TV/Radio

The Internet, smart phones and tiny cameras are fundamentally redefining how information is disseminated by broadcast and other traditional media.

Plenty of laughter and cheer filled the Channel 3 (KCRA) newsroom Wednesday evening as longtime broadcasters Dave Walker and Lois Hart signed off the air for the last time as co-anchors.

Whatever else you think of local TV news anchors, they spend a lot of time in people's living rooms and, for better or worse, become almost as familiar as family.

It's still November sweeps and every episode is supposed to be a really big deal, but for my money, all the best action happens on Sunday.

Fresh from a convincing victory over incumbent Heather Fargo, Sacramento Mayor-elect Kevin Johnson is taking advantage of his celebrity status.

Sacramento Mayor-elect Kevin Johnson defended the city against its cow town image and said people have begun calling him "Little Barack" during an appearance Tuesday on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."

The elections are over, we're done with the World Series, and TV is back to having a normal television week. As normal as it gets, anyway.

While most people were paying attention to that little business of picking a president, our friends in the TV world have been busy.

For anyone planning to watch election night TV coverage - and apparently, nearly everyone in America is - there are a couple things to know.

It's a rough time to watch TV right now. It's not that the shows are any better or worse than usual – though with "30 Rock" returning this week, the medium takes a small step up. It's because of the political ads.

It's time for another warning: We're four months out from the most complete change in the history of television.

BASEBALL

Bruno Cohen, president and general manager of KOVR Channel 13 and KMAX Channel 31 in Sacramento, is changing the call letters on his business card.

This season's most heavily promoted show – thank you, NBC Olympics – is "My Own Worst Enemy," which could also describes NBC's programming department.

It's a big TV Thursday we've got here, with some good new shows, one really bad one and CBS' "CSI" kicking off its season and its long goodbye to Grissom.

This is why we can't complain too much that just about anything will get on TV, because sometimes "anything" does show up, and it's worth a look, if just for the weirdness factor.

Ratings for new TV shows are down, but part of that drop is technology. When folks record broadcasts to view later, they don't show in some ratings counts. Plus, online viewership is higher.
• Latest Nielsen ratings

Two good shows that got their rookie seasons messed up by the writers strike – NBC's solid "Chuck" and the even better "Life" – return tonight for a second chance.

That sizzle in the air? That electricity you feel just getting near your TV? That's because we're in the middle of fall season premiere week.

That was a pretty weird Sunday night we had. I mean more than usual for the Emmys. It just shows, reality TV can mess with anything.

LOS ANGELES - The sleek '60s drama "Mad Men" made Emmy history Sunday as the first basic-cable show to win a top series award, while the sitcom "30 Rock" and its stars Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin also emerged as winners.

The sixth season of NBC's dieting reality show, "The Biggest Loser," started last Tuesday, and Beth Bushnell Danielson of Elk Grove was so there in front of the tube.

It's Emmy time on Sunday (8 p.m. on Channel 10), and this year, some good shows even got nominated – with the major exception, as always, of "The Wire," but I don't want to start down that dark tunnel.

Next week at this time, we'll have the official start of the fall TV season, and piles of new and returning shows barreling toward us, which may or may not be a good thing.

This weekend, "Saturday Night Live" starts Season 34 – I know, it just seems longer – and it's kicking things off with a splash.

For only $40,000 – a drop in the bucket in today's media world – a Sacramento father and his son in New York helped create a public service announcement that won a 2008 Emmy.

The fall TV season is coming. New shows. New faces. New rounds of fave shows. Is this exciting or what?

The official start of the fall TV season is three weeks away, but already more than a dozen new and returning shows premiere this week. If you're looking for the good new stuff, most of it's on cable.

Aug. 28 is a big night for the Democrats, with presidential candidate Barack Obama set to speak. On Sept. 4, it'll be the same for the Republicans with John McCain. And these are two big weeks for all American voters, not that you'd notice on network TV.

Fox40 (KTXL) anchor Thomas Drayton, who currently co-anchors the 10 p.m. news with Donna Cordova, said Tuesday that he is leaving the station for an anchor post at a Top 5 market on the East Coast.

Gulstan Dart, the latest hire at Channel 3 (KCRA), says he can take the heat.

With the Olympics finished, a lot of people will be feeling flush with free time. Or at least free TV time, and now is when you should catch up with those recordings or DVDs you've been holding, 'cause things will get busy soon.

Before we get to anything important, and, yeah, there is important stuff in TV, I have to get this out.

This was going to be an Olympics-free TV column, just to see if I could do it. But looking at my first two items, apparently I can't.

TODAY

Media personality Tom Sullivan is coming home.

We're talking Olympic TV today, because at the moment, what else is there?

Liz Baidoo isn't just watching the Olympics, she's Facebooking, Twittering and TiVoing so she won't miss a nanosecond of the competition and drama.

The ideal TV viewer for the Olympic Games would have awakened today with no idea the Olympics had already started, only a vague sense the games are in China, and may have heard something or other about how a lanky guy with size 14 feet stands to break the record for most gold medals.

NBC's sports biggies held a satellite news conference from Beijing with TV critics last month, and Bob Costas talked about the complicated anticipation for the Olympic Games that open Aug. 8.

Digital video recorder technology has changed the way we watch television – we can watch what we want when we want to, and still not miss an episode of "Lost." And it means we can see much of the 3,600 hours of NBC Universal's planned coverage of the two-week Olympic games in Beijing.

Things are calm now, but starting with the opening ceremonies Friday night, the XXIXth Summer Olympics from Beijing will take over the television world.

LOS ANGELES - "Gossip Girl" has six more reasons to say OMG. And so do the Jonas Brothers.

I've got great news, and I know you're with me on this. The dog lives. No harm will come to the dog.

In one of the final news conferences last week of the TV critics press tour in Beverly Hills, football coach and commentator John Madden made a prediction. It was about "Dancing With the Stars."

The set of AMC's terrific retro drama "Mad Men" is, put simply, a trip.

BEVERLY HILLS – There's a constant, subtle drumbeat running through the press sessions here. Network execs keep saying that despite the hinky fall season coming at us with fewer new shows and a bunch of relaunches, broadcast TV is doing great.

Members of the Television Critics Association announced their choices for this season's best in television at the 24th annual TCA awards Saturday night in Beverly Hills, and they showed lots of love for AMC's "Mad Men."

If you hang around TV producers and stars for a couple of weeks, you actually get a few moments of candor and truth. Failing that, you at least get some good one-liners.