I know networks like to plan for every eventuality but that doesn’t mean we have to see it…
Archive for July, 2011
Spin Control…
Posted in CNN on July 6, 2011 by icn2Broadcasting & Cable has an interview with CNN President Ken Jautz regarding the network’s programming changes…
Jautz says he is committed to the schedule of multiple re-airs at hours when some cable networks feature original programming.
“We believe that this is a good lineup and it would improve the flow from show to show,” he said. “We think it’s a lineup that underscores what’s important to CNN – a commitment to quality journalism.”
Cooper will launch his syndicated daytime talk show, Anderson, in September, but Jautz said that show’s taping schedule was not a factor in AC360′s move to 8 p.m. Cooper has said Anderson will tape two shows a day, three days a week to balance his responsibilities at CNN.
“We’re not reacting to what someone else has done, we’re doing what we think is the strongest lineup and the best shows,” Jautz said.
CNN’s Incredibly Risky (for AC360) Programming Overhaul…
Posted in CNN on July 6, 2011 by icn2The more I thought about CNN’s mega programming changes, the more I realize what an unnecessarily huge gamble the network is taking today.
The risk is primarily due to the scope of the changes. Every hour from 4-11pm is changing save two. This is extremely atypical programming behavior.
Networks don’t like to make wholesale changes unless their backs are up against the wall and they have nowhere to go but up. That clearly is not the situation CNN finds itself in today. You can argue about primetime being an issue for the network but it’s not a make or break problem financially speaking.
Typically cable news networks will make one or two changes at a given time and are averse to making more – not without good justification. The more changes you make, the higher the risk level you take on because more pieces are at play and more pieces need to deliver for the change to succeed. All one has to do is look at MSNBC dayside’s history since launch to see how unsuccessful wholesale change can be as a programming tool.
Because of all these changes AC360 should now be considered “under threat”. It loses its live 10pm airing and moves to 8pm, the fiercest and most fought over hour in cable news primetime. It went from a secure position at 10 to an unsecure position at 8pm. The network can back the show and its star all it wants but if the viewers don’t follow it to 8pm or, worse, it loses viewers compared to what it was doing at 10pm…CNN will have taken what had been a solid two hour base at 9 and 10 and destabilized it. Piers Morgan’s show is almost certain to escape without catching any collateral damage. But the damage to AC360 could be substantial, both in ratings and in terms of how the show gets written about going forward. Before it was “AC360 vs. On The Record” which was a storyline that the network, rightly or wrongly, thought played well in its favor. Now the storyline becomes “Can AC360 survive against the raging nattering nabobs O’Reilly, Olbermann, O’Donnell, and Grace?” That’s not a winning storyline from CNN’s perspective and certainly not nearly as favorable for it as the one it had going at 10pm. Worse, the network has to deal with the “You’re not live in primetime at 10pm now” stuff that’s going to come.
But AC360 is not the only show placed under the gun more so than it should have been. Erin Burnett’s show now has to deliver out of the gate. It cannot afford a grace period. The reason? It’s now the lead-in to AC360. If Burnett stumbles out of the gate…that affects 360.
360 needs all the help it can get at 8pm. This makes putting on an untested anchor in an unfamiliar scenario in a new show as the lead-in to your “must kick ass flagship show” at 8pm all the more puzzling. If you were looking to deliberately give 360 the worst possible start that you could, you’d be hard pressed to top putting on a newbie in a newbie format in a newbie show as the lead in. It’s the total antithesis to how you program in a highly contested timeslot.
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CNN Prime/Early Prime Overhaul…
Posted in CNN on July 6, 2011 by icn2CNN announced a bunch of changes today. In the Arena with Eliot Spitzer has been cancelled. AC360 moves to 8pm with a repeat at 10. Erin Burnett gets 7pm, John King, USA moves to 6pm, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer will shift forward an hour to 4-6pm.
My immediate reactions are as follows:
1. CNN vacates 10pm to On The Record and The Ed Show. Certainly 360 will air live at 10pm on nights when news is breaking…but the rest of the time CNN will be in tape during prime time!!!
Let me repeat that….
CNN will be in tape during prime time.
I never could have envisioned such a development. I suspect it won’t last long because the PR blow back from this guaranteed-to-be-talked-about-by-the-competition talking point will be a bitter pill for the network and its staff to swallow.
2. Did Anderson Cooper’s syndication deal necessitate this move to keep Cooper from being stretched too thin? Probably not but the question is now going to be asked.
3. CNN is doubling down on news and information at 8pm vs. the competition. The history is in on that battle and the verdict long ago rendered. CNN will get creamed. Ok, Spitzer was a bad hire but the idea of moving toward opinion was a good one given the current cable news prime time landscape. Today’s move is a big step backwards…back to Connie Chung, Paula Zahn, and Campbell Brown. How many times does CNN need to have sand kicked in its face at 8pm before it finally gets it?
4. I called it.
When CNN announced Burnett’s hire, a quick survey of its programming landscape pointed strongly to the current vacancy at 1pm as the odds on favorite destination if for no other reason than because it was vacant and had been vacant for some time. Then Page Six came out with its story that John King USA was going to be jettisoned for Burnett. CNN shot that down the same day.
