Strike update: Talkers return amidst WGA picketing The late-night talk shows returned last night, starting a flurry of activity for the Writers Guild of America. While David Letterman, whose Worldwide Pants production company reached an independent deal with the guild allowing writers to return right along with him, poked fun at the labor unrest with a top 10 list delivered by striking writers, others, including Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel, explained their reasons for working without their writers, mainly to avoid layoffs. The WGA picketed the studios where Leno, NBC mate Conan O’Brien and Kimmel filmed, a move ABC’s Kimmel derided on the air. Even so, O’Brien and Letterman sported beards in a sign of solidarity with the writers, and all five of the late-night hosts (also including CBS’s Craig Ferguson) stressed that they continue to support the guild’s cause. Yet some critics noted that Leno’s show in particular seemed no different than before the strike, a notion writers are sure to protest. Meanwhile, the WGA also said yesterday that it will picket the upcoming Golden Globe Awards after failing to make a waiver deal with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and producer Dick Clark Productions.   New from Netflix, movies that zip from PC to television Movie enthusiasts have proven willing to abandon the video store for the computer chair to pick their flicks. But will they cotton to a new on-demand system that connects their PCs to their televisions? That’s what Netflix, the successful DVD via postal service company, is betting on. Fearing it will get lost amid the streaming video craze, which has already inspired a “Watch Instantly” feature on the site, Netflix said yesterday it will introduce a service that will send materials ordered through the company instantly to televisions via a set-top box available to high-speed internet users. Apple and Vudu have already introduced such devices, and while neither has made a huge splash, the increasing impatience of American consumers who already have video on demand available on many cable systems apparently inspired Netflix’s impending service. Other companies are also expected to introduce such instant gratification devices as the new year begins. Netflix has 7 million subscribers. It will not charge them for the additional service but customers will have to buy the set-top box, being manufactured by LG Electronics. The service will start later this year.   The word: Web spending will pass TV in Britain in '09 This year in Sweden a momentous event will occur. It will become the first country in which the internet overtakes TV to be king of the castle when it comes to ad spending. Then in 2009 the same thing should happen in Britain, making it the first of the world’s major economies to experience this change, according to a story in today’s Media Guardian, which cites predictions from GroupM, WPP’s media buying operation. GroupM has not published an official forecast yet but the story says GroupM predicts the internet will make up 24.8 percent of all ad spending in Britain this year, compared to 26 percent for TV, paving the way for the internet to pass TV in 2009. In Sweden, TV had a 19.8 percent share of ad spending in 2007, while the internet accounted for 16.7 percent and will pull ahead in 2008. Both Britain and Sweden are special cases in some ways. In Britain, the BBC is a major TV player, yet it accepts no advertising. In Sweden, the TV market is relatively small.   Great outdoors? Special NHL game draws big rating. The NHL has struggled since canceling the 2004-05 season due to a labor dispute, but the league finally has something to cheer about. NBC's New Year's Day telecast of the NHL Winter Classic, a special much-hyped outdoor game played in Buffalo between the Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, averaged a 2.6 overnight household rating, the highest NHL regular-season overnight rating since a six-game regional telecast on Fox in February 1996. The game, played in front of more than 70,000 fans at the Buffalo Bills' Ralph Wilson Stadium, was won 2-1 by Pittsburgh in a shootout, and it grabbed a higher overnight rating than even Wayne Gretzky's last game in April 1999. This comes just months after the Stanley Cup finals slipped to record lows on Versus and NBC, which isn’t even paying a fee to televise hockey games but rather sharing ad revenue with the league. NBC hopes the hockey interest will last when it kicks off its "Game of the Week" schedule on Jan. 20 with a matchup between the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers. After that the network will go with a flexible schedule format in which it hand picks games, much like it does with "Sunday Night Football."   Programming notes: 'Idol' pumping new Fox shows It’s no stretch to predict that Fox’s “American Idol” will be the most-watched show during the strike-riddled second half of the TV season, and the network has decided to use it to build audiences for a number of new scripted shows, two of which have been dogged by rumors of creative troubles. Fox will preview the new supernatural drama “New Amsterdam” on March 4 and 6 following “Idol,” with its official premiere slated for March 10. The show was bumped from the fall schedule a few months ago. Also, the Parker Posey comedy “The Return of Jezebel James,” whose order was slashed last fall, will get a preview after “Idol” on March 12 before officially rolling out two days later. Fox also said the previously announced reality show "When Women Rule the World" has been delayed indefinitely. Meanwhile, in other programming news, MTV has given the go-ahead for another 10-episode season of “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila,” after the bisexual MySpace star broke up with last season’s winner, Bobby Banhart. “Shot at Love” averaged a 3.4 rating among viewers 12-34, trailing only “The Hills” as MTV’s top-rated show in its target demo. And E! has picked up another season of the late-night talker “Chelsea Lately,” which will kick off on Monday at 11:30 p.m.