As for Idol, the Thursday night show grabbed number two with 961,000 people tuned to WNYW and a 4.9 rating. The Wednesday performance tied for fifth with 927,000 viewers and a 4.7 rating. That led to the Fox 5 News at 10 scoring with viewers. The Steve Lacy/Dari Alexander newscast tied for 18th (570,000/2.9).

Idol added a 10th-place result (779,000/4.0) for the Tuesday night edition.

Also in fifth place were 60 Minutes (931,000) and Person of Interest (914,000).

Big Bang Theory (947,000/4.8) and AMC’s Walking Dead (932,000) tied for third.

WABC made its first appearance in the Top 30 with Revenge at 13 (641,000/3.3).  Struggling NBC was represented only by Celebrity Apprentice, which tied for number 29 (487,000/2.5).

There’s more from the Top 10 after the jump.

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With that lead-in the Fox 5 News at 10 with Steve Lacy and Dari Alexander with number 24 (523,000/2.7).

• Related: FishbowlNY, Former Staffer Alleges String of Bad Decisions By Fox 5 Management

The Thursday edition of Idol took fourth place for the week with 888,000 viewers and a 4.5 rating.

Modern Family wedged itself at number three with (985,000/5.0).

AMC’s Walking Dead was next at five (859,000/4.4), while 60 Minutes took hold of sixth (824,000/4.2).

WNBC’s first appearance in the weekly Top 30 was 20th with Law & Order: SVU (577,000/2.9).

The debut of History’s The Bible miniseries was 17th (589,000/3.0).

More from the Top 10 after the jump

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That’s not the case on East 42nd Street.

WPIX was handed a gift last summer when WNYW made abrupt changes. With Greg Kelly off the mornings, WPIX had a chance to make headway against its rival.

However, Channel 5 hit the “re-do” button last month putting Kelly back on Good Day New York. Not only did the show put a dent in any Channel 11 traction, it clipped NBC’s Today show for the February sweeps.

• Related: TVSpy, Good Day for WNYW: Morning Newscast Beats Today

So with that backdrop, we explore WPIX’s efforts in the period.

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That would be Dari Alexander, who remains on set at 5 and 10 p.m., no matter if it’s with Ernie Anastos, Greg Kelly, or Steve Lacy. Readers of FishbowlNY have been leaving comments since the summertime anchor debacle about her ability.

Related: FishbowlNY, Major Anchor Changes Come to Fox 5

For example, last week, Alexander was caught inadvertently calling “sitting shiva” for Mayor Ed Koch as “shitting” shiva.

That led to these remarks on the posting:

Dari seems like a nice person, but speaking strictly on her work, she is easily the worst anchor in NYC. Completely [miscast].

Sad to say, she is horrible!

The sentiment about Alexander extends well beyond a handful of disgruntled viewers.

A former colleague who worked with Alexander tells FishbowlNY that her work ethic was non-existent.

“I’ve never worked with anybody who does less preparation before she gets on the air.” [She] seems to not really care where the show is going next or what’s really happening. [Alexander] just seems to be absolutely unaffected and oblivious to the consequences of that,” the former colleague says. “It was so strange. I had never worked with anybody like that.”

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Related: FishbowlNY, Memories of Longtime Media Favorite, Mayor Ed Koch

Instead, the sacred and solemn ritual of Judaism was reduced to ridicule.

Alexander said the family will be “shitting” shiva. Like speaking a foreign language, which it probably was, Alexander slowly corrected to “sitting.” Another deep pause brought “shiva,” a phrase, even said correctly, appeared to be coming from her lips for the first time.

Alexander has been criticized at times with her different on-air partners. With previous night time co-anchor Greg Kelly, Alexander’s cell phone went off during the broadcast. It caused an awkward, embarrassing moment for her and viewers.

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The duo was reunited this morning after yesterday’s stunning announcement, which FishbowlNY had first, removing the NYPD commissioner’s son from the high-profile evening newscasts. Steve Lacy, former Early Call (4:30 a.m.) host began as 10 p.m. co-anchor last night. He’ll start soloing the 6 pm. tonight.  It was an apparent ugly second stint for Dave Price at Channel 5. We’re told that Price, who was bumped to the early morning slot, was “livid” about management’s decision. He was let out of his contract several months early.

• Related, FishbowlNY: Price leaves WNYW, Kelly Returns Home to GDNY

However, this morning Scotto pointed out that Price “wanted to do other things.” She said twice in the opening of the 9 a.m. hour that it was his choice.

“We look forward to what he decides to do next,” Scotto says.

The spotlight then shifted to the positive: Lacy’s ascension at WNYW.

“Big things in his future,” Kelly declared.

In officially telling the audience about Lacy’s new gig, Scotto questioned her partner.

“Do you have any advice for him?”

“Steve is an outstanding broadcaster and a very smart guy,” Kelly admits. “Two of the reasons I was intimidated by him, when I first met him.”

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New face of Fox 5 News at night

Fox executives are apparently wiping egg from their faces. FishbowlNY has learned that Greg Kelly is being yanked as 6 and 10 p.m. anchor. It’s an embarrassing move for management to be sure. We’re told that Kelly will return to his Good Day New York anchor duties alongside Rosanna Scotto. In turn, Dave Price, who succeeded Kelly on Good Day, has been shifted to the early morning broadcast starting at 4:30will be leaving the station.

