CNN Talking to Joy Behar?

Deadline Hollywood Daily’s Nikki Finke and Nellie Andreeva write about CNN talking to Joy Behar about taking Larry King’s slot. I wonder what Ken Jautz thinks about Jon Klein’s alleged attempt at poaching?

A day after Larry King officially announced he will leave his CNN primetime talk show after 25 years, we hear the cable news network is in talks with Joy Behar to replace him. Behar has been one of the strongest internal candidates to succeed King. Her The Joy Behar Show on HLN (formerly known as CNN Headlline News and CNN2) has been the brightest spot on CNN’s mostly grim ratings report. It had the most growth of any primetime CNN show in Q2 among total viewers, up +39%. For comparison, CNN top anchor Anderson Cooper’s ratings were down -30%, King’s down -37%. Behar was also a regular fill-in for King on his show, a stint that led to her getting her own show on HLN.

Dana Lewis Leaves FNC..

TVNewser’s Kevin Allocca scoops that FNC foreign correspondent Dana Lewis has left the network…

Press Releases: 06/30/10

CNN (1)

CNN Digital No. 1 in Traffic, Video and Mobile

Gulf Coast Oil Spill Coverage, New Blogs Contribute to Traffic Increase

In May, CNN Digital remained No. 1 among ALL Global News & Current Event sites in several key metrics, beating properties such as MSNBC Digital, Yahoo! News and Fox News Digital.

Throughout the month, the oil spill disaster in the Gulf brought enormous traffic to CNN.com. The site served nearly 7 million live video streams in May, a 450% increase over the prior 6-month average, due in large part to a continuous live stream from an underwater camera in the Gulf. Globally over the month, CNN.com served 15 million live and on-demand video streams related to the oil spill. (VOD and Live Video data from Omniture SiteCatalyst, May 2010). In addition to video, CNN.com’s oil spill coverage generated more than 70 million page views, and users have submitted 1,340 iReports with 75 vetted for use on CNN in May.

Steve Capus talks CNN…

As part of a David Folkenflik NPR News profile of Larry King, NBC News President Steve Capus was interviewed…

FOLKENFLIK: Yet, ratings at CNN have dropped sharply, across the board. Former APM anchor Campbell Brown recently quit, saying she could not meet the ideological and bombastic appeals of Keith Olbermann of MSNBC and Bill O’Reilly of Fox News.

NBC News President Steve Capus oversees MSNBC. He says CNNs flagging fortunes mark a real shift.

Mr. STEVE CAPUS (MSNBC): If you think about what’s going on in our world right now, everything from wars on a couple of different fronts, a recession, that absolute disaster down in the Gulf – this is a time, when traditionally, CNN would’ve been cleaning up. Now what we see is, the audience is not going to them.

Larry King’s “Out”…

TVNewser’s Alex Weprin scoops that Larry King has an out of sorts in his new deal…

As part of his separation agreement with CNN, Larry King has the option to join another network or media outlet when he leaves his nightly show, two people familiar with the agreement tell TVNewser.

King has already committed to doing occasional specials for CNN, but his agreement with the network allows him to also work elsewhere as soon as this Fall, provided it isn’t at a direct CNN competitor such as MSNBC or Fox News.

Jonathan Klein Interview…

Mediaite’s Steve Krakauer does a pretty good job interviewing Jonathan Klein. I particularly liked this…

Mediaite: Anderson Cooper has been slipping in the ratings – he just had his second lowest quarter ever this past quarter. There was also a live audience experiment recently. Do you expect in the new prime time that his show will remain at 10pm, in the same format?

Klein: I don’t know. I just don’t know. I tune in every night at 10 and see the best newscast on TV, night in and night out. That’s all I ask of Anderson and his team.

I’m more than a little surprised that Klein didn’t either issue a flat out shootdown denial of the Piers Morgan stories or admit there was smoke to that fire and instead he bobbed and weaved and tried to parry away from Krakauer’s line of questioning. It just makes the whole situation hang over CNN.

Update: Another part of the interview which I noticed but passed on in favor of the above quote, concerned a jab Klein threw at MSNBC for being too quick to cancel Dan Abrams’ program. Well Abrams responded in the Mediaite comments…

The Case of the Annoying new MSNBC.com Javascript

Johnny Dollar emailed in the following this morning…

There was nothing wrong with MSNBC’s transcript pages. Just text, no tricks.

