TVNewser’s Alex Weprin writes that Ali Velshi will be leaving CNN’s networks…
“It’s been an amazing almost 12 years at CNN. Love it more today than I ever have, and CNN is going to be great under Jeff,” Velshi says. “I basically grew up here, so it’s sad to leave, but I’ve got a great opportunity to stretch some new muscles and grow something, and it appeals to my entrepreneurial side.”
This week CNN has not only altered its lineup with The Point but it has altered what it chooses to repeat. I refer specifically to OutFront which lost both its 11pm and 2am repeats in favor of 360 repeats. Technically this change does give CNN primetime consistency since the 5-8 ET block is 360/Piers Morgan/The Point and that’s what gets repeated in that order from 11pm-5am. Additionally, my long range TV schedule shows OutFront getting its repeats back next week. Still, the fact that CNN couldn’t give OutFront at least one repeat this week is going to make the kibitzers talk about OutFront’s long term future.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Erin Carlson writes about this trial balloon show CNN is floating at 10pm this week…
CNN has replaced re-airings of Anderson Cooper 360 in the 10 p.m. timeslot with (Get to) The Point, a week of special programming with a panel of guests including adman-pundit Donny Deutsch.
The Point panel will also feature ESPN columnist Rick Reilly, ESPN NFL analyst Jason Taylor and author Margaret Hoover.
CNN confirms that right now, The Point is a week of special programming with AC360 repeats shifted to 11 p.m.. But sources at the network say that it is part of broader experimentation at the network aimed at revitalizing the lineup – and not just at 10 p.m.
Apparently this experimentation includes recycling old ideas. I’m specifically referring to Deutsch. TVNewser’s Alex Weprin called Deutsch an “NBC regular”. There’s a reason for that. Deutsch was tight with Jeff Zucker and a lot of the NBC News brain trust (many of which are no longer at NBC now). That’s why you saw Deutsch time and again on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, etc. I would bet my last dollar it’s why you will see Deutsch more and more on CNN now. Deutsch is like the TV news equivalent of the Energizer bunny or, if you are more cynical like me, the living TV news embodiment of the wack-a-mole.
CNN essentially killed Starting Point today and Soledad O’Brien signed off the network. I don’t want to get all FTVLive on you and do a victory lap here but I told you it needed to be done…
Last month I argued that CNN needed to kill the show and take O’Brien off it well before the new morning show launched. Here was my reasoning at the time…
CNN can ill-afford to create confusion for its viewers when the new show launches. It needs to acclimate them to where things are going. CNN does not achieve this by keeping Starting Point around or, worse, elevating its profile by keeping it on the air past its scheduled run time. There is nothing to be gained from running Starting Point over now. Whatever ratings gain the show achieves from such tactics is completely offset by the fact the show is already dead and the network is only building it up higher when it comes time to kill it which makes the fall all the harder and the changeover to the new show more difficult from a viewer standpoint.
Starting Point needs to die and it needs to die as soon as possible. Kill the show now and put on substitute anchors doing general news. Create a transition period between what was and what is going to be. The longer CNN keeps the show on the air and O’Brien anchoring it, the tougher the transition will be.
I had great fear that CNN would keep the show and O’Brien on the air too long when three days after I wrote that post, TVNewser’s Gail Shister interviewed O’Brien and this data point dropped…
“I’ll consider all pitches,” says O’Brien, 46, who will continue as anchor of ‘Starting Point’ until May or June.
May or June would have been way too long to keep O’Brien on the air. Fortunately in the month since that article hit the web, CNN’s internal deliberations changed and “May or June” became the end of March. This was the right move. I don’t know if CNN will keep the Starting Point name or not for the intervening period between now and when the new morning show launches but there will definitely be a long enough transition period to acclimate the viewers between what was and what will be.
Well, Jeff Zucker got his morning team. Though CNN is hyping the new morning team and its chemistry it’s common knowledge that Bolduan wasn’t Zucker’s first choice. It was Erin Burnett. If Burnett’s team hadn’t made a mess of the negotiations which got very public and very ugly, I have no doubt Bolduan would still be in Washington. I actually believe that CNN’s morning show will be better off with Bolduan because she isn’t a name and that will help tamp down the expectations game whereas a Cuomo – Burnett pairing would have raised the stakes. The stakes are already high enough because of all the pre-pre-launch hype the preparations have been getting…something CNN really needs to dial back on if they want to give the show a fighting chance.
