In viewership, Barack Obama on NBC's "Meet the Press" trounced Hillary Clinton on ABC's "This Week With Geoge Stephanopoulos."

Read details at mediabistro.com

PBS host Bill Moyers has an interesting take on the super-inflated Jeremiah Wright controversy (Moyers interviewed the fiery preacher for broadcast two Fridays ago).

View Moyers' comments here.

Kim Genardo, host of NBC-17's Sunday show "At Issue," will make a double appearance that morning when she discusses North Carolina politics with Chris Matthews on "The Chris Matthews Show," at 11 a.m. on NBC-17.

Country music singer and comedian Jim Hager (left), half of "Hee Haw" regulars the Hager twins, died in Nashville Thursday.

Story here

I got some great responses to Thursday's TV Eye column "Who is the fifth Cylon?" in which I asked readers to guess the identity of the fifth and final Cylon on Sci-Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica."

=> Read more!

From a press alert from Minister Paul Scott:

On Monday April 28th at 6PM the North Carolina Republican Party is scheduled to start airing a 40-second ad that questions Senator Barack Obama's relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates' support of Obama. However a NC minister is calling for a "40 second black out" to protest the ads.

"Just because they choose to show these negative ads, doesn't mean that we have to watch them," says Scott.

So you think the presidential race has gone on too long already? Wait'll you get a load of this, from today's press release from World Wrestling Entertainment:

CLINTON, OBAMA MCCAIN FIGHT FOR YOUR VOTE ON "MONDAY NIGHT RAW®" TONIGHT

Check out smackdownyourvote.com to register to vote and to learn more about WWE’s Smackdown Your Vote! campaign.

There you go — no "elitists" in this bunch!

That's right, the first hour of last night's awful "debate" on ABC got the most viewers from 8-9 p.m., but the second half — where clod-erators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos actually got around to asking about, y'know, the issues — fell to No. 3 behind all-important "elimination night" and CBS's "Criminal Minds."

From Zap2it.com:

ABC led at 8 p.m. as coverage of a debate between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama drew a 7.3/12. "Deal or No Deal," 6.0/10, grabbed second for NBC. FOX came in third with "'Til Death," 3.9/7, and "Back to You," 4.5/7, edging "Big Brother: 'Til Death Do You Part" on CBS. "America's Next Top Model" earned a 2.5/4 for The CW.

"American Idol," 13.3/20, lifted FOX into the lead at 9 p.m. CBS moved up to second with "Criminal Minds," 8.2/13, while the Democratic debate on ABC fell slightly to 7.1/11. A repeat of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" kept NBC in front of The CW and "Girlicious," 1.3/2.

Readers of the Spanish weekly newspaper La Conexion were angered by a stunt pulled by G-105's "Bob and the Showgram" at Raleigh's Mexican Consulate on April 2, one day after host Bob Dumas and his crew made jokes about American Indians that resulted in protests and a three-day suspension.

On April 2, Dumas sent a producer to the consulate with a fake "INS" sticker taped to his shirt and prodded him to ask people in line for passports whether they had proof of U.S. citizenship. Dumas was very insistent on that point, and expressed anger that a Mexican flag at the consulate was flying "right next to the Burger King"

Read the News & Observer story here.

La Conexion reported the incident on April 8, and posted audio on its Web site. You can listen here.

UPDATE AND CORRECTION: Rodrigo Pintado of the Mexican Consulate informs me that Jon Clark, assistant producer of "The Showgram," was not wearing any fake "INS" tag on his clothing while at the consulate, despite prompting from Dumas.

"The police threatened him, if he put on the jacket, they would arrest him," Pintado says. "He was quite nervous when he came to the consulate .. he was clearly nervous and sorry about what he was doing."

Judging by most of the comments on the ABC News Web site (read here), viewers were not too happy about the way moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos conducted Wednesday night's debate in Philadelphia between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

They have reason to be angry. Only the final 40 minutes of the 90-minute debate were given to substantive issues.

The first 50?

Jeremiah Wright. The "sniper fire in Bosnia" story. Obama's connection to a guy who used to be in the Weather Underground. Flag lapel pins.

FLAG LAPEL PINS!

It was a disgraceful tabloid spectacle. ABC should be ashamed.

From tvguide.com:

April 14, 2008 (New York, NY) – With all the attention recently focused on William Petersen's successful contract negotiations with CSI, TVGuide.com’s senior writer Michael Ausiello reports exclusively that Petersen’s co-star, original CSIer Gary Dourdan (Warrick) — whose contract is set to expire next month — has informed producers that he is leaving the show. Although no timeframe was given, sources confirm to Ausiello that CSI's May 15 season finale could serve as Dourdan’s swan song.

Meanwhile, CSI execs aren't wasting any time searching for Dourdan's replacement. Ausiello was told that producers have put out a casting call for a new male series regular in his late twenties to early thirties to play Ray Santoro, a "handsome, smart and athletic" CSI who transfers from Henderson to join the graveyard shift at the Las Vegas crime lab.

Click here for the full story.

Local personality Bob Dumas isn't the only recently-suspended radio talker who's coming back on Monday.

Randi Rhodes quit Air America this week after the liberal radio network suspended her for off-color comments she made about Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro during a standup comedy act. She returns to the air Monday on Nova M Radio Network.

That includes returning to Chapel Hill's WCHL 1360 AM, in her old spot at 3 p.m.

Here's the press release from WCHL:

RANDI RHODES TO RETURN TO AIRWAVES ON WCHL

"For years now, 1360 WCHL has been a model for the rest of the industry to see how a well-run radio station should serve its audience and clients," said John Manzo, CEO of the Nova M Radio Network. "I couldn't be more pleased that Randi Rhodes will continue to be a part of their team and community. She’s in good hands at WCHL."

From a CBS press release today:

JUDGE DISMISSES MAJORITY OF DAN RATHER’S CLAIMS
IN HIS LAWSUIT AGAINST CBS

“We are gratified that the court has dismissed the majority of Mr. Rather’s claims, including the spurious claims against Mr. Redstone, Mr. Moonves and Mr. Heyward, as well as the false charges of fraud, tortious interference with prospective business relations, breach of good faith and fair dealing. With respect to the few remaining claims, relevant to his contract, there are no facts to support them and we expect them to be dismissed when the discovery process is complete.”

I'll be on the WPTF 680 AM program "NC's Morning News" at 8:10 a.m., likely talking about the return of NBC's Thursday night comedies ("The Office," "My Name is Earl," "30 Rock"), maybe some "Battlestar Galactica, and perhaps even (yep) the recent suspension of "Bob and the Showgram" on G-105.