Now, when I’m looking thru the MSNBC transcripts, a simple page of text becomes a video game. Only the first few lines are visible; you have to click on a button to show more text. When you do, the rest of the text appears: s-l-o-w-l-y. Then if I want to do a simple ‘find’ on the page to see if a word appears, instead of taking me to the word, I get all sorts of little tabs on the right hand edge zipping around, the page rolls (again slowly) up or down, and still doesn’t take me to the word. I have to repeat the find request to actually get to the result.

Just how is this an improvement over a simple page of text that you don’t have to do battle with?

This is what J$ is referring to. Click for full size image…

Mark Halperin joins MSNBC…

TVNewser reports that Mark Halperin is joining MSNBC as an analyst. File this one under “What took so long?” since Halperin has been a mainstay on Morning Joe for quite a while now so it was only natural for things to progress further…

Free for All: 06/30/10

What’s on your mind?

Fast Money Ratings Fall…

Zero Hedge writes about CNBC in general and Fast Money in particular…(via J$)

The implications of this are major: as more and more of the penny-trading crowd grow disenchanted with the current regime, look for wide-ranging implications, including both majors drop in retail brokerage volumes, and in the popularity of momentum-trader focused media.

A good example of the latter are the plummeting ratings of CNBC’s 5pm staple Fast Money, long-focusing not on value investors (granted for the most part those tend to see right through CNBC’s agenda), but on daily and even minutely momentum traders. According to Nielsen Media, the drop in the show’s demo between Q2 of 2009 and Q2 of 2010, has been a dramatic 28%, from 75k to 54k. Sequentially, this has also been true, as the drop from May (67k in demo) to June (50k) is a comparable 25%. It is possible to claim that some of the May’s abnormal viewers were due to the excess market volatility, but it certainly does not explain the plunge from Q2 2009, when following the March 666 crash, the market was a momentum trader’s paradise between April and June, yet quiet on all other counts. On the other hand, perhaps we are reading too much into it – controlling for general viewership during the CNBC Business Day segment (5am to 9pm), indicates an identical plunge in broader CNBC ratings from Q2 ’09 to Q2 ’10 in the demo: -28%. Maybe it is not so much a loss of momentum trading viewers, as a general and ongoing disappointment with CNBC’s deteriorating content. Also, perhaps CNBC should have thought twice before parting ways with Dylan Ratigan who was the life and soul of Fast Money, and now has a much more successful activist program on MSNBC.

King: 25 Years in…

The New York Times Brian Stelter, who won’t let a little thing like sun and sand blind his vision, does a mini Larry King review…

Andrew Tyndall, a TV news analyst, said Tuesday night that CNN depended for too long on Mr. King and his once-formidable audience.

“They decided to cash in on his high ratings and postpone refreshing the whole lineup,” Mr. Tyndall said.

He said that CNN needed to “re-think its lineup ten years ago.” Back then, Fox News was just starting to emerge as a competitor, and the now-No. 2 cable news channel in prime time, MSNBC, was just nipping at CNN’s heels.

Tyndall is right of course but whoever wrote/edited that last sentence isn’t; at least as far as MSNBC is concerned. Ten years ago MSNBC primetime was in total disarray; a literal cable news wasteland. Phil Donahue? Alan Keyes? To characterize it as “just nipping at CNN’s heels” is less of an exaggeration and more of a bald faced lie. It would be three years before MSNBC even started getting any traction in primetime with Olbermann and another year or two after that before the “heel nipping” began in earnest…

An Anderson Cooper Problem at CNN?

The Wrap’s Hunter Walker writes about alleged issues involving CNN’s Anderson Cooper…

Speaking on background, one CNN on-air personality told TheWrap that most of the anchors were jealous that Anderson Cooper sucked up resources by going to Haiti and the Gulf of Mexico, leaving them unable to build their profiles at the network.

Meanwhile, multiple insiders at CNN have told TheWrap that the silver-haired star anchor may also be close to leaving the network, frustrated by his own low ratings and tempted by other offers.

