Today on CNBC’s Fast Money, Erin Burnett interviewed the new Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit about a broad range of topics including his new position as head of Citigroup, whether there will be job cuts or more writedowns at the company, the Fed and the Middle East investment in Citigroup.

Here are the Live+SD for CNN’s Heroes special for its premiere and subsequent airings….

Thursday (9-11:44pm/et)
567,000 total viewers
197,000 25-54 Demo
CNN Primetime Demo ranking: 3rd

Update: According to an emailer not connected to cable news, CNN finished 2nd in the Demo from 9-11pm ET…

Friday (8-10:44pm/et)
393,000 total viewers
109,000 25-54 Demo
CNN Primetime Demo ranking: 4th

Saturday (8-10:44pm/et)
412,000 total viewers
160,000 25-54 Demo
CNN Primetime Demo ranking: 4th

Sunday (8-10:44pm/et)
291,000 total viewers
113,000 25-54 Demo
CNN Primetime Demo ranking: 4th

MSNBC announced that it will be covering the two debates tomorrow afternoon and Thursday afternoon in Iowa…

MSNBC will present live coverage of the Des Moines Register Republican and Democratic presidential debates tomorrow and Thursday. Coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET, anchored by “Hardball” host Chris Matthews, with live coverage of the debates beginning at 2 p.m. ET. Matthews will be joined by “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough and others for post-debate analysis both days beginning at 4 p.m. ET, followed by “Hardball” at 5 p.m. ET.

Update: It appears now that all the cable nets will be covering the two debates live.

CNBC lost its crawl during Power Lunch today for about 10 minutes. This also took out the countdown clock that was counting down to the expected 2:15 pm Fed announcement today.

Update: Bob Pisani joked while the crawl and clock were down, “Do we have to mention the Fed meeting again? We’ve had enough of that.”

Media Post’s Joe Mandese blogs about the future of ratings. It’s an interesting read on how the ratings landscape may look in a few years time…

It’s been a while since I’ve contributed a post to this board, and much of that time has been spent thinking about some recent developments taking place at Google, and how they may ultimately reshape the way we plan, buy, watch and think about television. The development that’s had me thinking the most was Google’s deal to license demographic ratings data from Nielsen. This surprised me for several reasons. First and foremost was that I thought the industry was heading in the opposite direction, that demos were doomed, and that it would be Nielsen that would ultimately need to license data from Google — not the other way around.

Ultimately, I think that is true, and the industry will shift to a census-based measurement of actual viewing behavior, scrapping long-used surrogates like demographics. The reasons: 1) Demos are poor proxies for actual consumer targets and genuine consumer behavior; 2) behavioral targeting is far superior, because it is based on, well, actual viewing behavior; and 3) such data is abundant and is slowly finding its way into the commercial advertising marketplace thanks to companies like Google, TNS, TiVo and others.

I’m not entirely clear why the cable and satellite industries are suddenly willing to play along. Maybe it’s because they finally realize the shift is inevitable, and that if they don’t begin making the data available, someone else will. One reason why Starcom MediaVest Group cut its landmark deal to license and apply the cable set-top data TNS has begun aggregating, is that beginning with the conversion to digital broadcast spectrum in February 2009, upwards of 90% of U.S. TV households will be capable of generating return path data streams. How that market will ultimately play out is anybody’s guess, but some smart people are guessing it will look more like the Internet than television, and a few pioneers like SMG, TNS and Google are trying to make it happen now.

The Politico’s Michael Calderone interviews FNC’s Chris Wallace…

Aside from his hourlong Sunday show, the Democratic candidates will not participate in any Fox News-sponsored debates, leaving Wallace to moderate three Republican contests over the course of 2007.

“Just imagine if the Republicans, under pressure from right-to-life groups, refused to appear on CNN or MSNBC,” Wallace said.

“I think there would be holy unshirted hell. I think there would be such talk about these people being captives of the extreme right wing and why are they afraid to answer questions. And I think the absence of that is very telling.

“At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party, … pandering to the far-left-wing,” Wallace added. “And we live with it.”

CNN announced this morning that it was expanding its news operations in the United Arab Emirates…

Continuing its major growth and investment in international newsgathering, CNN Worldwide has begun expansion in its operations in the United Arab Emirates, which includes the appointment of a new international correspondent, a new bureau chief and the opening of an office with full broadcast and production capabilities in the capital city of Abu Dhabi, it was announced today by Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director for CNN International.

The expanded operation in the United Arab Emirates combines broadcast production facilities in the new Abu Dhabi Media Zone with increased newsgathering operations set up alongside an existing editorial team for the CNNArabic.com Web site. In addition to the expansion into Abu Dhabi, CNN also retains its base in Dubai which has an increased newsgathering role for CNN alongside the main CNNArabic.com operation.
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The battle over access to Warren Buffet continues unabated between FBN and CNBC. Yesterday FBN announced its plans to have Buffet and Hillarly Clinton talk to FBN’s Liz Claman. Claman has done numerous specials on Buffet over the years. Buffet is also going to be interviewed two other times on FBN today.

Well, this morning CNBC had Becky Quick interview Buffet on Squawk Box first on tape, and then later live for a full half hour. Quick has recently done her own special on Buffet.