Cnbc

CHICAGO -- Suze Orman, it seems, was everywhere in November. In addition to her usual outlets -- The Suze Orman Show on CNBC each weekend, her occasional appearances on QVC, her pledge-drive specials for PBS -- an estimated 180 million people saw the financial guru pitching General Motors' "Lock 'n Roll" financing plan in an ad campaign that ran for 20 days in November and December, according to GM. Besides being inescapable, the ads, for which Orman...

E*Trade Financial Shares rose 54 cents, or 11 percent, to $5.54 after Chief Executive Officer Mitchell Caplan said in an interview on CNBC that "we can categorically rule out bankruptcy," adding that there would be no layoffs.

ALMOST every investor knows what Peter Lynch looks like.But soon the fabled Magellan Fund manager, with the glasses, silvery hair and hands of gold, will be a faded image in a sea of financial talking heads.Brokerage firms, money management companies and mutual fund operations are bending over backward to get their "gurus" on financial television shows like CNBC's "Squawk Box" and CNN's "Moneyline."Investors' appetite for information about the market has exploded, and the firms have figured out that a little glitz and personality can go a long way. One of the cheapest and easiest ways to reach the investing masses is by putting a smart, well-scrubbed talking head on the tube.

CNBC, General Electric Co.'s cable news service, said yesterday that it had agreed to acquire the troubled Financial News Network for $105 million in cash.The surprise bid, which CNBC made privately Friday and was approved by the two companies late Monday, is reported to be $15 million higher than a joint offer made two weeks ago by Dow Jones & Co. and Westinghouse Broadcasting.Dow Jones and Westinghouse, which now could raise their offer, angrily told the FNN board that they were "disturbed that FNN had broken off our good negotiations."

Daisy Fuentes promises her new talk show for CNBC won't wade into the tabloid waters so favored by traditional talk fare."You will not see transsexuals who have gotten a sex change to become women and are now lesbians," Ms. Fuentes said the other day.Not only doesn't she want to make her viewers uncomfortable, she doesn't intend to make her guests feel that way, either. She just wants to find out "what makes them tick." And controversy isn't likely to be part of the mix."I don't enjoy controversy," she said.

Geraldo Rivera is coming to prime time, and he's got his sights set on Larry King's viewers.Cable channel CNBC yesterday announced it will launch a new weeknight talk show Feb. 7 called "Rivera Live." The program, which will go head-to- head with King six nights a week at 9, will feature Rivera reporting, interviewing and taking phone calls from around the country."If I had to describe it, probably the most simple way would be to say it's 'Larry King' meets 'Crossfire,' with a little 'Nightline' thrown in," Rivera told TV critics in Los Angeles.

ON AND OFF THE AIR:* Regular viewers know that the network weekday morning shows are among the most important promotional vehicles for new movies. It's pretty outrageous, in fact. Toward the end of every week, the stars or big-name directors of that weekend's film releases are all over the place on NBC's "Today," ABC's "Good Morning America" and "CBS This Morning."However, occasionally things backfire.Today's scheduled guest on "GMA," for example, was actor Bruce Willis, whose big, expensive new movie "Hudson Hawk" is opening this weekend.

For some folks, the real Super Bowl wasn't played last Sunday; it's next week. Those folks would be those of us who own or love or share living quarters with four-footed athletes who don't necessarily throw passes or score touchdowns. These athletes just strut their bone structure and gorgeous faces down the green carpet at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Though some people might laugh at Westminster devotees, the winners here are remembered for generations and become the stuff of legend.

Baltimore's Molly Shattuck says she "despises" the title of the Fox reality series in which she is featured tonight - Secret Millionaire - but "loves" the show. Shattuck, wife of Constellation Energy CEO Mayo Shattuck, goes "undercover" for a week as a worker in a hair salon and a waitress in a restaurant in an eastern Pennsylvania mining town hit hard by the tough economic times. Read my interview with her about her experiences on Secret Millionaire at my Z on TV blog. (10 p.m., WBFF-Channel 45)

Everyone who follows TV knows well the "what" of Dennis Miller, as in what he's done over the past decade or so - and it's quite the laundry list: Saturday Night Live; a syndicated talk show; an Emmy Award-winning program for HBO; Monday Night Football commentator; Fox News Channel essayist; bit acting parts here and there (including a current cameo on Fox's fast-fading Boston Public). And, starting in January, a four-night-a-week talk-show gig on CNBC, which will probably air at 9 p.m. What everyone does not know particularly well is the "who" of Miller.