Programming

It often falls to cable to recognize unsung heroes, so it is with a WE original special saluting American military nurses who served during Vietnam. Appropriately, Dana Delany of "China Beach" fame hosts "Vietnam Nurses" (Aug premiere). — Not a surprise that WE renewed original doc-style series "Secret Lives of Women" for 12 eps (season 2 begins Aug). The just-completed season averaged a .35 HH and premiered with a .45 (Dec 13), WE’s best for an original series premiere. The number of originals on WE was up 64% in ’05 vs ’04. — It’s not the NFL, but OLN has football, as it’s become the national cable home of Arena Football League’s 20th season. Terms not released. OLN will carry 11 regular season games and 1 Wild Card playoff. AFL also has deals with NBC and FSN. — After nearly 2 decades, Ron Insana is stepping down as anchor of CNBC’s "Street Signs" to start a financial business. He will remain with the network as a sr analyst. — Showtime picked Easter (April 16) for its 1st showing of "The Passion of the Christ." — Sales exec Joel Piatek is the winner of this year’s "Win Your Own Fishing Show" contest for Outdoor Channel. He’ll host a special for the net this summer. — Fox News rejoins Sirius Satellite Radio next month. Fox disappeared after the 2 failed to reach a new agreement at the end of ’05. — BBC America premieres psychic spoof show "High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman" (Mar 17, 9pm ET). — NFL Network scored Reebok as presenting sponsor for its "NFL Scouting Combine" coverage (Thurs 2pm-Wed, Mar 1); it’s the 1st time NFL Net has gotten a presenting sponsor for the Combine. — FX produced a music video from the title song to tout doc series "Black.White." (premieres Mar 8); the video became available yesterday at myspace.com through Sun. After that, the Ice Cube-led video will be available at other sites like Yahoo!, TVGuide.com and AOL and Sprint and Nextel subs. FX anticipates 135mln impressions.