So now Bolduan will be in New York and Erin Burnett will stay where she is. For the moment. But you have to wonder just how damaged Burnett is at CNN after her team not only said no but to Jeff Zucker but said no via the proxy of making the negotiation process unbearably difficult? Team Burnett thought it had leverage and it blew up in their face. Now they only have 7pm which is not untouchable given OutFront’s ratings. Plus they pissed off their boss. Yes, CNN is probably better off because they wound up looking elsewhere but the process had to have left a very bad taste in Zucker’s mouth. So the question needs to be asked: just how secure is Erin Burnett at CNN now? How much damage has been self-inflicted? Are there any burned bridges? The answers to those questions will determine Burnett’s future at CNN almost as much as her show’s ratings…
CNN’s announcement that Kate Bolduan will join Chris Cuomo on its new morning program and Michaela Pereira will the news anchor…
Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan to Host CNN’s New Morning Show
Michaela Pereira Joins as News Anchor
Jim Murphy to Oversee as Senior Executive Producer; Matt Frucci Named Executive Producer
CNN announced today that Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan will co-host the network’s new morning show, which will premiere this spring. Michaela Pereira will join CNN from KTLA Morning News in Los Angeles, as the program’s news anchor. News executive Jim Murphy will oversee the program as senior executive producer, and Matt Frucci will serve as executive producer. The show will be broadcast from CNN’s New York City studios.
“I’ve been looking forward to this announcement since I first joined CNN,” said President of CNN Worldwide Jeff Zucker. “Chris, Kate and Michaela are a dynamic team that will give our viewers in America a new way to start their day. We were floored with excitement when we saw Chris and Kate together on screen, and by adding Michaela to the mix we feel we have something very special. We believe there is an opening to do news in the morning with a fresh, new voice.”
Cuomo joined CNN in January from ABC, where his roles ranged from 20/20 co-anchor, ABC News chief law and justice correspondent and Good Morning America news anchor. In the first two months at CNN, he has led CNN’s breaking news coverage from the papal conclave in Rome to the State of the Union address in Washington. Bolduan joined CNN in 2007, and is co-anchor of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Bolduan also serves as one of the network’s Congressional correspondents. Pereira comes from the top-rated and award-winning KTLA Morning News.
Read more »
Variety’s Brian Lowry floats a lead weighted trial balloon…
Jeff Zucker, former NBC chief and new head of CNN, say hello to your newest primetime star: Jay Leno.
It was Zucker, remember, who came up with the latenight world’s version of a two-state (or perhaps two-host) solution, convincing Leno to announce he would step aside and hand over “The Tonight Show” to Conan O’Brien back in 2004, thus buying the network five years of relative harmony until the planned 2009 baton pass.
Lowry goes on to discuss why it’s a good idea.
Now, the idea of putting a comedian on a news network might initially cause purists to balk, but there is ample precedent for this, and I’m not merely referring to the last few years of Larry King’s CNN show, or pretty much any morning on “Fox & Friends.”
CNN International has carried “The Daily Show.” And Fox News experimented with a satirical newscast produced by “24” co-creator Joel Surnow, “The Half-Hour News Hour,” pitched as a conservative alternative to Jon Stewart’s program. Yes, it was awful, but the 2007 series demonstrated news channels aren’t above vying to deliver showbiz pizzazz.
Latest example of Lowry’s on again – off again jabs at FNC nonwithstanding, these arguments are weak. CNN US never aired The Daily Show…it doesn’t matter what CNNI airs. If it doesn’t air in the US there’s a reason Turner/Time Warner doesn’t want it airing in the US. As for “The Half Hour News Hour”…it wasn’t a weeknight show and it was so expensive for FNC the network couldn’t keep doing it (at least that was FNC’s public explanation).
Besides, why would Leno want to go to a network where every night his show was in danger of being pre-empted by breaking news? Or can anyone see Leno covering some primetime tragedy story going down?
Uh oh…looks like John King put his foot in it…
“If you watch CNN, I’m not picking on anybody, but if you watch CNN nine o’clock in the morning, 10 o’clock in the morning, 11 o’clock in the morning, 12 o’clock — it’s the same. It’s a single anchor, sitting in a chair, reading headlines that none of you have to turn on your t.v. to get because you can get them here (holds up phones), or you can get them on your laptop.”
I would like to see the full in context quote, but the optics of this are not good…especially since at 12 CNN is not using a single anchor.
Mediaite’s Joe Concha argues that Phil Griffin should be more worried about Jeff Zucker than beating FNC. While Concha’s premise merits consideration, his supporting evidence is extremely weak.
