As the writers’ strike wears on, nearing the six-week mark, the networks are firming up their plans for the first quarter of 2008. ABC announced its schedule Friday.

The best news is the return of Lost for an eight-episode run beginning January 31. It moves into the Grey’s Anatomy slot Thursday nights at 9pm

Ugly Betty will keep its 8 pm slot, while rookie Eli Stone will air at 10 after the remaining original episodes of Big Shots, also in January.

The rest of the schedule includes several shows yet to debut, including Cashmere Mafia (Wednesdays at 10), Oprah’s Big Give (Sundays at 9 beginning in March) and the Dancing With the Stars spinoff, Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann (Mondays at 8).

In March, we’ll see the return of Dancing With the Stars and The Bachelor.

Following is ABC’s midseason schedule, as of Friday (Dec. 14). Here are the scheduled plans by night.

MONDAY (January)
8:00 p.m. “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann”

9:30 p.m. “Notes from the Underbelly”

10:00 p.m. “October Road”

MONDAY (February)
8:00 p.m. “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann”

9:00 p.m. “Samantha Who?”

9:30 p.m. “Notes from the Underbelly”

10:00 p.m. “October Road”

MONDAY (March)
8:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars”

9:30 p.m. “Samantha Who?”

10:00 p.m. “The Bachelor”

TUESDAY
8:00 p.m. “Just for Laughs”

8:30 p.m. “Just for Laughs

9:00 p.m. “According to Jim”

9:30 p.m. “Carpoolers”

10:00 p.m. “Boston Legal”

TUESDAY (March)
8:00 p.m. “Just for Laughs”

8:30 p.m. “Just for Laughs”

9:00 p.m. “Dancing with the Stars the Results Show”

10:00 p.m. “Boston Legal”

WEDNESDAY
8:00 p.m. “Wife Swap”

9:00 p.m. “Supernanny”

10:00 p.m. “Cashmere Mafia” (“Men In Trees” beginning Feb 27)

THURSDAY (January)
8:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”

9:00 p.m. “Grey’s Anatomy”

10:00 p.m. “Big Shots”

THURSDAY (February)
8:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty”

9:00 p.m. “Lost”

10:00 p.m. “Eli Stone”

FRIDAY
8:00 p.m. Drama encores

9:00 p.m. Drama encores

10:00 p.m. “20/20”

SUNDAY (March)
7:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”

8:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”

9:00 p.m. “Oprah’s Big Give”

10:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”

The clash of the Titans heated up yesterday when the cable guys went after the all-mighty National Football League.

Comcast sued the NFL to block the league from sending e-mail blasts and urging consumers on its websites to drop their Comcast subscription because access to the NFL Network requires an additional charge. In the suit, Comcast said that although it bargained fairly for the right to distribute the NFL Network on a sports tier, the NFL is conducting a “multimillion dollar marketing campaign” in a breach of contract designed to “diminish or destroy the value to Comcast of that right, and thus to coerce Comcast into abandoning the right.” Wow!

Comcast filed the suit in the Supreme Court of New York. Less than a month ago, they sent a cease and desist letter to the network which also reminded the NFL of Comcast’s court victory to place the network on a sports tier.

An NFL Network spokesperson fired back. Seth Palansky said ” It seems to us that, after repeatedly telling you and us that its customers don’t care about our channel, Comcast seems to be a little nervous about our perfectly legitimate efforts to make sure that consumers know all of their options for getting NFL Network.”

The NFL Network, a pay-TV channel owned by the league retained rights to eight of its games. They’re seeking cable carriage on nothing less than the most widely subscribed digital tier, believing pro football’s popularity justifies nothing less than the broadest carriage.

But Comcast, along with Time Warner Cable (TWC) (38 million subscribers combined), has fought them, arguing that the NFL’s demand for 70 cents per month per subscriber was too rich to collect from millions of cable homes that are not diehard pigskin fans. (Editorial comment: And they weren’t going to pick it up without passing along the cost.)

Comcast carries the NFL Network on lightly viewed sports tiers while Time Warner is not distributing the channel at all, though TWC has offered to provide the NFL Network on a sports tier, as premium service like HBO, or show its games on a pay-per-view basis.

The battle has produced some tough exchanges, with the tension mounting each week the New England Patriots march towards a perfect record. The NFL Network has exclusive rights to the upcoming Patriots-Giants tilt. Cable and broadcast-only viewers in the Boston and New York markets will be able to see the game live on local TV stations that rebroadcast the NFL Network’s game feed.

The same thing occurred here last month when the Colts-Falcons game was picked up from the NFL Network by WTHR. In this case, the game was seen locally in Atlanta and Indianapolis. Unfortunately, for viewers in Tippecanoe County, who were counting on watching the game on Channel 13, Insight Communications, the local cable provider there, blacked out the game after showing the first few minutes.

Lafayette is considered a separate television market from Indianapolis and showing the game on free over-the-air television is verboten. Insight, which includes the NFL Network in some of its digital cable packages, does not offer the channel in its most popular cable lineup.

An interesting study was released today showing that cable TV continues to erode as the way television viewers receive service.

According to data from Nielsen, the penetration of Alternative Delivery Systems (ADS) reached 28.0% of television households in November 2007, up from 24.5% in November 2006. That is, 28% of all households get their television service by a means other than cable or over-the-air. You may remember over-the-air. It was free. Actually still is and some people choose to not pay for something a simple antenna will pick up in most places.

