Aiming at TV targets large and small

Packin' a loaded remote -- with an itchy finger on the up/down arrows:

• Finally, a station shows us how life looks through the eyes of ... groceries. Such insight comes courtesy of News-3's kooky camera angles in a story about Super Bowl party shopping. Shots peered between the bars of a shopping cart from the perspective of canned goods as it rolled down the aisles. (Interviewed later about their wild ride, the corn dogs and the guacamole couldn't stop raving!)

Who knew News-3 producers study Fellini films?

• Wedding words to images for a little wink-wink? Consider George Knapp's piece on Gov. Jim Gibbons, referring to the gov's denials of womanizing accompanied by footage of Gibbons seated next to ... Sen. John Ensign.

• Memo to Channel 13's Drew Karedes: You have a second career waiting, narrating movie trailers. You know, the ones that begin, "In a World Where ..."

• Memo to Fox-5's morning show: Return playful Mike Doria to the air. Goofy and sometimes hilariously inappropriate, he was often The Mouth That Roared, but never The Mouth That Bored.

• Memo to Channel 13, Redux: Return Capt. Paul Hollenbeck to the air, and the airwaves. Without his eye-in-the-sky copter reports, your coverage could develop cataracts.

• Stations promoting Denny's free "Grand Slam" breakfast day in their newscasts? At least provide equal time to IHOP so we can hear anchors say "Rooty-Tooty Fresh-'n-Fruity."

• Attempting to sell the show to a wider daytime audience accustomed to Oprah and Ellen, Jon Ralston's "Face to Face" promos still sound like a dentist about to yank your molars.

• As February sweeps roll in, some stations dabble in ratings subterfuge. Watch for newscasts signing off early and dumping the lower-rated bottom half into separately titled "specials" to avoid dragging down the newscast numbers, now based on the more robust top half.

Check the sked. Note how Channel 13 split off 11:20-11:35 p.m. this week as "Contact 13" on Tuesday and "You Ask" on Wednesday, and will again as "Action Sports Extra" on Friday.

They call it "retitling." We call it a shell game: Three-Card-Nielsen.

• We thank thee, O News Gods, for creating an even earlier Channel 8 newscast at 4 a.m. However, we won't be fully sated until we get "The Late Late Show" starring Craig Ferguson, Dave McCann and Dayna Roselli.

• Graphic traffic? That's at visually congested News-3 at 10 p.m. on KTUD, where three logos -- "3-HD," the NBC peacock and the bold red-and-white "Vegas TV" banner -- are all jammed into the bottom right, making the screen look like it's developing a rash.

• Tapping her easygoing sunniness, Channel 13's Lisa Remillard has injected a welcome bit of Kelly-ness into that odd, 9 a.m. news/lifestyle hybrid. ... Any possibility of pumping Casey Smith full of Reege?

• Memo to Fox-5, Redux: Despairing of ever seeing truth in advertising, can we just request clarification in advertising? Say, renaming the afternoon "More" as "More Infomercials"?

One last note:

• Nina ... We haven't forgotten.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.