Over the past two weeks, night after night, Griffin’s network has been beaten soundly in primetime by Turner’s Headline News Network (HLN). Sure, some of that ratings bump is driven by the Jodi Arias trial, but as Bill Parcells once said, “There’s winning, and there’s misery.” And MSNBC can’t think of targeting the best team in the league when it can’t even win the race to runner-up, regardless of the excuse (in this case, a murder trial).
1) HLN is not Jeff Zucker (though ostensibly Zucker oversees HLN) nor is it CNN which is the purported threat to MSNBC Concha’s case hinges on.
2) OUTLIER! OUTLIER!
Re-quoting the above…
Sure, some of that ratings bump is driven by the Jodi Arias trial
Some? SOME?!?!?!
Are you kidding me?!??! HLN’s outlier ratings spike is entirely because of Jodi Arias. HLN hadn’t been a thorn in MSNBC’s side for years. Now all of a sudden it’s beating MSNBC just as HLN goes wall to wall Arias. Co-incidence? No. As soon as Arias’ trial is over, HLN will drop like a rock back to fourth. Nothing for Griffin to worry about here.
Turner’s CNN is also rebuilding its brand, evidenced by the recent (solid, not spectacular) hires of Chris Cuomo and Jake Tapper. And Jeff Zucker won’t stop there: Big pockets at Turner means relatively big names will likely follow in the coming year, and given the current numbers in the primetime 25-54 demo (mostly in the 100,000-150,000 range; for context, FOX News averages above 300,000), big changes are needed.
First of all, the onus is on Zucker to prove he can break CNN’s long running streak of going out and getting a name and then sideslipping in the ratings. And Cuomo is not a slam dunk guaranteed success story waiting to happen at the network. His partner still has to be named and the chemistry has to click right off the bat to prevent a flood of negative reaction (which is what makes naming Burnett such a potentially risky move because when the two were paired together recently the chemistry was awkward). Even if Zucker manages to launch a competitor format morning show to the big three broadcast morning shows, it’ll have to compete hard with the established booking powers at NBC, CBS, and ABC who can guarantee higher ratings to prospective booking targets than any of the cable news channels. That’s a hell of an uphill battle.
What should worry Griffin is holding on to Joe and Mika. If they bolt, as the long simmering rumors continue to bubble, MSNBC is in big trouble in the mornings especially now that Willie Geist has one foot on the Today Show. But barring that, mornings are not yet something to worry about. The pressure is all on Zucker to deliver, not on Griffin to anticipate.
Tapper is the more intriguing hire but his current timeslot is going to undercut his potential impact because the eyeballs just aren’t there in dayside compared to primetime.
That is pretty much the sum total of Concha’s argument for why Griffin should be worried about Zucker. Not much to really sink your teeth into, so I’m not convinced based on Concha’s evidence. Or lack thereof.
Where I do agree with Concha is about MSNBC’s chances of overtaking FNC. Based on the current programming slate, I’d say the chances are slim and none. FNC would have to slip up bad to give MSNBC a real shot at it. We’re talking massive viewer tune out here in the order of hundreds of thousands. There is nothing on the FNC horizon to indicate such a precipitous drop is in the offing.
But there is room to worry about MSNBC slippage. As Concha expertly notes The Cycle is awful. I won’t go all in on The Five as a comparison the way he does, if for no other reason than general principle (I universally despise all View type programming), but his argument on The Cycle is sound…
The Cycle simply has a different feel. The words that come to mind: Unbalanced, unnatural, uptight, forced, mean. It simply takes itself way too seriously.
But then Concha has to add this…
All of that said, The Cycle is still an improvement for MSNBC at 3:00 PM over its predecessor.
That would be Martin Bashir’s show…which is still on the air, albeit one hour later. Bashir’s show is just as uptight, forced, and occasionally mean as the Cycle.
Then there is the open question of whether Chris Hayes really is the right choice for 8pm. I will wait to see how MSNBC repackages Hayes for the different timeslot before opining there. But if Hayes can’t at least hold on to Ed Schultz’s numbers, that would create an opening for CNN if they moved 360 back to 10pm where it is better suited. But that’s a lot of ifs so I doubt Griffin is worrying about that either.
The one area where Griffin should be worried, which Concha ignores, is dayside. MSNBC dayside is weak. Its over-reliance on opinion and talking head analysis instead of news, something FNC doesn’t do anywhere near the level that MSNBC does (as evidenced by Pew’s study), is the one spot Zucker could easily work on to undermine MSNBC. The problem there is the headlines in the trades, newspapers, and blogs center around mornings and primetime. That’s what Zucker is working on first and that’s where MSNBC enjoys its strongest advantage over CNN. In other words, Zucker will be expending the most energy on the most uphill of uphill battles.