Cooper has been frustrated that despite dangerous forays into disaster zones like Haiti, his ratings remain in the doldrums. And a high-level CNN staffer told TheWrap that Cooper is frequently in conflict with his executive producer David Doss.

He is also said to be entertaining offers from other potential suitors. Cooper’s contract with CNN expires next year.

When asked about internal discord, a CNN spokesperson said, “CNN will continue to do great journalism and will leave meaningless conjecture to The Wrap.”

King: Write ups…

The New York Times Brian Stelter, on vacation no less, writes about Larry King giving up M-Fr on CNN…

In the last few weeks, executives at CNN, a unit of Time Warner, have repeatedly had to deny that they were close to signing a deal for Mr. King’s replacement. Piers Morgan, a judge on “America’s Got Talent,” has been rumored to be talking to CNN about a job. Others likely to be seen as candidates are Katie Couric and Ryan Seacrest.

On Tuesday night, he said he would recommend Mr. Seacrest, “if he has a great interest in politics.”

Humbly, he added, “I’m sure there’s a ton of people that could do it. Come on, it’s Q.&A.”

Press Releases: 06/29/10

CNBC (1)

CNBC WINS TWO GERALD LOEB AWARDS FOR DISTINGUISHED BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL JOURNALISM

Television Enterprise Category—CNBC’s “House of Cards”

Television Breaking News Category—CNBC’s “The Madoff Scandal”

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., June 29, 2010 – CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, today received two Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, which recognize journalists who make significant contributions to the understanding of business, finance and the economy. The awards were presented by the UCLA Anderson School of Management today in a dinner ceremony held at Capitale in New York City.

Larry King to end M-Fr run in the Fall…

CNN President Jonathan Klein just sent out the following memo to staff…

TO: CNN Colleagues

FR: Jon Klein

Larry King has asked that I share with you a message to his audience that will be broadcast tonight at the top of his show. After 25 years, Larry has decided to take a step back from the nightly grind. He wants to take some time for himself and his family. So he will end his run with Larry King Live on his own terms, sometime this fall.

He is not leaving CNN. Larry is a beloved member of the CNN family and he will continue to contribute to our air with periodic specials.

Larry has been a giant in the industry for as long as most of us can remember. Anyone who ever mattered has sat for an interview on Larry’s iconic set. They all know the man it is our privilege to call our colleague and friend–tireless and curious, respectful and inquisitive, caring, generous, influential, a citizen of the world.

We will celebrate his tenure in proper fashion over the coming months. Today is about Larry and about the beginning of a new chapter. It is not about good-bye.

Not exactly related: Keith Olbermann chimed in on Twitter with this…

Larry King is a lovely, generous man who tried, for eight years, to convince his bosses to hire me to be his 8 PM lead-in at CNN.

More related: CNN put out a statement…

Just as CNN redefined the news business, Larry King defined the art of the television interview. His candor, curiosity and compassion are legendary, and his ability to interview people from all walks of life—world leaders, celebrities and everyday people—has made him an icon. Having conducted nearly 50,000 interviews over 50-plus years in broadcasting, Larry deserves to take some time for himself and his family. After 25 years at CNN, he will conclude Larry King Live on his own terms, sometime this fall. We are proud and grateful that Larry will continue the next chapter of his storied career at CNN and will host several specials over the coming years.

Today is about Larry. We will announce plans for the 9pm hour in the weeks ahead.

Gretchen Carlson Profile…

Celebrity Baby Scoop has a profile of FNC’s Gretchen Carlson (via J$)

CBS: You’re the host of Fox news morning show Fox and Friends. Walk us through a typical day.

GC: “My motto is get things done as quickly as possible. I set three alarms that go off five minutes apart. It goes off at 3:45 a.m. the first time, 3:50 a.m. the second and, finally, 3:55 is the third. I rarely even get to the second one though. I jolt out of bed and my husband always says to me that I start my day with a jolt, but that’s the way I am, high energy. I jump in the shower and I am out the door in 9 minutes. I take the ride into the city as we are in the suburbs now and I study non stop on the ride in. So I have 50 minutes to study for all the interviews and the topics that we will be discussing. I arrive at 4:45 a.m. and then I’m doing hair from 5-5:30 when I can still study. From 5:30-5:55, I am in make up. This is my down time. This is when I get my head in the game and relax. I have a wonderful make up artist, she is also a friend, and she plays music. Today we played Pat Benatar because she was on the show today and we just had a lot of fun.

