Why are you promoting the competition?

If I'm a morning anchor at a CBS station, I'm certainly not going to talk about last night's episode of Desperate Housewives.

If I work for an NBC affiliate, I'm not going to talk about CSI.

Memo to people who work at the affiliates of ABC, NBC, CBS, and the CW... your station doesn't broadcast American Idol.

I continue to be amazed at the non-Fox station employees who spend time promoting the competition. It's one thing to talk about the Super Bowl, which is an event. But to devote any time at all to a reality show airing on another station simply doesn't make sense. If you send even a handful of viewers over to another station, and one of those people has a ratings diary, you're shooting yourself in the foot.

American Idol may be the most watched show in America, but if you break it down, 90 percent of the population doesn't watch. Do the math.

Does it really make sense to tell your viewers you're hooked on another network's show? Of course not.

So here's a delayed New Year's resolution for you... if you don't work for a Fox station, American Idol doesn't exist when you're on the air. If you want to win the ratings battle, promote your own network.