Coming Friday and Saturday: TVNewser recaps the year in television news. Don't forget to submit your predictions for 2005...

"People who watch cable news all day long need to get a life."

That's a quote from no less than nightly news analyst Andrew Tyndall. "There's actually no need to have news on 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," he says. Oh, and he believes that because of the war, "people got very carried away in 2003 saying the trend is toward cable, cable is the future." (What is the future, then?)

His comments are on the Reuters wire. I bet a lot of you disagree...

"More video has come forward each day to keep the story alive," the AP's David Bauder says. Quoting: CNN prez Jon Klein: "I think the American audience is acutely aware now in the post-9/11 world that this is a very small planet." Bauder notes that "many Americans scarcely remember the earthquake that struck Tangshan, China, in 1976, killing an estimated 240,000 people."

Americans continue to tune in for tsunami coverage. Wednesday's ABC special on the tsunami, "Wave of Destruction," "was the highest-rated show of the night in both total households and 18-49," B&C says (subreq). It was the first time "the network has won either at 10-11 on Wednesday nights this season. It averaged a 3.8/11...

Yesterday we wondered: "Why haven't any network anchors traveled to the region yet?" Today NBC announced that Today Show anchor Ann Curry and weekend Nightly News anchor John Seigenthaler will report from Sri Lanka in the coming days. John will be live from the region on Saturday and Sunday's NN; Ann will report on 'Today' next Monday and Tuesday. (Press release) ABC has confirmed that World News Tonight Saturday anchor Bob Woodruff is en route to Sri Lanka. No word about CBS yet...

...That's the headline on an ABC ratings report today. The fourth quarter was a good one for Charlie, Diane and company: GMA "reported its best 4th quarter in total viewers" in over a decade. "The difference between 'GMA' and NBC's 'Today' fell 37%, from 1.26 million total viewers to 800,000, the smallest gap in any quarter since 2nd Quarter 1996," the report said. Additionally, the week of Dec. 20 was GMA's "strongest week" since the start of the Iraq war.

GMA staffers are buzzing about the numbers, which were e-mailed to them this afternoon. Beating 'Today' is front and center in their minds -- Staffers talk about it all the time, an insider told TVNewser yesterday, calling it the unwritten obsession.

The Today Show still beat GMA by 13% in the fourth quarter. (NBC's 'Today' press release isn't out yet.) Click for the full report...

"GOOD MORNING AMERICA" CLOSES IN ON "TODAY," REPORTS BEST 4th QUARTER IN TOTAL VIEWERS SINCE BEGINNING OF NIELSEN'S ELECTRONIC DATABASE IN 1991 AND BEST 4TH QUARTER IN ADULTS 25-54 SINCE 1995

With Strongest Week Since March 17, 2003, "Good Morning America" Cuts in More Than Half Difference in Total Viewers and in the Key Demographic of Adults 25-54 for Week of December 20, 2004

ABC News' "Good Morning America" today reported its best 4th Quarter in Total Viewers since the beginning of Nielsen's electronic database in 1991 and its best quarter in Total Viewers overall since the 1st Quarter 1993. The difference between "GMA" and NBC's "Today" fell 37%, from 1.26 million total viewers to 800,000,
the smallest gap in any quarter since 2nd Quarter 1996. In addition, "GMA" saw the greatest increase in Total Viewers compared to the 4th Quarter 2003 [ABC +3%; CBS +2%; NBC -5%].
In the key demographic of Adults 25-54, "GMA" reported its best 4th Quarter in Adults 25-54 and the smallest difference between "GMA" and "Today" since 1995. "GMA" narrowed the gap with "Today" 20%, to 710,000 Adults 25-54 down from 890,000 in 4th Quarter 2003.
For the week of December 20, 2004, only 630,000 Total Viewers separated "GMA" and "Today," down from 1.65 million in 2003, a staggering 62% change. "GMA" has narrowed the difference between the two programs in Adults 25-54 53% from 1.01 million in 2003 to only 470,000 in the key demographic. The week of December 20, 2004 is "GMA's" strongest since the start of the war in Iraq, March 17, 2003.

Continue reading ""'Good Morning America' Closes In On 'Today'""

"Television can't begin to comprehend the suffering. The screen is not big enough."