The show is live from 6-9 a.m. Eastern. Then we do an internet live show called The After the Show Show from 9-9:10 a.m. and then we are done with actual broadcast duties and go into meetings and onto the next day.”

Q2 2010 Numbers: CNN…

CNN is noting its Q2 numbers and sticking it to both MSNBC and FNC…

CNN GROWS 43% IN WEEKDAY PRIMETIME COMPARED TO LAST MONTH; GROWS EACH CONSECUTIVE MONTH DURING SECOND QUARTER

CNN Only Network to Grow During Gulf Oil Spill Coverage

Morning Express with Robin Meade Beats Morning Joe in Q2; The Joy Behar Show Posts Most Growth in Prime Q2

FNC Declines Double Digits in Total Day and M-Su Prime Demo versus Q1 2010

CNN Digital ranked No. 1 among ALL Current Events and Global News Sites in May

TOTAL AUDIENCE

CNN: 93.4 million viewers Fox News: 80.0 million viewers MSNBC: 82.0 million viewers

CNN Digital: 38 million users Fox News Digital: 15 million users MSNBC Digital: 30 million users

HLN: 81.4 million viewers

**Based on Monthly Unique TV Viewers in June and Latest Monthly Digital Users (May)

CNN/June:

In June, CNN was the only cable news network to grow in M-F primetime vs. last month in the key demo adults 25-54. In M-F primetime, CNN grew an impressive +43% (220k vs 154k), while FNC was flat (597k vs. 600k) and MSNBC lost -4% (247k vs. 256k) of its audience. At 10p, AC 360 was the only program during that time period to grow double digits, increasing 23% in the key demo 25-54 (254k vs. 206k), FNC’s On the Record was up 9% (503k vs. 462k) and MSNBC was up 8% (213k vs. 198k). Also compared to May, Larry King Live was the only cable news program at 9p to increase double digits, growing +28% (213k vs. 166k), while FNC’s Hannity grew only 10% (572k vs. 520k) and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was flat (248k vs. 248k).

Q2 2010 Numbers: MSNBC…

MSNBC is noting its Q2 2010 numbers and sticks CNN’s face in it. “formerly dominant news network”? Ouch…

MSNBC Beats CNN for First Half of 2010 In Primetime

MSNBC Beats CNN Every Hour of Primetime for 2Q and First Half of Year

NEW YORK – June 29, 2010 – MSNBC beat CNN in primetime in the first half of 2010, finishing well ahead of the formerly dominant news network among both total viewers and in the key adult demographic, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. MSNBC also beat CNN in primetime for second quarter of 2010.

“Morning Joe” beat CNN for the second consecutive quarter in total viewers, and is pacing to beat CNN for the year for the first time since 2000 in that time period. MSNBC bested CNN at 6, 7, 8 and 9 pm in total viewers, and at 7, 8, 9 and 10 pm among Adults 25-54.

8pm Year to Year Snapshot…

Business Insider’s Joe Pompeo got ahold of some numbers for 8pm…

O’Reilly and Olbermann dominate 8 p.m. (O’Reilly much more so). But Nielsen’s latest quarterly ratings reveal what seems like a troubling thread for Olbermann.

Olbermann averaged 1,059,000 viewers in 2Q2010 (March 29-June 27), down slightly from 1,159,000 during the same period a year earlier, but up slightly from the first quarter of this year (1,000,7000).

His ratings in the advertiser-friendly 25-54 demographic, however, have been declining rather sharply every quarter since 1Q2009, when he averaged 452,000. He’s now down to 263,000 in that demo:

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/quarterly-ratings-keith-olbermann-is-slipping-in-the-key-25-54-age-demographic-2010-6#ixzz0sGeP6t2K

Free for All: 06/29/10

What’s on your mind?