In theory, there is certainly a possibility that CNN at some point down the road could overtake MSNBC again. It’s possible that Zucker overhauls primetime in some manner to make CNN a threat again. It’s also possible that CNN’s new morning show will attract an audience in numbers big enough to scare 30 Rock, though I’m not holding my breath.
But these are all hypotheticals. The fact is right now CNN is not a threat to MSNBC’s #2 position. Neither is HLN, occasional sensational trials non-withstanding. It may be one day but that day is not today. Nor is it tomorrow. Nor next week. Nor next month. Very likely not this year. It took years to have CNN sink this low. It’ll take years for it to work itself out, if it can, barring some unforseen occurrance. Griffin may not even be at MSNBC when/if it does. So Phil Griffin need not worry much about Jeff Zucker. For now.
I needed to see CNN’s new show The Lead a few times to get a feel for it. While I doubt that in a year’s time the show will bear too striking a resemblance to what currently airs today – as has been the case for most programs that debut on CNN these days – there are some things about The Lead that I do feel need to be talked about now.
Anyone who has read this blog the past few years knows how much I hate what cable news has become with its crack like addiction to political programming. I’ve written about it numerous times here and Mediaite has been generous to let me yell about it over there on occasion.
Having said that, not all political programming is equally awful in my eyes. I draw a distinction between programming we get from those on the beat and those who aren’t. I find value in the political programming on a Daily Rundown or a Special Report or a Situation Room (though three hours is too much for me…hell even two hours is too much for me). What really annoys me is when it dominates dayside which is predominately anchored by non political beat types. I don’t care how much they have read up on a particular subject…there’s no substitute for on the ground experience.
It’s because of this that I rated Jack Tapper coming to CNN so highly. Tapper was hip deep on the White House beat and his political “street smarts” are as good as Tim Russert’s ever was.
So, given that, imagine my surprise at watching The Lead this week. The Lead is not a politics show. It’s a general news show that tries to cover the top story(s) in various news genres. To use a Baseball analogy; CNN basically traded for ace hitter Albert Pujols and then made him a pitcher. Yes he’ll still get to hit the ball but only once every four days. If you get Tapper you don’t do that any more than you make Candy Crowley talk about sports or Chuck Todd talk about entertainment news.
And yet that’s precisely what CNN has done here with The Lead. It’s not like Tapper is not able to handle non-politics subjects. Anyone who has read Tapper knows he has a diverse background. But politics is where he enjoys the most name recognition and is also why people follow him.
I kept returning to this thought as I watched The Lead this week. I would find myself wishing a particular non-politics subject would hurry up and finish so that we could get to a politics segment. It’s not like I was bored with the non-politics news, it’s just that I wanted Tapper to do what he does best. That’s not sports, entertainment, or generic news.
Jeff Zucker wants CNN’s brand to be more diverse. I cringe at the thought because I fear he’ll muff it and damage the one thing that CNN had going for it…its news brand – and do it by diluting it with fluff and sensationalism. That’s not exactly what’s happening with The Lead but there is a brand dilution taking place nontheless. It’s the dilution of Jake Tapper’s brand.
There are ways to broaden Tapper’s brand but you need to do it with a go slow approach to acclimate the viewer to the idea that Tapper is more than just politics. You don’t do it by shell shocking the viewer at the show’s debut with a format that at best spends 1/4 of its time covering stories Tapper is best known for covering. You move slow…starting out with heavy political emphasis and gradually expanding the show’s domain over time.
Another thing you don’t do is trumpet Tapper as the best thing since sliced bread. CNN Presidents come and they go but keep making the same mistake. They bring in a new talent and immediately put them on a podium. When that happens, they immediately become a target. Jeff Zucker called Tapper “The face of the new CNN.” Uh, great Jeff. You just made life that much more difficult for The Lead.
When FNC launched Roger Ailes didn’t call Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity the faces of FNC. They became the faces of FNC over time without any PR meddling. When Neal Shapiro and Erik Sorenson brought Keith Olbermann back to MSNBC, neither trumpeted him as the face of the network. He became it by his own hard work. You’d think after what Anderson Cooper had to live down with CNN’s huge push to make him the face of the network and all the ridicule that ensued that the network would have learned that this isn’t a chicken or egg proposition; you have to establish something before you can make proclamations about it. To install someone as the face of your network via fiat and not expect blowback is a fool’s errand. Already I have seen numerous articles linking Zucker’s statement to how The Lead has not torn it up in the ratings on debut. Boomerang PR strikes again…
I still have high hopes for Tapper. He’s too good to not succeed if given the proper environment to do so. The question is will CNN allow him to succeed or will they meddle him to death as they have done too many times lately. CNN is starting to resemble MSNBC in its early days with all the tinkering that’s going on. It needs to stop trying to re-invent the wheel and instead work on making that wheel go faster.
The Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone interviews Jake Tapper…
When recently talking to Jake Tapper about his new show, I asked the CNN host for his reflection on the 10-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion and the media’s role leading up to it.
Tapper, then a freelance writer and not part of the White House press corps, said that “too many members of the media got caught up and were beating the drum and were excited to be embedded and there was a very big failure.”
Page Six floats a trial balloon…
Amid all the buzz over her impending departure from “The View,” Elisabeth Hasselbeck is already being courted by other networks. We hear CNN honcho Jeff Zucker is interested in seeing her join his cable channel. A source told us, “They’re definitely interested.” Although “The View” creator Barbara Walters denied on-air that Hasselback was on her way out, after news reports were leaked saying she’s being axed, Page Six revealed she’s being pushed out of the ABC daytime talk show as ratings sag and research shows her conservative views don’t sit well with some regular viewers. Hasselbeck’s agent didn’t get back to us, CNN had no comment.
Politico’s Dylan Byers writes about Roland Martin exiting CNN…
CNN analyst Roland Martin says that he is leaving the network on April 6 due to a decision made by new president Jeff Zucker — an announcement that the network has yet to confirm.
“Last day at @cnn is April 6,” Martin wrote on Twitter this morning. In response to a question from a follower regarding the decision, Martin wrote, “new boss wants his own peeps.”
The LA Times’ Joe Flint interviews Jake Tapper…
For Tapper and CNN, the hope is that “The Lead” will become a wide-ranging news hour that can expand beyond being a political shout-fest without resorting to going tabloid or following the latest car chase to score ratings.
“It will be about all sorts of stories that are relevant to our lives,” Tapper said. The show, he added, will include national, world and financial news as well as a political story or two. There will also be room for some sports and entertainment. Eventually he hopes to have a correspondent assigned full time to the show as well as a rotation of panelists for round-table discussions during the program’s second half-hour.
Tapper also intends to keep working his sources for news.
“I’m a reporter,” he said. “I’m not going to stop making phone calls and trying to find out what is going on just because I have a chair behind a desk.”
AdWeek’s Sam Theilman writes about CNN’s new attempt at cross-platform viewership measurment…
It’s a strategy CNN needs to work; traditional linear cable ratings have always given the network’s footprint short shrift, and it wants to sell every measurable viewer. “The CNN viewership has always migrated to platforms where they can get more content,” says Greg D’Alba, president of CNN news networks and Turner digital ad sales and marketing. “Out-of-home viewership has always been important to the brand.”
And this upfront season, “shiny and new” is the company’s pitch to its advertisers. “We’ve built the platform to enhance our long-form programming, which we’re in the middle of revamping,” D’Alba says.
That’s an understatement. CNN is changing drastically from the top down. New boss Jeff Zucker is changing a great deal at the venerable news network—the former morning TV king is prepping Chris Cuomo to head up a new early show starting mid-to-late April, while Jake Tapper’s series The Lead will begin March 18. Anthony Bourdain’s weekend series Parts Unknown has already attracted BMW and MillerCoors; the latter hasn’t bought time on CNN in years and is putting brand money into the network (around craft wheat beer Leinenkugel) for the first time ever.
“[Zucker]‘s moved quicker in six weeks than we have at CNN in probably six years,” says D’Alba.
CNN’s coverage notes for the conclave…
As all 115 cardinal-electors meet at the Vatican this week, Chris Cuomo and Anderson Cooper lead CNN’s coverage of the Papal Conclave live from location in Rome. Ben Wedeman, Miguel Marquez, Dan Rivers and Becky Anderson report for the network, along with CNN en Español’s Adriana Hauser and Jose Levy. CNN Vatican Analyst John Allen contributes analysis.
CNN.com offers full coverage of the conclave on CNN.com/pope with a special interactive that explains how the next Pope will be decided. CNN.com/live will also live stream coverage of the smoke that comes from the Vatican’s rooftop online and on the CNN Apps.
Soledad O’Brien relates to Diane Brady about leaving CNN in BusinessWeek…
We struck an unusual deal. I’ll get to leave CNN with my catalog and documentaries. We were able to create a brand at CNN—Black in America—that I now own. I can take that brand and extend it in any way I want. You have Netflix (NFLX) and all these channels that are looking for interesting and different ways to tell stories. To have ownership of Black in America and Latino in America is hugely important.
