Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric are anchoring their nightly newscasts from Great Britain tonight where Pres. and Mrs. Obama arrived a few hours ago.

Two of the broadcasts, ABC World News and CBS Evening News, led with stories on the global economy, while NBC Nightly News led with a story from the U.S. – “the new General Motors.” Williams is anchoring from NBC’s London bureau, Gibson at ABC’s with a view of Big Ben behind him, while Couric is framed by London’s Tower Bridge.

Expect a lot of coverage on the cable channels overnight and into tomorrow. Pres. Obama has meetings and an early morning (ET) news conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a reception with Queen Elizabeth in the afternoon and G-20 events throughout the day.

> FNC’s Janice Dean discusses her newborn baby and living with MS in the current issue of Pregnancy and Newborn Magazine. “I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones,” she says (via Johnny Dollar).

> Today show anchor Matt Lauer will be the 2009 Senior Class Day speaker at Harvard University. The event takes place the day before commencement.

> CNN’s Anderson Cooper will begin reporting from the G20 Summit live from London tomorrow night. He will be joined by correspondents Nic Robertson and Richard Quest, while Ed Henry and Suzanne Malveaux are traveling with Pres. Obama.

Nothing like a little Veuve Clicquot to round out a 16-year career with NBC.

This was Jonathan Wald‘s last day on the job as CNBC SVP. At 4pm, co-workers gathered in the CNBC boardroom for a goodbye toast. In attendance, CNBC president Mark Hoffman, and anchors Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and Margaret Brennan, among others. CNBC’s Pharmaceutical Reporter Mike Huckman Tweeted about it: “At sendoff 4 CNBC VP Biz News Jonathan Wald. He’ll be missed.”

Wald’s first job with NBC News was in 1983 as a desk assistant. His father, Richard, is a past president of the news division.

It’s not known where Wald’s next stop will be, but the NYPost reports at least two venerable names in news are in the mix to fill the vacancy, including former ABC/CNNer Victor Neufeld who, the Post reports, interviewed for the job last Friday.

Carlos Watson has been named a dayside anchor at MSNBC. Watson will also regularly contribute to “Morning Joe.”

“Carlos has been a fresh and distinctive voice on the network and I’m thrilled to welcome him to MSNBC,” says MSNBC president Phil Griffin in the release.

Watson previously hosted CNBC’s “The Edge with Carlos Watson” and served as a political analyst at CNN and FNC. He has been an MSNBC contributor and fill-in anchor for a few months.

Click continued to see the release…

Read more

25-54 demographic: (L +SD)

Total day: FNC: 407 | CNN: 178 | MSNBC: 155 | HLN: 185

Prime: FNC: 679 | CNN: 237 | MSNBC: 335 | HLN: 309

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Beck:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:
	642	602	558	823	684	520	575
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	Dobbs:	Brown:	King:	Cooper:	Cooper:
	153	189	262	178	196	337	253
MSNBC	Matthews:	Shuster:	Matthews:	Olbermann:	Maddow:	Olbermann:	Maddow:
	162	166	260	420	315	271	224
HLN	Prime:	Prime:	VMitchell:	Grace:	Dobbs:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	141	180	244	418	195	332	244

Data by Nielsen Media Research. Live and same day (DVR) data.

Read more

TVNewser has obtained a memo from NBC Nightly News EP Bob Epstein to his staff, congratulating them for “record numbers on-air and online.”

Epstein credits the choice by NBC to look at positive news: “I’d like to personally acknowledge how everyone came together to work on what was such a simple idea…good news…it was well received by our viewers, imitated by media outlets worldwide, and most importantly helped a few people out.”

Click continued to see the full memo…

Read more

Fox News Channel was the 2nd highest rated cable channel on all of television during the first quarter of 2009 in prime time Total Viewers. CNN was 17th and MSNBC 24th for the first three months of the year. FNC beat CNN and MSNBC combined and gained the most compared to Q1 ’08, up 24%.

Q1 ’09 was FNC’s 3rd highest rated quarter in prime time in the network’s history — behind Q4 ’08 and Q3 ’05. In prime time A25-54 demo, and in total day in both categories, FNC grew more year-to-year than CNN and MSNBC.

FNC had nine of the top 10 programs on cable news in Total Viewers.

As reported earlier, The O’Reilly Factor has now been #1 on cable news for 100 consecutive months, up 27% in Total Viewers year-over-year.

Glenn Beck has increased the 5pmET time period 90% in Total Viewers and 115% in the demo vs. Q1 ’08, and is the fastest growing program in cable news for March. Special Report with Bret Baier is up 39% in Total Viewers and 41% in the demo. “Hannity” is up 36% in Total Viewers and up 35% in the demo since going solo for the hour.

Those three new programs beat CNN and MSNBC combined in Total Viewers during their respective time slots.

On the Record with Greta Van Susteren is up 26% in Total Viewers and 13% in the demo. Your World with Neil Cavuto is up 47% in Total Viewers and 50% in the demo.

Bill O’Reilly continued his “100 months on top of cable news” media tour today on Good Morning America and he’ll be on Letterman tonight. In the interview with Robin Roberts, O’Reilly called the Obama administration’s decision to no longer use The War on Terror “stupid,” but he called Pres. Obama’s decision to force GM CEO Rick Wagoner to resign, “a good choice.”

He also talked about the 100 months on top: “Bonanza didn’t do it, Gunsmoke didn’t do it,” he said. “The Factor did it, prime time 100 months. Why do you think that is? Why do you think I’m so popular?”

This same line about Gunsmoke was used in the Broadcasting & Cable Q&A yesterday, only O’Reilly said, “I don’t think it’s ever been done in any kind of TV milieu.”

On last night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann took this line, and several others, and essentially served as ombudsman to the interview. Olbermann noted the Today show has been #1 for 166 consecutive months and Meet the Press for 131 consecutive months.

Click continued to see the Countdown segment last night, including Olbermann’s description of the two times he’s encountered O’Reilly in person…

Read more

CNN had its best first quarter since the first quarter of 2003, in Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo in total day. CNN grew 17% in Total Viewers and 7% in the demo compared to last year.

CNN was 2nd behind FNC during Q1 ’09 in Total Viewers during total day and prime time. Year-to-year, American Morning was up 22% in Total Viewers and 21% in the demo for the quarter, The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer was up 44% and 27% at 4pmET and 46% and 31% at 5pmET and Larry King Live was up 20% and 9%.

It was CNN’s best March since 2003 in total day as well (Total Viewers and demo).

Click continued to see CNN’s release…

Read more

The Morning Joe team explored the Glenn Beck phenomenon today, as Willie Geist put together a collection of some of the most emotional clips of the FNC host.

Immediately following the video, co-hosts Mika Brzezinski asked, “What the hell was that?” while Joe Scarborough couldn’t stop laughing hysterically (he later blamed it on an email).

“He loves America, what are you gonna do?” said Geist.

But Scarborough had some praise as well. “He is the 2nd highest show now over at Fox, which is saying a lot, because their ratings have just exploded since the election…Roger Ailes is the genius, he is amazing,” he said.

Click continued to see the clip, which includes Mike Barnicle‘s impression of Beck…

Read more