The 4pm Ratings Landscape…

Business Insider’s Joe Pompeo has year to date numbers for the 4pm ET timeslot. Pompeo focuses in on Dylan Ratigan’s show being down but what really leaps out at me is the nearly 40% across the board decline for CNN at 4pm. 40% is a big drop off.

Maddow to Afghanistan…

If you really want a measure of just how important Rachel Maddow is to MSNBC and the level of commitment it is willing to put behind her you need to look no further than this release…

MSNBC’S RACHEL MADDOW ANCHORS LIVE FROM AFGHANISTAN, JULY 6-7

NEW YORK – June 28, 2010 – MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow will travel to Afghanistan for the first time this week; she will anchor “The Rachel Maddow Show” live from Kabul Tuesday, July 6 and Wednesday, July 7.

Maddow will also be joined by NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel, who has been reporting extensively with troops in Afghanistan. The trip, her first to the region, comes as Gen. Petraeus assumes command there, on the heels of Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s ouster as command of the U.S. and NATO war effort in Afghanistan, and as debate mounts over U.S. counter-insurgency strategy in the nation and the timetable for withdrawal.

I know what you’re thinking…a host in Afghanistan…big deal…happens regularly on CNN and FNC. True, but this is MSNBC where this sort of thing doesn’t happen much if at all. That’s why this is big.

A Growing in Stature Morning Joe?

The AP’s David Bauder writes about Morning Joe in the context of the McChrystal Rolling Stone article last week…

While it’s simplistic to think MSNBC’s morning show influenced that result, it’s no stretch that “Morning Joe” helped put McChrystal’s words at the top of the national agenda. “Morning Joe” may not have a lot of viewers, but the show tends to be on in important places.

Mike Allen, chief White House correspondent of Politico and a regular on the show, said that a senior Obama administration official told him, “I saw the funnel cloud forming on ‘Morning Joe.’”

A phone call at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday startled Rolling Stone editor Eric Bates, telling him that a car would be by in 20 minutes to take him to the MSNBC studios. Bates had been booked for the show on Wednesday, to talk about a BP story and a “foreign policy story” that Rolling Stone had upcoming that he didn’t identify beforehand. It was the McChrystal story, and it was breaking fast: The general and his aides had been quoted disparaging Obama and his national security aides.

During the hour he appeared, the “Morning Joe” audience of nearly 600,000 viewers far outpaced the season average of 377,000, the Nielsen Co. said.

“If the lights flashing on my phone when I got back from the interview is any indicator, a lot of people saw the interview and wanted to get on it,” he said.

Free for All: 06/28/10

What’s on your mind?

Katie Couric Live? Ain’t Happening…

The New York Post’s Michael Shain reports that Katie Couric has taken herself out of the running for Larry King’s job. Read this article all the way through because Shain also reports that CNN/CBS talks have started up yet again…

Katie Couric is in serious talks to stay at CBS — though not necessarily as anchor for the evening news — when her $15-million-a-year contract expires next year, according to well-placed sources.

The talks have heated up since she quietly informed CNN last month that she was not interested in taking over Larry King’s spot, the sources say.

Update: The LA Times’ Matea Gold pours some water on The Post’s story…

But a source familiar with the situation said Couric has not turned down an offer from CNN and has not begun negotiating with anyone about what she will do after her current contract expires in 2011. Couric appears to be leaving the door open to pursuing a variety of options, including remaining at CBS. Negotiations with that network are not expected to begin until the fall.

Dylan Ratigan Profile…

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter profiles Dylan Ratigan…

At MSNBC, Mr. Ratigan was initially given a midmorning time slot, but he made no dent in the ratings. Mr. Griffin concluded that “he plays better in the afternoon,” closer to the channel’s evening lineup of point-of-view hosts like Chris Matthews and Ed Schultz.

Mr. Ratigan does not just have a point of view, he has a point — one that he repeats relentlessly and feverishly, sometimes with props like buckets and Monopoly money. To hear Mr. Ratigan tell it, the American people are being held hostage by a banking system that acts like a government subsidized casino. His analogy: “My mother is paying taxes to the government. The government is giving her money to the banks. The banks are gambling like they’re watching ‘Fast Money.’ But my mother didn’t sign up for that.”

