toon smiths

Nicktoons Network, Nickelodeon's 24-hour animation network, has received the greatest number of entries to date for its fourth annual Nicktoons Network Animation Festival, a multiplatform competition. See for yourself when Nicktoons airs one new entry at 8 p.m. daily through August. It will culminate with an hourlong "Best Of" special on Aug. 31. Grand prize? A $20,000 development contract.

campaign trail

4 presidential candidates are lined up to visit Jon Stewart on The Daily Show over the next three weeks as Comedy Central's satirical news review ramps up its "Indecision 2008" coverage. Because of the Mountain Time broadcast schedule, you can catch the first at 11 a.m. today: Delaware Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden is Stewart's first guest (from a show originally aired late Wednesday). Scheduled later: Republican John McCain on Aug. 16; former Republican Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson on Aug. 20; and Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama on Aug. 22.

chatter

"I know the game now. You can't give them everything at once."

LaCondra Davies, American Idol contestant booted from the show last season after making the first cut, about returning to audition Monday in Dallas

gay themes

The lovelorn Kevin Walker on Brothers & Sisters and the scheming Marc St. James on Ugly Betty have helped make ABC the network with the most prominent gay characters in prime-time television. ABC scored highest on the first Network Responsibility Index, which measures quantity, quality and diversity of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people on network television. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation study reported ABC led with 15 percent of its prime-time hours having LGBT represen- tation.