NBC set its weekend nightly news anchor Lester Holt on the case, but his 2012 report won’t be on NBC; rather they’ve relegated it to cable network Syfy (formerly the SciFi Channel). It airs tonight at 9 PM Eastern and the main interviewees are John Major Jenkins (safe and sensible choice); geologist Robert Schoch (surprising choice as he’s not really a 2012 researcher, although his work on dating the Sphinx was a major breakthrough in legitimizing theories about a much older date for its creation); and Richard Hoagland (the wacky choice that might help ratings but probably kept the show off NBC proper). Syfy 2012 site here.

We’ll be looking at the major media for the most unusual takes on 2012 all week, so please check back here for more every day or two.

Oh, and there was one quite articulate article in British broadsheet (read ‘upmarket’) newspaper The Telegraph this weekend that focuses on the modern Maya and quotes me at the end:

With so many wild claims and theories running rife on the Internet, Gary Baddeley, a British writer and producer who runs the New York-based Disinformation Company, produced the documentary 2012: Science or Superstition.
“There can certainly be harm in scaring people that the world is going to end and we’re trying to allay some of those fears by explaining what the focus on 2012 is about,” he said. And for the Maya, he believes that perhaps the year can bring opportunity rather than curse.
“To the modern Maya in the Guatemala highlands, 2012 means very little and they have not used the Long Count calendar for a long time,” he said. “But perhaps they can turn this to their advantage by encouraging understanding of their culture and bringing in some much-needed tourist dollars. It could help put them back on the map.”