NBC has renewed struggling first-year drama "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" for the remainder of the season.

	Associated Press Amanda Peet -- She'll get to do all 22 episodes. Click photo for larger image.

NBC said Thursday that the show from "West Wing" creator Adam Sorkin and producing partner Thomas Schlamme would go on, with a full order of 22 episodes for the season. "Studio 60" has been losing audience at 10 p.m. Monday from its lead-in, the freshman hit "Heroes," but it has a demographic that the network covets.

"Studio 60" is averaging a 4.0 rating, 9 share with adults 18-49 and 9.8 million viewers overall (through Nov. 6) and has increased its rating week-to-week in 18-49. NBC's announcement said the show "has consistently delivered some of the highest audience concentrations among all prime-time network series in such key upscale categories as adults 18-49 living in homes with $75,000-plus and $100,000-plus incomes and in homes where the head of household has four or more years of college."

The Los Angeles Times points out that, this week, it drew an estimated 7.7 million viewers in its 10-11 p.m. Monday time period. By comparison, the top competitor in that slot, "CSI: Miami" on CBS, was watched by an estimated 16.8 million viewers.

Matthew Perry, Bradley Whitford and Amanda Peet star in "Studio 60," about producing a popular late-night comedy sketch show. It was pulled two weeks ago and replaced for one night by "Friday Night Lights," which usually airs at 8 p.m. Tuesday, to give that critically acclaimed but low-rated show a boost, but the ratings remained flat.

(From staff reports)

A win for ABC

A savvy last-minute scheduling shift enabled ABC News' Charles Gibson to claim bragging rights as television's elections source of choice in his first prime-time competition with NBC's Brian Williams and Katie Couric of CBS.

Meanwhile, news organizations pronounced themselves generally satisfied Wednesday with their exit polling and vote-counting systems, despite some concerns. With caution the byword, the national organizations made no wrong calls with the information they received.

Gibson, Williams and Couric were back on the air quickly Wednesday as all networks ran two special reports on President Bush's news conference and his announcement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. Couric, flying to Washington, was late and had Harry Smith fill in at the beginning of the first report.

All three broadcast networks had promised one hour of coverage Tuesday starting at 10 p.m. But on Tuesday afternoon, ABC announced that it was pre-empting its half-hour comedy "Help Me Help You" for an extra 30 minutes of news coverage.

Not only did that give ABC a half-hour head start on its rivals, but also it enabled Gibson to take advantage of directly following "Dancing with the Stars," a major hit seen by more than 20 million people Tuesday.

As a result, ABC's elections coverage was seen by 9.7 million people, according to Nielsen Media Research. NBC had 7 million viewers and CBS, 6.3 million, Nielsen said.

Election-night ratings tend to resemble viewership for the evening news, where Gibson has been second to Williams the last two months. In 2004, NBC with Tom Brokaw was easily the most popular election-night broadcast.

Among the cable networks, Fox News Channel averaged 3.1 million viewers in prime time, CNN had 3 million and MSNBC had 1.9 million, Nielsen said. CNN beat Fox in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic sought by advertisers.

During 2004 election coverage -- a happier time for the Republicans who dominate Fox's audience -- Fox beat CNN by nearly 2 million viewers.

(David Bauder, Associated Press)

Disney hunk gets animated

"High School Musical" star Zac Efron will make a guest voice appearance on the Disney Channel's animated series "The Replacements," on Nov. 18. ... Disney also has ordered a third season of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," a top-rated comedy series starring the identical twin actors, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

(Zap2it.com)

TJ on radio

Starting today, TJ Lubinsky will host a new weekly doo-wop show on West Palm Beach, Fla., public station WXEL-FM.

"The Doo Wop Jukebox" will air Saturdays from 6 to 8 p.m., featuring classic 1950s music, along with interviews and profiles of classic doo-wop artists. For locals who want to check it out, the station also streams online, www.wxel.org.

Lubinsky, best known for his public TV specials, also hosts a weekly Sunday-night oldies program on WJRZ-FM in Toms River, N.J. Lubinsky produces and hosts both shows from his Pittsburgh studio.

(Adrian McCoy)