Daily Marauder

BROADCAST/CABLE

NBC presents a full-day of events this Sunday surrounding the Big Game match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL: At 9a, NBC’s Today will open the network’s coverage with a special two-hour program and at noon, Bob Costas will lead the pregame coverage with Road to the Super Bowl.  Finally, Matt Lauer will interview President Obama in his first interview since becoming president an hour before kick-off. (Cynopsis 1/30)

DIRECTV kicks off its Third Annual Celebrity Beach Bowl on Saturday at 230p EST where more than 30 NFL All-Star players and Hollywood celebrities compete in a game of flag football. The special is preceded by a Pre-Game Show presented by Showtime and Inside the NFL at 130p and followed by a Post-Game Concert at 330p. The event will be simulcast on DIRECTV’s The 101 Network and WGN America. (Cynopsis 1/30)

NBC wants more of Howie Mandel on Friday nights as the network ordered 12 more episodes of the unscripted 30m comedy prank show Howie Do It. In its initial three weeks, the show averaged a 1.9/6 among A18-49 viewers equal to a 64% increase in the time period compared to last year. (Cynopsis 1/30)

“Clone Wars,” the animated, “Star Wars”-related series from George Lucas that has performed heroically on Cartoon Network, will begin doing double-time on sister network TNT, beginning Feb. 14. TNT will get episodes from the show’s first season, which premiered on Cartoon Network last October with close to 4 million viewers. Variety (1/29)

CBS confirmed it will present its annual upfront presentation on May 20 at Carnegie Hall in Manhattan. CBS also said it will stick with a traditional upfront presentation, making no major changes this year. ABC will also have its upfront presentation in New York at Lincoln Center on Tuesday during upfront week. FOX though will move its presentation from Thursday that week to Monday and The CW will remain on Thursday. NBC will continue being the “early bird” network, unveiling some of its 2009-2010 season programming plans to ad buyers and clients at its Universal Studios in Orlando as part of “super-front” during Super Bowl weekend. NBC also will host another “in-front” a few weeks prior to the normal upfront week in May however NBC has not finalized plans for the actual upfront week. (Cynopsis 1/30)

HBO approved a new 30m television pilot starring Ellen Barkin who will also executive produce the yet-to-be-named project, reports Variety. Shauna Cross will write the script about a high-profile woman in her early 50s who divorces, enters the singles market again and develops a close yet platonic relationship with the 24-year old son of her ex-husband. (Cynopsis 1/30)

Looking to give the House of Representatives another chance at delaying the switch to all-digital TV signals, the Senate on Thursday voted a second time to move the date from Feb. 17 to June 12. The House, which shot down a related measure earlier this week, could take up the matter again as early as Tuesday. The Washington Post (1/29) , The Wall Street Journal/Dow Jones Newswires (1/29)

Niche networks and the commercials running on them are getting a disproportionate amount of DVR viewing vs. live viewing, according to new research released yesterday from Google TV Ads. A new agreement with Dish Network enables Google TV Ads, which serves ads on a number of cable channels via Dish set tops, to cull data from each and every active Dish Network DVR. Google is making the data available for free to Google Adwords TV advertisers. (Cynopsis 1/30)