But MLB's League Championship Series seem poised for solid box office. TBS' first two Yankees-Rangers ALCS games averaged 4.3% of U.S. households — up 16% from comparable coverage of its Dodgers-Phillies NLCS last year. (Fox's Giants-Phillies NLCS Game 1 rating wasn't available Sunday.) Having teams from big TV markets — New York is the USA's No. 1, followed by Philadelphia (4), Dallas (5) and San Francisco (6) — should help both networks. If Fox gets the Phillies and the brand-name Yanks in its World Series, teams' home markets would include more than 8% of the U.S.

But, suggests TBS' Dennis Eckersley, that possibility could be in peril: "The Yankees are scared right now."

But TBS' David Wells, who'll be returning to Yankee Stadium Monday as TBS takes its studio show to game sites, suggests the Yanks shouldn't be too worried about facing Rangers star pitcher Cliff Lee today (8 p.m. ET): "I promise you, he won't lose it but he's not going to win it." OK.

Squabbling: Manufacturers and retailers often squabble over how much retailers pay — but the rest of us usually don't have to hear about it.

With TV programmers and their distributors, the woofing often dies down at the deadline and deals are done.

Not so with Fox, which pulled its programming off Cablevision at midnight Friday — cutting off the cable operators' 3 million subscribers from seeing Fox's playoff baseball and New York Giants game Sunday.

The sides talked Sunday, says Fox spokesman Dan Bell, but "remain far apart." Says Cablevision's Charles Schueler: "Binding arbitration is the fastest and fairest way to return Fox programming to Cablevision customers."