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NEW YORK — Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications touted something that its English-language broadcast rivals cannot: Prime-time ratings at its flagship TV network, Univision, have grown 7% during the current season. Ratings gains in an era of shrinking TV audiences are uncommon as major broadcasters struggle to maintain their standing. Cable channels, social media and advances in technology — including digital video recorders — continue to nibble away at viewership, particularly among younger audiences.

After the coffee. Before getting out of wet Boston. The Skinny: After almost two weeks on the road, I'm finally heading back home Wednesday night. Just don't tell me it's raining in Los Angeles. Wednesday's headlines include NBC's plans to hype the online component to its Olympics coverage, Disney hitting pause on a pricey movie, andCNN's ratings troubles. Daily Dose: While the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn.'

TV westerns, game shows and variety shows have come and gone. But when it comes to prime time, TV has rarely experienced a cop-out, despite the seemingly endless recycling of formulas dealing with the central themes of good and evil, crime and punishment. The creative forces behind CBS' new "NYC 22" hope that their series demonstrates that there is plenty of life left in the well-tilled cop show territory. Its A-list pedigree is an immediate attention grabber: Executive producers include Oscar winner Robert De Niro and novelist-screenwriter Richard Price.

BOSTON -- Looking to make consumers who subscribe to cable or satellite television aware that the bulk of the Summer Olympics can be watched online at no additional charge, NBC is going to embark on a large marketing campaign in advance of the London Games. "There will be a barrage of information sent out to the American public about how one can access this content," said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics.

Can women save NBC? The network is making a big bet that the route to its long-needed comeback will come through female-skewing scripted series, with a just-announced fall TV schedule that will include a new Wednesday comedy block as well as 10 p.m. dramas every weeknight. The biggest surprise from Bob Greenblatt, the former Showtime programming chief assembling his first lineup as NBC's entertainment president, is opening Wednesday nights with two new comedies, "Up All Night" with Christina Applegate and "Free Agents" with Hank Azaria and Kathryn Hahn in an adaptation of a British series.

NBC is banking on a musical about a tragic icon for a reversal of its own misfortunes. In its biggest gamble since betting on Jay Leno in prime time, NBC on Monday will debut "Smash," an ambitious drama about turning Marilyn Monroe's life into a Broadway musical with soaring song and dance numbers. "Smash" has an all-star lineup in front of and behind the camera. It stars Debra Messing, Anjelica Huston and Katharine McPhee and was created by playwright Theresa Rebeck. Producers include Steven Spielberg, Tony Award-winning composer Marc Shaiman, and Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, producers of the Oscar-winning "Chicago.

Conan O'Brien is not going to take one for the team. The host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" released a statement this afternoon saying that he would not move his show from 11:35 p.m. to 12:05 a.m. to make room for Jay Leno's return to late night. Since news broke last week that NBC wanted to move Jay Leno out of prime time and put him back in late night, speculation has centered around whether O'Brien would be willing to move his show or walk. In a statement, O'Brien said that he was disappointed but "after only seven months with my "Tonight Show" in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their horrible difficulties in primetime in making a change in their long established late-night schedule.

I think it was highly insensitive of NBC to have broadcast the May 6 episode of "Cheers," in which Cliff (John Ratzenberger) is suspected of having murdered his mother in light of what happened earlier in the day in Dana Point and Deerborn, Mich. Paul Lih Lee, Los Angeles

Congratulations to NBC for keeping "Reasonable Doubts" on for a full season. It is one of the best dramas I've seen, and the actors are wonderful: Marlee Matlin is excellent and Mark Harmon is at his best. The show has great writing and plenty of action. Renee Short, Inglewood Commercial Break Needed

NBC censored comedian Sam Kinison on "Saturday Night Live" by blanking out portions of its West Coast broadcast ("NBC Censors Comedian's 'Live' Jokes," by David T. Friendly, Oct. 21). The material deleted was a joke that referred to marijuana in a way not sufficiently negative to meet NBC censorship standards. How dare a broadcaster using the public airwaves arrogate to itself the right to decide what views the public may hear? The issue of drug prohibition is a matter of public controversy and the public is entitled to hear from all sides whether the views are expressed by "serious" newscommentators or comedians.

NEW YORK — Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications touted something that its English-language broadcast rivals cannot: Prime-time ratings at its flagship TV network, Univision, have grown 7% during the current season. Ratings gains in an era of shrinking TV audiences are uncommon as major broadcasters struggle to maintain their standing. Cable channels, social media and advances in technology — including digital video recorders — continue to nibble away at viewership, particularly among younger audiences.

