I know I’ve already blogged about this so I’ll keep it short and sweet. The January sweeps television ratings came out this week, and once again WJZ (Baltimore’s CBS affiliate) is riding high with the No. 1-rated nightly newscast.

WJZ’s 11 p.m. newscast drew a household rating of 8.8, while WBAL (Baltimore’s NBC affiliate) drew a 6.7. (ABC affiliate WMAR drew 2.2 for its late night newscast and FOX affiliate WBFF drew a 4.4 for its 10 p.m. newscast.)

After this fall’s experiment, Jay Leno will soon be off the air at 10 p.m., but the damage has been done. Compare WBAL’s 6.7 with what it drew last May, when it was the No. 1 nightly newscast: then, the station had a 10.2 rating. WJZ had a 9.7.

Now the real recovery test for NBC affiliates starts when the network broadcasts the Winter Olympics beginning next week. Jordan Wertlieb, WBAL’s president and general manager, told me during an interview last month he believes NBC has the ability for a quick turnaround.

“We’re glad to see they’ve been reactive to local stations,” he said at the time. “Of course we always hope the rating goes back up.”

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Oprah Winfrey may be off broadcast airwaves next year, but her next venture into cable makes Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications Inc. a big winner.

Winfrey’s announcement last week that she would be ending her talk show after 25 years next year rocked not only audiences but entertainment industry as a whole. As one of the biggest brands of our time, Winfrey’s incredible ability to zap through filters and make her audience and talk show guests feel as if they are best friends, is part of what’s created her unstoppable appeal over the years.

Starting in 2011, Oprah’s new media life will be running her “own” network in a joint venture with Discovery. The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) will debut next January to approximately 80 million homes on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel. The venture also will the Web site, Oprah.com.

“There is no bigger brand in media than Oprah Winfrey,” David Zaslav, Discovery Communications president and CEO, said in a statement. “She has changed the broadcast landscape and how people consume television…Discovery Communications has a tremendous partner in Oprah, and we look forward to bringing her and her creative vision, programming and unique voice to…OWN.”

Yeah, I bet they do. Discovery has grown over the years from a documentary-based network to the creator of original programming and now operates 10 cable networks in the U.S. TLC and the Discovery Channel are the most watched, with Discovery ranking as the 14th most-watched cable network this year and TLC ranking 18th. Over the years Discovery has attempted to ramp up its Health Network programming and branding to appeal to a wider audience but it’s mostly medical-based shows only capture so much audience attention.

Re-branding the network as OWN could revolutionize that part of Discovery’s business. We don’t yet know if Winfrey plans on having a talk show on the network, but a statement from Harpo Productions seems to indicate that will be the case.

And if Discovery is the big winner here, surely the losers are local affiliates that air Winfrey’s syndicated talk show (in Baltimore that’s NBC affiliate, WBAL). Winfrey’s 4 p.m. show leads right in to local newscasts at 5 p.m. The effect may not be as great as the Leno Effect during primetime, but stations must be concerned.

What do you think of Winfrey’s move? Who is the biggest winner?

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So how bad is Jay Leno’s new show? It’s so bad, a broadcast consultant told me he’s been calling local stations to try and assuage their fears about ratings. (In my story on television news, I wrote about the “Leno Effect” — his show’s poor ratings are hurting the 11 p.m. local television newscasts that follow.)

It’s so bad, the best draw his show could get last week was 5.8 million viewers last Tuesday. Last Monday’s show was the worst of the week, drawing just 4 million viewers. That’s fewer viewers than Fox’s Cops (5 million viewers last week), Cops2 (5.5 million) and CBS’s Crimetime Saturday (5.5 million) which is actually mostly RERUNS of the network’s crime-related shows.

I’m sensing a theme here…maybe Leno needs to add some crime skits to pique viewers’ interest. But that’s not why his show was in Baltimore recently — check out this skit done in Baltimore that aired on Leno’s show last week. (My favorite part is the shot of the lady in the soup shop with a tear streaming down her face.)

The gist of this vignette is Leno lackey Owen Benjamin goes around town to different businesses and creates a one- or two-verse jingle about their store.  The Leno Show has created similar videos for other major cities around the U.S. and it appears as if it’s another way to pander to the major markets where Leno might be able to boost his ratings.

But if you’re not watching the show already, would watching the Baltimore video make you tune in? Seems to me the only thing that could save his show at this point is some kind of wardrobe malfunction or a Jerry Springer-esque mishap to get audiences buzzing and tuning in for the next meltdown.

