With the Time Warner Cable/CBS dispute still not resolved, and no resolution in sight for now (although TWC has extended an olive brand of sorts), CBS programs remain off the air for viewers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, among other cities.

New York and Los Angeles are the two largest TV markets, and Dallas is fifth, so the drop is no laughing matter.

In a press release, CBS says that through Sunday its ratings were only down around -1% nationally, but three days is hardly definitive. The true ratings impact will become clear in the week (or weeks, if it drags on) ahead.

For “CBS This Morning,” which has seen strong ratings growth this year, the dispute threatens to stunt the progress the program has made. With millions of people in the top two markets unable to watch “CTM,” it is reasonable to assume that thousands of viewers will be experimenting with other morning shows, particularly if the dispute gets dragged out for an extended period of time.

No other morning show is better poised to try and capture those viewers than CNN’s “New Day.”

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The CBS/Time Warner Cable dispute has entered day three, and there does not appear to be an end in sight for the blackout that has resulted in CBS Stations being pulled for subscribers to the cable company. The latest updates:

CBS has blocked Time Warner Cable broadband customers from watching full episodes of shows on CBS.com, an effort to limit the places customers can watch CBS shows and put pressure on TWC. CBSNews.com video does not appear to be affected yet.

Meanwhile, TWC has replaced CBS’ plum channel two slot with the Starz Kids & Family channel, on what it is calling a temporary basis. TWC previously threatened CBS by saying the channel two slot is not guaranteed to be theirs when they return.

NBC’s “Today” even covered the dispute at 7:30 this morning (watch below), as did “Good Morning America” (watch here). “CBS This Morning” did not cover the dispute, although TWC customers wouldn’t have been able to see it on CBS anyway.

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The blackout of CBS Corp. local stations and cable networks is now in its 17th hour.

At 5pmET yesterday CBS O&Os in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Denver and Pittsburgh were pulled from Time Warner Cable systems in those markets. Additionally, cable channels Showtime, The Movie Channel, Flix and Smithsonian Channel are blacked out on Time Warner Cable. Viewers of 75 separate TV stations in 52 markets are seeing this message when they tune in those channels. TWC is also encouraging viewers to use the Aereo service — which is being sued by CBS Corp. and other broadcasters — to obtain CBS’s local stations.

The American Television Alliance says the cable blackouts are “higher than ever before.”

CBS is warning that the blackouts mean viewers “will be deprived of a variety of CBS Sports live golf coverage… including coverage of the World Golf Championships: Bridgestone Invitational, with Tiger Woods leading heading into third-round coverage.”

Time Warner Cable briefly pulled CBS from their systems early Wednesday morning after a previous deadline had passed. Negotiations continued with a 5pm Friday deadline set, at which point TWC pulled the stations, indefinitely.

At midnight ET, after multiple temporary extensions, CBS and Time Warner Cable failed to come to terms on a new retransmission consent agreement, and the companies say CBS feeds will be pulled as soon as possible. Showtime, Flix, The Movie Channel and Smithsonian Channel are also being pulled.

Millions of Time Warner Cable customers will be affected, including those in New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas, three of the largest TV markets in the country. As of 12:15 AM, WCBS was still available on Time Warner Cable in New York City.

“We are now at war with Time Warner Cable,” CBS CEO Les Moonves said to the LA Times’ Joe Flint.

“The outrageous demands for fees by CBS Corporation have forced Time Warner Cable to remove several of its networks,” TWC said in a statement. “We offered to pay reasonable increases, but CBS’s demands are out of line and unfair – and they want TWC to pay more than others.”

Update: Shortly after 12:30 AM Time Warner Cable said in a statement that is returning CBS network signals to subscribers. It is unclear whether this is another temporary extension, or a permanent deal. Stay tuned.

AM Update: CBS will remain available while the two sides continue to negotiate. New deadline is Friday. ”CBS and Time Warner Cable have agreed to continue discussions,” CBS says.

“CBS This Morning” co-anchor Charlie Rose has booked a special guest appearance in an unlikely place: on AMC’s critically acclaimed drama “Breaking Bad.”