NBC evidently believes laughter is the best medicine: The struggling network will have a strong dose of comedy on four nights in its fall lineup plus the Season 3 return of"The Voice. " Keeping its Thursday sitcom block essentially intact with existing series, NBC will push the low-rated comedies"Community"and"Whitney"to Fridays and open up Tuesdays and Wednesdays for new sitcoms such as "Go On," "Animal Practice" and "Guys With Kids. " Nearly one-quarter of NBC's fall prime-time schedule will consist of sitcoms; last fall, the figure was just 14%. Also on the schedule: the Monday one-hour series "Revolution," the new sci-fi drama from producer J.J. Abrams, and, for Wednesday, "Chicago Fire," from "Law & Order" mastermind Dick Wolf.

Dick Clark Productions has won its legal fight against the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. over the television rights for the Golden Globe Awards show. The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., owner of the Golden Globe Awards, had sued Dick Clark Productions, the program's longtime producer, over a $150-million deal Dick Clark Productions struck in 2010 to keep the show on NBC through 2018. The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., or HFPA, claimed that Dick Clark Productions, or DCP, had entered into that agreement without its approval and thus had violated the contract.

Soon, anyone who wants to know how much a political candidate spent on a commercial will be able to find out with the click of a button. The Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to require local television stations to publish on their websites detailed information about political advertising, including the cost of specific commercials. Although such material is already required to be made available to the public, anyone seeking to know what candidates are spending, and on what programs, typically has to visit a local television station and make a request to see what's known as the "public files.

It's morning for America - "Good Morning America,"that is. In a shift that could remake morning TV, ABC'sa.m. extravaganza finally overthrew NBC's"Today" last week, ending its archrival's 16-year perch atop the weekly ratings. "GMA," hosted by George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts, drew an average of 5,147,000 total viewers last week, just 13,000 more than "Today," according to early data released Monday from Nielsen. While "GMA" has beaten "Today" before now on individual days, it hasn't done so in the weekly averages since 1996.

TV westerns, game shows and variety shows have come and gone. But when it comes to prime time, TV has rarely experienced a cop-out, despite the seemingly endless recycling of formulas dealing with the central themes of good and evil, crime and punishment. The creative forces behind CBS' new "NYC 22" hope that their series demonstrates that there is plenty of life left in the well-tilled cop show territory. Its A-list pedigree is an immediate attention grabber: Executive producers include Oscar winner Robert De Niro and novelist-screenwriter Richard Price.

Please, Howard Rosenberg, as our last hope, save us from the worst coverage of a televised sporting event since the beginning of time ("Respect May Be Delayed for a Bit," Sept. 18). Only your sharp tongue might be able to so embarrass NBC--while there's still time--so that they'll change their ways. Not only do we have to listen to the endless, mindless jabber of their Olympics commentators and hosts, but because NBC doesn't think we're smart enough, or sensitive enough, to find the drama in these various events, they have to manufacture it for us. I don't want NBC's "creative" look at the competition.

NBC recorded its first weekly ratings victory during the official television season in nearly a year, thanks to the season's most-watched prime-time program. With Saturday's Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles NFL playoff game averaging 32.12 million viewers, NBC averaged 10.34 million viewers for its prime-time programming between Jan. 4 and Sunday, according to figures released Tuesday by the Nielsen Co. NBC's last ratings victory came the week of Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, 2009, when it aired the Super Bowl.

On NBC's psychological procedural "Awake," Jason Isaacs plays a man moving between two realities. In one: His son is alive, but his wife is dead. In the other: His wife is alive, but his son is dead. Which reality is a dream is up for debate. Not up for debate, however, are Isaacs' own dreams. "I would never share that," he said gently on a recent weekday over the ambient noise at a crowded Venice restaurant. "I learned years ago that you have to rope some things off. " Then again, the 48-year-old actor claims to be an insomniac.

Could "Smash" be headed for Broadway? When NBC developed the prime-time TV musical drama about cutthroat competition in the theater world, the network buttoned up the rights for a Broadway version of the show. The series about the making of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, which NBC recently renewed for a second season, may be a long way from getting to the real Broadway. Still, the show has long been a passion project for NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt, who has experience producing a stage musical and has assembled an elite group of executive producers with credentials in the theater world.