Unfortunately for CNN their “conclusive” statement does not settle the matter and it can blame itself for that. The incredibly complicated pretzel-like PR contortions the network made during the whole Piers Morgan/Larry King saga last year has effectively poisoned the well for the foreseeable future in regards to any statements the network makes concerning future talent/programming decisions. I just can’t take what they say at face value completely, not to the degree I once did back before it allowed the Morgan/King PR Charlie Foxtrot to spin out of control. I mean, you could parse CNN’s statement rebutting Page Six in such a manner that Page Six still winds up being right. Burnett could replace King’s show if King’s show moved for example…
CNN was deliberately being cagey in how it responded to all the John King rumors. Page Six 2 (King and Piers Morgan), CNN 0. Today’s news re-enforces what the King/Morgan PR debacle started…digging its self-inflicted hole even deeper. You can’t trust the network’s public statements on its programming right now.
CNN’s announcement, including new schedule for prime, after the jump…
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Final Shuttle Launch: CNN Coverage Notes…
Posted in CNN on July 6, 2011 by icn2CNN announced its coverage plans for the final space shuttle launch…
CNN’s Special Coverage of the Final Space Shuttle Launch
Space Shuttle: Final Mission airs Friday, July 8th 10 a.m. to noon (ET)
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper will lead the network’s team of reporters from Cape Canaveral, FL for the special live coverage of the final launch of the United States Space Shuttle program. Space Shuttle: Final Mission will air on CNN/U.S. and CNN International on Friday, July 8 from 10 a.m. to noon (ET). Former astronauts Cady Coleman and Senator Bill Nelson, and historian Douglas Brinkley will join CNN’s coverage.
Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch at 11:26 a.m. (ET) on Friday, July 8th.
As in the past during major news events, thousands of people in New York Times Square will be able to watch CNN’s coverage of this historic moment.
More than one million spectators are expected to converge on Cape Canaveral, FL to witness the final launch. Having covered more than 80 U.S. Space Shuttle missions, correspondent John Zarrella will report from Kennedy Space Center. Anchor Ali Velshi will report for American Morning from Cape Canaveral, FL. Anchor Brooke Baldwin will be inside the Visitor Complex to gauge the excitement and nostalgia of the historic moment with spectators. Meteorologist Chad Myers will also be in the Visitor Complex providing viewers with up to the moment shuttle launch forecast. Correspondent Carol Costello will attend watch parties along the beach, capturing the celebratory mood.
Casey Anthony Overkill…
Posted in Miscellaneous Subjects on July 5, 2011 by icn2The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz expresses many of the same feelings I’ve had about the media circus surrounding the Casey Anthony trial…
Such trials are the spawn of O.J., whose murder case dominated the media in the mid-1990s. But Simpson was a world-famous athlete. Chandra Levy at least worked for a member of Congress. Since then, television news has tried to fill the void by taking unknown victims and defendants—Laci Peterson, Natalee Holloway—and turning them into cause celebres so that viewers would develop a rooting interest in the players and the subplots.
I find it sickening, which is why I’ve largely avoided writing or talking about the Anthony case until now. Like many of those who even casually followed the story, I thought she was probably guilty. But I never understood why I should care about this murder above so many others. Let’s be honest with ourselves: this is the exploitation of tragedy until it becomes entertainment. And that’s why the situation is even worse than the indictment by Anthony’s lawyer would suggest.
Blogus Interruptus…
Posted in Blog Announcements on July 3, 2011 by icn2Blogging resumes Tuesday afternoon. Happy 4th of July. Don’t blow yourselves up…
What’s Hot/What’s Not: 07/03/11
Posted in What's Hot/What's Not on July 3, 2011 by icn2What’s Hot:
Jessica Yellin – Yellin was named Chief White House Correspondent by CNN…
John King, USA Speculation – Speculation regarding the future of John King, USA revived itself once again when TVNewser discovered some job ads from CNN for Erin Burnett’s upcoming “nightly” show, though it may not affect King’s show at all. It may affect Eliot Spitzer’s…
What’s Not:
Eric Bolling – Bolling Tweeted a poorly thought out screed on having passed the late Mark Haines on Mediaite’s Power Grid…
Mark Halperin – Halperin got himself suspended indefinitely for saying a naughty word (after being egged on to comment by Joe and Mika) on Morning Joe.
The Place for Suspensions – David Shuster, Keith Olbermann, Joe Scarborough, Ed Schultz, and now Mark Halperin. All in less than a year and a half. MSNBC has a self-control problem.
The Five – FNC announced a stopgap show to fill in the 5pm hour vacated by Glenn Beck. They had months to prepare for this and the best they could do is come up with a show that runs the rest of the summer and sounds on paper like a train wreck waiting to happen?
What’s Hot/What’s Not: Submissions…
Posted in What's Hot/What's Not on July 1, 2011 by icn2With the long weekend What’s Hot/What’s Not submissions go out today. I’ll post the finalists Saturday.
Mark Whitaker Interview…
Posted in CNN on July 1, 2011 by icn2NPR’s David Folkenflik interviews CNN’s Mark Whitaker…
Whitaker says the news channel is taking stock, studying its audiences and its coverage to figure out where to go next. But given the network’s rich roster of correspondents scattered across the globe, Whitaker says, he believes CNN’s distinctiveness lies in its foreign coverage. He points to its handling of the uprisings in Arab countries, the tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan, the riots in Greece and the political consequences of the killing of Osama bin Laden.
“We were making the commitment of airtime which allowed us not just to be there first, but once we were there, to tell the human stories — to do the in-depth analysis — to have the smart discussions in our prime-time shows,” Whitaker said.
