How clever of John Edwards to make himself available Friday to do his wife-cheating confession exclusively for ABC News, which would then air it in the teeth of NBC's broadcast of the Beijing Summer Olympics opening ceremonies.

As Edwards' luck would have it, the panda-and-dragon-free ceremonies drew the biggest audience ever for an Olympic opening not held in the United States -- a whopping 34 million viewers. That represented about 34 percent of the homes in which TVs were turned on at that time.

"Nightline" appears to have copped about 5 percent of the homes where TVs were turned on at that time.

While that may not sound like much, the previous week, against no Olympics competition, "Nightline" logged an only slightly better 2.8 percent of the country's homes in the metered markets. Though we're guessing ABC would have rather aired its big scoop out of the path of the opening ceremonies, for "Nightline" to have held onto its Friday numbers is a victory of sorts for the show and speaks to viewers' interest in the sexual indiscretions of the non-presidential candidate/non-officeholder.

The Beijing extravaganza mowed down everything else in its path.

About 107 million people in the United States sampled the first Sunday of the Beijing Games across all of NBC Universal's broadcast and cable networks, making it the most sampled first Sunday in Summer Olympics history. That number includes 81 million who checked out the NBC broadcast network alone during prime time that day.

(Lisa de Moraes, The Washington Post)

WPXI morning meteorologist Krista Villarreal is back on the air after having foot surgery a few weeks ago. While she recuperates, she's offering weather forecasts sitting at a desk rather than standing in front of the weather wall.

"She has a big boot on her foot and has to keep it elevated," Channel 11 news director Corrie Harding explained.

(Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor)

Two forces in liberal talk radio are teaming up for a one-time joint broadcast. WPTT-AM (1360) talk host Lynn Cullen will be live on the air with syndicated talk host Bev Smith, who is heard on WAMO-AM (860).

Cullen will join "The Bev Smith Show" tomorrow during the 7 p.m. hour to talk about the presidential campaign, gender, race and other issues.

The show will be heard live on WAMO-AM or online at www.wamoam.com.

(Adrian McCoy, Post-Gazette radio writer)