November Numbers: MSNBC

MSNBC is noting its November numbers…

MSNBC BEATS CNN IN TOTAL DAY FOR THE FIFTH CONSECUTIVE MONTH

MSNBC Continues to Top CNN in the Morning and Every Hour From 6 p.m. – 12 a.m.

NEW YORK – November 30, 2010 – MSNBC topped CNN in viewers 25-54 for the fifth straight month in total day in November, the eighth month this year that it has done so, according to data from Nielsen Media Research. MSNBC has out-rated CNN in primetime among both Adults 25-54 and total viewers for ten consecutive months in 2010. MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” “The Ed Show,” “Countdown with Keith Olbermann,” “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” all out-rated CNN in November among both A25-54 and total viewers.

Following are MSNBC ratings highlights for October:

Free for All: 11/30/10

What’s on your mind?

More on Dr. Drew…

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter writes about HLN hiring Dr. Drew…

Mr. Safon picked up the talks with Dr. Pinsky where Mr. Jautz left off in the fall, and he is thinking about shuffling HLN’s prime-time schedule. HLN currently features “Issues” with Jane Velez-Mitchell at 7 p.m. Eastern time, “Nancy Grace” at 8 and “The Joy Behar Show” at 9. A repeat of “Nancy Grace” is broadcast at 10 p.m., followed by “Showbiz Tonight” at 11 p.m.

“None of our shows are going away,” Mr. Safon said, before indicating that he might switch some time slots in the coming months. Dr. Pinksy’s program, he added, “makes the schedule complete.”

Thomas Roberts’ “It gets Better” spot…

On Top Magazine writes about Thomas Roberts’ appearance in an “It gets Better” ad…

In an It Gets Better video, Thomas Roberts, the openly gay anchor on MSNBC, says he attempted suicide at age 15.

The It Gets Better Project encourages troubled gay teens to hang in there and not cave in to bullies, because life gets better.

“At 15 I unsuccessfully attempted suicide,” the handsome 38-year-old Roberts says. “Luckily, my sister found me and saved my life. My family, they rallied around me, but I couldn’t tell them what had brought me to that point. But I saw first-hand the pain in their eyes and I realized that suicide wasn’t the answer.”

Press Releases: 11/29/10

CNN (1)

John Lennon’s Last Days Examined in New CNN Documentary
Losing Lennon – Countdown to Murder Debuts Saturday, Dec. 4 at 8:00pm ET & PT on CNN/U.S.

“I wanted to kill him,” said Mark David Chapman, eerily describing in simple, shocking language his urge to murder former Beatle John Lennon, in a never-before-aired audio recording, included in a new CNN documentary. Losing Lennon – Countdown to Murder premieres on Saturday, Dec. 4 at 8:00pm, near the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s assassination. The documentary will also air on CNN International in December.

On December 8, 1980, Chapman shot Lennon four times in front of the Dakota, Lennon’s Manhattan apartment building. Chapman had apparently considered murdering Elizabeth Taylor or Johnny Carson, as well as other celebrities, but seemed to conclude that Lennon, who spoke often about enjoying the freedom of living openly in New York City, was more publicly accessible.

Joe Johns joins Brooke Baldwin at 4pm ET…

Brooke Baldwin tweeted the following a while ago…

Starting today, @JoeJohnsCNN will join me M-F at 4p. He has nearly 3 decades of DC experience (not to mention he says “dude”). We’re lucky.

Presumably Baldwin will solo from 3-4…

Update and Correction: Baldwin’s Tweet wasn’t clear enough for me and I misread it. Johns is just doing guest segment appearances.

Free for All: 11/29/10

What’s on your mind?

HLN Lands Dr. Drew…

HLN announced that Dr. Drew will be getting a primetime show on the network in 2011…

Dr. Drew Pinsky Joins HLN Prime Time Lineup

Dr. Drew Pinsky, the renowned doctor who has helped audiences across a spectrum of tv and radio programs for more than two decades, will be joining HLN’s prime time programming block. Announced today by Scot Safon, executive vice president in charge of HLN, the new program will launch in Spring 2011 and will be an opportunity for audiences to hear Dr. Drew’s insights on a broad range of subjects every night.

