stations and clients such as the BBC, Associated Press…

History Promotes Gaffney to Senior VP

Peter Gaffney has been upped to senior vice president of programming strategy, scheduling and acquisitions for History and History International. Mr. Gaffney has been VP of scheduling and acquisitions for History since 2002. He was responsible for developing and implementing…

Next New Launches Women’s Style Network

Online television programmer Next New Networks is launching a new women’s style network today. The new network, TMI Weekly, is being produced in partnership with the founders of the site Nonsociety.com: columnist Julia Allison, tech blogger and commentator Meghan Asha…

CW Turns to Batman’s Robin for Pilot

With “Batman” feature “The Dark Knight” burning up the box office this summer, the CW has decided to add a dose of Robin to its development slate. The network has given a pilot commitment to “The Graysons” that includes penalties…

AOL TV to Run Star-on-Star Interviews

Online video portal AOL Television plans to premiere an interview-style Web series on Oct. 1 dubbed “Outside of the Box” that will cast popular TV stars interviewing each other using fan-submitted questions. The debut episode will feature “Private Practice” stars…

NBC First Advertiser in Break’s ScreenJunkies.com

Online video content company Break Media plans to launch its newest Web property targeting the young male audience today, with NBC on board as the first advertiser for ScreenJunkies.com. The site will feature breaking news, previews, reviews and recaps of…