> Anderson Cooper and Paula Zahn are hosting a two-hour special, "Defending America," from the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. It's an interesting show, but Anderson and Paula must be FREEZING!

> FNC's Shep Smith anchored the Fox Report from a press perch on Pennsylvania Ave. across from the White House. He called the weather "frigid," but appeared to be wearing earmuffs.

> Chris Matthews anchored Hardball from MSNBC's "Inauguration Headquarters" in the middle of the National Mall in DC. The set is indoors and heated.

> Update: 8:45pm: "Brian I love your site but how about a frigid night for police, firefighters, the FBI hunting down terrorists in Boston?"

Plans to revamp the CBS Evening News "may not solve the broadcast's primary problem," CBS MarketWatch says, citing "media observers." So what is the broadcast's primary problem, anyway? Here's the story...

Via Jeff Jarvis, Joe Territo says network news needs to follow its audience: "If nightly network news is going to survive, it needs to draw more non-retiree viewers. That can't be done if it continues to air while those viewers are still working, commuting home, or eating dinner." How about the CBS Late News? (Then again, the entertainment arm of CBS would never give up its 10pm.) At the press tour yesterday, Moonves talked about the possibility of swapping with the affiliates to air the evening news at 7:30pm: "I don't know if that necessarily would work. We've looked at that."

Larry King was bookended by a sea of 0.4's on Monday night. "Embarrassingly enough, Anderson Cooper averaged below CNN's total day HH number and came close to scratch in the key 25-54 demo," an insider says. "Without Larry King, CNN is another MSNBC." (Anderson's .4 rating equated to 313,000 HH, and only 89,000 viewers in the demo. CNN averaged 366,000 HH during the total day. All the raw numbers:

Total day, total viewers: FNC: 890,000 / CNN: 413,000 / MSNBC: 189,000

Primetime, total viewers: FNC: 1,973,000 / CNN: 815,000 / MS: 317,000

Shows:

> FNC: Hume: 1,445,000, Shep: 1,626,000, O'Reilly: 2,719,000, H&C: 1,730,000, Greta: 1,470,000

> CNN: Cooper: 363,000 / Zahn: 535,000 / King: 1,442,000 / Brown: 467,000

> MSNBC: Matthews: 530,000 / Olbermann: 342,000 / MSNBC Reports (9pm): 258,000 / Scarborough: 349,000

"Michael Jackson has done an interview with Fox News' Geraldo Rivera, to whom the pop star also reads a statement that responds to a recent ABC News Primetime Live report on leaked grand jury testimony by the teenager accusing Mr. Jackson of molestation," TV Week reports. According to the AP, "a Fox News spokesperson confirmed that an interview with Rivera has been taped and that Jackson read a statement approved by Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville. The statement was included in a larger interview unrelated to the case and it was not known when it would air, the spokesperson said."

"Two firms that conducted Election Day exit polls for major news organizations reported Wednesday that they found a number of problems with the way the polls were carried out last year, resulting in estimates that overstated John Kerry's share of the vote," the AP says. Here's the study, in PDF form.

"We're pleased that the report is finally out and that people will have an opportunity to know exactly what we know happened on election night," said Kathleen Carroll, executive editor of the AP. "But the report clearly identifies some problems that need further scrutiny, and we support Edison and Mitofsky continuing to devote some serious energy to understanding those problems."

"As critics continue to question how CBS News president Andrew Heyward survived the upheaval that took out his underlings, the gaps in the official narrative of [Memogate] events suggest there may be one or more alternate versions of what happened," the Observer's Joe Hagan writes. The story examines the leadership roles of West and Howard...

Fox News Channel has promoted Suzanne Scott to Network Executive Producer, Bill Shine announced yesterday. Scott will oversee network programming and production. She was also named Executive Producer of On the Record with Greta Van Susteren. Prior to her promotion, Scott was the senior producer of OtR...

Broadcasting & Cable's new blog, BCBeat, has quickly become a must-read for industry insider goodness. Anne Becker mentions that "Julie Chen was on hand to lend silent support to her new hubby" during the Les Moonves' Q&A Tuesday morning. "After the panel, Chen, hobnobbed in the back with a couple of flaks who oohed and ahhed over her new ring. 'Holy moly, it's goooorgeous,' gushed one, oogling the huge hunk o' bling. 'You need one of those sonicare cleaners for it.'" More...

From Tuesday's critic Q&A with Les Moonves:

QUESTION: Did you think about maybe giving Jon Stewart a regular spot on the evening news? Bring that younger demo in? MOONVES: Jon Stewart is part of our company. We speak to him regularly about all sorts of different things.

Clearly, Moonves wouldn't rule it out. A couple comments:

> "IF CBS is interested in using Jon Stewart, why not have him replace Andy Rooney?," Ed says. "I had thought Dave Barry would have broader appeal, but if they're really interested in reaching younger viewers, having Stewart do a 3-minute essay would not hurt ... best of all we'd have to wait until the end of the show to hear from him. Or, why not hire both Barry and Stewart? Instant ratings and production success guaranteed."

> "If CBS News expects to regain its Tiffany moniker by hiring Jon Stewart -- who makes no pretense of being a journalist -- to contribute to the flagship evening newscast, its executives are delusional," an e-mailer says. "Credibility still matters, folks. And you don't rebuild a battered news division by hiring a COMEDIAN to be the on-air representative of the journalistically accomplished, hard-working men and women of CBS News. Thank you, but I think I'll stick with Brian Williams."

> Also: "This kind of thing has popped up before," Comedy Central rep Tony Fox tells Gail Shister. "Jon shrugs his shoulders and laughs and says, 'Are you kidding?'"

> Steve says: "Many of the viewers CBS wants to go after don't remember that Peter Jennings was part of a triumvirate that also included Frank Reynolds and Max Robinson; Peter was in London, Frank in Washington and Max in Chicago."

> Johnny Dollar e-mails: "What a new concept! Apparently no one remembers 1978, when Roone Arledge took over ABC News and built it into the major competitor it is today. One of his innovations was revamping ABC's evening news. He did away with the single anchor and replaced it with...multi-anchors in multi-cities!...I thought it was a great idea at the time (it one-upped Huntley-Brinkley), but Arledge eventually dropped it, realizing that audience loyalty wasn't as strong when it was divided in three. (Reynolds's death didn't help either.)"

> "All things old are new again," another e-mailer opines. "Anybody remember the first World News Tonight?"