What’s Hot/What’s Not: 12/05/10

What’s Hot:

Dr. Drew to HLN – HLN hired Dr. Drew for a primetime show to launch in 2011. But HLN was cagey about when they would put him on, something which several media writers keyed off of as significant…as though another shoe was going to drop eventually.

Nancy Grace Cancer Scare – Nancy Grace announced that she had been in the hospital over a possible Cancer problem which turned out not to be Cancer.

Disharmony on Parker Spitzer? – The New York Post breathlessly wrote about Kathleen Parker being unhappy with Eliot Spitzer dominating the show she’s on. CNN, interestingly enough, didn’t deny the incidents cited in the Post story but did deny that it was planning on making any changes anytime soon.

Thomas Roberts – Without publicly confirming that Roberts had become officially part of NBC News staff, MSNBC has put Roberts into the 3pm ET slot for the rest of the month.

Wikileaks Strikes Again – Wikileaks dominated the news cycle this week but as is usual for cable news the signal to noise ratio was out of whack.

Congressional Stalemate? – The other big story to dominate the news cycle was what will Congress do or not do the rest of the year.

Robin Meade to CNN? – Speculation swirled on the heels of HLN’s November ratings that CNN would poach Robin Meade from HLN and put her in the spot where American Morning operates.

What’s Not:

Robin Meade to CNN? – I think the speculation may be misguided. 1) If HLN does lose Meade it creates a pretty big hole. 2) If CNN brings Meade over will it leave the forumula she operated with on HLN intact and does that really fit in with what CNN is trying to do? 3) If CNN brings Meade over on the notion that she’ll improve its morning ratings but it tries to make her work in the confines of its charter, which is not the same as what happens on HLN, will that be a recipe for disaster? All these questions are important and depending on how they are answered, Meade moving to CNN may not be the success that some think it would be.