Daily Marauder

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BROADCAST/CABLE

Saturday night, as Phelps went for his historical 8th Gold Medal at the Beijing Olympics and his 14th Gold in his swimming career, NBC enjoyed its most viewed Saturday night in 18 years with 31.1 million tuning in, and jumping to 40 million during the half hour Phelps swam.  NBC has averaged 30 million viewers each night since the Olympics kicked off on August 8th, thanks in large part to Phelps and the gymnastics teams.  NBC certainly is looking for its Week #2 darling as the Olympics heads into its second week. (Cynopsis 8/18)

The Summer Games from Beijing have meant huge ratings for NBC as well as big ripple effects for NBC Universal’s cable networks. During the first six days, USA Network’s coverage averaged more than 1 million viewers, MSNBC’s was 649,000, CNBC’s was 638,000 and Oxygen, in its first appearance covering the Olympics, had an average of 713,000. Multichannel News (8/15)

AMC‘s hit “Mad Men” isn’t the first attempt at packaging the drama of the American ad industry. For decades, the trials and travails of Madison Avenue types has fed TV and films from “Bewitched” to “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio.” The New York Times (8/17)

The Food Network is developing a pilot episode for a series called “Eat the Clock,” which follows contestants as they bolt around to various Los Angeles restaurants and eat as much food as possible. Producers are describing the show, which potentially could premiere in the first quarter of 2009, as a melange of “The Amazing Race” and an eating competition. The Hollywood Reporter (8/18)

Nearly half of those polled in a new study by the Pew Research Center — 46% — say they use television as their main source of news information. The study went on to say that about 23% of participants, which Pew referred to as “integrators,” get their news about equally from traditional and nontraditional media. Google/Associated Press (8/17)

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