But then again, as Ari Gold (Jeremy Pivon’s character) said on HBO’s show Entourage – “Drama, this is NBC. They gave ‘Joey‘ 46 episodes.”

Yikes.

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On Sunday, NBA big man Shaquille O’Neal faced off with Baltimore’s Olympian Michael Phelps in a swim-off for ABC’s new reality show, “Shaq Vs.”

Phelps, an eight-time gold medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and Shaq, a perennial All Star with a playful personality, squared off before a crowd of about 600 at the Loyola College of Maryland.

“Shaq Vs.” debuted last Tuesday, but didn’t make much of a ratings splash among the big four networks; it barely edged out Fox’s “More to Love” (4 million viewers) with a total 4.3 million viewers. That’s less than half of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” (11.6 million) and CBS’s “Big Brother” (8.1 million).

Last week’s episode featured Shaq battling it out with Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger. I imagine they’re hoping for more of a ratings spike with Phelps, whose reputation (good or bad) is more widely known outside of the sports world.

ABC previously partnered with O’Neal on the 2007 summer reality series “Shaq’s Big Challenge,” in which he coached overweight kids on how to develop a healthier lifestyle. After disappointing ratings, however, the show didn’t return for a second season.

I’m not sure if the problem is Shaq or the crowded field of competitors. “America’s Got Talent” and “Big Brother” are some pretty stiff competition to go up against. I expect Phelps’ appearance in this week’s episode should give the show a ratings boost — if not, Shaq could have another dud on his hands.

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When 105.7-FM made the switch to full-time sports talk radio last November, some were skeptical that Baltimore could support five sports talk radio stations.

And us sports radio listeners are set in our ways — people-talking belongs on the AM dial; if I want music I switch over to FM.

But after the latest quarterly ratings, the folks at CBS Radio’s 105.7 couldn’t be happier. I imagine they’re resisting shouting “I told you so!” from the rooftops.

The station is now in 3rd place overall among its “bread and butter” demographic, men aged 25-54, going from a 3.9 to a 6.1 share since the winter. It has also placed 1st in that same demo in afternoons and 2nd with the 35-54 demographic with the Scott Garceau and Anita Marks show and 4th with the 25-54 demo in mornings with Ed Norris.

“We’re thrilled to say the least that it’s doing this well,” said Dave Labrozzi, the station’s vice president of programming. “For us to be where we are and as quickly as we are is amazing. All along we thought there was a big hole for this kind of opportunity.”

Labrozzi noted the switch to FM, as station execs had hoped back in November, exposed more listeners in their target demographic to the station.

“A lot of people who are younger, their habits never included AM so they [are now] exposed to something I think they had forgotten about,” he said.

Labrozzi was mum on whether there would be any station announcements/adjustments in the future. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

But you can always replicate it — CBS last week launched an FM sports talker in Washington through its affiliate WJFK. The station is now also branded 106.7 The Fan. If the D.C. station does well, how long before the others (Fox Sports Radio, Sporting News Radio, etc.) jump on the FM bandwagon?

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OK, aside from the insanity of this past weekend at Camden Yards with Matt Wieters’ debut that drew more than 109,000 people over three days, attendance at the ballpark has been worrisome at best this year.

Oriole Park’s average attendance of 22,431 is down 18.5 percent through 29 games (even with the Wieters boost this weekend),  and Nationals Park in D.C. is down an abysmal 27.3 percent, pulling in about 21,000 fans a game.

But according to the latest MLB television ratings, the Nationals’ viewing is up 56 percent to average a 0.53 rating on MASN. It’s still the worst rating in the league, but that’s what optimistic marketers would call a silver lining. And the Orioles, who are notching a 3.1 rating so far this season, are up 13 percent on MASN.

League-wide, Fox’ and TBS’ ratings are holding at about 2.1 and 0.5 of their respective viewing segments through the first two months of the season. ESPN’s baseball viewing is down slightly to a 1.1 rating from 1.3 for the corresponding period last year.

Looking at the household viewing, the Orioles picked up about 4,000, increasing by 13 percent this year to average 34,000. The Nats also picked up about 4,000 households this year to average 12,000.

The difference in households watching games at home almost makes up for the difference in attendance for both teams — do you think people are really just substituting watching at home for going to a game?

On the other hand, I don’t care how much of a sports nut you are, going to a ball game and watching it on TV are two completely different experiences, and I wouldn’t think one is really an equal substitution for the other. What else could be happening here?

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