Shares of CBS (NYSE: CBS) are no longer rolling around in the pits of equity hell. Do you recall when they were trading around $3 per share? Nasty time it was. Amazingly, as I write this, CBS is hovering near a 52-week high. They are well over $12 in value.

Yet, when I look at the latest earnings report, I don't feel as upbeat as the market. According to the press release (the link goes to a .pdf file), revenues were flat for the third quarter and adjusted income dropped to 25 cents per share from the year-ago figure of 39 cents per share.

CBS (NYSE: CBS), the famous broadcaster that competes with Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) Fox, and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC, reported Q2 earnings on Thursday after the bell. If you judged the performance solely by the profit drop, you would have no choice but to feel sorry for CBS. The media company made an adjusted 8 cents per share. Last year at this time, CBS pulled in an adjusted 49 cents per share.

But the market looked past the significant income decline and instead seemed to focus on the fact that management beat Wall Street's expectations by a penny, according to Earnings.com estimates. Shares of CBS were up over 7% during yesterday's after-hours session.

Love him or hate him (I'm ... ahem ... in the first camp), you have to admit his career's been impressive. Ryan Seacrest has parlayed his American Idol hosting gig into a lucrative $45 million, three-year deal. CKX, parent of Idol producer 19 Entertainment, is making Seacrest the richest-ever reality host. Recession, out!

This could be taken as a sign that the juggernaut known as American Idol is far from slowing down. The "talent" showcase, which airs for dozens and dozens of hours each spring on News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) FOX, has seen ratings slip slightly during its eight seasons but remains the top-rated show on television, by a long shot. Committing to Seacrest for an additional three years means we'll have at least three more dramatic seasons, three more top twelves, and hopefully at least three more contestants with the talent of Adam Lambert, Jennifer Hudson, or Kelly Clarkson.

Julia Boorstin covered an interesting topic over at CNBC.com the other day. The Supreme Court, by electing not to review a case involving Cablevision (NYSE: CVC), essentially said that cable companies such as Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) can pursue digital video recorder (DVR) storage on cable-system servers. By doing this, a perceived barrier to entry for subscribing to DVR has been eliminated: you don't have to deal with a clunky box. Cable should theoretically see an increase in customers who adopt DVR technology if remote storage is exploited.

Well, as Boorstin rightly points out, CBS (NYSE: CBS), Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC, and News Corp.'s (NASDAQ: NWS) Fox do need to worry. These DVR technologies basically translate to a drop in the economic value of advertising. Let's face it: who watches commercials when they don't have to?

4Kids Entertainment (NYSE: KDE), a producer of children's content that engages distribution and licensing opportunities, has not been a great stock idea. Although shares of the company have perked up as of late, the longer-term trend hasn't been so encouraging. Let's see if the first-quarter numbers might change your mind.

Well, I don't know about your mind, but my mind so far hasn't been changed. Revenues declined by 32%. There was a net loss of 15 cents per diluted share. Now, granted, that was far better than the net loss last year, which calculated out to 48 cents per diluted share. I give the company credit for narrowing the loss, but something tells me that I don't necessarily want to invest hard-earned money in a business that is based on the fickle nature of a very young target audience.

CBS (NYSE: CBS) programmed its Q1 earnings report Thursday after the bell. If the report had been a pilot, it would have been canceled immediately.

Revenues slipped over 13% to around $3.2 billion. CBS said it lost 8 cents per share. Talk about a failure of a quarter. Last year at this time, CBS made 36 cents per share. True, the comparison was a difficult one, since a change in distribution strategy for the international placement of the CSI asset enhanced the previous year's results.

But let's not get hung up on difficult comparisons. CBS simply had a bad three months. A very bad three months indeed. Oh, and I should note that analysts thought CBS might earn 7 cents per share. That seems almost comical at this juncture.

News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS), a media concern that competes with companies such as Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Disney (NYSE: DIS), CBS (NYSE: CBS), and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC Universal, issued its Q3 report on Wednesday after the bell. The numbers weren't that great, but you know what? The stock rallied anyhow in the after-hours session, rising over 3%. That's typical of what's been happening: Stocks are going higher even on weak news. Maybe the bears truly are heading back to hibernation.