I absolutely pushed for that—it was critical to me. I’m so affiliated with this brand that there wasn’t a real struggle. I don’t just own it, but I can now take it across other platforms.
I’m not exclusive to CNN. If I decide I want to go and do a show somewhere, I can go and do it. I’ve never owned my own content. Most people in TV do not own their own production company. In fact, most of us don’t even own our own Facebook (FB) pages, and some don’t own their Twitter account.
Mediaite’s Joe Concha writes about cable news spats…
So does CNN or MSNBC benefit by attacking Fox?
Sure, it may provide their more myopic audience members some red meat (“Look! O’Reilly is yelling at someone! Fox is stupid!”), all while replacing some-otherwise-boring or repetitive segment in the process (“COMING UP: Who’s to blame for the sequester? Republican strategist (insert name) and Democratic strategist (insert name) will predictably provide their talking points like two C-3POs to help you get a good night’s sleep…THAT’S NEXT!”). Ugh.
Of course, Fox will return the favor in this regard as well, but not remotely as often due to the punching down theory outlined above. For them, it’s more to push a narrative it particularly excels at: Media bias and the guilty parties behind it. Pointing out an on-air brawl between a right-leaning O’Reilly and a liberal Colmes doesn’t prove any point around bias (two sides being presented). Instead, the footage is provided simply for supposed shock value of seeing a prominent host berate one of his co-workers by calling him a liar on national TV, all while (allegedly) to prop up the network (CNN, MSNBC) as superior to such behavior (which, if this clip and this clip are any indication, are not).
The final challenge around such segments is execution. O’Donnell and Schultz did a fair job mocking O’Reilly, but there are two bigger issue that always seem to be ignored:
1) Try as they might, news anchors and hosts aren’t comedians (where delivery is everything).
2) Jon Stewart sets the bar too high in ridiculing the media (and especially Fox) every night. Anything else presented pales in comparison.
FTVLive is reporting that the on again/off again negotiations with Jeff Zucker and Erin Burnett are off again…
Word is this was the last chance for a deal for Erin to do the new Morning show.
Several sources tell FTVLive that the meeting was more civil than the others, but no deal was reached and Zucker is moving onto plan “B.”
FTVLive also dropped this which rang old bells…
As FTVLive told you Exclusively , Zucker had grown tired of dealing with Burnett’s agent John Ferriter.
Ferriter is the same agent that years ago Fox News Boss Roger Ailes promised to never deal with again.
FTVLive is probably referring to what happened with Kiran Chetry at FNC…
FTVLive, which has owned the Erin Burnett story since last week, has a must read tick-tock of how this mess erupted…
FTVLive got word that Zucker had thrown in the towel on Burnett and had started looking elsewhere. We reported that Burnett going to mornings was “dead in the water.”
Others picked up on the story and started get information of their own. Stories appeared on other websites and it newspapers. The problem was most of the stories casted Burnett as trying for a money grab and making her look like a “greedy bitch.”
Burnett’s agent should have been the one taking the heat. That is what all good agents do for their clients. They make themselves out to be the bad guy, while the client stays clean. That wasn’t happening here and Burnett was not happy in the light she was being cast.
Burnett reached out to Zucker without her agent. The two started talking again and maybe working towards a deal. Burnett told Zucker she did not want him to start his reign at CNN with such a negotiating mess.
Yesterday, I suggested that FTVLive was “hedging” about the Burnett/Zucker mess but it’s obvious from reading this that if there has been any hedging it wasn’t coming from there. What a mess. Not only has this saga cast Burnett in a bad light, deservedly or not, it’s also raised the bar for everyone to nearly impossible to achieve levels.
Let’s say that somehow a deal does get worked out now and Burnett ends up joining Cuomo in the mornings on CNN. If things get off to a rocky start or, worse, the chemistry between Burnett and Cumomo is rocky, the blowback to everyone will be insane. Zucker will get it bad for being so single minded in pursuing Burnett. Burnett will catch a ton of flak as being the “problem” in the new show because of the way these negotiations have dragged out whereas Cuomo will, comparatively, get a pass precisely because his move to CNN was handled quietly without any speedbumps. This has really turned into an “all or nothing” proposition for CNN, something the network really does not need in Jeff Zucker’s young tenure at the network. Expectations have now been set way way too high because of what has gone down between Burnett (or her agent) and CNN. Under such circumstances, Zucker is probably better served by dropping the idea of getting Burnett and moving on. This deal is now riddled with potential boobytraps…
FTVLive which last week stuck a knife in the Erin Burnett to CNN mornings saga and declared it all but dead is now sort of singing a different tune…
We also hear that although the deal has been quote “dead in the water,” Zucker still is holding out some hope for Erin Burnett.
