Ox Notes: December 10, 2007

On Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. retained his welterweight championship by knocking out Ricky Hatton. Floyd was accompanied to the ring at the start of the match by his fellow Dancing with the Stars contestants, Helio Castroneves and Wayne Newton.

Strike talks came to a halt on Friday, with both parties becoming more publicly vocal about their frustrations with the pace of negotiations.

The strike has already rendered as effectively meaningless network ratings numbers for the season. Late night talk shows seem to be suffering the most, with viewership of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno down by 40%.

TV Guide's Matt Roush is concerned about enduring a winter with little new to watch apart from reality shows.

I'm a little more optimistic, now that I know that The Amazing Race will be back for a thirteenth season. And, since I'm a sucker for obstacle courses, I'm looking forward to ABC's Wipeout, which the network describes as "Fear Factor with none of the gross."