During its premiere week in the National ratings (w/o 09/03/12), the newly-rechristened “LIVE! with Kelly and Michael” finished as TV’s No. 1 syndicated talk show in Households (2.8 rating), Total Viewers (3.6 million) and Women 25-54 (1.5 rating).

During its second week up against season premieres of nearly every other syndicated talker, newly-rechristened “LIVE! with Kelly and Michael” finished as the No. 1 talk show overall in Households (leading the premiere week of “Ellen” by 2 shares and tied in rating – 2.8/10 vs. 2.8/8). Its top-ranked position becomes even more impressive considering “LIVE! with Kelly and Michael” airs earlier in the day with lower overall HUT levels.

Debuting amidst one of the most competitive landscapes in years for syndicated talkers, “Katie” opened as the clear No. 1 freshman daytime talk show, winning all 5 days of its opening week in Homes. On average during the week, “Katie” held wide advantages over its freshman competitors in both Households (2.3/7) and Women 25-54 (1.2/7), including “Steve Harvey” (+64%/+33%), “Jeff Probst” (+188%/140%) and “Ricki Lake” (+229%/+200%).

Actor Gilles Marini has been promoted to series regular for the upcoming second season of “Switched at Birth,” the hit original drama on ABC Family. Gilles has a recurring role in the first season as Angelo Sorrento, Bay’s biological father and Regina’s ex, who comes back into their lives after finding out about the switch.

THE TALK Will Feature Appearances By Upcoming “Survivor: Philippines” Castaways, Medical Evacuees Michael Skupin, Jonathan Penner and Russell Swan, and Lisa Whelchel (Blair from “The Facts of Life”)

CBS announced today that it will broadcast the 39th Annual “People’s Choice Awards” Live on Sunday, January 9, 2012 from the Nokia Theater L.A. Live. Additionally, fans of TV, Music and Movies can begin voting on 15 potential new categories to be added to this years telecast. Voting is now open at www.PeoplesChoice.com/pca/categories.

Former “Days of our Lives” star Heather Lindell (ex-Jan Spears) and husband Josh Boyd welcomed their first child, Desmond George, who was born on Monday, August 27. Desmond George weighed in at 6 ½ lbs.

Beginning Monday, September 10 ABC’s “General Hospital” moves to a new time period (2:00 PM ET/1:00 PM PT/CT) and in celebration the network is hosting a weeklong twitter chat with cast members of the drama series.

ABC News’ “Good Morning America” won the week of August 27, 2012, ranking as the No. 1 morning newscast in both Total Viewers (5.386 million) and Adults 25-54 (1.969 million), according to Nielsen Media Research. “GMA” outperformed NBC’s “Today” (4.503 million and 1.817 million, respectively) by +883,000 Total Viewers and +152,000 Adults 25-54, scoring its largest margins over “Today” in more than 18 years in both measures – since w/o 5/16/94 and w/o 8/15/94, respectively. Additionally, Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo! is the dominant morning news website, leading NBC’s Today.com by millions of pageviews and unique users. In July 2012, 24 million people visited Goodmorningamerica.com on Yahoo!.

On Monday, August 13, Soap Opera Network first brought you the story of WKDH, an ABC affiliate that will cease operations effective Friday, August 31, 2012 at 11:59 PM CT after citing poor financial conditions in recent years as its reasoning. Now Soap Opera Network has learned that the ABC Television Network, which was left scrambling to replace the 11-year-old affiliate, has signed a long-term agreement with WTVA, an NBC affiliate that had actually provided WKDH with ABC programming through a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Southern Broadcasting, Inc. (WKDH’s parent company). The new deal, by utilizing WTVA digital channel 9.2, will enable ABC programming to remain in the Columbus/Tupelo/West Point television market and is effective Saturday, September 1, 2012 at 12:35 AM, Central Time.