It was perhaps a project too ambitious to succeed flawlessly, but HBO nevertheless undertook a movie adaptation of 'Too Big to Fail' (Mon., 8PM ET on HBO). It's the story of the 2008 financial crisis that led to the economic downturn that most Americans are still trying to crawl out from under.

That it was a situation so complex, most of us still don't fully understand what happened made it even more daunting for a dramatic interpretation.

Then add to that the fact that the drama mostly happened in board rooms or government facilities where men and women in suits talked, and it's not the kind of thing you imagine appealing to the widest audience.

If you're like me, the first thing that you do after you wipe those crusty things out of your eyes is turn on CNBC, Fox Business Network or Bloomberg to see how much more the economy is in a tailspin. Sometimes you watch to see how far oil has fallen. Other times you watch just to see if another bank or investment firm failed. Still, other times you watch to shake your fist and scream in anger to no one in particular.

Should any of these reasons be the case, you are not alone. Fact of the matter is you are part of an growing audience for these business channels. Over the last few weeks networks like CNBC and FBN have been racking up the viewers, with many of them jumping on the disaster bandwagon in the last half of September. For instance, when the Dow Jones Average plunged 778 points on September 29th, CNBC's average total viewership reached an all-time high of 726,000. Fox Business Network, which has only been around for about a year and isn't on nearly as many cable systems, garnered an average of 91,000 viewers on that same day.

Oprah has finally been lured into primetime for more than an Oprah Winfrey Presents mini-series outing. The grande dame of daytime will bring two new reality series to ABC.

The first - Oprah Winfrey's Big Give - follows ten people, who are given money and resources and then must find a "dramatic and emotional" way to help others with the cash. There will be weekly eliminations, and the winner will have his or her "wildest dream" made a reality. Oprah has promised that the eliminations won't be humiliating as they are on other reality series. If this set-up sounds familiar, it's because Oprah did the same thing on her show.