Hockey Mom Scores (Even More) for 'SNL'

"Creative direction" is another way of saying "ratings."

Additionally, the show is "grappling with hefty budget overruns" this season, according to news reports.

"Grappling with hefty budget overruns" is another way of saying "lousy ratings."

NBC Universal 2.0 pointedly did not name Kring a Designated Virgin, though it's assumed Loeb and Alexander were taking "Heroes" in the direction they were, however misguided, with his blessing.

Kring did not get tagged DV, we were assured by industry navel-gazers, because "Tim Kring is bulletproof . . . they have a big investment in him."

About 25 stunned comments in to his blog posting, Alexander added:

"Thanks for all the great comments! HEROES has been a blast. The rest of the season is super cool. We've written 18 amazing scripts. And the stories for the last 7 are intense."

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During the finale weekend before the presidential election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama ran 77 percent more TV ads than his Republican rival, John McCain, in the key swing states of Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The actual tally was 5,947 ads from the Obama camp vs. 3,358 ads from the McCain camp, Nielsen Media Research said yesterday.

Not surprisingly, both candidates have advertised most heavily in Florida, where Obama ran a whopping 24,834 ads in little more than one month, Oct. 6 to Nov. 2. That's compared with 8,599 ads run by McCain in the state during the same period.

Nielsen's data include both national ads and local ads, as well as syndicated advertising, but local cable ads are excluded.

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