Channel Surfing by Laura Nachman Bucks County Courier Times October 28, 2003 November sweeps begins Thursday.  This will be the first major ratings period when Larry Mendte of KYW (CBS3) will go head-to-head against his replacement at WCAU (NBC10) Tim Lake at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.  WCAU will compete without its regular top anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah, who is on maternity leave.  KYW is hoping that its team of Alycia Lane and Mendte will close the gap between #3 rated KYW and #2 WCAU.  Of course, the top rated station will almost definitely be WPVI (6ABC), which has the services of popular veteran anchor Lisa Thomas Laury back.   It will be interesting to see how "Dr. Phil" fares against the news shows at 5 p.m. WTXF hopes that the promotion of Fox shows during the highly rated baseball playoffs will turn into more Fox viewers during its premiere week with the return of shows such as "That 70's Show" and "Malcolm in the Middle."  In the morning, "Good Day Philadelphia" seems to be on the upswing again after finally settling on a permanent team.  WCAU's morning show "10" could benefit by doing the same and naming a full-time female host to join Steve Levy and Bill Henley.  The Philadelphia mayoral race has been a boon for new WPHT 1210-AM morning show host Michael Smerconish, who is doing a great job talking about the election.  However, it is tough not to have a local voice talking about the issues during afternoon drive instead of Sean Hannity's national show. WCAU weekend evening anchor Monique Braxton is another station personality who should not report on the mayoral campaign due to conflict of interest.  Her husband, Shawn Fordham is an aide (and nephew) to Philadelphia mayor John Street.  Renee Chenault Fattah, also has a conflict of interest because her husband U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah is working on the Street campaign, but Chenault-Fattah is on maternity leave. As election day approaches, keep your eyes out for a public service announcement on voting rights that was produced by high school student Elizabeth Bensink, a 2003 graduate of Quaker Valley High School (Leetsdate, PA) who is now a freshman at Notre Dame.  She earned first place in the National Television Academy Mid-Atlantic Chapter's Young Producer's Award scholarship competition.  CN8 personality Barry Nolan, who is accustomed to reporting on scary things such as Michael Jackson during his years at "Hard Copy," will report live from Salem, MA on Halloween (Friday) for the special "Fright Night" at 6 p.m.