Dr. Drew, a practicing physician who is also board certified in internal and addiction medicine, specializes in topics that are core concerns for viewers throughout the United States — creating healthy relationships, coping with addiction, and finding constructive ways to navigate common struggles facing parents and their children alike. The HLN program will give Dr. Drew a new, nightly platform to provide relevant observations and perspectives on the news stories and newsmakers HLN covers throughout the day.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 11/28/10

What’s Hot:

Thomas Roberts – Rumors and innuendo swirl that Thomas Roberts has been hired full time by NBC/MSNBC. So far no official announcement has been made.

Team Piers Morgan – First Jonathan Wald, then Steve Krakauer. Now Connor Hanna and Melanie Lefkowitz. I made a crack on Twitter about waiting on pins and needles until someone calls this “The Dream Team”. I was only half joking. This is an awful lot of previously outside of CNN firepower coming together behind one program.

Wikileaks – Lots of air time at the end of the week was devoted to today’s latest release by Wikileaks.

What’s Not:

TSA Junk Touching – Too much righteous indignation over invasion of privacy, not enough about flying being a privilege and not a right in a world where terrorists like to bring down planes. I will spare myself inclusion on Jay Rosen’s list by saying that this isn’t about some people needing to “grow up”. Instead I’ll say that if you want to fly, you’re going to have to understand that the days of whizzing through airports without restriction and inconvenience are long gone and aren’t coming back. That isn’t to say that the TSA is perfect or that we’re doing the best job possible of threat detection or that the mechanisms we’re using to scan people aren’t fundamentally flawed. But then that’s not the central issue to “junk touching”, is it?

Cause and Effect?

From an email by J$

You recall the phony flap about a ‘leaked’ Fox News Watch video, where they were discussing Sarah Palin during a commercial break? (I say it’s a phony flap because FNW has been posting those commercial break videos for years; there’s nothing surreptitious or leaked about them.) Anyhow, the part that might interest you is that last week, and this week, Jon Scott did NOT invite viewers to go online and watch the break videos. That’s probably because there were no break videos posted last week or this week either. Make of that what you will.

I make lots out of that. But what it means is another matter…

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 on Sunday night…

Thomas Roberts: MSNBC’s Latest Hire?

There’s a lot of speculation swirling about Thomas Roberts’ status at NBC/MSNBC. Roberts has been working freelance for MSNBC for a while now but the past week or so there’s been a lot of chatter that he may now be permanent. It started with some tweets from Chris Harris, Daryn Kagan, and CNBC’s Nicole Lapin all strongly suggesting Roberts was now an NBC/MSNBC employee. So far MSNBC has not made any announcements.

But that hasn’t stopped someone from setting up a new Facebook group to get Roberts his own show. The group was set up a week ago which coincides nicely with when that twitter buzz started happening. Usually a “give so and so a show” group on Facebook wouldn’t raise my eyebrows but this one is a bit different since the subject of the group is an active participant and apparently has group admin power.

All signs point to Roberts being hired. I wonder what is delaying an announcement? More importantly, if he has been hired, is someone going or is someone going to lose an hour?

Free for All: 11/25/10

What’s on your mind besides Turkey?

A new Wrinkle in the EEOC FNC Complaint

Media Matters Joe Strupp writes about a filing in the EEOC lawsuit against FNC regarding Catherine Herridge. What’s interesting here is the implied linkeage between Herridge’s internal complaint and Roger Ailes now infamous FNC wide “get with the game or get off the bus” email…

In her latest declaration, which appears to tie Ailes’ e-mail to the internal investigation, Herridge states that after claiming she was losing assignments and potential anchor slots because of her age (43) and her gender she was the subject of retaliation.

Her declaration states, in part:

Beginning in or around December 2007, Senior VP [Dianne] Brandi began an internal investigation on behalf of Fox, into the allegations of discrimination that I made.

Around January 15, 2008, I restated my age and sex discrimination complaint to Ms. Brandi. Ms. Brandi told me that if I did not like how things were going that I was free to go (sic) the EEOC. Later, around February 7, 2008, I e-mailed Ms. Brandi and questioned her about her investigation and expressed concerns that Ms. Brandi’s investigation was neither thorough nor impartial. Ms. Brandi had informed me that she had promised to keep CEO Ailes fully informed about her investigation into my discrimination complaint. The next day, February 8, 2008, CEO Ailes sent a company-wide email (the email was sent to the entire company, not just the D.C. Bureau).

Free for All: 11/24/10

What’s on your mind?

Death to the Crawl!

