Brian Stelter, who launched TVNewser almost 10 years ago, is now a published author. “Top of the Morning,” out today, lays bare a tumultuous year for network morning news shows which saw one anchor pack her bags, another face a serious health issue, a ratings leader fall — and lose a quarter of its audience — and an entirely new show launch.

In his first interview for the book, Stelter tells us about the secrecy behind “Top of the Morning,” the access he got, and what he thinks about being called Matt Lauer‘s nemesis.

• Part II, tomorrow: What happens when Brian Stelter Tweets something he shouldn’t?

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Nancy Dubuc has been named the new CEO of A+E Networks. Dubuc will succeed Abbe Raven, who had been CEO since 1995. Dubuc’s appointment makes her the company’s third CEO in almost 30 years. She most recently served as president of entertainment and media.

“I would like to thank all my colleagues for their continued support as we write this next chapter together,” Dubuc said in a statement. “We have a powerful portfolio of brands that are well-positioned for future growth, both domestically and internationally.”

A+E Networks, which owns the Lifetime and History channels and more, announced that Raven will be moved up to chairman of A+E Networks, a newly created role.

In his latest column, The New York Times’ David Carr takes on the bumbling CNN. Carr explains that Americans want the network to be the news station it claims to be. “We want CNN to be good, to be worthy of its moment,” writes Carr. But then, as we all noticed, it never can seem to do that. Carr goes through a few examples:

The biggest damage to CNN has been self-inflicted — never more so than in June, when in a rush to be first, it came running out of the Supreme Court saying that President Obama’s health care law had been overturned. It was a hugely embarrassing error.

On Wednesday at 1:45 p.m., the correspondent John King reported that a suspect had been arrested. It was a big scoop that turned out to be false.

Mr. King, a native of the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, was deeply sourced with local law enforcement officials, but people covering the story suggested those sources were out of the loop by Wednesday.

Throughout the week, I saw anchors and reporters staring at their phones, hoping a new nugget might arrive to give them something to say.

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The drama enveloping the Today show gets another indepth look today, courtesy of an excerpt from Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV, by Matt Lauer’s arch nemesis, Brian Stelter.

In the piece — published by the New York Times — Stelter piles on the current thinking that Lauer and others forced out Ann Curry. In fact, after reading the article, it sounds like the Today show is an absolutely awful place to work.

As Stelter reports, the staffers at Today were all pretty much assholes:

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CNN’s John King broke news earlier this hour that authorities have identified a suspect in a video from the Boston Marathon bombing, toting a black backpack believed to contain the explosives.

And the network’s unnamed source described him as a “dark-skinned male.”

That detail didn’t sit easily with PBS’s Gwen Ifill, the managing editor of “Washington Week” and a senior correspondent for “PBS NewsHour.”

She’s long been a sentinel for racial sensitivity. She authored the book The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama in 2009 and has spoken frequently about the obstacles she hurdled as a black woman building a career in journalism.

Disturbing that it’s OK for TV to ID a Boston bombing suspect only as “a dark-skinned individual.”

— gwen ifill (@pbsgwen) April 17, 2013

A spokeswoman for CNN did not immediately respond to a call from FishbowlNY requesting comment.

Image: [Wikipedia]

Tonight at 10 PM, USA launches its first major unscripted series, “The Moment,” hosted by former Super Bowl MVP Kurt Warner. The series takes people who gave up pursuing their dream jobs years ago, and gives them a second chance.

For Warner, the show is personal. He knows what the participants are going through.

“I came back to try and get an opportunity in the NFL, and I had someone call 13 NFL teams, and 12 of them said, ‘no, we’re not interested,’ but fortunately one of them said, ‘we’ll give this guy a tryout,’ and it was the St Louis Rams, they gave me a second shot,” Warner told FishbowlNY over dinner at A Voce Columbus Circle earlier this week.

Unlike most “reality” shows, “The Moment” does not offer a fake position with a lucrative salary. The jobs the cast members train for is a real one, and may even come with paychecks lower than the ones they currently hold.

“This show is people who legitimately have the skill, but life knocked them down,” creator and executive producer Charlie Ebersol says. “It may not be the best thing for everybody, if you have your moment, and you get to the other side, you may realize that the grass isn’t really greener. Not everyone gets the job, but also  not everyone took the job.”
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The big late night rumor is now a fact: The Tonight Show is making its way back to New York. TV Newser reports that Jimmy Fallon is going to take over for Jay Leno next year, and NBC will be letting everyone know with special promotions during the 2014 Olympic games.

As part of that change, the Tonight Show is moving from California to here. A new studio in 30 Rock is currently being built for Fallon, in the same space that Tonight Show host Steve Allen once used.

Jimmy Kimmel, Fallon’s soon-to-be competitor in the 11:35 pm slot, saluted Fallon. “Congratulations to my dear, sweet @jimmyfallon – a formidable rival and an incredible lover,” tweeted Kimmel. Hahaha! Two guys loving each other is so silly and weird!

For more on this story, head over to TVNewser.

Bravo, the cable channel owned by NBCUniversal, has ordered 17 new series and renewed 18 current series, as part of a push to dramatically increase the network’s programming.

While New York and the surrounding area still plays a starring role in many Bravo shows, the channel is also branching out across the country and the world in its new programming.

Many of Bravo’s original hit shows were based in and around New York, and indeed many of the new shows will be too, like “City Sisters,” which follows a handful of single up and coming women in the New York fashion, media and real estate scene, and “Princesses: Long Island about some young women from Long Island,” who are, well you probably get the idea.

Two of Bravo’s three scripted series in development are also New York-based, “Heiresses,” about a wealthy family that made their fortune in diamonds in New York’s Upper East Side, and “High and Low,” from “The Sopranos” Michael Imperioli, about 1980′s Wall Street.

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On Sunday, August 25, MTV will be broadcasting its Video Music Awards from the Barclays Center, so if you live anywhere near the arena, you might want to just leave town that weekend.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s happening. In fact, here’s a couple terrible statements from Michael Bloomberg and Marty Markowitz to prove it. We honestly cannot decide which is more annoying, but the early edge goes to Markowitz.

Bloomberg:

Brooklyn is home to icons like the Cyclone in Coney Island and the Brooklyn Bridge, and now it can lay claim to the MTV Video Music Awards.

Likening the status of the Brooklyn Bridge to the VMAs has got to be illegal somehow.

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In a long New York piece, the drama surrounding the Today show is explored. It’s well worth reading, but here’s a quick summary: Matt Lauer‘s day in the sun is officially over.

For awhile now, people have suspected Lauer was the reason that Ann Curry was fired, and this piece does nothing but fan those flames. The Lauer hating is officially in overdrive. Below are just a few highlights:

• Lauer was the reason GMA was gaining on Today, not Curry. An independent study found that the public liked Curry more than Lauer. One anonymous source said Lauer was becoming Bryant Gumbel. Minus the hair, obviously.
• Lauer knew Curry was getting fired and despite probably being able to save her, he didn’t. Like New York explains, that doesn’t make him a “horrible person,” but it certainly won’t gain him any fans.
• Lauer doesn’t like Brian Stelter. This is a huge no-no in New York media. Everyone likes Stelter. What’s not to like? But Lauer “refused to give Stelter an interview, believing he was working hand in glove with Ben Sherwood to tear him down in the press.” Stelter denies this claim, but nevertheless, he’s referred to as Lauer’s “nemesis.” This automatically makes him our nemesis, so we’ll see you by the willow tree, Lauer. Three o’clock sharp. Be ready to rumble fancy news boy.