MSNBC

Over here at mediabistro we have a managers meeting every Wednesday at 10:15am, but the boss, Laurel Touby, won't be presiding today because she's appearing on MSNBC in the 11amET hour. Carlos Watson's show has booked her to talk about entrepreneurship. Two years ago this month she sold mediabistro.com for a cool many, many millions. So, unless breaking news bumps her, look for Laurel later this morning on MSNBC.

MSNBC's purchase of the rights to the Granada TV production "Living with Michael Jackson" did not give much of a bump to MSNBC's weekend ratings.

The special, without much promotion, aired six times over the weekend: Saturday at 7, 10 and 11pmET which averaged 254K A25-54 viewers and 603K Total Viewers. The Sunday airings at 7, 8 and 11pmET averaged 261K A25-54 viewers and 529K Total Viewers. The special finished no higher than second against its cable competition in the various airings.

MSNBC has licensed the Martin Bashir-hosted documentary for an undisclosed price. There will be six more airings through mid-July.

NBC's legal department must also approve any short clips used in any competitors' stories, as was the case on Monday's "Nightline," a show Bashir now co-anchors, but didn't last night.

So, this is D-Day on MSNBC. Debut day for two new dayside shows and the network's roll-out in HD. It's a roll-out in that the channel is not yet available in HiDef on all cable systems, including Manhattan's Time Warner cable. Anyway, the Newscast Studio blog has some screengrabs of the HD look.

This morning also saw the debut of "Morning Meeting" hosted by former CNBC anchor Dylan Ratigan. In the video below, Brian Williams gives some professional advice to Ratigan. And catch how Dylan almost says "CNBC" instead of "MSNBC:"

> More: B&C's Marissa Guthrie has more on MSNBC in HD and the new shows. Says network president Phil Griffin: "We're changing dayside away from the TelePrompTer headline news to Dylan Ratigan and Dr. Nancy. And we'll continue to do that less--of people sitting behind a desk, reading TelePrompTers."

Beginning at NoonET today, MSNBC is devoting an hour every weekday to health news with the new show "Dr. Nancy" anchored by Dr. Nancy Snyderman. The show continues MSNBC's goal of programming with personality -- crafting shows around known names in the TV news world and who come armed with a point of view. Howard Kurtz profiles Snyderman who spent 17 years at ABC News before leaving TV, then returning to NBC.

Feeling she had hit a ceiling at the network, where Diane Sawyer had gotten the "GMA" host's job she coveted, Snyderman joined Johnson & Johnson for five years, during which she gave up her surgery practice. But she grew bored by the plodding pace of corporate life, and in 2006 NBC chief executive Jeff Zucker lured her to his network. ABC also wanted her back, and "I felt very disloyal not going home," she says.

By tapping NBC's chief medical editor, a former pediatrician and cancer surgeon who says she "hounded" her bosses for a cable show, Griffin is getting a highly opinionated woman who delivers her views with a soothing bedside manner -- most of the time, at least.

And in addition to giving a health spin to the news of the day (the show could do a Jon & Kate segment asking "'Is divorce better than separation?,'" says EP Shannon High), expect a lot on health care reform.

She has a view on almost every personal health question -- dark chocolate is good for you, no one needs eight glasses of water a day -- and is engrossed in the debate over President Obama's health-care plan, which will be a major focus of "Dr. Nancy." "We want the best health care in the world, we don't want to pay for it...It's easy to bash doctors, until you get sick," she says.

MSNBC has bought the rights to "Living with Michael Jackson." First aired in the U.S. on ABC, British journalist Martin Bashir, who now works for ABC News as an anchor of "Nightline," spent eight months with Jackson in 2002-'03. It is one of the most intimate looks at Jackson's life; as the pop star goes on a lavish Las Vegas spending spree, climbing his "giving tree" at Neverland Ranch, and taking part in an interview that would lead to his arrest, trial and acquittal for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy.

ABC News has been using portions of the special over the last few days. It's not known if they will have to cease using the clips now that MSNBC has the rights to the special.

