CNN

File this story under “weird.” Former CNN political director and CNN Headline News president Bob Furnad was busted by a local CBS affiliate in Atlanta placing dog poop in his neighbor’s mailbox. Apparently there was some sort of ongoing feud between Furnad and his neighbors, who caught him, er, brown-handed on surveillance footage.

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What a week for anomalous ratings days! Earlier this week, we noted that CNN’s Piers Morgan saw only 39,000 demo viewers on Tuesday night, way down from his average, and a record-low for CNN. Last night, Morgan was back up to a more typical 175,000 demo viewers, but the drama was on MSNBC and Fox News.

At 10 PM, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell topped FNC’s Greta Van Susteren in the demo. It wasn’t by that much, but it was a clean win for O’Donnell, and clean ratings wins over Fox News (when there aren’t any big news events or specials) are an unusual thing.

O’Donnell averaged 327,000 demo viewers, to Van Susteren’s 309,000. In total viewers, Van Susteren still handily topped O’Donnell by around 500,000 viewers, but a demo win is still a win. CNN’s Anderson Cooper averaged 143,000 demo viewers, about average for him.

This weekend on “CNN Presents,” correspondent Drew Griffin will investigate extremely controversial medical clinics that administer unproven stem cell therapies to patients. The special, CNN’s “Selling a Miracle,” will also speak to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and others who voice concerns about the treatments, which have not been peer-reviewed, while also giving viewers a more accurate look at the current state of stem cell research.

CNN could have used Gupta’s skepticism last week, when the network effectively promoted a similarly controversial stem cell therapy on “Piers Morgan Tonight” and “Starting Point.”

The guest on both shows was actress Suzanne Somers, who claims that a miraculous stem cell therapy–with no side effects (always a red flag in medicine)–effectively regrew her breasts after she underwent a lumpectomy. On “Starting Point,” Somers also advocates that cancer patients forgo chemotherapy for testosterone therapy, which has been proven to be ineffective in battling cancer:

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Last night was a typical, boring Tuesday, with little earth-shattering news to drive TV viewers to cable news. It was also May sweeps, with the season finale of “NCIS: LA,” “America’s Got Talent” on NBC and “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC drawing an astonishing 39 million viewers between them at 9 PM.

Unfortunately for CNN, “Piers Morgan Tonight” was the apparent victim of the busy night, drawing only 39,000 viewers 25-54 at 9 PM. To say those ratings are anomalous would be something of an understatement. That is the lowest 9 PM weekday demo rating for CNN since at least 1997. While the ratings were an outlier, it was a fairly normal edition of “PMT,” with Morgan hosting. Guests included Jane Lynch and “The man with the golden voice” Ted Williams.

“PMT” drew 284,000 total viewers, which was down from a typical weekday, but not a record-breaking low.

“PMT”s lead-in and lead-out, “AC360,” drew around 90,000 demo viewers at both 8 and 10 PM, also down from a typical weekday this year.

CNN’s “Erin Burnett Outfront,” which is still trying to gain traction among viewers, is trying to spice up the show by adding a recurring segment featuring a “Political Strike Team” (Note: not to be confused with The Best Political Team on Television, which is different, although some people are on both TBPOT and “Strike Team,” if that makes any sense).

What is the Political Strike Team? “The best political reporters and independent political observers that OutFront has put together, that will weigh in on issues that matter to undecided, independent and swing voters,” CNN says. Read about all the members of the team here.

“OutFront” has had an “Economic Strike Team” since shortly after launching, though the new group is obviously meant to be election-centric in this election year.

That said, we noticed a key flaw in the first question posed to the team. It asked the team about President Obama’s visit to “The View,” which is “part of a week-long appeal to women, including a commencement speech at Barnard College. Will it work or backfire?”

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First on TVNewser: CNN is planning to launch a new feature film banner called CNN Films that will develop “tentpole” non-fiction films for television and theatrical release, TVNewser has learned.