ADS now represents 31.6% of subscription television customers (those paying for video delivery). November to November, national wired-cable penetration of television households fell from 62.1% to 61.3% — the last time wired cable was lower was nearly two decades ago- February 1990.

Direct broadcast satellite (DBS) delivery, the largest component of ADS, is now estimated at 27.6% of television households, up from 24.0% in November 2006.

Fifteen Designated Market Areas are now majority-ADS markets, where more viewers are watching via satellite than over wired cable, including the first Top 50 market (Albuquerque-Santa Fe). In 56 markets, ADS penetration is at 40% or more.

Indianapolis homes with ADS are 30.1%; that’s 35.2% of the homes that pay for video delivery. Fort Wayne has nearly 36% of their homes getting TV via ADS; only 44.1% have cable. In both markets, as well as many around the area, TV viewers are turning to satellite and phone companies for their TV delivery and cancelling cable.

And now, another monkey wrench in the gears of the Digital Television Conversion machine.

The Community Broadcasters Association (CBA), a trade group representing more than 2,600 low power TV stations, yesterday asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to declare unlawful any analog-to-digital DTV converters that are not able to pass through analog signals. According to the CBA, any box built without the pass-through feature would violate the All-Channel Receiver Act, a federal law that says that says that all receivers of over-the-air signals must be able to receive all channels.

Most converter boxes that will become available next year will provide the ability to convert only digital signals so they may be seen on older, analog TV sets. As of February 17, 2009 all full-power TV stations, such as WRTV, are mandated to shut off their analog signals (in our case, Channel 6) and broadcast only on their digital channel. WRTV has had both analog and digital signals available for nearly ten years. After the February date, WRTV will broadcast only in digital format and on its current digital assignment, Channel 25.

Manufacturers are producing analog-to-digital converters for the tens of millions of analog TV sets now in use that are not hooked up to either cable or satellite and rely solely on over-the-air reception. Most of the converters are being made to specifications set forth by the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) so that they qualify for the government’s $40 discount coupons. The NTIA specs permit the pass-through feature, but do not make it mandatory. Some boxes have the feature; some do not, the CBA says. CBA notes that it is aware of only two companies, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Echostar, that plan to offer DTV converter boxes with the pass-through capability

The CBA sees the pass-through feature as critical to low-power TV stations and translators since many of them will continue broadcasting analog signals long after the cut-off of analog by full power stations. They feel the converter boxes that don’t pass analog LPTV signals will confuse viewers and significantly decrease LPTV viewership. LPTVs for the most part do not have must-carry rights on cable systems and depend on our over-the-air signal for the majority of their audiences.

Greg Herman, vice president for technology for the CBA, says the group intends to hold manufacturers and the FCC accountable for any lost viewers and all lost revenues.”“Our industry does not want to stop the converter box program, but by not correcting this problem the Consumer Electronics Association and FCC have forced us into submitting this filing,” Herman says.”“It will be substantially less expensive to correct this problem now instead of recalling 70 million boxes and paying our industries lost revenues later.”

He’s back. Radio shock jock Don Imus returned to radio this morning, nearly eight months after CBS Radio fired him and shut down his “Imus in the Morning” program. The firing came after the “I-Man” referred to the members of the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy headed hos,” a phrase combining an often derogatory term for coarse, curly hair with slang for whore. And a firestorm ensued.

“Imus in the Morning,” previously was produced and broadcast by the CBS-owned WFAN radio station in New York, syndicated on some 60 stations and simulcast on MSNBC cable television.

The new “Imus in the Morning” is based out of New York City’s WABC-AM, one of 243 Citadel stations. ABC Radio Networks also distributes programming to more than 4,000 affiliates, according to Citadel’s Web site. The station nor the network have any ownership connection to the American Broadcasting Company or the ABC Television Network.

The show also will be simulcast on cable’s RFD-TV, owned by the Rural Media Group Inc. RFD reaches nearly 30 million homes, somewhat smaller than MSNBC’s reach.

Imus has added an African-American woman and man to the cast — comedians Karith Foster and Tony Powell — along with regular sidekicks Rob Bartlett and Charles McCord.

Here’s the transcript from this morning’s show:

“I’m Imus in the morning on WABC New York and RFD TV,” the “I-Man” began. “I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about what happened on April 12th. What it means to this program and what it means for the young women of Rutgers. I am thinking about what happened, as most of you know I haven’t talked to anyone and didn’t see any point in going on some sort of Larry King tour to offer some lame excuses for making a reprehensible remark about what some people who shouldn’t have been made fun of.

“What happened (to me) was essentially what should have happened. You don’t get to decide how the news media will treat it. I would remind myself if I hadn’t said what I said we wouldn’t be having this discussion. The women of Rutgers wouldn’t have had to deal with that. I always remembered that it began with that remark. Les Moonves called that night and said they couldn’t take the pressure and had to pull the plug. Les Moonves couldn’t have been more honorable and decent in dealing with me. It was just a matter of time before he did what he had to do.

“It is a beginning. I think things worked out the way they should’ve worked out. We have an opportunity to be a better program. Diversified. The program is not going to change (clapping). It was a great radio program. (clapping). It’s on a better radio station – one of the great iconic radio stations WABC New York.

“In a way, the women at Rutgers and me and the folks on this program get the opportunity to demonstrate to everyone that we’re willing to have an ongoing discussion on race relations in this country.

“Not much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal. Hillary Clinton is still Satan. And I’m back on the radio!”