Casey Anthony‘s lawyers called their final witnesses to the stand today. And the mother accused of murdering her toddler daughter, wasn’t one of them. While all the cable news networks have begun carrying live testimony this week from the courthouse in Orlando, HLN’s decision to broadcast gavel-to-gavel coverage continues to set ratings milestones for the network.

According to Nielsen ratings for Wednesday:

• HLN ranked #1 in both total day (357K) and primetime (544K) in cable news in the A25-54 demo.

• This was HLN’s largest A25-54 & Total Viewer delivery since HLN moved to long-form programming in February 2005.

• HLN was #1 in every hour from 9am-9pm in A25-54 viewers.

• HLN Special Report at 5pmET was the #1 cable news telecast in Total Viewers and A25-54 viewers on all of cable.

• Nancy Grace at 8pmET was the 3rd most-viewed cable news telecast with 676K A25-54 viewers, 27% ahead of FNC’s “The O’Reilly Factor” (532K) with Laura Ingraham sitting in.

• This was the largest A25-54 audience for Nancy Grace since Jan. 7, 2009 (a broadcast which also centered on the Caylee Anthony case).

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 272 | MSNBC: 141 | CNN: 124 | HLN: 393

• Primetime: FNC: 485 | MSNBC: 187 | CNN: 153 | HLN: 544

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
FNC	Beck:	Baier:	Shep:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:	Greta:	O’Reilly:	Hannity:
	377	282	318	532	557	364	279	232
MSNBC	Matthews:	Cenk:	Matthews:	O’Donnell:	Maddow:	EdShow:	O’Donnell:	Maddow:
	144	121	127	146	233	182	182	184
CNN	Blitzer:	Blitzer:	KingUSA:	IntheArena:	Morgan:	Cooper:	Cooper:	Morgan:
	119	160	124	106	125	226	157	114
HLN	Special:	Prime:	Issues:	Grace:	DrDrew:	Grace:	Showbiz:	DrDrew:
	728	547	490	676	546	432	314	307

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The final broadcast of “The Glenn Beck Show” was a little bit of everything: a look back, a glimpse into the future and a frank assessment of the reasons behind Beck’s Fox News Channel departure.

Beck, who ad-libbed much of his last hour as an FNC host, spoke candidly about the decision to launch a web-based TV channel, saying he hoped he had earned viewers’ trust on “The Glenn Beck Show.” “Anyone watching this show knows that I have bent this format so far out of its structure, out of its parameters,” Beck said. “This is a news channel. I do commentary.”

“This show has become a movement,” he said. “It’s not a TV show. And that’s why it doesn’t belong on television. It belongs in your homes, it belongs in your neighborhoods.”

Beck also flatly denied that his departure was tied to a decline in his ratings, noting that his program broke records in its 5 p.m. timeslot. He said he started and ended his tenure at Fox the same way, with a handshake from Fox News chairman and co-founder Roger Ailes. “I’ll never work with a guy smarter than Roger Ailes. Never,” Beck said.

Beck mentioned his future projects several times, saying he had several things he never got around to talking about on FNC. “I’ll get to it … just not tonight,” he said. “I’m out of time here.”

Video of Beck’s opening monologue, which began on the sidewalk in front of the News Corp. building, after the jump.

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Radio host David Smith filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Angels, claiming he was fired allegedly for racial reasons, according to Reuters:

“In a complaint filed in California Superior Court earlier this month, David Smith alleged that the Angels Baseball Foundation rigged a singles promotion to ensure a black woman did not win and that Angels employees regularly made racist remarks.

Smith claimed that the Angels did not allow another employee on a radio show because he sounded “too black” and “too ghetto” for an Orange County audience. His complaint also stated that co-workers said negative results were to be “expected when a Jew is hired as baseball’s commissioner.” Read more

Disney/ABC Television Group is staffing up and it looks like the company is on the hunt for a programming executive to join its New York team. Here, you’ll be providing creative oversight and getting involved in long-term show planning as the go-to liaison, interacting with upper management and departments like promotions, publicity, sales and research.

You’ll be dealing with executive producers and show talent, managing operations from a creative and business perspective. In this position, you’ll handle with contracts for everyone from guests to co-hosts, while overseeing production and performance. Other aspects of the job include program development, budget responsibilities and business acquisition. Read more

ESPN’s 11 telecasts during the 2011 College World Series averaged a 1.0 rating with 1,310,000 viewers in 994,000 households, an increase of 11 percent (0.9), 9 percent (vs. 1,198,000) and 7 percent (vs. 933,000), respectively, over last year’s six games.

ESPN2 showed similar growth as well in four games, averaging a 0.8 rating, 999,000 viewers in 771,000 households, an increase of 33 percent (0.6), 26 percent (vs. 794,000) and 28 percent (603,000).

ESPN and ESPN’2s coverage of the College World Series finals averaged a 1.6 rating with 2,233,000 total viewers in 1,618,000 households.

The network saw increases across the board in all three categories (1.2 rating, + 33 percent/1,558,000 viewers, +43 percent/1,220,000 households, +33 percent) over last year.

Rosters for the July 12th Major League All-Star Game will be announced exclusively on TBS on Sunday at noon ET, right before the Yankees and Mets square off in interleague play. Host Matt Winer will be joined by analysts Dennis Eckersley, Cal Ripken and David Wells to make the announcements and provide analysis. All-Star Game managers Ron Washington of the Texas Rangers and Bruce Bochy of the San Francisco Giants will also make appearances to defend their selections and omissions.

Teams have eight starters elected through fan balloting. The pitchers and reserves are determined through a combination of “player ballot” choices and selections made by Washington and Bochy, in conjunction with Major League Baseball and voodoo.

Maria Sharapova would have a lot more fans (ya know, more than she already does) if watching her play tennis wasn’t as punishing on the ears as it’s easy on the eyes. Sharapova is one of the tennis world’s most notorious grunters, which makes watching her matches a trying affair. To keep you tuned in, the BBC has introduced technology called Wimbledon Net Mix, a device for the radio and Internet that lowers the volume of on-court sounds and raises the noise level of commentators; and they’re using it for the first time at Wimbledon.

The product is available for free on BBC Radio Player. For the time being it only allow listeners to adjust the sound on Centre Court matches.

For those watching on television, mute or changing the channel remain the top options to combat grunting.

Ron Artest joined Pardon the Interruption Wednesday and explained why he wants to change his name to Metta World Peace.

I can’t wait until the NBA starts selling World Peace jerseys.

Fox News Channel will debut a new program called “The Five” airing in Glenn Beck‘s soon-to-be vacated timeslot beginning Monday, July 11 and running through the summer.

The show, a “The View”-like ensemble program, will feature a roundtable of five Fox News personalities from among the network’s deep bench of hosts and analysts, including Greg Gutfeld, Juan Williams, Dana Perino, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Geraldo Rivera, Andrea Tantaros, Eric Bolling, Monica Crowley, Bob Beckel and Kimberly Guilfoyle.

In a news release, FNC says the program will also feature added guests, including politicians, celebrities, sports figures and key newsmakers. The show is expected to run through the summer months.

As we reported yesterday, Fox News will air encore presentations of Beck’s program next week.

Release after the jump…

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