Blockhead

Here's something to consider: If you were given the choice between taking $1.3 million or getting free tax preparation and financial planning for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

Ken Jennings gets both. As I reported in this morning's Kansas City Star, the 30-year-old "Jeopardy!" couldn't have picked a better answer to flub on his final "Final Jeopardy" question than one involving local tax preparation giant H&R Block. On hearing of his miss two months ago (when the show was actually taped), Block reps decided to make the extraordinary offer to Jennings, who on Tuesday accepted it.

"He's got a whole series of financial decisions that have to be made right now," the company's senior VP of operations, David Byers, told me. "He's stated that he wants to protect and grow that money and get on with his life. That's going to be a very complicated situation. ... People like him don't have advisers to prepare and plan for them. It's all new and all thrown at them at once."

Indecency, continued

Does the crusade to clean up our airwaves have legs? Much of the supposed groundswell of public outrage at our filthy airwaves is being led by the Parents Television Council. But the Virginia-based watchdog group was compelled in 2002 to pay $3.5 million and apologize to, of all people, Vince McMahon for making false claims about the effect of WWE telecasts on kids. The head of the PTC, Brent Bozell, wasn't reprimanded or fired for tarnishing his organization's name. So they bluster on but fewer listen to them than before.

But there may be another party willing to push the indecency crusade along: the networks themselves. The recent multi-million settlement that Viacom paid for various indecency complaints (including one that covered, preposterously enough, "CSI") should be a sign to everyone concerned about the First Amendment that Big Media is going to acquiesce to whatever demands the government makes. And why?

Well, the recent merger of two stations in Kansas City should be an indication. That deal, which I recently reported, is in violation of at least one media ownership law currently sitting, however tenuously, on the books. Technically, Meredith can lay its hands on the Sinclair-owned WB affiliate and buy all but the license, merge the two operations, put a bunch of people out of work and do it all knowing that the federal guideline that allows such activity (a fiscal arrangement known as the JSA that even I hadn't heard of until this deal was announced) is under review and could easily be thrown out. So why do it? Because Sinclair has learned from past experience that you can plant the flag in ground of questionable ownership and claim squatter's rights and feel fairly certain that "at the end of the day," whenever that is, you'll own that piece of property. Sinclair is just instructing Meredith in the way of the world.

And if paying fines will keep the feds happy, Big Media will pay fines. And censor itself more stringently. And do whatever else it takes to ensure that the dealmaking continues unimpeded. Sounds cynical, but it makes as much sense as any scenario out there.

Welcome back, Dave

Dave Thomas is back in the Wendy's ads! As welcome a sight as a bowl of chili on a nippy night was the face of the man who for many of us personified the we're-not-really-a-chain corporate identity of Wendy's. In the new spots, he shows up in a collage of 8-by-10 glossy PR shots taken from when he was company ambassador, visiting restaurants, serving customers, chatting with employees. "Wendy's founder Dave Thomas knew that you liked a surprise now and then." And then, following the product shot of the new item, another reminder of Dave and a logo commemorating 35 years since the chain's founding in Columbus, Ohio.

A few years from now they're going to be putting a sepia tone on those photos and applying a film grain effect to the video. But if Wendy's is smart, they'll keep Dave well preserved.

Around TV Barn

Tonight: The wives stay home as "Wife Swap" conducts its first husband swap. (The commune guy has already dropped me an email. He's not happy!) Also, a dreadful little fashion reality show from Bravo.

And it's the last night for Sweepsploitation! After that, as Tom Heald points out, it's back to plain old Newsploitation.