One million people will get the chance to watch the second-season premiere of  Disney-ABC Domestic Television’s Legend of the Seeker before its November 7 air date:

Starting Friday, moviegoers will be presented with one of three collectible 3D “Seeker” cards when they purchase a ticket at one of 1,300 participating movie theaters nationwide through Nov. 6.

The 1 million people who receive the card will be given the opportunity to watch “Seeker’s” second-season premiere episode on the iTunes Store before its Nov. 7 debut. Each card contains a code to be redeemed on iTunes, giving fans an exclusive free download of the episode.

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First Oprah pushed Dr. Phil out of the way for Dr. Oz, now Houston’s KPRC is. In  a battle of the Oprah-made doctors, KPRC in Houston has bumped Dr. Phil off the schedule in favor of newcomer Dr. Oz in the 3pm timeslot citing concerns over sliding ratings, and issues with the content on Dr. Phil.

via Broadcasting & Cable:

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We’ve written before about the many reporters contacting us to try and find ratings backup for an “Oprah ratings are down because she endorsed Obama” story. When we can’t provide it, they typically go ahead and write it anyway!

Will Oprah’s season premiere ratings quiet these requests? Maybe. For a week.

The talk queen herself, Oprah, opened her new season with a 39 % leap to a 6.1, its highest rating in a year and a half for the week ending Sept. 20.

via Broadcasting & Cable.

Sony’s Dr. Oz fell a bit in its third day in syndication, down a tenth from the previous two days to a 1.6 rating/5 share, according to Nielsen Media Research’s overnight weighted metered market household ratings. Still, the show remains up 23% compared to both year-ago time periods and lead-ins.

via  Broadcasting & Cable.

Based on the overnight results from Nielsen Media Research, new talker Dr. Oz matched its Monday opener, with a 1.7 household rating. That beat both the lead-in and year-ago time period averages (1.4) by a noticeable 21 percent.

via MediaWeek.

via Broadcasting & Cable:

Top-rated syndicated shows came out strong from this year’s syndication upfront, with costs-per-thousand (CPMs) for syndication’s top tier—such as Oprah,Entertainment Tonight, Two and a Half Men and Family Guy—dropping just 2%-4% compared to last year. Lower-tier shows were down 5%-12%, according to syndication and agency sources. Syndication’s blended CPMs were down 4%-5%.

“This was a flight to quality like I’ve never seen before,” says one syndication executive. “People probably had a really difficult time once they got past their top-tier shows.”

Much like the broadcast and cable networks, syndication’s sales volume was down 10%-20% overall. In 2008, syndication reaped $2.4 billion in upfront sales, a 4.5% increase from 2007. Accordingly, this year’s upfront take should approach $2 billion.

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As part of their “Off to College With Syndication” sales pitch the Syndicated Network Television Association has lots of numbers to show off.

One interesting slide in the report shows the relatively high ratings among adults 18-24 (not a typical age range we report, but this pitch was tailored towards reaching college students) that syndicated programming gets in the summer vs. an assortment of cable and network competition. Some of the numbers are likely surprising to many folks.

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Here are some highlights from the summer report by the Syndicated Network Television Association.

The presentation shows that syndication is leading the summer in ratings:

• Dominates the Top 10 with more shows than Network and Cable.
• Tops in telecasts, averaging 17 of the Top 25 airings and 33 of the Top 50 for A18-49.
• Higher ratings than the Network and Cable prime average (13 shows for Moms and Adults 18-49).
• Higher ratings for young adults (18 shows for A18-34, 27 for A18-24).
• Consistent summer ratings (syndication averaged 71 weekly telecasts with higher A18-49 ratings than the Network prime average in June 2009).

You can see the entire report here.