Time Magazine’s James Poniewozik writes about whether the crawl should go; a subject near and dear to my heart…

And it was a microcosm of the hyperagitated news culture in general. The nine years that followed 9/11 were years of genuinely big headlines: Iraq, Katrina, Lehman Brothers. Yet it was sometimes hard to distinguish truly monumental events from ordinary news amplified by monumental technology. Every natural disaster, it seemed, was the worst ever, every potential pandemic the most deadly, every financial crisis the most dire, every terrorism alert the scariest, every political division the deepest and most acrimonious.

Of course, just as you occasionally make a vow to turn off your ringer and stop taking text messages at dinner, the networks have tried lately to set up ticker-free zones. It now disappears during some news specials and opinion shows. In 2008, CNN substituted a more genteel “flipper,” which turns over lazily like a line on an old arrivals-departures board.

But nine years later, our news screens remain cluttered with data. Once the media’s volume level goes up, it’s hard to take it back down. It just keeps ticking … on … and on … and on …

Press Releases: 11/23/10

Bloomberg (1)

BLOOMBERG TV PRESENTS IQ2 US DEBATE: “U.S. AIRPORTS SHOULD USE RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS PROFILING”

Tomorrow, November 24th at 7:00 PM/ET and 11:00 PM/ET, Bloomberg Television will present the Intelligence Squared US (IQ2 US) debate, “U.S. Airports Should Use Racial and Religious Profiling.”

With enhanced security measures already in place in the U.S., including pat-downs and the use of body scanners, Americans are questioning whether scanning everyone with expensive, high-tech equipment is the best use of resources. Or, should the U.S. be using information that we have– the knowledge that, while not all Muslims are terrorists, most terrorists are Muslims?

A leading line-up of panelists will debate the argument on Bloomberg Television, including the former Security of Homeland Security as well as experts in the Muslim world.

American Morning Facelift…

Those who have been watching CNN’s American Morning since election night have noticed that things on the set aren’t the way they used to be. The anchors have been over to one side of the set with the CNN New York newsroom behind their backs. John Roberts mentioned a while back that the set is undergoing some renovations. But that’s not all that’s getting renovated. American Morning launched a new graphical look on Monday with a new logo. This is the second CNN program to get a new look. A while back AC 360 had its own graphical refresh…

Free for All: 11/23/10

What’s on your mind?

In Depth: MSNBC’s Money Losing Doc Block?

When The Last Word launched a couple of months ago, my eyebrows were raised by the fact that it would only be a M-Th program with MSNBC’s Friday Doc Block going on the air at 10pm ET. As the Last Word’s somewhat impressive out of the gate ratings remained steady, I started wondering if the network was making a strategic error in clinging to that Friday Doc Block. Well now the evidence is in and the results are pretty conclusive.

ICN went back the past six weeks to track the ratings for MSNBC at 10pm ET. The best the Friday doc block could do at 10pm was a P2+ of 425,000 and a P25-54 Demo of 223,000. When compared to the ratings of the Last Word during the same period, the results showed that the best ratings the Friday Docs at 10pm could do during that time never came close to beating The Last Word in Total Viewers and only managed to beat it in the Demo four times. That’s four times out of a possible 23 (MSNBC’s Election Night broadcast was excluded from this survey) or a little better than 1/6th of the time. And that doesn’t factor in nights where O’Donnell wasn’t there, which may or may not have contributed to those four low nights (I don’t know since I don’t have the data on which nights O’Donnell was out).

To add further color to this story, looking at all of the Friday performances for the Doc block at 10pm, there was only three times that all six docs beat The Last Word at least one time the past six weeks. Four of those Docs also beat the Last Word three times.

Press Releases: 11/22/10

CNBC (2)

CNBC’s PRICE OF ADMISSION: AMERICA’S COLLEGE DEBT CRISIS PREMIERES TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21ST AT 9PM ET

CNBC’s “Price of Admission: America’s College Debt Crisis”

As millions of American families struggle to cope with college costs that are rising at twice the rate of inflation, CNBC investigates a system that encourages widespread borrowing—often with little regard to a student’s ability to pay—leaving the average college graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt. Unlike most forms of borrowing, student loans carry almost no consumer protections. The debt cannot be refinanced, nor can it be wiped out in bankruptcy. It can even outlive the student, leaving parents and surviving family members on the hook. With rising student loan debt comes rising defaults, but critics say colleges and universities—both non-profit and for-profit—as well as student loan companies are hiding the true default rates in order to keep the flow of government loan money going. How long can the system be sustained? Are student loans the next subprime mortgages? And if the bubble bursts, who will pay the price? CNBC speaks to borrowers, lenders, and school administrators to measure the real PRICE OF ADMISSION to the nation’s higher education system.