At a Q&A with “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, Rose let the news slip, according to a HuffPost reporter in attendance.

Gilligan lightly reprimanded Rose for the “spoiler.” The talk show host later apologized, but only after confirming that “[his] check would still be in the mail.”

As for who Rose will play in the drama about a schoolteacher turned meth dealer: “He could be anyone,” Gilligan told HuffPost.

New York magazine sits down for a Q+A with “CBS This Morning” co-host Norah O’Donnell about her quest to “de-fluff morning news.” O’Donnell talks about how the “CTM” co-hosts get along on-screen and off:

One, I think Charlie and Gayle are just great people. Television magnifies insecurities or inexperience. They come to this with a lot of experience, and a lot of success in their previous careers. There’s an enormous amount of generosity. You’ll see one of us starts to speak and the other one will just yield to the other one. There’s no prep for that, and the fact that it works out so well is actually extraordinary.

The mother of three also talks about her disdain for the concept of a “work-life balance”:

I think it sets up these scales of justice where for me they’re the same — work and life — and that they’re supposed to be equal. I spend more time at work during the week than I am at home. I spend time with my children during the night, but they’re also at school during the day — I mean, they have lives, too. My biggest thing is that the guilt has to end — this guilt that men never suffer about work and home has got to end.

On “NBC Nightly News” last night, correspondent Richard Engel presented a piece from inside one of the most secretive museums in the world, the CIA Museum located in the agency’s headquarters in Virginia.

“Closed to the public, it had only been visited by employees and invited guests until NBC News recently became the first news organization allowed to bring in video cameras,” Engel wrote in a post previewing the piece.

While it was a fascinating segment, and showed amazing artifacts like Osama Bin laden’s AK-47 and a mock-up of his Abbotabad compound, it was not, as a point of order, the first time a news organization went in with cameras (though it was the first time it aired on TV). In 2009 CBS’ “60 Minutes” and correspondent Lara Logan visited the museum, though the footage only made it to the program’s website, and not on-air.

In fairness to NBC, it was not promoted as being the first time a news organization visited on-air during “Nightly.”

You can check out the rpeorts from both Engel and Logan, after the jump.
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CBS and Time Warner Caable agreed to extend the deadline to come to a new carriage agreement until Monday. The temporary extension will keep CBS and Showtime on TWC cable packages through the weekend, while the two sides try to hash out a deal.

If a deal is not reached, Time Warner Cable customers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas would lose access to the channels, and CBS would take a ratings hit while negotiations continue. TWC also threatened to permanently remove CBS from the “channel 2″ slot, arguing that if the network wants to be paid like a cable channel, then it should have no guarantee of channel placement. It is absolutely a negotiating ploy, but it is one of the stronger arrows in the cable company’s quiver.

The New York Times‘ Bill Carter has more.

Time Warner Cable and CBS have until 9 AM on Thursday to hammer out a deal to continue carrying the channel, otherwise subscribers of the company will lose access to the broadcast network. The deadline had been Wednesday afternoon, but FCC rules don’t allow blackout during a sweeps period, pushing the deadline to Thursday.

In an email to CBS staff, CBS CEO Les Moonves said that it was a “very real threat” adding  ”as you can imagine, we don’t take this situation lightly.”

If CBS were to be dropped from Time Warner Cable, viewers in New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas, among other places, would find themselves without access to the network, and it would almost certainly affect its ratings.

Friday’s edition of “Dateline” was easily the most-watched program on the broadcast networks in primetime for the night, averaging over five million viewers during its two-hour block.

From 9-10PM , “Dateline” featured one of Chris Hansen‘s “Wild Wild Web” editions, with 10-11 PM being a more traditional “Fatal Attraction” crime mystery. Impressively, “Dateline” improved upon its 8 PM lead-in (a rerun of dramedy series “Camp”) by 175%, before leveling off somewhat during the 10-11 PM hour.

On Saturday, “48 Hours” averaged 4.71 million viewers for its new episode at 10 PM. A rerun of the program at 9 PM averaged just over four million viewers. They were the number one and number two most popular programs of the night, respectively.