NBC

Luke Russert hopes his first “Dateline” report, airing Sunday night on NBC, is the first of many.

The correspondent, who is usually running around Capitol Hill, was able to spend several months reporting the story of Jon-Adrian Velazquez, who is serving 25 years-to-life in Sing Sing prison the 1998 murder of a retired NYPD police officer — a murder he says he did not commit.

“Long form requires a completely different set of skills but it’s also rewarding,” Russert tells TVNewser. “So much of DC reporting is rushed. It’s impossible to escape that ‘breaking news’ graphic. With this story, I was able to do some real thorough research. Spend hours examining the case file.”

Russert interviews Velazquez, his mother, his former girlfriend, his attorneys and a witness who picked Velazquez out of a lineup, who now says, “I don’t know if I picked out the right person.” Dateline producer Dan Slepian has spent 10 years working on the story, which started when he got a letter from Velazquez. The inmate had heard about Slepian’s work on another case of wrongful conviction: the story of the Palladium murder, which helped set two men free.

“My goal is for people to pay attention to this case, put aside their judgments and opinions and just listen to the facts. To think if the guy on the other side of those bars was you or someone in your family,” says Slepian. “That’s what this story is about.”

Asked if he hopes Dateline will have him back, Russert says, “I certainly hope so.”

“It’s a luxury I don’t often have in DC reporting and one that I would certainly welcome again.”

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.

ABC’s “20/20″ and NBC’s “Dateline” will go head-to-head Friday night with reports on the same topic: the story of Josh Powell, the Utah man who killed himself and his two young sons in an explosion on Sunday. Powell had been implicated in the disappearance of his wife Susan in late 2009.

On “Dateline,” Keith Morrison talks with Powell’s in-laws, Charles and Judy Cox, as well as his sister, Jennifer Powell. The “20/20″ report, anchored by Chris Cuomo, will focus on the events leading up to the tragedy. Jennifer Powell sat for an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” earlier this week. And today Cuomo talked with the social worker who dropped off the Powell boys at the home last Sunday.

“He caught my eye, his shoulders were slumped. He had a sheepish look,” Hall told ABC News. “He just shrugged his shoulders and slammed the door.”

Both shows air on Friday at 10pmET. We’ll have the overnight ratings for you on Saturday.

The NBC and CBS news divisions each programmed an hour of primetime Wednesday night to mixed viewer results.

On CBS, it was the return of “Person to Person,” the iconic interview program hosted first by Edward R. Murrow and later by Charles Collingwood. The new iteration pairs Charlie Rose and Lara Logan (shouldn’t it be ‘People to Person’?) and last night featured interviews with George Clooney, Warren Buffet and Jon Bon Jovi.

On NBC at 9pm, the new day and time for “Rock Center,” a blockbuster interview with one-time White House intern Mimi Aflord who discussed it great — and at one point not-safe-for-primetime — detail, her affair with Pres. John F. Kennedy, including rubber duckies and fixing eggs. The interview by Meredith Vieira — in her debut on the show — took up most of the hour. According to the overnight ratings:

• At 8pm “Person to Person” came in third in its timeslot drawing 6.02 million viewers and a 4.2 rating/6 share in households. The show was up against “American Idol” (17.91M viewers) and sitcoms on ABC (7.88M). The CBS News show outperformed sitcoms on NBC.

• At 9pm “Rock Center” built on its lackluster sitcom lead-in, drawing 5.28 million Total Viewers and a 3.7 rating/5 share in households, but came in 4th in the hour behind, CBS, ABC and FOX.

If you caught the “Rock Center” interview you might have noticed an interesting parallel between it and “Person to Person.” The “Rock Center” story included a clip from an interview done 50 years ago this month, on February 14, 1962, when First Lady Jackie Kennedy took Collingwood on a tour of the White House. The hour was produced by CBS News but also aired on NBC, and, four days later, on ABC.

The Museum of Broadcasting said the Collingwood report, “was the first primetime documentary to explicitly court a female audience.” Sort of what “Person to Person” and “Rock Center” went for last night.

After earlier overnight numbers showing last nights’ NFL championship telecast was the third most-watched Super Bowl, it turns out it’s the most-watched Super Bowl, which also makes it the most-watched TV program ever.

According to Nielsen Fast National Data 111.3 million viewers watched Super Bowl XLVI, topping last year’s game by 300,000 viewers. Final data will be released tomorrow.