_________________

CNBC ORIGINAL TAKES VIEWERS BACK INSIDE THE $100 BILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS OF MARIJUANA

One-Hour Documentary Reported by CNBC’s Trish Regan to Premiere on CNBC on Wednesday, December 8th at 9PM ET/PT

CNN en Espanol Graphics Overhaul…

CNN Observations has screengrabs of CNN en Espanol graphics changes which bring it more in line with CNNI and CNN Domestic…

Free for All: 11/22/10

What’s on your mind?

Conor Hanna Joins Team Morgan at CNN…

The Guardian’s Roy Greenslade writes that Conor Hanna has left The Daily Mirror to join his one time boss Piers Morgan at CNN…

Daily Mirror editor Richard Wallace has revamped his team following the decision by his deputy, Conor Hanna, to seek his fortunes with former Mirror editor Piers Morgan in the US.

Hanna is joining CNN in what is termed as “a senior TV executive position”. In reality – as Monkey revealed a couple of weeks ago – he’ll be working for Morgan, who is due to take over the channel’s interview spot from Larry King.

What’s Hot/What’s Not: 11/21/10

What’s Hot:

Joe Scarborough – Scarborough revealed that he had made campaign contributions without getting clearance and was immediately suspended for two days by Phil Griffin.

Nazis – Roger Ailes accused NPR of being Nazis in an interview with Howard Kurtz. Ailes ended up apologizing for those remarks…to the ADL.

Howard Kurtz – Kurtz had two must read articles this week. The first was a tick tock inside the Olbermann suspension and the second was the Ailes interview.

Megyn Kelly’s GQ Spread – Hot, hot, hot. In a gratuitously non-sequitur kind of way…

What’s Not:

Jimmie Johnson five-peats – Someone PLEASE stop this guy next year!

Huffington Post spikes ANOTHER article critical of Keith Olbermann – Somewhere Rachel Sklar is rolling her eyes…

Anderson Cooper to Interview Chilean Miners…

CNN announced that Anderson Cooper will be interviewing Chilean miners on Monday night…

In a worldwide exclusive, CNN’s Anderson Cooper sits down for an interview with the Chilean miners who were trapped for 69 days in the mine and their rescuers. The interview will air on Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday, Nov. 22 at 10 p.m. (ET) on CNN. Cooper talks with:

Miner number out of mine and name:

Miner No. 2: Mario Sepulveda
Miner No. 3: Juan Illanes
Miner No. 5: Jimmy Sanchez
Miner No. 7: Jose Ojeda
Miner No. 9: Mario Gomez

First Rescuer: Manuel Gonzalez
Second Rescuer: Roberto Rios

Jay Rosen “Explains” Fox News…

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 on Sunday night…

Press Releases: 11/19/10

CNBC (1)

“Haynesville” will premiere on Tuesday, November 23rd at 9pm on CNBC. The one hour documentary will repeat that evening at 10pm, 12am and 1am.

The Haynesville deposit could be the largest natural gas reservoir in North America. When the residents in rural Northern Louisiana learn they are sitting on a fortune, they struggle to weigh their big dreams against the safety of their community. Some will take the money and run while others learn to negotiate with the big energy companies who are looking to drill into the trillion-dollar natural gas reservoir that lies deep beneath their homes. Will this be easy money or the fight of their lives, in what some are calling the “new gold rush?”

“Haynesville” explores how the historic find could affect the nation’s energy picture through the eyes of industry experts, environmentalists and the people of Haynesville, Louisiana.

The Hazards of Live TV: #25,086

Unverified, from an emailer…

I was watching HLN today, shortly after 2pm, when Richell Carey took a live call which was suppose to be someone weighing in on the subject of alcohol being sold on Sundays in states that enforce the Blue Law. However, the caller said, and I quote, “I have a friend who said that when he masturbates, he can xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx”. Well, it totally caught the newscasters off guard and they quickly changed the subject matter.

Oh, I hope this really happened. And I hope more that someone has video of it because I don’t…

Update: After originally posting this quote intact I’ve decided to edit out half of it as it could be offensive to some people. You don’t need to read the whole thing to get the direction this was going. What happens when/if the video shows up…well then I’ll revisit the matter…