The plan is for CNN Films to pursue well-known, distinguished documentarians and filmmakers, who will produce the features. The films will air on CNN, as well as in limited theatrical release and at film festivals. The first features produced under the CNN Films banner are expected to debut sometime in 2013.

CNN Films productions are expected to serve as event, tentpole programming, with a handful of new films released under the banner each year. As long as the subject matter is non-fiction, it is fair game for being featured. A spokesperson for CNN declined to comment.

CNN underwent a reorganization in its two documentary units back in March, combining them into one department with a focus on acquiring documentaries from outside production companies. CNN will continue to produce and acquire longform programming under the “CNN Presents” and “In America” banners, separately from CNN Films.

Our sister site FishbowlDC reported this morning that CNN is actively pursing Jake Tapper, the senior white house correspondent for ABC News. Although Tapper is currently under contract with ABC, network execs at CNN — including SVP Amy Entelis, who joined CNN in January after 30 years at ABC — have their eye on him, Betsy Rothstein reports.

Tapper responded this afternoon, calling his current gig “a dream job.” “I couldn’t be happier where I am right now,” he told FishbowlDC.

“Hardly surprised to read about all kinds of poachers being interested in Jake Tapper — that’s what happens when you are at the top of your profession,” ABC News SVP Jeffrey Schneider said. “We are thrilled Jake works for ABC News and expect him to have a leadership role here for a long time to come.”

A spokesperson for CNN declined to comment.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper is widely regarded as being one of the best anchors in the field, but he hasn’t hosted his eponymous program from outside the country in quite some time. Tonight, he will have a return to form. Cooper will anchor “AC360″ from the Turkey/Syria border tonight.

Joining Cooper will be CNN correspondent Ivan Watson, Stanford University’s Fouad Ajami and guest U.S. Senator John McCain.

Cooper used to travel across the country–and even the world–with some regularity whenever news broke. Over the last year or so, Cooper has mostly based his show out of CNN’s New York studios, with less travel than he had done previously. That was likely due in part to his successful  syndicated show, “Anderson,” which added to his workload, and would presumably somewhat hinder his ability to travel due to scheduling conerns.

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CNN “Reliable Sources” host Howard Kurtz challenges MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall over last week’s heated interview with journalist Tim Carney.

In case you missed it, Hall asked Carney about the recent Washington Post story about Mitt Romney‘s high school days, and Carney argued that it was not a big deal, but rather something hyped up by the media, including MSNBC. The debate that followed ended with Hall cutting off Carney’s mic.

Kurtz said that Carney’s argument was a perfectly reasonable one to make, and that Hall should have considered it.

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Since launching her show “OutFront” on CNN last October, Erin Burnett has struggled to gain traction. Burnett peaked in her second month drawing 510K Total Viewers and 140K A25-54 viewers in November 2011. But the numbers have slid every month since to 409K / 113K in April. As we, and everyone else has noted, CNN had its lowest-rated month in 10 years in April. And May’s not looking so hot for “OurFront,” with the show averaging 309K / 78K for the first week of the month.

But we wanted to see how Burnett’s CNN show, which airs in early primetime at 7pmET, compared to one of her CNBC shows. In her final full month, April 2011, co-anchoring CNBC’s 9amET show “Squawk on the Street,” Burnett drew 271K Total Viewers and 62K A25-54 viewers. For another look, here are the 7-month averages:

• Oct. – April, 2011: CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” – 283,000 / 66,000

• Oct. – April, 2012: CNN’s “OutFront” – 452,000 / 131,000

So CNN Erin is topping CNBC Erin, even doubling the demo. But take into consideration that CNN is available in more homes, 7pm (54%) has about double the HUT (homes using television) levels as 9am (29%), that CNN is a general interest news network and that CNBC’s ratings don’t include out-of-home viewers, and you get a sense of where things stand. And here’s one more measurement: in his last month occupying CNN’s 7pmET timeslot, exactly two years before Burnett went “OutFront,” Lou Dobbs averaged 631,000 Total Viewers and 163,000 A25-54 viewers.