But, Burnett has a clause in her contract that says she has a show in prime time. As FTVLive reported, Burnett has dug in her heels and isn’t looking to make the move to mornings.
But, Jeff Zucker can be persuasive, and we wouldn’t be shocked if he still pulls off a deal with Burnett.
Way to hedge FTVLive…
Page Six is reporting that Jeff Zucker is eyeballing Tamron Hall for his network…
Since Erin Burnett is not giving up her CNN prime-time show and is refusing to go to mornings, CNN boss Jeff Zucker is looking elsewhere. We hear Zucker is now recruiting several other newswomen to sit alongside Chris Cuomo. NBC’s Tamron Hall is a favorite. “She was one of Jeff’s bright young things at NBC when he was at the network,” said a source. Also being considered are CNN afternoon anchors Suzanne Malveaux and Brooke Baldwin. A CNN rep didn’t get back to us.
The only way…the only way…Zucker gets Hall is if Hall’s contract is about to expire. Otherwise…forget it. NBC would never ever let Hall out of her contract to join a direct competitor. Plus, we know what happens when MSNBC employees talk to CNN. A Brooke Baldwin/Chris Cuomo pairing would be interesting. So would an Ashleigh Banfield/Chris Cuomo pairing.
Erin Burnett made her morning-show debut yesterday on CNN with Chris Cuomo for Pope Benedict XVI’s last day on the job. But it doesn’t mean she’s going to end up there permanently, sources tell The Post’s Michael Shain. It seems Burnett is digging in her high heels and refusing the new morning assignment. She has a clause in her contract that requires CNN to air her show in prime time. If new boss Jeff Zucker wants her to get up at 4 a.m., Erin is demanding a sizable chunk of cash — more than her $2.5 million salary — to buy her out of the prime-time clause. Insiders say Zucker believes she should be grateful she’s being offered a marquee job and he has started to look elsewhere for an anchor to partner with Cuomo. Burnett is telling her staff she doesn’t want to go to the morning. “What she means is she doesn’t want to go at the old price,” sniffed a source.
Oh boy. Burnett is in trouble whether she knows it or not. That this is leaking out is a sign that someone wants it known that Burnett isn’t on board with the Zucker program. She’s on the Burnett program apparently. She should be grateful. Her early prime show hasn’t been tearing it up in the ratings. Going to mornings would mean a clean start and a new lease on life. That much should be obvious.
FTVLive is reporting that Erin Burnett is out of the running for CNN’s morning program…
Page Six dishes…
Joy Behar could be the next big name headed to CNN, sources tell Page Six. The comedienne and “The View” host was spotted at the network this week meeting with new honcho Jeff Zucker, and the meeting sparked speculation that Behar — a former “Larry King Live” guest host who then landed her own highly rated show on CNN’s HLN — is part of Zucker’s plans to rejuvenate the channel. Behar had the HLN program for two years while appearing as a co-host on ABC’s “The View.” She then jumped to Current TV, and quipped to Jay Leno after the network was sold to Al Jazeera last month, “Al Gore, Al Jazeera, Al Pacino. It’s all the same thing to me . . . I just work there.” Behar’s rep declined to comment.
The problem with this exercise is that there’s a kind of “been there, tried that” aspect to bringing Behar to CNN. She was once part of HLN and that didn’t work out. What evidence is there that things would be any different at CNN? None that I can see…
This morning CNN extended Starting Point by a full hour to cover the latest Oscar Pistorius courtroom drama, thus hammering home a predicament the network now faces as it works behind the scenes to ready the next show which will occupy CNN’s morning timeslot.
Extending Starting Point creates an illusion the network really should be running away from as fast as it can; that Starting Point is still relevant. It’s not. It’s a dead show walking; its anchor soon to be dispatched to longform production exile (self-induced or otherwise). The sooner CNN embraces this new paradigm the better position it will be in when its new morning show debuts with Chris Cuomo and whoever CNN pairs with him (likely to be Erin Burnett).
CNN can ill-afford to create confusion for its viewers when the new show launches. It needs to acclimate them to where things are going. CNN does not achieve this by keeping Starting Point around or, worse, elevating its profile by keeping it on the air past its scheduled run time. There is nothing to be gained from running Starting Point over now. Whatever ratings gain the show achieves from such tactics is completely offset by the fact the show is already dead and the network is only building it up higher when it comes time to kill it which makes the fall all the harder and the changeover to the new show more difficult from a viewer standpoint.
