Television Advertising

Television's reigning champion, "American Idol," returns this week and the talent contest is expected to be more popular -- and profitable -- than ever. The Fox show begins its seventh season Tuesday against the walking wounded. As the strike by the Writers Guild of America grinds into its 11th week, rival networks are scrambling to stay alive.

Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough Corp. suspended television ads Tuesday for the cholesterol pills Vytorin and Zetia after a study questioned the benefit of the medicines. The Vytorin commercials were among the most widely aired drug ads, featuring people dressed as food items to show the pill lowers cholesterol from food as well as from genetics. The ads were voluntarily and temporarily halted, Schering-Plough spokesman Lee Davies said.

Television public service announcements, which convey beneficial messages and air for free, can be effective, but a new study says there aren't very many of them. And those that do make it to television are often broadcast at odd hours when few people are watching. "There continues to be very little time available for ads on public service, and nearly half of them are aired after midnight," said Vicky Rideout, a coauthor of the study.

The New York Giants weren't the only ones to walk away winners from Super Bowl XLII. News Corp. said it reaped $250 million in advertising revenue for the day of the game -- the biggest day in Fox network history. The football game, with the Giants' unexpected victory over the previously undefeated New England Patriots, was the second-most-watched telecast ever, with 97.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

NBC Universal said Tuesday that it was abandoning its spring ritual of unveiling the network's fall schedule in an expensive, star-studded presentation at Radio City Music Hall in favor of smaller meetings with advertisers in three cities, including Los Angeles. "We are taking what has been a one-way conversation and turning it into a two-way dialogue with advertisers," said Marc Graboff, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment.

This year, the advertisers are better known than the movies. After being threatened by the Hollywood writers strike, the 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast will roll on Sunday with its customary glamour and coterie of stars. That's a huge relief for Walt Disney Co.'s ABC television network, which had sold most of the show's commercial time before November, when the strike began, for an average $1.8 million for each 30-second spot, an increase of nearly 6% from the previous year.

Here's an example of the great and seemingly growing divide between people who write about TV and the executives who make it. You may recall that earlier this month, NBC foisted upon us a made-for-TV "Knight Rider" movie, based on the '80s crime-fighter series that starred David Hasselhoff. Reviewers were impressed by neither the movie nor the muscled-up Mustang that the hero zoomed around in. Los Angeles Times critic Mary McNamara described the program as a "two-hour (!

Pfizer Inc. said Monday that it was voluntarily withdrawing advertising for its Lipitor cholesterol drug featuring Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart, because its ads led to "misimpressions." The ads involving Jarvik had come under scrutiny, including from a House committee as part of an investigation into celebrity endorsements of prescription medicines.

The pitchman calls himself Jackie Moon, but he is unmistakably Will Ferrell in character as the 1970s basketball player from his upcoming comedy "Semi-Pro," complete with Afro, headband and short shorts. Everyone sweats six liters a day, he explains, glowering into the camera from a locker room.

When veteran Los Angeles news anchors Harold Greene and Ann Martin were felled by a round of jobs cuts last week, they were in good company. At least 160 employees at CBS Corp.-owned television stations in 13 cities were let go, including such seasoned broadcasters as prominent Chicago anchor Diann Burns, renowned Boston sportscaster Bob Lobel and longtime Minneapolis meteorologist Paul Douglas.