Most-watched programs in TV history:

1. 111.3 Million – Super Bowl XLVI, NBC (2012)
2. 111.0 Million – Super Bowl XLV, Fox (2011)
3. 106.5 Million – Super Bowl XLIV, CBS (2010)
4. 106.0 Million – M.A.S.H. Finale, CBS (1983)
5. 98.7 Million – Super Bowl XLIII, NBC (2009)

The game earned a 47.0 rating and a 71 share, up 2% from last year’s 46.0/69 for Super Bowl XLV. And while it was the most-watched program ever, Super Bowl XX in 1986, featuring the Patriots vs. the Bears, earned a higher rating: 48.3 and a 70 share of the audience.

More stats after the jump…

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Brian Williams, Matt Lauer, Ann Curry, Al Roker and Natalie Morales joined about 100 other NBC stars for a nearly 4-minute promo for the NBC brand during the Super Bowl pregame show Sunday. The video, which aired around 3:45pm yesterday, was set to the song “Brotherhood of Man” from the musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Trying.”

In the NBCified lyrics Alec Baldwin also takes a shot at a competitor. When Tracy Morgan (Jordan) says, “I’m bladorkable.” Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy says,”Good Tracy. It worked for FOX.”

This isn’t the first time the song has been taken beyond Broadway. Remember this?

The NBC video, after the jump…

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According to overnight numbers, Super Bowl XLVI earned a 47.8 rating, making it the third-most watched Super Bowl ever, after last year’s Packers-Steelers match-up and Super Bowl XXI which pitted the Giants against the Broncos in 1987.

When Nielsen Fast National data is released this afternoon, the viewership could approach last year’s 111.0 million that watched Super Bowl XLV, the most-watched Super Bowl ever, and the most-watched television audience in U.S. history.

Last night’s game was 7% higher than the 47.8/71 than Super Bowl XLII four years ago, when the Giants defeated the Patriots 17-14. That game was on FOX.

The flip and slip-tacular halftime performance by Madonna earned a 48.1/72 overnight, which is 1% ahead of last year’s 8-8:30 time period featuring the Black Eyed Peas (47.4/70) and 20% higher than NBC’s last Super Bowl with Bruce Springsteen (40.2/62).

Top 5 Super Bowls of all time (overnight ratings):

T1. 47.9/71 – Super Bowl XLV, Packers 31-Steelers 25, FOX (2011)
T1. 47.9/68 – Super Bowl XXI, Giants 39-Broncos 20, CBS (1987)
3. 47.8/71 – Super Bowl XLVI, Giants 21-Patriots 17, NBC (2012)
4. 47.4/NA – Super Bowl XIV, Steelers 31-Rams 19, CBS (1980)
5. 46.9/70 – Super Bowl XX, Bears 46-Patriots 10, NBC (1986)

Many more stats after the jump…

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While Matt Lauer stayed in New York ahead of his pre-Super Bowl interview with President Obama, his “Today” show pal Al Roker is preparing for the big game in a different way. Roker ziplined over Lucas Oil Stadium, the site of tonight’s Super Bowl on NBC, on the Friday edition of “Today,” saying, “Indy never looked better.” Watch:

And not to be outdone, Kathie Lee Gifford (who is the wife of NFL Hall of Famer Frank Gifford) and Hoda Kotb showed off their throwing skills before turning their attention to — what else? — the drinks. Watch:

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Matt Lauer stayed behind in New York today while his “Today” family was in Indianapolis ahead of the Super Bowl Sunday. Lauer will be at the White House this weekend for the annual live pre-game presidential interview.

Bill O’Reilly did it last year on FOX. Katie Couric, then with CBS, conducted the pre-game interview in 2010 arriving just ahead of that year’s Snowpocalypse. And Lauer, whose contract with NBC ends later this year, conducted an interview in 2009, a couple weeks after Obama took office, but not without some “technical difficulties.”

MediabistroTV debuts a new series today, “My First Big Break” where we talk to media heavyweights about that break that got them to where they are today. Our first episode features Brian Williams, the anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News.” You know what he’s doing now, and you may know a bit about his past. But did you know he went bankrupt? That he maxed out his credit cards? And that he became a chyron operator after failing in small market TV? Well, Williams finally got his First Big Break. He tells us who gave it to him and how it changed the course of his career.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Starting February 8 NBC’s “Rock Center” will move to Wednesday nights to make room for NBC’s big Spring show, “Smash.”

On Monday night however, Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” managed to pull an unusual feat: it topped  “Rock Center” in total viewers. O’Reilly drew 3.417 million viewers, to “Rock Center”‘s 3.293 million. In the key adults 25-54 demo, “Rock Center” still topped O’Reilly by more than half a million viewers.

It isn’t a perfect comparison of course, Bill O’Reilly is on at 8 PM, while “Rock Center” is on at 10 PM. In addition, Brian Williams‘ nightly evening newscast draws 3-4 times as many viewers each weeknight than “The O’Reilly Factor” does.

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