News Corp. revenues declined by 16%. In terms of earnings, we'll look at operating income since, in this particular case, the numbers involve a lot of gains. This metric dropped 46%. And cash flow from operations for the nine-month period plunged well over 50%.

CBS (NYSE: CBS) reported Q4 earnings after the bell on Wednesday. Revenues declined 8%, and earnings per share from continuing operations on an adjusted basis dropped 39% to $0.34. Let me tell you, the bottom line really beat the analysts. Expectations were set at $0.25 per share. That's a $0.09 beat. Pretty awesome, right?

Well, not to my way of thinking. You see, CBS has read the writing on the wall about its dividend. Due to current economic circumstances, the quarterly payout was reduced to $0.05 per share. Previously, CBS was doling out $0.27 per share.

Fans of Joss Whedon's critically acclaimed and cult-followed shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, were amped about the creator/writer/director's latest project, Dollhouse. Unfortunately? Few of them tuned in.

The Eliza-Dushku mid-season effort, a sci-fi series about special agents who can be cloned with traits and personalities, saw just 4.7 million viewers tune in, nabbing a 6 share and a 2.0 rating among adults 18-49. In fact, Dollhouse was the second lowest-rated series premiere this season (on a major network). Guys? It was beaten by Supernanny, which aired on Walt Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC and attracted 6.1 million viewers.

How can two of the most popular TV shows hurt investors? Easily.

"American Idol's" season 8 debut this week attracted more than 30 million viewers, making it the most watched TV show of the season, according to Nielsen Media Research. But as the Associated Press notes, that's not good news for Fox corporate parent News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) because it represents a viewership decline of 10 percent from the 2008 season.

Blame the Hollywood writers' strike and changing media habits. Couch potatoes across the U.S. got tired of watching rerun after rerun and decided to do other things such as play video games, watch movies and, heaven help us, read books. People got out of the television viewing habit that it took decades to develop. Getting people to come back to network TV is proving to be difficult.

It will be interesting to see if the audience returns to ABC's "Lost" when its newest season begins airing next week. The program's ratings began to decline last season as the plot lines got goofier. You can bet that the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) has more than a passing interest in whether Jack convinces the other survivors to return to the island.

When I tune into "American Idol" tonight, I will expect more of the same.

There will be the usual varieties of contestants annoyingly naive (David Archuletta), wannabe rockers (Bo Bice), pretty but talentless (Antonella Barbra), the vacuous (Kellie Pickler), weirdos (Sanjaya Malakar) and the wastes of space (Kevin Covais).

Viewers will hear Simon Cowell be biting, Paula Abdul be spacy and Randy Jackson be cool. The wildcard is new judge Kara DioGuardi who recently told Rolling Stone that the male contestants were the strongest. How seriously, though, can you take someone whose company was responsible for such odious tunes as Nick Lachay's "Best of Me?"

But will the viewers come? Of course the show is still the No. 1 program on TV, but there are signs that the program is fading. Viewership fell during the last season though 32 million people tuned into the anti-climatic season finale that featured an unfunny cameo by Mike Myers as "The Love Guru."

It's just weeks away -- a potentially big change for the television show that transfixes America. But how many people would watch it if the show's superstar decided to take a hike? That's not just a troubling question for viewers of the show but for investors in the stock of the company that licenses it around the world. What show am I talking about? American Idol. Which star is thinking of leaving? Wait for it -- Simon Cowell. And what stock could take a beating if he leaves? CKX Inc (NASDAQ: CKXE).

Simon Cowell is thinking of leaving American Idol. According to MSNBC, Simon said "I'll make a decision about (whether to stay with the show) next year." Why would Simon leave? He claims it's not personality conflicts but the workload and his belief that the show could keep those demands going "for another 10 years." But if Simon leaves, would the show be as popular? Could the producers find someone else to be the harsh voice of reality?

That's an important question for investors in CKX. Way back in June 2007, CKX accepted a bid to go private in a $1.3 billion LBO led by its founder Robert Sillerman. But on November 4. 2008, that deal fell apart due to tightening credit conditions. This put Sillerman's 19X, which was leading the buyout, on the hook for a $37.5 million termination fee, which it said it would pay for with about 3.3 million shares of CKX common stock then valued at $11.08 per share and $500,000 in cash. The company said it will pay the fee in full within 30 days of the deal's termination date.

CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS) lost money in the third quarter (to see the data, you can click here to link to a pdf file). The loss was huge. Would you believe the red ink was equal to $18.58 per share from continuing operations? If you're a shareholder, you're probably shuddering at this point. But hold on, we're talking loss from a GAAP point of view. On an adjusted basis, excluding various charges (including the effect of the CNET purchase), CBS took in $0.43 per diluted share from continuing operations. According to my earnings preview, analysts were looking for a number around $0.40 per share. That's more like it. Yet, there's another angle to the CBS story that won't be so reassuring. And that angle has to do with cash flow.

You see, CBS really promotes its dividend. For a dividend to be considered safe and strong, it needs to be backed by free cash flow. Well, during the third quarter, CBS produced no free cash. It used $38 million for its corporate activities. Before anyone panics, management was quick to point out that, for the nine-month period, free cash flow was a positive $1.4 billion. CBS paid out about $524 million in dividends. So, that should allow for some comfort. Still, for a company that likes to base itself on returning value to shareholders, that does give me pause. Yes, it's only one quarter, but we are stuck in an awful economy right now, and the advertising outlook seems pretty challenged going forward. The Wal Disney Corporation's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) NBC, and News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox are all in the same boat. Management does explicitly state in the earnings release that it's going to keep a strong eye on costs. I hope so. I also hope it'll keep a strong eye on the ratings of its television shows and continue to look for programming that can keep the cash coming. CBS has done well during the opening weeks of the new season.

Can CBS' content win the day and justify the stock's current yield? That's the big question. Since CBS' stock sports a yield of over 11%, the market is basically saying that bad things are to come. But, if management can sustain the dividend, then the yield can be considered a huge asset at this point. I'd be willing to give CBS the benefit of the doubt over the long term, but if you're thinking of trading the stock, I'd have a firm exit strategy in mind and use a tight stop. Wall Street has been in a very fickle mood lately, so anything can happen to stock prices at any moment. Executive chairman Sumner Redstone is very confident in the company. I'm not sure how big an endorsement that is, but it's something, at least, right?

Disclosure: I own Disney and GE; positions can change at any time.

CBS (NYSE: CBS), which competes with Disney's (NYSE: DIS) ABC, News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) Fox, and General Electric's (NYSE: GE) NBC, is scheduled to report earnings for the third quarter on Thursday. This is going to be an important one for the broadcaster. Why, you ask? Well, have you checked out the company's stock lately? It's priced in single digits! As of Tuesday's close, CBS was pegged at $8.83 per share. It actually rose over 13% on that day (along with the rest of the euphoric market), so who knows, maybe it'll crack the $10 level at some point.

According to Earnings.com, Wall Street expects $0.40 per share. That's an $0.08 drop compared to the previous year's quarter. Or, we can express it as a 16.7% decrease. What investors will be looking at very carefully is the quality of the cash flow. At this point, CBS is all about the dividend. I alluded to this back in August when I talked about the broadcaster's second-quarter report. If the cash is still coming, then things might be okay. Because at a yield of over 12%, a potential investor has to be careful when considering CBS' shares.

Of all the market changes and losses that Wall Street has witnessed during the United States' decade of errors and descent, perhaps no loss has been as costly for investors, or as lamented, than the passing of Louis Rukeyser.

For those younger investors/readers who may not have heard of him, Rukeyser, who passed away two years ago, was the host of the Public Broadcasting System's "Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser."

At its core, the show, which ran with Rukeyser as host from 1970 to 2005 and was broadcast on Friday nights after the market closed, was the first weekly television series to summarize the week's often-dizzying financial and economic news in plain-spoken terms that the typical investor could understand. Simply, Louis Rukeyser defined broadcast financial news coverage and analysis, and was the face of Wall Street for a generation.

And the key to the show's success and usefulness, along with a no-nonsense format, was Rukeyser. A journalist by training, Rukeyser combined expert-level knowledge of the stock market and economics with the temperament and values of a family doctor, to create a calming, trustworthy source that viewers tuned in to religiously. The show became one of the most popular programs on PBS, at one point airing on more than 300 stations and attracting over 4.1 million viewing households.