After a series of duds, Universal's Marc Shmuger and David Linde, who have the titles of chairman and co-chairman respectively, are rejoicing over the box-office success of Knocked Up, which, despite tough competition, brought in more than $30 million in ticket sales over the weekend. "We were all very eager to get back in the game in a big way," Shmuger told today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times. "It feels good." The newspaper observed that since the two took over the reins at the studio a year ago from Stacey Snyder they have been compelled to make some complicated decisions, including shelving a movie based on the videogame Halo; pouring $175 million into Evan Almighty as it went over budget (and persuading the profit participants to change their deals); and doling out at least $125 million to complete production of the latest Jason Bourne sequel, The Bourne Ultimatum, as it, too, went over budget. Meanwhile, it was announced Tuesday that NBC Universal has signed Universal Studios President and COO Ron Meyer to a new five-year contract.

Starz pay-TV channels plan to launch three new high-definition movie outlets beginning in September via corporate sibling DirecTV, the companies announced on Tuesday. The three channels -- Starz Comedy HD, Starz Edge HD, and Starz Kids & Family HD -- will join the existing Starz HD channel. Among the movies set to air on the channels are Disney's Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Sony's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. In a statement, Starz sales and marketing chief Ed Huguez said, "Lack of programming has for years hampered the growth of high-definition television. DirecTV's leadership role and recently announced breakthrough offering -- including the new HD channels from Starz -- is a landmark development that will open the HD era." Starz and DirecTV are subsidiaries of John Malone's Liberty Media Corp. There was no indication whether Starz was negotiating with cable companies to carry the HD channels.

Recalling the days of vaudeville when live acts were paired with movies, three actors who are also musicians are set to perform with their bands in cities where they filmed feature pictures. The outdoor concerts featuring Dennis Quaid, Kevin Bacon and Bruce Willis will be accompanied by the movies. Quaid is due to kick off the series on June 21 in New Orleans, where he filmed 1987's The Big Easy. Bacon has agreed to perform with brother Michael on July 15 in Baltimore, where he filmed the 1982 film Diner. And Willis will perform at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, FL, where he filmed scenes for his 1998 film Armageddon. The free concerts are being sponsored by Netflix, the online movie rental company.

For the first time, the Walt Disney Co. is bringing the theatrical version of its hit movie The Lion King "home." Tuesday night's opening in South Africa, in a new theater designed with the musical in mind, was attended by Disney CEO Robert Iger, Oprah Winfrey (with students of her South African Girls' Academy) and various South African dignitaries. In a statement, the company said, "The cast of the new production is entirely made up of South African performers, many of whom have been in other productions of The Lion King around the world and are now coming home to perform in their native country. To date, The Lion King has employed almost 100 South Africans in its productions worldwide." Iger said, "It is particularly gratifying to bring The Lion King to South Africa -- the place that served as its inspiration."

Indian health officials have begun handing out free condoms outside 800 theaters showing pornographic movies, Reuters reported Tuesday. "The migrant population will not stop watching pornographic movies or visiting sex workers," H.K. Anant, a health official in Ahmedabad, told the wire service. "All we want them to do is to stop unsafe sex." India reportedly has the highest number of HIV-positive cases.

During the week that it lost one entertainment chief and gained another, NBC's ratings plunged to their lowest level since the current ratings system was inaugurated. "It's likely you'd have to go back to the days of black-and-white sets to find a smaller number," commented AP television writer David Bauder. Fox's House, previously outshone by its usual lead-in, American Idol, got a chance to sparkle on its own last week as the season finale put it at the top of the Nielsen list with 17.23 million viewers, well ahead of its closest competitor, CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, which drew 12.09 million viewers. Nevertheless, CBS's programs in general captured the largest share of the viewing audience as it wound up the week with an average 5.2 rating and a 9 share. Fox followed with a 4.1/7. ABC placed third with a 3.6/6, while NBC trailed with a 3.3/6.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. House, Fox, 10.1/16; 2. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 8.0/13; 3. CSI: NY, CBS, 7.1/12; 4. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 6.8/11; 5. Boston Legal, ABC, 6.7/11; 5. NCIS, CBS, 6.7/11; 7. So You Think Can Dance (Thursday), Fox, 6.5/11; 8. Shark, CBS, 6.4/12; 9. CSI: Miami, CBS, 6.3/10; 10. Cold Case, CBS, 6.2/11.