Mr. Ratigan said flatly, “As long as there’s been banks and governments, banks and governments have been conspiring to take money from the people.” What has changed now, he said, is that “we have the ability to engage it directly,” through fair elections and a free press. The first step in his playbook, then, is to end the denial about it through his show.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 06/27/10

What’s Hot:

Elliot Spitzer – Spitzer and Kathleen Parker were tapped by CNN to host its latest attempt at 8pm ET. I’m refraining from commenting until I see the show…

Remember me? – Keith Olbermann returned to Daily Kos…

Jane Skinner – Skinner is departing FNC…

Skinner’s Replacement – Let the speculation games begin. ICN did and put up a poll. The leading contender was Jenna Lee until the Patti Ann Browne fan club got a hold of the poll and skewed the results…

What’s Not:

Ron Blackwell – Disagreeing with your host is one thing. Calling him an a-hole on live TV is something else entirely…

MSNBC.com to Reboot Monday…

Mediaweek’s Mike Shields writes about MSNBC.com’s upcoming Monday reboot…

On Monday (June 28) the news site will roll out a sweeping redesign that encapsulates what publisher and general manager Charlie Tillinghast called “a major rethinking of what a news site is.” At the heart of that redesign is a philosophy that Web pages needn’t be text centric, and that Web ads should be large and not relegated to the periphery. “We don’t start with the premise that this is a newspaper online,” said Tillinghast. “In the past we’ve bolted on video and photos and commentary to text pages. Now all of those elements are equal.”

But even more radical is MSNBC.com’s decision to no longer serve banner ads, long the Web industry’s bread and butter. “The banner is dead on our site,” said Tillinghast. “They’ve become too commoditized,” particularly when they are served every time a user clicks to a new page, no matter how quickly they depart or whether they even see the whole page. But the new MSNBC.com is designed to be anti–page view to bring more content to the surface and require far less navigation by users.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…

Post your nominations for this week’s What’s Hot/What’s Not. I’ll post the finalists late Sunday night…

Wackadoodle?

Variety’s Brian Lowry writes about conspiracy theories and other non-news subjects…

Wackadoodle TV doesn’t really worry about distinguishing between truth and fiction. In fact, it often seems to welcome the parallels between them, as in History’s obvious “2012″ tie-in, or Syfy’s upcoming “Inside Secret Government Warehouses: Shocking Revelations,” a two-hour special transparently designed to promote the channel’s series “Warehouse 13.”

Lester Holt — the NBC newsman, who has clearly put his journalistic credibility in a blind trust — hosts the special, which comes from Peacock Prods., an offshoot of NBC News. Eschewing subtlety, the documentary frequently uses clips from “Warehouse 13″ and movies — illustrating its section on Area 51, the secretive base in Nevada long rumored to house aliens, with footage from “Independence Day.”

“In the end, we can’t say for certain what’s below ground, or hidden behind closed doors,” Holt concludes ominously, which is a helluva thing to say after wasting two hours of everybody’s time. Nevertheless, he adds, there are secrets people don’t want us to know, as if that in itself is evidence of something extraordinary.

That such nonsense is provided by an adjunct of NBC News makes its own statement about news-division willingness to further entertainment objectives. Then again, when the unit was formed a few years ago, NBC News Prez Steve Capus said it underscored “how we are transforming from a news organization into a news and information organization” — even if some of that “information” winds up being more Weekly World News than “NBC Nightly News.”

One can only wonder where the wackadoodle road leads. “The Militia Hour of Power?” “This Week With Ted Kaczynski?” Paddy Chayefsky’s satiric vision in “Network” — with a TV landscape populated by raving mad-as-hell anchors, soothsayers and militant groups — appears to come a few steps closer by the day.

I’ll admit my faith was shaken a bit when I saw Holt would be lending his name to that series on SyFy. NBC has also been quietly putting on segments during commercial breaks on the Investigation Discovery channel called the “ID News Minuet” which has been fronted by MSNBC talent like Contessa Brewer and Tamron Hall. I have not seen one of these segments myself – I don’t watch ID and I haven’t had time to do a cable channel stakeout to find one and get a screengrab…yet – but according to emailers these segments do not mention either MSNBC or NBC News even though they were clearly shot on MSNBC/NBC News sets.