The anchor carousel doesn’t stop there.

Steve Lacy (left), the current Good Day Early Call anchor, is next to get his shot at the high-profile nighttime newscasts. Like Kelly, Lacy will solo the 6 p.m. and then join Dari Alexander for the late evening broadcast. Lacy joined Channel 5 in August 2011.

Update: TVSpy has more details on the changes. Price, (right) who asked to be let out of his contract early, says, “I had a great experience returning to FOX 5 but it is time to look for opportunities outside WNYW. I love Rosanna and the gang and wish them all the best.”

Kelly was lambasted for bringing his morning show attitude to the more serious nighttime setting. Weeks after Kelly went from sunrise to sunset, FishbowlNY readers made their case in a pair of polls pushing for his return to mornings, while Price would be axed.

All of the changes take effect tomorrow.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Most of the city stations took Mayor Bloomberg’s briefings live and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie‘s comments. WCBS/Channel 2 left wall-to-wall mode at 1 p.m. to join the New York Jets game. However, sister station WLNY TV 10/55, anchored by Cindy Hsu, broke into the Munsters Marathon for the latest Christie press conference.

Channel 2, though, was first to bring in the main team. At halftime of the Jets game, viewers got another sense of the severity as Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson assumed the coverage with Lonnie Quinn tracking the potentially deadly storm.

“I’ll be with you all night, guys,” Quinn said.

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Neuert tweeted yesterday:
returning to my roots @ Fox News Channel. Love it but always missing @StevenLacy @InesRosales @mikewoodsfox5 @rosannascotto

While she heads back to Fox News, her successor alongside Steve Lacy is Juliet Huddy, a tipster tells FishbowlNY. Viewers will recall Huddy as co-host of the Fox syndicated Mike and Juliet show. It aired on from 2007 to 2009 on Channel 5. Juliet’s younger brother is WNYW reporter John Huddy.

A WNYW spokesperson couldn’t confirm Huddy’s status at Channel 5 except that she has been doing several fill-in shifts.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

By adding the site, Meredith is giving its web presence quite a boost. “The acquisition of Allrecipes.com, the market leader in the digital food space, significantly enhances our leading consumer and advertiser proposition,” said Meredith’s CEO, Steve Lacy. “It more than doubles the scale of the Meredith Women’s Digital Network, and is expected to drive incremental revenue and profit growth, adding to our already strong free cash flow over time.”

When the sale was announced, some speculated that RDA would end up getting less than $200 million, which was less than RDA had hoped for. That prediction was right on, as Meredith has purchased the site for $175 million.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The category-one storm made her first landfall early Saturday morning in Cape Lookout, North Carolina as stations began their wall-to-wall mode.

Accentuating the serious nature of the story, virtually every anchor was on the air.

WNYW’s Dari Alexander was one of the few anchors not seen during the weekend coverage. She was last seen by viewers on Friday night. Her 10 p.m. colleague Ernie Anastos (above, center) made his first appearance at 3 p.m. Sunday with co-anchor Christina Park, as the storm weakened significantly.

But Channel 5 did have its Good Day team, Rosanna Scotto and Greg Kelly, in place. However, much of Scotto’s screen time during the weekend was with WNYW’s newest member–Steve Lacy, and not her “TV husband” Kelly.

Kelly and Scotto were together Saturday, helping provide of the special moments.

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Lacy comes to New York from WCVB in Boston, where he worked as weekend morning anchor and general assignnment reporter since 2006.

The Bay State native, Lacy also worked in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Bangor, Maine.

Lacy fills the void created by Reid Lamberty who left Channel 5 last  year to be closer to his family in Miami.

Good Day Wake Up airs from 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m., ahead of Good Day New York with Greg Kelly and Rosanna Scotto.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Meredith CEO Steve Lacy issued the following statement:

Positioning Meredith for continued growth requires periodic realignment of resources, including how we deploy our workforce. These actions will enable us to devote additional resources to key strategic growth initiatives, including digital platform expansion.

To those who worked at ReadyMade: Good luck out there.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Obviously the executives at Rodale know what Lacy knows, so we don’t see them giving up two of their most popular publications without a fight. We here at FishbowlNY see it going down much like the process of reading a Men’s Health or Women’s Health.

First there’s the bold proclamation of improving yourself (we’re going to take those from Rodale!), followed by the intense studying of a workout regimen (these numbers say we should get more magazines!), then a few tentative steps to show everyone you meant what you said (we’ve inquired about those titles, just in case), followed lastly by the decision to abandon the whole plan because sitting on your couch and eating Snickers is more fun than exercising (uh, maybe keeping our own magazines afloat in this climate is enough work for now).

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lacy will remain president and CEO of the Des Moines-based magazine publisher while also overseeing the board. Kerr is remaining on the board, although he stepped aside as chair. Lacy has worked for Meredith since 1998, when he joined as CFO. He was named president and COO in 2004 and appointed CEO in 2006.

Dianna Meredith Frazier was also appointed by the board as vice chair, Meredith said yesterday.

Additionally, Meredith had good news for its shareholders, announcing that it was paying out a dividend of 23 cents a share for the year — making 2009 the seventeenth year in a row that the company has increased its dividend.

Full release after the jump

Previously: Meredith Cuts 45 Jobs, Repositions Special Interest Division

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