Meanwhile, members of the audience for the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric continued to desert, dwindling to a new record low of 5,495,000 average total viewers, down 464,000 from a week earlier, the previous record low. ABC's World News With Charles Gibson continued to reign as the most-watched evening newscast, drawing 7,860,000 viewers versus 7,3860,000 for NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams. (The numbers represented an improvement for the NBC newscast from a week earlier.) Among adults 25-54, CBS and ABC wound up in a virtual dead heat.

Billionaire supermarket mogul Ron Burkle, who lost out to Sam Zell in the competition to buy the Tribune Corporation, may now vie against Rupert Murdoch to buy Dow Jones, the company that publishes the Wall Street Journal, according to published reports. Burkle, through his investment firm Yucaipa Companies, is said to be considering an alliance with the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, which represents 2,000 Dow Jones employees, and may join up with other billionaires -- the names of Eli Broad, Warren Buffett, and David Geffen are mentioned in the reports -- to counter Murdoch's $5-billion bid for the company. According to Editor and Publisher, Burkle has hired former Los Angeles Times publisher Jeff Johnson to advise him on media investments. Word of the new competition sent Dow Jones shares soaring to $61.62 Tuesday -- higher than the $60 that Murdoch has offered.

By encouraging its news anchors to present their take on the news of the day, CNN is continuing "to ape many of the on-air mannerisms of the Fox News Network," which includes "commentary, personal analysis," former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw has told a Chicago television station. In an interview broadcast on WTTW and excerpted in Tuesday's Chicago Sun-Times, Shaw said, "I'm very, very disappointed with the way the news management at my favorite network has gone." On his radio talk show Tuesday, Rush Limbaugh came to the defense of Fox News, "You libs are going to have to get over it and understand that you are wrong about this," he remarked, maintaining that during the daytime, Fox does not present opinion. He then noted that Shaw had failed even to get the name of the Fox cable network right. "It's the Fox News Channel, by the way, Bernard," he said.

Fox News Channel on Tuesday apologized to Michigan Congressman John Conyers for showing his picture during a report about the indictment of Congressman William Jefferson on bribery charges. Conyers, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, rejected the apology, saying, "Fox News has a history of inappropriate on-air mistakes that are neither fair nor balanced."

Lifetime Television channel's Army Wives got off to a rousing start Sunday by drawing 3.5 million viewers -- as many as some broadcast network shows and the most for any series premiere in Lifetime's 23-year history. The episode was also accessed online, with LifetimeTV.com reporting a 94-percent rise in viewership. It was the first time any entire Lifetime episode had been streamed online. In a statement, Lifetime Entertainment President Susanne Daniels said, "It's rare to hit the television trifecta, combining outstanding production values, rave reviews from national press and a viewer response that sends the ratings through the roof."

In a move that was seen by some analysts as part of a general effort by Mexican courts to lift laws that protect monopolies, the country's Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned key media regulations that have made it difficult, if not impossible, for any TV company to compete against the two entrenched national networks, Televisa and TV Azteca. The regulations, passed last year, were regarded as part of an effort by the TV companies to prevent U.S. competitors like Telemundo and Univision from gaining a foothold in Mexico, where Televisa and TV Azteca control more than 90 percent of the broadcasting market. Reporting on the Supreme Court decision, the New York Times observed, "Over the last couple of months, legislators and others who voted for the law seemed to perform a collective mea culpa, acknowledging that they had voted for passage because they feared negative television coverage during an election campaign."

The Virginia-based al-Hurra satellite television network that is financed by Congress and beams to the Arab world may be subject to an independent review following reports that it has routinely aired broadcasts that include denunciations of Israel or Jews. The station, which reportedly receives $62 million in funding annually (plus an additional $40 million for a station that targets Iraq), was reportedly set up as an alternative to the principal Arab news channel al-Jazeera, which has frequently been attacked by U.S. politicians as sympathetic to Arab militants. But the Associated Press reported Tuesday that al-Hurra has aired programs that have included a lengthy speech by Hezbolla leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Palestinian prime minister -- and Hamas leader -- Ismail Haniya -- and referred to the founding of Israel in 1948 as "the catastrophe."