The New York Times is tired of Oprah, the Weekly Reader becomes a TV Franchise® and other programming notes

The New York Times offers one of those classic we're-saying-this-though-the-statistics-don't-really-bear-it-out-all-that-convincingly stories on the decline of Oprah Winfrey.

Viewership for her syndicated afternoon show is down 7% (the broadcast networks would kill for attrition that teeny in primetime), but on the other hand, she had huge ratings when she interviewed that pregnant guy and it's still the No. 1 talk show. Her magazine's circulation is down from 2004, though it had a bit of an uptick in the past year. Her most recent book-club selection sold faster than any other, but was criticized for its New-Agey b.s. Her primetime reality show "Oprah's Big Give" started strong but petered out (probably precisely because she wasn't on it much, though the Times doesn't explore that option). Her media empire is expanding, but "The Rachel Ray Teeth-Scraping-on-Concrete Hour," which she produces, is sliding in the ratings (wouldn't that be more on Rachel Ray than Oprah?). And so on.

The Times attributes this sort of blip in her popularity to a) her endorsement of Barack Obama for President, which upset all the middle-age white ladies who watch her show who apparently think one powerful black person in America is enough, and b) her sheer ubiquity (up next: Oprah's own cable network, OWN, which will truck in empowering programming (empowering for who?).

Yeah, well; we should all have Oprah's problems. In a media world that rabidly chases the hot new thing, she's been around, like, forever, and shows no signs of going anywhere anytime soon. Wonder what Oprah did to get on the writer's bad side. But I look forward to the Times' "Drinking Water: Is It Passé?" expose.

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Media Bistro got all wound up when it was announced this morning that Katie Couric would be appearing on the "Today" show on Wednesday. Calm down, guys; it's not what you think (hope?). She'll be appearing with Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson to announce a joint network effort, "Stand Up to Cancer," that'll air Sept. 5 simultaneously on all three networks and feature singers and stars raising money for cancer research.

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NBC's stated that its 2008-09 is written in pencil, and today, it got out a big pink eraser: Those "SNL" political specials set to run on Thursdays in October have gone the way of wit in general on "SNL." Instead, "Kath & Kim," the sitcom starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair based on the Australian comedy, will take over, moving from its originally scheduled post-"Biggest Loser" timeslot.

Which makes sense, since "Biggest Loser" and "Kath & Kim" (whose characters are big losers of another sort) were hardly complementary shows - "Biggest Loser" is ostensibly uplifting, while "Kath & Kim" (the Australian version, at least) is acerbic and dysfunctional, which should make it compatible with its new lead-in, "The Office." But what will this do to that "Office" spin-off, which was already promised that timeslot? (On Tuesdays, "Biggest Loser" will simply loosen its belt and expand from 90 minutes to a flabbier two hours.)

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Remember Weekly Reader? You know, that little newspaper you got in elementary school that reported on playground equipment shaped like whales and stuff? No? Well, let's try this tack: Remember elementary school?

Anyway, according to a press release issued today, Weekly Reader is a Franchise®, and a Franchise® looking to expand its empire, at that (look out, Oprah! You've got competition!).

And how do they plan to do that? By spreading out into TV and DVD productions, of course. Which wouldn't really seem to encourage reading all that much, but Weekly Watcher doesn't quite trip off the tongue so agreeably.