Pittsburgh's rank among the nation's TV markets will drop from No. 22 to No. 23 in January. The Nielsen Company announced its new designated market area (DMA) ranks yesterday.

Once a Top 10 market, Pittsburgh has been steadily declining, mirroring the region's population loss. In 1998, Pittsburgh was No. 19. By January 2004, Pittsburgh was No. 22.

This time Pittsburgh was surpassed by Portland, Ore., which rose from No. 23 to No. 22, from 1.15 million TV homes to 1.17 million TV homes, a jump of 24,780 TV homes.

Pittsburgh declined by 6,690 TV homes from 1.16 million to 1.15 million.

That Portland surpassed Pittsburgh by 18,640 TV homes comes as no surprise. Portland has been steadily rising in the DMA ranks in recent years as its population expands.

What does this mean for local TV stations? Not a lot.

"What's important is dropping out of the Top 10 or the Top 20," said WTAE general manager Rick Henry. "To be 21 or 24 probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference."

KDKA/WPCW general manager Chris Pike agreed.

"Marketing is much more sophisticated for most companies than basing [ad buys] on market rank," Pike said. "[Advertisers] are more likely to look at current sales in a market, what opportunities for growth there are, and those won't be based on whether Portland has 10,000 more homes than Pittsburgh."

WPXI general manager Ray Carter said the change won't have a financial impact on Pittsburgh stations.

"If you're staying in the Top 25, it shouldn't affect you," he said. "Some argue if you stay in the Top 30 there's really no change."

Market rank changes are more significant to larger markets: Movie studios buy ads in Tier A markets.

"I remember when San Francisco dropped out of the Top 5 and went to 6, they lost a lot of movie business," Carter said. "But when you're down at our level -- we're considered a Tier C movie market -- so we'll still be in that tier."

Pike said the subtleties between markets clustered near one another in rank make the differences negligible. Which is good, because odds are Pittsburgh will decline further.

Charlotte, N.C., is now No. 24, having grown by 37,220 TV homes in a year. If it repeats that feat a year from now, Charlotte could easily bump Pittsburgh from No. 23 to No. 24.

"I suspect we'll stay in this general range," Pike said.

Carter said a drop in rank is more of a perception issue.

"It's tough to see a city that you love in population decline," he said. "It's not that we've had hundreds of thousands of people leaving. Our loss was fairly insignificant. It's just that other markets are growing. And it is harder to recruit [new employees] to a No. 23 market than it is to a No. 19 market."

The fall TV season doesn't start in earnest until Sept. 21, but some returning shows will get a jump on the season by premiering in the next two weeks.

Here's what's coming up sooner rather than later: "Prison Break" (8 p.m. Monday, Fox), "Gossip Girl" (8 p.m. Monday, The CW), "One Tree Hill" (9 p.m. Monday, The CW), "The Shield" (10 p.m. Tuesday, FX), "Bones" (8 p.m. Wednesday, Fox), "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" (8 p.m. Sept. 5, Fox), "Entourage" (10 p.m. Sept. 7, HBO) and "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" (8 p.m. Sept. 8, Fox).

Watch for reviews of many of these returning shows -- "Gossip Girl" and "Prison Break" were posted this week -- in Tuned In Journal at post-gazette.com/tv.

"Ghost Whipserer" spoiler alert: Entertainment Weekly reports that Pittsburgh native David Conrad will finally get something to do on the CBS series, but only after his character is killed off. Presumably he'll stick around to haunt Jennifer Love Hewitt. ... Even before its second-season premiere, NBC has picked up the "back nine" episodes of drama series "Chuck," a show of confidence in its creative direction. ... The annual "Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon" airs this weekend on WPXI beginning at 11:35 p.m. Sunday and continues until 6:30 p.m. Monday. Because of the telethon, NBC's coverage of the "Deutsche Bank Golf Championship" will air on WBGN at 2 p.m. Monday. ... Matt Lamanna, assistant curator of vertebrate paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, will be featured on History Channel's "Evolve: Flight" (10 p.m. Tuesday). ... WQED's 90-minute presentation of "The Brothers Warner," listed in the new Pittsburgh Magazine for 9 p.m. on Sept. 18, will now air nationally as a one-hour presentation of PBS's "American Masters" at 10 p.m. on Sept. 25 (repeats at 3 and 5 a.m. Sept. 27). The film, produced/directed by Cass Warner, chronicles her family's history with the famed Warned Bros. studio. ... Paul Germain's "Speedy Delivery," a documentary about "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" regular Mister McFeely (David Newell) won the top prize in the Feel Good Film Festival. ... Cinemax will go to 24-hour HD (1080i) programming on Sept. 1. ... "ABC World News," "Nightline," "20/20" and "Primetime" began airing in HD on Monday. ... Jewish network Shalom TV is now available on demand to Verizon's FiOS TV subscribers. Go to Channel 900 and select "People and Culture" to access its programs. ... Yesterday FiOS TV added ESPNU-HD as Channel 573.

Today's TV Q&A responds to questions about Stephen Colbert, "The Big Bang Theory" and Sonni Abatta. Read it online at post-gazette.com/tv.

In this week's Tuned In Podcast, entertainment editor Sharon Eberson and I discuss coverage of the first night of the Democratic National Convention, an onslaught of new series and returning shows that are about to debut and the Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Listen or subscribe at post-gazette.com/podcast.