The battle for your money is heating up on the cable front now that Verizon's FiOS TV has come to town to battle Comcast. The region's dominant cable company faced incursions from satellite competitors DirecTV and DISH Network in the past, but FiOS TV is more similar to Comcast (no dish to buy) and therefore more of a threat.

Comcast is fighting back and consumers can, too.

Two co-workers both sought to dump Comcast for FiOS TV and came away with different results.

Co-Worker No. 1, who lives in Ross and has Verizon DSL and phone service, planned to switch from Comcast cable to Verizon's FiOS TV, which is newly available in his community. He even lined up an installation date with Verizon and planned to bundle his phone, Internet and cable services on one bill.

But when he called Comcast to cancel his service, the customer service representative offered a one-year deal to keep his current level of service (HBO, digital cable and Starz), added a DVR with HD receiver and cut his cable bill from close to $90 to $46.

"The Comcast guy was very good," Co-Worker No. 1 said. He called Verizon back to cancel his FiOS TV installation, hoping they might make a counter-offer, but they did not. "I was disappointed. I really wanted to try FiOS."

Co-Worker No. 2, who lives in Mt. Lebanon, another area with access to FiOS TV, did make the switch to Verizon's service, saving about $35 on his previous Comcast bill.

When he called to cancel Comcast, the customer service representative warned him about a column I supposedly wrote about how Verizon was misrepresenting the cost of FiOS TV in ads. I suspect this was a reference to a question in the Nov. 9 TV Q&A in which a viewer questioned the price Verizon advertised, but I disagreed with the viewer's assertion. It's kind of amusing to be used as a pawn in the battle of these media titans, but how strange for customer service reps to misrepresent what's in the TV Q&A.

Co-Worker No. 2 said he spent several minutes on the phone with Comcast trying to get disconnected as the customer service rep kept throwing more offers at him to reduce his cable bill. The rep also warned him that if he switched to FiOS TV, "they take out the copper wire and you won't be able to go back."

(Neither he nor I understood what that was a reference to, so I did some research. When installing Verizon FiOS, the copper wire from the telephone pole to the house is removed, but Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski said if a customer later decides to dump FiOS and return to traditional phone service, Verizon will put the copper back at no charge.)

I wanted to try this game of playing one company against the other, but I live in the city of Pittsburgh, where FiOS TV is not available. I figured the Comcast service representative may know that based on my ZIP code, so I was going to have to play the satellite card if it came to that. It didn't.

While I can easily criticize monolithic corporations in print, I find it difficult to be mean to an innocent customer service rep, especially when I don't really intend to cancel my service. But I did manage to get a cut in my monthly Comcast bill, keeping my current package (digital preferred, DVR, HBO, Showtime) and reducing my bill from $104 per month to $77 monthly for one year.

Another city-dwelling Co-Worker, who is planning a move within the city, called Comcast and received no offer for a rate cut, so you never know exactly what you're going to get. But it never hurts to shop around.

Still, let this serve as a lesson to cable consumers: It may not be a name-your-price culture, but with new competition, it's certainly moving in that direction, giving consumers more leverage than they've had in the past.

A year from now, when Co-Worker No. 1's deal with Comcast is up, he'll play Comcast and FiOS off each other again.

"I'll call FiOS again and see what they have to offer," he said. "I'll still be in search of a good deal and whoever has it, I'll take it."

I first noticed KDKA-TV consumer reporter Yvonne Zanos was missing during November sweeps. Her reports continued to air, but at some point in November, it occurred to me that she wasn't appearing in the studio, which is unusual in a sweeps month.

Zanos was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in early November and underwent surgery. Before she did, but while hospitalized, she snuck out of the hospital to go to KDKA to finish recording voice-over tracks for her last three reports.

"I told [the nurses] I was going to visit the hospital goldfish pond," she said this week. "It took four hours [to finish the stories at KDKA]. I didn't do all that work for nothing!"

Is it any wonder Zanos aspires to be back at work on Jan. 2?

Zanos started chemotherapy this week, and she said her prospects are encouraging, including a report of cancer-free lymph nodes. She expects to lose her hair and has wigs ready, but she's unafraid to discuss her diagnosis.

"I didn't know if this was in my background because people wouldn't say the word 'ovarian,' " she said. "I do think it's important women are aware of it because it is a tough one."

Zanos said she's been "humbled by the blanket of love" that has come from co-workers at KDKA and at her previous station, WTAE.

"The first person to see me after the surgery, outside my family, was Mike Clark, which blew me away," Zanos said.

Upbeat as she always is on TV, Zanos said she felt well after her first day of chemo but quickly added, "I reserve the right to change my attitude after tomorrow's chemo."

My guess is Zanos would not want me giving out the KDKA address for viewers to send cards, but I also know how viewers bond with TV personalities, particularly someone as joyful and friendly as Zanos, whose "Does It Really Do That?" consumer stories have become a key component in KDKA's 5 p.m. sweeps month victories. So here it is: Yvonne Zanos, c/o KDKA-TV, One Gateway Center, Pittsburgh, PA 15222.

KDKA telethon

The annual "Children's Hospital Free Care Fund Telethon" will not air in prime time as usual this year, instead following the lead of WTAE's "Project Bundle Up Telethon" and airing, in part, during newscasts.

Phones will be staffed beginning at noon Wednesday with reminders on screen throughout the afternoon. Portions of the local news, airing 4-6:30 p.m., will be devoted to the telethon with a one-hour special at 7 p.m. ("CBS Evening News" will air at 6:30 p.m. that night.)

It's easy to think this is a TV station getting greedy and pushing the telethon out of prime time. That's what I thought when WTAE made the move a few years, but I was wrong; WTAE's telethon drew more donations the first year it aired out of prime time.

Roger Oxendale, president of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, said changes to the "Free Care Fund" telethon were partially influenced by the WTAE-Salvation Army experience.

"Our estimates are the viewership will have exposure that will go from 40,000 to 100,000 [viewers], so clearly that's a big benefit," he said.

Could it be that news viewers are more likely to make donations than prime-time viewers?

"It's an interesting question, and it's a hypothesis that we share and we're interested to see how that works," Oxendale said.

Last year's "Free Care Fund" telethon raised $1.9 million.

CBS has ordered another edition of "The Amazing Race" beyond the one currently airing Sunday nights. ... ABC has pulled "Big Shots" on Thursday nights, airing "Private Practice" reruns at 10 p.m. instead. ... DirecTV has canceled former NBC soap "Passions," but it will continue to run through next year and may survive if another cable channel picks it up. ... A&E's "Paranormal State," starring Penn State's Paranormal Research Society, premiered Monday with 2.5 million viewers, the network's best series debut in three years. ... NBC has not renewed Monday night drama "Journeyman." ... When KDKA-TV pre-empts CBS's prime-time lineup next Thursday for a Steelers game, viewers won't miss anything new. All the CBS shows -- two "CSIs" and "Without a Trace" -- will be reruns and will air early Friday beginning at 1:37 a.m.

This week's TV Q&A responds to questions about "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "The Late Late Show" and non-sports reporters covering the Steelers. Read it online at post-gazette.com/tv.