The fact that Fox Television Studios, a sister company to Fox News under the 21st Century Fox umbrella, is in talks to produce the Hillary Clinton miniseries for NBC hasn’t changed the opinion of RNC chairman Reince Priebus, who is threatening a 2016 debate boycott of CNN and NBC if they don’t cancel their Clinton programs.

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Priebus told Candy Crowley that the fact that FTVS is the likely producer of the miniseries is irrelevant.

“The big question for me is, which company is putting it on the air? Who is doing the work?” Priebus said. “I’m not interested if they are using the same caterer, or they are both drinking Diet Coke, I am not boycotting Diane Lane. I am going to boycott the company that puts the miniseries and the documentaries on the air for the American people to view.”

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Former TVNewser editor Brian Stelter guest-hosted CNN’s “Reliable Sources” today, and while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos‘ purchase of the Washington Post was the big story, there was plenty of TV news to go around as well.

For starters, there was this segment about new NBC News president Deborah Turness, which featured a shout-out to this humble blog.

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Stelter also interviewed ESPN president John Skipper about the threat posed by Fox Sports 1, which launches next week.

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This week marked eight years on CNN for “The Situation Room,” the afternoon program anchored by Wolf Blitzer. While the program will be getting a bit of a shakeup schedule-wise when “Crossfire” debuts in the Fall, it has remained a stalwart in CNN’s lineup, even as its schedule has been in flux.

In honor of the anniversary, here is a clip from the very first edition on the program, August 8, 2005.

This weekend CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta will host a documentary about medical marijuana in the U.S. called “Weed.” While the title is provocative, the content is decidedly more reserved, with Gupta taking a serious, in-depth look at the medical effects of marijuana.

To that end, Gupta wrote an op-ed on CNN.com offering something of a mea culpa on marijuana.

Reading these papers five years ago, it was hard to make a case for medicinal marijuana. I even wrote about this in a TIME magazine article, back in 2009, titled “Why I would Vote No on Pot.”

Well, I am here to apologize.

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CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker is reorganizing his executive team in a big way.

For starters, after 22 years at the company HLN chief Scot Safon will be departing at the end of August. Current CNN/U.S. chief and former HLN executive VP Ken Jautz will manage HLN in the interim.

“Recently, Scot approached me with the desire to take a well-deserved break, and to move on to the next phase of his career,” Zucker wrote in a memo to staff this morning. “I have enjoyed working with Scot, and I am truly sorry to see him go. But I do understand the desire to do something new.”

The CNN Worldwide chief also confirmed the addition of Bloomberg TV’s Andrew Morse, who will become senior VP of domestic newsgathering and digital editorial, reporting to Zucker. Meredith Artley, Sam Feist and Terence Burke will all now report to Morse.

Michael Bass will oversee New York and Atlanta programming, while talent and acquisitions chief Amy Entelis will now report directly to Zucker. Ken Jautz will oversee operations and finance at CNN/U.S. while managing HLN in Safon’s absence.

Tony Maddox will be giving up some of his domestic newsgathering responsibilities to focus exclusively on international coverage.

Zucker’s full memo, below.
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CNN is rebranding the 11 AM hour of “CNN Newsroom” as “Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield” starting Monday, August 12, TVNewser has learned.

Banfield has been anchoring the 11 AM hour for over a year, but the new branding will let her put her own stamp on things. The logline for the hour will be “Ashleigh Banfield tackles the day’s most compelling legal stories.”

The move is consistent with other changes CNN has made to try and refresh the lineup. At 12 PM, “CNN Newsroom” switched to an international news focus, and was re-named “Around the World” earlier this year. Wolf Blitzer will be taking over the 1 PM hour, and Jake Tapper has his own hour at 4 PM. In other words, CNN has been moving away from the generic “Newsroom” title, and moving toward hours branded around the anchor and content.

CNN has officially scheduled the reboot of “Crossfire,” and has settled on a permanent program for the 10 PM slot.

As TVNewser reported last month, Wolf Blitzer will give up some time during the 6 PM hour to make room for “Crossfire,” which will air in a 30-minute format at 6:30 PM. In exchange, Blitzer will take over the 1 PM hour.

In addition, CNN will air “AC360 Later” at 10 PM nightly. The show is essentially a fine-tuned version of the panel editions of “AC360″ that aired earlier this year. Anderson Cooper will lead the program, which “will feature a range of opinions and points-of-view from guests and newsmakers,” CNN says in a release. “The show will also include CNN correspondents, analysts and commentators plus a special guest each night.”

The new lineup debuts September 16th.

More information on the changes, below.
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Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity will interview RNC chairman Reince Priebus tonight about the letters he sent to NBC Entertainment and CNN regarding their respective upcoming Hillary Clinton mini-series and feature film.

Update: Priebus also appeared on Bloomberg TV. Watch both interviews here.

Priebus said that unless the companies canceled the plans to air the features, the RNC would recommend that neither NBC News nor CNN host any GOP primary debates during the 2016 Presidential cycle. CNN responded, saying that “limiting their debate participation seems to be the ultimate disservice to voters.”

Meanwhile, on CNN itself, Jake Tapper covered the letters during “The Lead.” He asked Republican CNN contributor Ana Navarro (as well as Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons and the National Journal‘s Ron Brownstein) about the move:

“When the announcement came out, I lifted an eyebrow, it’s not something that I like,” Navarro said. “We had over 20 debates [in 2012] that were frankly cringe inducing and in many republicans’ minds–including my own–very hurtful for the party. I think that it’s important for the RNC to get control of this debate process so we’re not having one every week and they end up being hurtful to the candidates in a difficult process.”

With the Time Warner Cable/CBS dispute still not resolved, and no resolution in sight for now (although TWC has extended an olive brand of sorts), CBS programs remain off the air for viewers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, among other cities.

New York and Los Angeles are the two largest TV markets, and Dallas is fifth, so the drop is no laughing matter.

In a press release, CBS says that through Sunday its ratings were only down around -1% nationally, but three days is hardly definitive. The true ratings impact will become clear in the week (or weeks, if it drags on) ahead.

For “CBS This Morning,” which has seen strong ratings growth this year, the dispute threatens to stunt the progress the program has made. With millions of people in the top two markets unable to watch “CTM,” it is reasonable to assume that thousands of viewers will be experimenting with other morning shows, particularly if the dispute gets dragged out for an extended period of time.

No other morning show is better poised to try and capture those viewers than CNN’s “New Day.”

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The Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, has sent letters to CNN and NBC asking them to cancel planned programming about former First Lady, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Priebus says that if the programs are not canceled, he will recommend that the RNC not partner with NBC News or CNN for primary debates once the 2016 election season begins.

NBC is planning a scripted miniseries about Clinton for later this year, while CNN has ordered a film about her life.

“As an American company, you have every right to air programming of your choice,” Priebus wrote to both companies. “But as American citizens, certainly you recognize why many are astounded at your actions, which appear to be a major network’s thinly-veiled attempt at putting a thumb on the scales of the 2016 presidential election.”

You can read both letters, embedded below. We will let you know if either company comments on them.

Update: CNN has a comment.

CNN Films, a division of CNN Worldwide, commissioned a documentary about Hillary Clinton earlier this year. It is expected to premiere in 2014 with a theatrical run prior to airing on CNN. This documentary will be a non-fiction look at the life of a former First Lady and Secretary of State. Instead of making premature decisions about a project that is in the very early stages of development and months from completion, we would encourage the members of the Republican National Committee to reserve judgment until they know more. Should they decide not to participate in debates on CNN, we would find it curious, as limiting their debate participation seems to be the ultimate disservice to voters.

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