Week of January 1, 2008

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fire a Katyusha rocket some 10 miles into

Israel - killing 9.

The Iowa Cacuses - Obama Barack wins - as did Mike Huckabee on the

Republican side.

Campaign ’08 - Presidential hopefuls - All in the play on the Republican side -

John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani.

Mikheil Saakashvilli - Georgia’s leader, narrowly wins reelection to the

presidency in a tight race.

After more than three decades in prison for the

attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford

Oil prices hit the $100 a barrel mark. The national

gasoline price is now $3.053 per gallon.

Technology -

Las Vegas - Bill Gates conducts his final keynote

address at the International Consumer electronics

Show, predicting more Microsoft programs would

come pre-installed in cars and more entertainment

would be delivered via computer and personal

years.

Netflix will begin delivering movies and other programming directly to TV later

this year via set-top box. You’ll have to be on the Internet.

Warner picks the Blu-Ray DVD format over rival HD DVD and it looks like - that

will be the standard High Definition format for DVD’s. Many are expecting HD

DVD to die a quick death. Warner was the last major holdout. Fox, Disney, Sony

and MGM have already backed the Blu-Ray format.

Researchers at the University of Utah have found that motorists on cell phones

drive more hesitantly than undistracted drivers, increasing everyone’s time on the

road by as much as 10%.

There was a 4% increase in movie box office sales in 2007 - to $9.7 billion.

Moviegoers bough 1.4 billion tickets last year, same as in 2006.

Week of January 1, 2008

Las Vegas hotspot Tao and fans got a treat of her new single - “Migrate.” After

toasting the crowd, she was showered with sparklers and a cake.

just as a court commissioner

barred her from visiting her two

young sons. She allegedly refused

to hand over one of her children at

the end of a custody visit, and

broke down.

CD Music and DVD sales are

shied away from compact discs

and DVD’s last year and sales of

Internet downloads did not make

up the difference. Album sales fell 15% to 500.5 million. In 2006, total sales fell

4.9%. Digital albums sales rose 53% to 50 million - only 10% of the total. DVD

sales fell 4.4% last year to 1.09 billion from 1.14 billion, marking the first big year-

over-year decline for the category since it debuted in 1997.

Media - Did you William Shatner has been appearing on those PriceLine

commercials for 10 years? He was selected over Bill Cosby. The first spots

began to air late 1998.

Top TV -

Sunday Night Football: Tennessee/Indianapolis (NBC) - 15.80 million viewers

Saturday Night Football Special: New England/New York Giants (CBS) - 15.68

Saturday Night Football Special: New England/NY Giants (NBC similcast) -

13.23

60 Minutes - 12.39

CSI - 10.69

Without a Trace - 10.54

NFL Pregame (sun.) NBC - 10.38

Deal or No deal (Tue.) - 9.78

Amazing Race 12 - 9.68

CSI: NY - 9.49

Criminal Minds - 8.97

The OT (Football postgame show) - 8.79

Law & Order: SVU (Wed.) - 8.69

Week of January 1, 2008

Television news -

View” and brings her infant son. She’s

been on maternity leave. She’s married

to Arizona Cardinals Quarterback Tim

Hasselbeck.

Beginning this week - Court TV is now

Tru-TV.

Jay Leno returns to the “Tonight” show

dispute a writer’s strike. Apparently - he

wrote his own material.

At the movies this week in 2008 -

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Alvin and the Chipmunks

June

I Am Legend

Charlie Wilson’s War

P.S. I Love You

One Missed Call

The Water Horse

SweeneyTodd

The Great Debaters

Week of January 1, 2008