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The Morning Fix: ABC unveils ‘Duets.’ Redstone takes center stage.

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After the coffee. Before seeing who I can con into buying me an iPad.

The Skinny: Can someone remind me to watch ‘Awake’ tonight? Just tweet at me. Thursday’s headlines include a new singing show from ABC, Eddie Murphy’s ‘One Thousand Words’ finally is getting released, and Wall Street’s eagerness to see how Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone performs at the company’s annual meeting.

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Daily Dose: Steve McPherson, the former head of ABC Entertainment who left the network almost two years ago in a cloud of controversy and allegations of bad behavior, has kept a low profile since then. But on Friday he is expected to resurface to testify in the wrongful-termination battle between ‘Desperate Housewives’ co-star Nicollette Sheridan and the show’s creator, Marc Cherry. McPherson, who has been focusing on his wine and liquor businesses, will be appearing just days after his former nemesis at the network -- Mark Pedowitz -- offered his version of events of what led to Sheridan’s being written off the show.

Cloudy cloud. A new iPad wasn’t the only thing Apple unveiled on Wednesday. The computer giant also confirmed its plans to allow customers who have bought movies through iTunes to park them in Apple’s iCloud service, where they can be accessed anytime via iPhone, iPad or Mac. This being Hollywood, nothing is ever simple. While several studios -- including Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. -- are on board with the plan, 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures are not. That’s because their deals with HBO will need to be renegotiated first. Details on this complex situation from the Los Angeles Times and All Things Digital.

Netflix to the rescue? Deadline Hollywood reports that Netflix has made inquiries about acquiring ‘Terra Nova,’ the expensive dinosaur drama that Fox canceled on Monday. While Netflix already has a deal to bring one canceled show back -- Fox’s critical darling ‘Arrested Development’ -- trying to save ‘Terra Nova’ may be a reach. The show is very expensive and it is unclear if there is enough demand from viewers for such a move to make much business sense for Netflix. Additionally, actors from ‘Terra Nova’ are already being cast in new pilots. I will agree with one Deadline commenter who responded to the news by saying, ‘and Peyton Manning will return to the Colts and bring another championship to Indianapolis.’

Sumner slowing down? On Thursday, Sumner Redstone will be at Viacom’s annual meeting. Normally, this is hardly news. But since Redstone, the chairman of the media giant, originally was planning to skip the meeting for undisclosed reasons, speculation about the health of the 88-year-old mogul has heated up. The Wall Street Journal has a curtain raiser on the meeting and the concern about Redstone.

Finding its voice. ABC wants its own hit singing competition show. The network, according to TV Guide, has signed up Kelly Clarkson, Lionel Richie, Robin Thicke and Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles for ‘Duets.’ The show will be similar to NBC’s ‘The Voice’ in that the four singers will mentor wannabe stars.

Big night. While Super Tuesday didn’t exactly settle the Republican race, it did show the dominance of Fox News. Not only did Fox beat its cable rivals CNN and MSNBC with its poll coverage, it even beat NBC’s hourlong special on the results. More on the numbers from the New York Times.

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Who to hit up for a raise. Forbes has come out with its billionaires list and, as usual, lots of media industry kingpins are on it. Here’s a look at who went up in the rankings and who went down.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Eddie Murphy’s ‘A Thousand Words’ had about that many hurdles to find its way to the box office.

-- Joe Flint

Follow me on Twitter. I’m more valuable than a new iPad. Twitter.com/JBFlint

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