Starting Point needs to die and it needs to die as soon as possible. Kill the show now and put on substitute anchors doing general news. Create a transition period between what was and what is going to be. The longer CNN keeps the show on the air and O’Brien anchoring it, the tougher the transition will be.
So this is how CNN holds on to Soledad O’Brien after it drops Starting Point? The network announced that O’Brien is forming her own production company and it will be airing specials it produces…
CNN Joins Forces with Soledad O’Brien’s New Production Company
Starfish Media Group Will Produce Specials and Documentaries for CNN
CNN is entering into a production and distribution agreement with critically-acclaimed journalist Soledad O’Brien, whose new production company will produce long-form programming specials for the network it was announced today by Jeff Zucker, president CNN Worldwide. O’Brien’s company, which will launch in June, will produce three long-form programming specials for CNN in 2014. Those specials will include one of the network’s most successful franchises, Black in America. O’Brien’s new production company, Starfish Media Group, in conjunction with CNN, will act as the exclusive worldwide distributor of previous documentaries featuring O’Brien. She will also host the 2013 CNN Black in America documentary, which will air later this year.
“We greatly value Soledad’s experience, and her first-rate storytelling will continue to be an asset to CNN,” said Zucker. “Documentaries and long-form story telling are important to our brand and we’re anticipating more of what we’ve come to expect from her — riveting content.”
“The new partnership opportunity allows me to focus on what I love to do the most, and to focus on the next stage of my career, owning my own work,” said O’Brien, “At CNN, I am grateful to have been able to tell often underreported stories and confront difficult topics. In the new production venture, I will continue to shine a light on what we all find most interesting about America.”
As anchor and special correspondent for CNN, O’Brien has been integral in hosting and developing the award winning Black in America franchise, one of the network’s most successful international franchises, as well as reporting breaking news from around the globe. In 2011, she won her first Emmy for Crisis in Haiti (Anderson Cooper 360) in the category of Outstanding Live Coverage of a Current News Story – Long Form. O’Brien was part of the coverage teams that earned CNN a George Foster Peabody award for its BP oil spill and Katrina coverage and an Alfred I. duPont Award for its coverage of the Southeast Asia tsunami. The National Association of Black Journalists named O’Brien the Journalist of the Year and Edward R. Murrow Awards lauded her with the RTDNA/UNITY award for Latino in America in 2010.
Starfish Media Group is a 360 media production company and distributor, dedicated to uncovering and producing empowering stories that take a challenging look at often divisive issues of race, class, wealth, opportunity, poverty and personal stories. Starfish Media Group will produce both long-form reporting for CNN and other platforms, as well as theatrical and scripted television projects. In addition to Starfish Media Group, Soledad, along with her husband Brad, will also continue to run the Soledad O’Brien and Brad Raymond Foundation, that sends two dozen young women to and through college (obrienraymondfoundation.org).
FTVLive writes that CNN is hiring WJLA’s Pamela Brown, apparently for the network’s new morning show…
FishbowlDC stirs CNN’s pot by suggesting that Candy Crowley could be leaving the network…
There are murmurings that Candy Crowley may be contemplating a change. She was originally scheduled for Inauguration coverage and then HLN’s Robin Meade was brought in from Atlanta along with Brooke Baldwin. Suddenly things weren’t so sweet for Candy and she was noticeably absent for much of the coverage. Sources tell us Crowley has been entertaining the idea of picking up her blocks and making a change, even before Zucker arrived. It was, however, announced in the Washington town hall held by Zucker that political programming would diminish but that overall programming would increase from the Washington bureau come one year from now.
But FishbowlDC wasn’t done there…
Executives are buzzing that Kate Bolduan was “born to anchor.” So expect to see more of her. Also in the “like” category is Brianna Keilar, who is perceived as a fresh, younger face.
Anyone who’s watched CNN with any kind of regularity knows that Boduan’s profile is rising quickly. It’s only a matter of time before she gets an anchor slot. The question is who gets dumped to make room for her?
Then there’s this which I don’t think is automatically a slam dunk..
Wolf Blitzer will lose an hour of his three-hour afternoon program, but he was the lead interviewer of Zucker at the Washington town hall and is presumed safe.
It’s not a foregone conclusion that The Situation Room will lose an hour. Remember, Erin Burnett is rumored to be headed to mornings which opens up 7pm. It’s possible, though not a high probability, that The Situation Room retains all its hours, at least in the short term, but slides back one hour.