"Living with Michael Jackson" aired Saturday night and will air again tonight at 7pET, 8pET and 11pET.

This morning, MSNBC's live programming is using the new HD-ready graphics look, which is very different than what the network had been using. I'm not a graphics expert so indulge me -- they are using a brighter cream-colored background and have added an upper bar with the networks' "The Place for Politics" branding, followed by the live bug, and date, and then the MSNBC logo, upper right. The lower third banners are more compact. The ticker remains, as a scroll, unlike CNN's "Flipper." It's a cleaner more modern look. And moving the logo upper right is a departure from most channels which keep them lower left or right. What do you think?

Monday is also the debut of three new hours of programming between 9amET and 1pmET. Giving Dylan Ratigan two hours in the morning, and Dr. Nancy Snyderman the NoonET hour has meant MSNBC's president Phil Griffin has had to shuffle other anchors. Contessa Brewer will anchor the 2pmET hour with rotating co-anchors including colleagues from CNBC. MSNBC Chief Washington correspondent Norah O'Donnell will fill in anchor and will ramp up her reporting for the Today show and news anchor duties on Weekend Today.

• After the jump a clip from 8amPT as MSNBC debuted the new look, music and sound effects...

continued...

For the second time this week, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has apparently gotten in deep with his NBC colleagues. Page Six has an item about how Scarborough was all set to appear on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday to talk about his new book.

But on Wednesday night, [host George] Stephanopoulos was alerted there might be a problem. Scarborough is said to have informed him, "I'm terribly sorry, but David Gregory had a fit." Yesterday morning, Scarborough canceled his appearance, leaving Stephanopoulos scrambling to find a replacement guest.

The ABC booking was precipitated by Scarborough's co-host Mika Brzezinski via "a handwritten note and a copy of Scarborough's book, 'The Last Best Hope,'" reports the Post. (Why Mika is booking Joe on other shows is another issue).

Inside MSNBC they have their own take on all this: "This is clearly the work of someone at ABC just trying to make something out of nothing," an insider tells TVNewser.

Last night, Gregory hosted a book party for Scarborough in DC. Politico's Mike Allen, who attended, tells TVNewser, "David hosted a sumptuous celebratory dinner for Joe, and welcomed guests with a warm and clearly sincere toast."

On another issue - and another anchor - earlier in the day Scarborough, the former Republican congressman, commented about some of the cable news coverage of GOP Gov. Mark Sanford that seemed to be directed at Keith Olbermann. ICN has the backstory which resulted in Scarborough saying on air, "I was embarrassed by some cable news hosts, some frankly on this network. Unbridled glee."

Has someone explained this to Mika, yet?

The LATimes' Scott Collins lays in to MSNBC for its lack of Iran coverage last weekend, writing that the channel "has a precedent for giving short shrift to major stories that have erupted on weekends."

Over the weekend, with its cable rivals devoting generous airtime to demonstrations convulsing Tehran and online viewers transfixed by amateur video of a young woman apparently felled by a sniper's bullet, MSNBC stuck to its usual diet of taped documentaries...

"We were monitoring the situation closely and decided that we would cover the situation with hourly updates," MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines tells Collins. "We had an anchor and crew standing by."

About the documentaries, Gaines says, "these programs generate higher viewership for us on weekends." In fact, MSNBC came in first in the primetime demo Sunday night, but third in Total Viewers.

"I was surprised they did not break into their air for Iran coverage," said Marvin Kalb, a former CBS newsman and a senior fellow at the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard University. "It's one of the great stories of our time, and something the American people need to know about."

This morning, after a live shot on the health care reform plan, NBC/MSNBC's Mike Viqueira was congratulated by Carlos Watson after he was honored with the Joan S. Barone Award for excellence in journalism at the RTCA dinner Friday night.

"One thing I neglected to do on Friday night is thank MSNBC. We rock," said Viqueira.

The award is given in memory of the late Joan Barone, former executive producer of CBS News' Face the Nation, and is presented for excellence in Washington, D.C.-based national affairs and public policy reporting.