TVSpy: According to a study, Pittsburghers watch the most live television. This has something to do with the Pirates being so good, doesn’t it?

SocialTime: A new survey finds that Pinterest causes moms stress. The same survey found that people are idiots.

TVNewser: The Today show team is making an appearance on Michael J. Fox’s new show. During the episode, Matt Lauer tries to get Fox fired.

TVNewser: Matt Lauer hosted the Today show from the top of 1 WTC, thus making the building hated by association.

FishbowlDC: CBS’ Major Garrett, who has been dealing with pneumonia, said of the battle, “I’m taking more drugs than Elvis but doing fewer shows.” We like that guy.

GalleyCat: If your mom is weird, maybe she’d like books about mothers. Maybe!

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Discovery Reports Higher First-Quarter Earnings (B&C)
Discovery Communications reported higher first-quarter earnings as international growth offset a decline in digital distribution revenue. First-quarter net income rose 4 percent to $231 million, or 63 cents a share, from $221 million, or 57 cents a share. The Wrap / The Box Discovery also said it expects Oprah Winfrey’s OWN to meet its previously stated goal of breaking even in cash flow in the second half of this year, Discovery president and CEO David Zaslav said. OWN viewership was up 3 percent in its key women 25-54 demographic in the first quarter, even though the first quarter of 2012 included OWN’s highest-rated broadcast, Winfrey’s interview with Whitney Houston’s daughter. THR The latest figure was impacted by a range of factors in addition to what the company called “the strong underlying operating performance in the current year’s quarter.” Among the items affecting the latest profit were a $92 million gain from the consolidation of results for Discovery Japan and $46 million of improved equity earnings, but also higher equity-based compensation expenses and a $59 million loss from “hedging activities primarily associated with the acquisition of the SBS Nordic operations.” Read more

Reader’s Digest just published a piece titled the “100 Most Trusted People in America” and Tom Hanks took the top spot. This is not surprising. Hanks is perhaps the most boring dude alive. You know those dreams you have where nothing significant happens and you wake up knowing you had a dream so you feel like you should tell someone about it but it’s so vague you end up not saying anything? That’s what hanging out with Hanks is like.

Anyway, Sandra Bullock was number two in the poll. Which uh, see above.

Other highlights:

• Jay Leno was more trusted than David Letterman (were people drunk when they voted?)
• Robin Roberts was the most trusted woman on TV
• Other highly trusted media people include Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, Anderson Cooper, Oprah Winfrey, George Stephanopoulos, Scott Pelley, Kelly Ripa, Steve Harvey and Savannah Guthrie.
• Judge Judy is more trusted than Matt Lauer.

Happy Friday. Here is a gif of Matt Lauer dancing. Or is that swaying? Either way, this is definitely a new low for FishbowlNY.

You can go ahead and count Meredith Vieira among those who won’t be buying Top of The Morning, by Brian Stelter. Vieira told The New York Post that she wasn’t interested in reading the book, which highlights all the high school level drama at the Today show and more.

Vieira explained that the subject of the book hit a little too close to home:

I’m over it… I’ve kind of been-there-done-that, and I don’t know what the interest is. I don’t want to get on a high horse, because I understand why people write it. I’m not trying to say he’s [Stelter] wrong to do it, but I look at it and it’s so personal to me. It’s my friends.

And speaking of friends, Vieira is a Matt Lauer fan. “I think what is happening to Matt is really wrong,” she said. Almost as wrong as forcing a coworker out of a job simply because you don’t get along! Almost.

The extensive bashing of Matt Lauer has left him with few fans, but Kathie Lee Gifford — in her own goofy way — wanted to make sure everyone knew he still had friends at the Today show. The New York Daily News reports that her plan was to buy a full page ad in USA Today, featuring signatures from “hundreds” of Today staffers.

The idea of a pity party didn’t sit well with Lauer, so he asked her not to do it. Instead, she told the Daily News all about it, and now everyone knows about the ad anyway. Well done.

Here’s the ad’s cheesy copy:

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TVNewser: Thank god for Barbara Bush. When Matt Lauer asked her about Jeb Bush running for president, she said “We’ve had enough Bushes.” You’re damn right we have.

AllTwitter: Bill Clinton has joined Twitter. Please, someone show him how to properly use the Direct Message function.

TVSpy: People still watch The Andy Griffith Show. That’s not a joke.

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?

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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:

Read more