Saturday: Highlights from today's TCA press tour session with Brian Williams and Neal Shapiro...

Scores of ABC big wigs and political types gathered at the ABC News Inaugural Brunch Reception earlier today. The event was held at the stately Decatur House near the White House.

I remarked to ABC News president David Westin that that ABC News Now seemed to be "under the radar." "That's not a bad place to be," he said, and promised additional announcements about the digital network in the coming months. ABC News Digital Media Group senior VP Bernie Gershon described watching Now via cell phone, and told me that future phones will offer video at 15 and 30 frames per second.

The letters H and D were heard repeatedly among attendees. A day after ABC's historic HDTV broadcast of the inauguration, network staffers were buzzing about the quality of the images. ABC's D.C. employees were transfixed by the action on two HDTV screens at the network's DeSales St. bureau.

Barbara Walters attracted a crowd. Observers also noticed Bob Woodward, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, and MPAA chief Dan Glickman milling about. Peter Jennings was notably absent, though, as he prepares for a trip to Baghdad.

Following up on this post, here are Jeff Zucker's comments about the Memogate report, directly from the transcript:

"With the regard to the report, I think there's a lot of incredibly important lessons to be learned in that report, and I think that in some respects we learned -- we learned lessons at NBC more than a decade ago when we had an issue with "Dateline," and we instituted an enormous number of safeguards that would never have allowed something like this to happen. And I think the biggest shock to us is that none of those safeguards were in place there. Because nothing like that could have gotten through at any level because of the safeguards that we instituted more than a decade ago. I think the one other -- the one other thing that I was struck by in the report was I can never imagine -- Neal [Shapiro] is here, and you'll speak with him a little later, but Neal and I have spent more than a decade with Tom Brokaw, and obviously, this similar time with Brian Williams. The degree to which responsibility was [abdicated] on a piece about the president of the United States six weeks before the election is something that would have never been done by a Tom Brokaw or Brian Williams. And the lack of involvement on a piece of that magnitude was shocking."

Look for more highlights from the transcript on Saturday...

> CNNers are pleased with the network's primetime performance: CNN averaged 1,353,000 viewers between 8 and 11pm, up 30% over its Q4 2004 average, while Fox News averaged 2,439,000 (down 5%) and MSNBC averaged 385,000 (down 18%). (CNN's primetime # was down 14% from the 2001 inaugural, though, while FNC's was up 57%.)

> Americans in the coveted 25-54 demo didn't seem to care about the inauguration. Between 10am and 4pm, less than a third of the total cable news audience was in the demo: FNC averaged 705,000 demo viewers -- only 27% of its total audience. CNN averaged 168,000 in the demo -- 21% of its total. And MSNBC averaged 141,000 -- 31% of its total.

> How much is too much Chris Matthews?: Countdown was MSNBC's only "normal" news show yesterday -- the inaugural was only one block of the show. And the show earned the highest demo rating on MSNBC: 194,000 viewers between 25-54 demo. (The second-highest hour came at noon, with 182,000.)

> "If you are a Democrat, you didn't give a hoot about all the hoopla, so you just don't watch...period," an e-mailer says.

> Multichannel News: "Fox News Rules Inauguration Day"

> Broadcasting & Cable: "Inaugural Viewers Flock to Fox"

"CNBC has an addicting habit of labeling other networks' firsts as 'First on CNBC,'" an industry insider says. This afternoon the networked labeled its 5pm interview with Michael Powell as "First on CNBC" -- but the outgoing FCC chief had appeared on Fox News an hour earlier. "Perhaps they were oblivious to Powell's appearance on FNC's 'Your World with Neil Cavuto' or maybe their first-rate bookers got it wrong," the insider said. "Or perhaps it could be that CNBC is becoming increasingly and obviously desperate to get back to business when they're not busy promoting Donny Deutsch or Conan."

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams will travel to Baghdad, Iraq to cover the country's elections, the network announced at the TCA press tour today. "Beginning next week, Williams will anchor 'Nightly News' from Amman, Jordan and then from Baghdad. Williams will also report for other NBC News and MSNBC programs," a press release said...

CNN and MSNBC's viewership levels for yesterday's inauguration were down more than 60% compared to the 2001 inaugural, Nielsen data demonstrates. Meanwhile, FNC averaged 2,581,000 viewers during the inaugural, up 30% from 2001.

Yesterday, between 10am and 4pm, CNN averaged 779,000 viewers -- a 63% drop from 2001, when 2,085,000 viewers tuned in. MSNBC's viewership dropped 68% -- from 1,369,000 viewers in 2001 to 438,000 yesterday. "Jonathan Klein's first planned major news event tanked as CNN hemorrhaged more than half their audience from the 2001 Inauguration," an insider remarked.

Obviously, folks at CNN and MSNBC aren't happy. "It was a big night for Fox -- just like the Republican convention," a second industry insider said. But yesterday's inauguration wasn't as newsworthy as 2000's – there was no transition of power, and the stakes weren't as high for Bush. "Cable isn't about celebration. Cable is about intensity and debate," the insider said. "Even though everybody tried to make a debate out of this, the speech was not controversial."

A CNN rep noted that its primetime average -- 1,353,000 -- was 30% higher than its Q4 2004 average. More numbers, in total viewers:

Between 10am and 4pm:

FNC: 2,581,000 / CNN: 779,000 / MSNBC: 438,000

Between 8 and 11pm:

FNC: 2,439,000 / CNN: 1,353,000 / MSNBC: 385,000

> During the inaugural address (11:58am to 12:20pm), FNC earned 3,570,000 viewers, compared to MSNBC's 563,000. CNN did not break out the address in its ratings.

