Generalities

Lou Wiley, the longtime Executive Editor of FRONTLINE, has retired. Wiley worked for Boston's PBS station WGBH-TV, which produces FRONTLINE, for 33 years. He was involved in the creation of the show, along with other programming.

Of all the FRONTLINE episodes over the years, Wiley tells TVNewser he is perhaps most proud of 2000's "The Case for Innocence", produced by Ofra Bikel, which investigated cases of the wrongly-convicted. The show generated a strong public reaction.

"Ten months after the broadcast," Wiley says, "all three of the profiled prisoners had been exonerated and freed as a result of new DNA tests. For me this was an ongoing lesson in the power of good reporting to make a real difference."

Wiley will now become a consultant and also focus on his hobbies, art and antiques.

The morning shows put it in high gear today on the Michael Jackson coverage.

• On NBC, Matt Lauer talked with Jermaine Jackson, his first intreview since his brother's death. Lauer also gave viewers a live tour inside the unfurnished Neverland Ranch - from the enormous kitchen and dining room to Jackson's two-story bedroom, including the secret closet inside his closet which had three locks on it. "I'm not sure what he kept in there, but clearly he didn't want many people to know that it existed," said Lauer.

• Over on ABC, "Good Morning America" secured the rights to some home video of Jackson and his children when they were toddlers as well as video of the home Jackson was living in at the time of his death a week ago today. The video was licensed from Byron Allen's Entertainment Studios for an undisclosed price.

• And on CBS' "The Early Show", a day after getting Jackson's nurse on the record about his drug habits, the show had an exclusive interview with Mike La Perruque who was a longtime confidante and head of security for the entertainer.

In addition to Matt Lauer anchoring the Today show from
Neverland Ranch tomorrow, CNN's Larry King will host his show from the ranch in Los Olivos, CA tomorrow night. CNN says King is being granted special access inside the house as well as touring the property.

ABC's Cynthia McFadden is also heading to California and will anchor "Nightline" from Neverland tomorrow night.

• Monday's "Nightline" outperformed Conan O'Brien and David Letterman. "Nightline" drew 4.2M Total Viewers, to Conan's 3.08M and a Letterman rerun which brought in 3.33M. In addition to Jackson, Monday's "Nightline" reported on the Bernard Madoff sentence.

• The 48 Hours special anchored by Katie Couric last night won its time slot averaging a 5.5 Household rating and 2.0 A18-49 rating. The show drew 8.15M Total Viewers.

As the TV news networks continue to follow developments in the Michael Jackson story, viewer interest is waning some.

On cable, after winning primetime both Thursday and Friday night and winning Total Day and primetime (in A25-54 demo) on Saturday and Sunday, CNN has retained the lowest percentage of viewers while FNC has held the most into Monday.

• Total Viewer retention (Thursday 6/25 vs. Monday 6/29):

Total Day: FNC 105%, CNN 61%, MSNBC 67%

Primetime: FNC 83%, CNN 35%, MSNBC 67%

• A25-54 viewer retention (Thursday 6/25 vs. Monday 6/29):

Total Day: FNC 77%, CNN 46%, MSNBC 53%

Primetime: FNC 50%, CNN 31%, MSNBC 42%

This speaks to a couple things: viewer loyalty -- with FNC and MSNBC holding on to their core viewers; and viewer disinterest -- with the millions who flocked to CNN for breaking news, moving on to other programming, or none at all.

Gail Shister
TVNewser Columnist

Brownie don't tweet.

Aaron Brown said no when the producers of his PBS public-affairs series, "Wide Angle," asked him to send Twitter bulletins during his recent expedition to Ethiopia and Mozambique.

"They wanted me to Twitter, or is it Tweet, my way across Africa," says Brown, 60, a CNN exile. "I said, 'I'm working, guys. This is a long, hard trip. I don't have time to think up silly, 140-character notes.'"

Season 2 of "Wide Angle" launches tonight. Ten episodes are ordered.

Brown spends most of the year at Arizona State in Tempe, where he's a full-time professor in the Cronkite School of Journalism. He joined the faculty in 2008, three years after leaving CNN.

When it comes to Journalism with a capital J, Brown is the first to admit he's old school.

continued...

The death of Michael Jackson dominated the news coverage late last week but wasn't the #1 story, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found.

Early in the week the media gave ongoing attention to protests over the Iranian election. And by the end of the week Iran filled 19% of the newshole, making it the No. 1 topic of the week. By Wednesday attention shifted to the third biggest story of the week - the affair of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

But the passing of the "King of Pop" on Thursday, the #2 story of the week, dominated late week coverage. The TV nets devoted more than 28 hours to Jackson's life and death. The cable nets devoted 93% of their airtime to Jackson on Thursday and Friday.

Click here to see the report...

In addition to the Madoff sentencing, the high speed pursuit in Dallas, which was fully Shepardized, and developments in the Michael Jackson story, there were several other breaking stories throughout the day. Here's when the cablers reported them:

• New Haven 20 SCOTUS Decision:

FNC - 10:02:23
CNN - 10:02:53
MSNBC - 10:03:09

• Billy Mays Autopsy Report:

FNC - 12:01:34
CNN - 12:03:53
MSNBC - 12:26:23 (During "Dr. Nancy" debut)

I'm still wondering why it took CNN 2-and-a-half hours to mention Mays' death yesterday.

• Atlanta Garage Collapse:

FNC - 12:58:16
CNN - 13:47:43
MSNBC - 14:10:09

Spike strips, train gates, a near-ditch and several u-turns did not slow down a suspect who'd taken Dallas police on a high speed pursuit this afternoon.

But a red pick-up truck did, when the driver of the pick-up unknowingly broadsided the suspect as he tried to make his way through an intersection. The chase began just before 1pmCT and came to a crashing end at 2:29pmCT.

FNC, MSNBC and HLN carried the chase live.

For much of the pursuit, Fox News Channel and MSNBC used the same live picture from Fox O&O KDFW. Since January, the Fox and NBC Owned and Operated stations in Dallas/Fort Worth, and other large markets, have been taking part in a news sharing agreement involving their helicopters.

HLN which was in and out of live coverage was using the choppers of CBS station KTVT and ABC affiliate WFAA.

KRLD Radio is reporting on Fox News that the pick-up driver suffered only minor injuries while the jaws of life were brought out to extricate the suspect.

Here's the end of the chase anchored by FNC's Shepard Smith:

NBC and ABC devoted much of their Friday night schedules to both Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. And unlike Thursday night, on Friday NBC came out on top.

• 8pm:

NBC - "Farrah's Story" — 3.88M Total Viewers

• 9pm

NBC - "Farrah's Story" — 5.37M

ABC - "Michael Jackson: The Man and His Music" — 3.74M

• 10pm:

NBC - "Michael Jackson: The King of Pop" — 6.64M

ABC - "20/20" — 6.03M

NBC won primetime averaging 5.30M Total Viewers; CBS was second with drama reruns (4.67M); ABC was third with sitcoms at 8ET and the news programs at 9 and 10 (4.0M).