Archives: August 2009

> WaPo reports that the Newseum will host an event entitled “First Draft of History” in October, bringing together media and administration officials on the record. Newsers set to appear include: “Charlie Gibson and Brian Williams, along with Dan Rather, David Gregory, Chris Matthews, Maria Bartiromo, Chuck Todd, Chris Wallace and Jim Lehrer.”

> CNN “American Morning” booker Beth Anne Rototori got married this weekend in Newport, RI and we were sent this photo of CNN staffers celebrating despite the weather. Congrats!

> In a new partnership, Fox Business Network’s David Asman will be doing a 6pmET market recap on the Tennis Channel (starting today) and TC’s Kevin Frazier will be coming on FBN’s “Money for Breakfast” to deliver a recap of the US Open. This morning to help celebrate the partnership, FBN’s Charles Payne and Chris Cotter played Doubles Champs, Bob and Mike Bryan on a special Fox court. Video of Payne and Cotter chest bumping is after the jump at the two and a half minute mark. (Try to watch it without flinching a little.)

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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.

TVNewser has learned CBS News Correspondent David Martin will be reporting on the suspects detained for Friday’s roadside bombing in Afghanistan that killed one American soldier and injured three other people, including CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick. Martin’s report is coming up on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.

25-54 demographic: (L +SD)

Total day: FNC: 359 | CNN: 251 | MSNBC: 148 | HLN: 176

Prime: FNC: 276 | CNN: 481 | MSNBC: 316 | HLN: 176

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:
FNC	Beck:	Baier:	KennedyMem:	KennedyMem:	KennedyMem:	Greta:	O’Reilly:
	684	511	284	282	254	289	428
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	KennedyMem:	KennedyMem:	KennedyMem:	Cooper:	Teddy:
	176	201	401	510	492	412	320
MSNBC	Matthews:	KennedyMem:	KennedyMem:	KennedyMem:	KennedyMem:	Hdlnrs&Lgnds:	Matthews:
	109	191	245	320	351	237	199
HLN	Prime:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	Issues:	Grace:	Showbiz:
	159	154	175	225	184	143	261

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

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CNN, which normally finishes second or third place in the primetime cable news ratings, easily won Friday night averaging 481,000 A25-54 demo viewers and 1.97M Total Viewers (8pm-11pm Live +SD).

MSNBC came in second in the demo averaging 316K viewers. FNC was third with 276K. Fox News was second in Total Viewers averaging 1.48M to MSNBC’s 1.33M.

The memorial service for Sen. Ted Kennedy held at the John F. Kennedy Library dominated coverage on all three networks from 7pmET until approximately 10:20pmET.

We’ll have weekend ratings tomorrow morning for a look at where cable news TV viewers watched Saturday’s Kennedy coverage.

CBS Reporter Cami McCormick will be transported to Walter Reed Army Medical Center sometime this week — as early as tomorrow — after sustaining injuries from an IED explosion while she was traveling with a group of U.S. Army members in Afghanistan. One of the soldiers was killed and two others were injured.

As we reported yesterday, McCormick had been moved to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for further treatment. At Landstuhl, McCormick was evaluated and treated for fractures to her arms and legs sustained last week.

The U.S. Army has released the name of the soldier who was killed during the explosion, Spc. Abraham S. Wheeler III, 22, of Columbia, SC. The military has detained three suspects in connection.

Bloomberg TV has a new head of creative services. John Newhouse will be in charge of Bloomberg TV’s graphics department as well as the related on-air promotion and production starting Monday the 14th.

Newhouse was most recently at CNN running the New York wing of their graphics department.

After being pushed back three times, NASA’s space shuttle Discovery launched Friday night at 11:59pmET. CNN and Fox News covered the launch live and MSNBC went into split-screen to stream the launch alongside the audio and video from the pre-scheduled Sen. Ted Kennedy documentary.

ABC was the only broadcast network to be airing a live news show – “Nightline” – on the east coast. But the network chose not broadcast the launch. An ABC News spokesperson tells TVNewser, “Last Friday, ‘Nightline’ kept a close eye on the shuttle launch but felt that at the time it wasn’t a significant enough news event to warrant cutting away from the program in process, which featured a news breaking exclusive interview on the kidnapping case last week.” That interview was with Ally Jacobs the police officer who helped crack the Jaycee Dugard kidnapping.

But when the shuttle launched, toward the end of the live “Nightline,” the show was airing a pre-taped interview with Queen Latifah.

At the 36th Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony, both ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “The View” were awarded prizes. “GMA” won the Emmy for “Outstanding Morning Program,” their third win in a row. ABC News President David Westin said, “We knew they are the best, and it’s nice to know others know it too. Congratulations to all of our ‘GMA’ colleagues on a well-deserved honor.”

Barbara Walters and her co-hosts finally won their first Daytime Emmy for “Outstanding Talk Show Host.” “The View” has been nominated for the award, but never received a statue. The win must have been relatively unexpected this time around because no one showed up to accept.

Overall, ABC won 17 awards. Full list here.

HLN’s Robin Meade has written a book about her struggles with anxiety attacks and self-esteem issues. In Morning Sunshine!: How to Radiate Confidence and Feel It Too, out September 10, Meade says her first panic attack happened while she was a weekend anchor in Chicago and about to read some breaking news copy.

“I felt sweaty,” she writes in the book. “Just as I opened my mouth to speak, the set seemed to fade into a gauzy haze. My breathing was jagged.”

Meade tells the New York Daily News’s Richard Huff that “I dealt with it for two years before I got help.”

The book, Meade acknowledges, may come as a surprise for some. “I don’t think my bosses here, or the people I worked with, had any idea that I struggled with anxiety,” she says. “One of the most freeing experiences was when I handed in my manuscript.”

The AP’s David Bauder reports the “Today” show has hired Jenna Bush Hager to be a correspondent for the show. One of the twin daughters of former Pres. Bush and Laura Bush, Hager will contribute stories about once a month on issues including education, but not on politics. Bauder reports Hager, who will work out of NBC’s Washington bureau, “was intrigued by the idea of getting into television” when the show’s EP Jim Bell contacted her.

“It wasn’t something I’d always dreamed to do,” Hager told Bauder, “But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded and to be open-minded for change.”

“I think she can handle it,” Bell said of Hager, who will continue a part-time teaching job at a school in Baltimore. “I think she knows something about pressure and being under some scrutiny. When she came here for a handful of appearances, she knocked it out of the park.” She “just sort of popped to us as a natural presence, comfortable” on the air, Bell said.