> In total day, FNC averaged 1,769,000 viewers, up 49% over its Q4 04 M-F average, while CNN averaged 726,000 viewers (up 36%) and MSNBC averaged 396,000 viewers (up 45%).

> Ratings for the broadcast networks will not be available until next week...

Quoting the press release: "For the week of January 10, 2005, Good Morning America continued to narrow the gap with NBC's "Today," shrinking NBC's lead over "GMA" by 77% in Total Viewers and 68% in Adults 25-54. This is the smallest reported gap between the two programs in both total viewers and A25-54 since the week of May 6, 1996." ABC averaged 5.7 million total viewers, to NBC's 6 million. In the demo, ABC delivered a 2.3 and NBC earned a 2.5.

Chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour and anchor Anderson Cooper will lead CNN's coverage of the Iraqi elections, including four days of extensive reporting beginning on Thursday, January 27. Live reports from Amanpour, Cooper, Jane Arraf, and Nic Robertson begin on Monday and continue through a week. Correspondents will also report from Syria and Jordan, and Aaron Brown will anchor NewsNight from Dearborn, Michigan, which has a large Iraqi population...

Broadcasting & Cable: "NBC Universal Television Group President Jeff Zucker slammed rival CBS News over the Bush National Guard scandal, insisting that the story would never have made the air at his network...Zucker expressed surprise that CBS seemed to have none of the safeguards that his own network put in place after its own 1991 scandal involving NBC Dateline."

FNC's Shep Smith will be anchoring live from Baghdad all week (and weekend), beginning this Monday, Fox News Channel has announced. Special editions of Studio B and the Fox Report will air at their normal times on Saturday, January 29 and Sunday, January 30. Additionally, FNC correspondents Mike Tobin, Dana Lewis and Andrew Stack will report from Baghdad, while correspondent David Lee Miller will report from Tikrit. Smith will also contribute live reports during the day, according to a press release.

"ABC News anchor Peter Jennings will report from Iraq beginning Monday, January 24th," the network announced today. "While there, Mr. Jennings will anchor 'World News Tonight' and contribute to other ABC News broadcasts and platforms."

> Nightline will broadcast a town hall meeting that asks "Why Stay?" on Thursday, January 27.

> Also: "ABC News has surveyed more than 1300 Iraqis on the eve of the election, and has worked with teams of Iraqi reporters from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in 37 cities and towns throughout Iraq." It was a collaborative effort with Time Magazine and the BBC...

"It's hard to imagine that Nancy Grace has ever met a defendant she didn't think was guilty," TV Guide's Stephen Battaglio writes. "Fair and balanced she's not, and the prosecutor-turned-Court TV legal commentator (and victims' rights advocate) freely admits it." She promises the series will include opposing views, but: "Can I help it if they're wrong? No, I can't."

"How about replacing the soon-to-step-away Dan Rather with, get this, Lara Logan?," NY Daily News TV ed Richard Huff writes. "Okay, go ahead and laugh. It's a wacky idea, maybe," but: "she's young and beautiful...she's got a British accent...and since joining CBS News, she's proven able to report big stories and willing to go into dangerous locations to get them."

> Robert Lloyd, LA Times: "The sheer number of cameras pointed at this event would seem to indicate that something deeply real was happening, but in most ways the day was a break from reality, disconnected from the days that preceded and will follow it. It's a party, for one thing, and even the newsmen are flush with adrenaline and feeling."

> Matthew Gilbert, Boston Globe: "Outside of Bush's swearing in and his address, the 'newsy' moments in the schedule, the day offered up only slowly moving vehicles and milling crowds."

> Douglas Durden, Richmond Times-Dispatch: "with virtually no news taking place in front of the cameras, network anchors and reporters dissected Bush's speech phrase by phrase."

> Tom Shales critiques the coverage in Friday's Post: He says Fox "was scrubbed-up and dignified yesterday, even banishing the news ticker" -- but CNN "impolitely let the intrusive thing go on well into the ceremony." And: "CNN executives also found it necessary to give the inauguration a name, as if it were first and foremost a television show. Thus, a special logo dubbed it 'George W. Bush: The Road Ahead.' Everybody else just called it what it was."

> In Friday's Times, Alessandra Stanley weighs in: "The coverage was bland, but it certainly proved the pronouncement this week by Les Moonves, the CBS chairman, that the epoch of 'voice of God' anchors was over." Check out her comments about Rather...

David Bauder reviews today's TV coverage, and notes that this was Dan Rather's sixth and final inaugural: Dan "became emotional quickly, his voice breaking as he listened to a patriotic song being played. Also: "With bags under his eyes, Rather appeared subdued and suffered with a few technical glitches: interrupting one speaker for an anticipated entrance by President Bush that didn't come for five minutes, for instance, and appearing angry when he had to abruptly halt one discussion for a commercial break."

This snippet from Friday's Washington Post gives a deserving nod to all the television folks behind the camera:

"Chris McCary, an NBC cameraman, lay on the floor, setting up the perfect shot, the camera ankle-high and aimed up the stairs at an angle that would capture the president's stately descent just before emerging into open air. "Gives it a lot of drama," McCary said. And though he was nervous, he pulled off the shot perfectly, giving the public what they expect, a magical glimpse behind the scenes. This was how the day went: People did their jobs, most of them anonymously, a few of them in full view of the world."

Here's the full story...

"The second inauguration of President Bush brought the announcement of beat changes for two of Fox News Channel's most familiar reporters," TV Week's Michele Greppi says. Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron becomes Chief White House Correspondent, and Senior White House Correspondent Jim Angle becomes Chief Washington Correspondent...