But CNN International is trying. In an interview with TVNewser this morning, CNNI managing director Chris Cramer described the network's response to the tsunami disaster. Highlights:

> Thirteen correspondents: "Obviously we have quite a formidable bureau structure in that part of the world, as a matter of routine -- Because we're a global network, not just an American network, we have bureaus all over that region. When the news broke...we deployed our correspondent from Bangkok and correspondents and producers from New Dehli. We also deployed correspondents from London, and as of this morning, have 13 correspondents in the region, and 60 staff members."

> The scale of human suffering: "One thing that is kind of lost on us is that...the conditions are quite awful" for the journalists on the scene, he said. "Mike Chinoy, who has been in this business longer than most, said he's never experienced these sort of circumstances. I spoke to him yesterday...He said that part of the world was not unused to suffering, but he had never seen human despair on this scale." Cramer noted that two of the regions -- the Aceh province and part of Sri Lanka -- are war zones.

> Videophones: "We've had digital newsgathering equipment in the field for the last year or so, and have recently, in the last few months, made another major investment in the next generation of DNG. This is clearly an extremely smart investment. DNG is absolutely the way to go for speed...It is a formidable technology, and it's also safer for folks to carry into tricky areas." CNN also has two satellite dishes on location, Cramer added.

> "TV at its best:" "I was traveling around Atlanta yesterday and I observed peole watching TV screens, and I was pleased to see they were watching CNN...People [were] paying much more attention. This is an earth-shattering event, and this is a remarkable TV event."

> Why CNN's death toll estimate differs from other channels: "We like to be able to confirm [the numbers] -- our figures are from doing our own phone calling around and being comfortable with the responses. We like to have more conservative figures, and also report figures that tend to be higher. Our experience of death tolls around the world is that they tend to come down, though sadly in this case the reverse may be true."

> Fast Company asked three experts how to fix CNBC. "My proposition is that they turn to sports" in primetime, TV critic Aaron Barnhart says. "CNBC did nothing risky or particularly creative when it was popular," Motley Fool cofounder David Gardner notes...

> "Jon Stewart was up with viewers in 2004 and Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly was down, according to a new poll released yesterday ranking Americans' favorite TV personalities," the NY Post says.

> Compare Mediapost's "story" about nightly news ratings to NBC's press release. Why did Mediapost copy and paste the press release without citing ABC's improving #'s?

> "Dan Rather will still write his King Features Syndicate column after he steps down as anchor of the 'CBS Evening News,'" E&P says (Via FTV)

"On any big story, there is competition for footage, but there is less pressure on this one because of the access to video from the agencies," ABC's Chuck Lustig tells Newsday. "Amateur shooters have received payments, ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to tens of thousands dollars, although a spokeswoman for CNN said some people had handed over their video for free," the paper says...

Peggy Noonan in the WSJ today: "The biggest story of the year happened just as big-thinking journalists went on vacation after filing their 'Ten Biggest Stories of 2004' pieces. Life has a way of surprising us." She says CNN has been "fabulous:" "When there's no news CNN is endless chatter, tacky as cheap sets. Then news comes and they are reminded of why they exist: to tell us what's happening, to get the newest and latest. It's as if the anchors sit straighter, knowing they do have a purpose beyond being the aural screen saver on our TV."

> CNN.com has posted a helpful Video Log archiving their coverage of the disaster.

> MSNBC will present another special report tonight at 9pm. According to the CNN.com schedule, CNN/U.S. will return to normal tonight...

> MSNBC decided not to compete on the tsunami story, and here's the result, via Reuters: "MSNBC has finished a distant third to the other news channels..."

> The NYDN notices that "Sam Champion went national this week:" It was the first time the WABC weatherman has anchored Larry King Live.

> NBC's Kevin Sites is blogging from Thailand: "A bright yellow speedboat sits in the middle of the street cracked in two like an eggshell, the sidewalk has disintegrated under the sledgehammer force of the water, cars defy gravity posed in every position imaginable with the exception of sitting on their four wheels, and the beach, littered with chunks of concrete has become the road, while the road covered in sand has seemingly turned into the beach."

On Friday and Saturday, TVNewser will recap television news in 2004, and look ahead to 2005. So peer inside your crystal ball:

What are your predictions for the next 12 months?

Will Jon Klein overhaul CNN's schedule? Will Rick Kaplan make MSNBC competitive? Will Roger Ailes unveil a Fox Business News channel? Will Pamela Thomas-Graham still have a job at CNBC? Submit your predictions via this form, or e-mail tvnewser@mediabistro.com. I'll be publishing them all this weekend.