Obits

Even as infomercials he hosted aired on local stations across the country this morning, the cable news channels were reporting on the death of pitchman Billy Mays.

50-year-old Mays was found unresponsive by his wife in his Tampa home this morning. Mays was on board a US Airways flight yesterday that made an emergency landing in Tampa after its front tires blew out. It is unsure whether Mays' death was related to the incident.

MSNBC and Fox News reported Mays' death at 11:43amET. At the same time, on stations including WTKR in Norfolk and WPIX in New York, a paid advertisement hosted by Mays for the Omni Dual Saw was airing. CNN first reported the news at 2:12pmET.

Mays also co-hosted the program "Pitchmen" which debuted just two months ago on Discovery Channel.

• ABC News will present a special "20/20" tonight at 9pmET/PT. "The Life and Death of Michael Jackson" will be anchored by Barbara Walters and Martin Bashir. Walters will then anchor the 10pm special on the life of Farrah Fawcett.

• NBC has announced it is producing a 2-hour "Dateline" to "mark today's tragic deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson." NBC News' Ann Curry and Meredith Vieira will anchor the tribute beginning at 9pmET/PT.

• CBS News is preparing a Jackson special called "The Life and Death of Michael Jackson" to air at 10pmET/PT. Harry Smith anchors with "The Insider's" Lara Spencer.

• Keith Olbermann will pick up MSNBC's coverage at 7pmET. David Shuster will pick up at 9pmET, in for Rachel Maddow.

• Fox News Channel's plan:

-Now - Shepard Smith
-9pmET - Geraldo Rivera
-10pmET - Greta Van Susteren
-12pmET - Shepard Smith *Live*
-1amET - Greta Van Susteren *Live*
-2amET - (Midnight repeat)
-3amET - (1am repeat)
-4amET - (Midnight repeat)
-5amET - Fox & Friends *Live*

• HLN's Showbiz Tonight live at 11pmET. Anchor AJ Hammer remains an anchor of CNN's coverage until then.

On-air tributes poured in yesterday for legendary producer Jack Reilly, who passed away yesterday morning. FNC's FOX Report featured a package about Reilly's life and included an interview with FNC Chairman Roger Ailes, who "was a production assistant for him" in 1962.

"He was a terrific television producer and a terrific human being," said Ailes. "Sometimes that's hard. With him, it looked easy." See the FNC segment below, and after the jump, more on-air tributes:



Click continued for Reilly tributes from ABC, CNBC and FBN...

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Jack Reilly, the former Good Morning America executive producer and later vice president of news at CNBC, passed away this morning at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York at the age of 84.

Reilly was VP and managing editor of CNBC from 1994 to 1998. Before that, he was the executive producer of ABC's Good Morning America from 1986 to 1994. Reilly transformed GMA, a faltering #2 show, into the nation's top-rated morning show - a position the show held for more than five years. In a note to staff, ABC News president David Westin called Reilly, "a great producer and a true newsman who will live on in our memories and in the deep structure of Good Morning America."

ABC's Charlie Gibson called Reilly, "one of the finest people I ever had the good fortune to work with and for. Modest, shy, self-effacing, not an ounce of inflated ego, and yet a cracker jack producer who understood when he should intrude, and when to stand back and let others do their work."

Before ABC, Reilly was one of the founding producers at Entertainment Tonight. From 1969 to 1978 was the EP of Group W's "The Mike Douglas Show" and later, the "David Frost Show." He was president of Group W Television from 1972 to 1975.

Reilly's daughters Linda and Stephanie took their father to St. Vincent's just yesterday afternoon. The cause of death was related to a fall he took a few weeks ago, which lead to internal bleeding.

Adds Gibson, "I think all of us loved the guy almost in spite of his reluctance to be loved." We're told CNBC anchors Sue Herera and Bill Griffeth will mention Reilly's passing during the 1pmET hour of Power Lunch.

Services are planned for next week at St. Malachy's Church in Manhattan.

ABC News Radio anchor George Weber, 50, was found dead this morning in his Brooklyn, NY apartment. Police believe it was a homicide.

The New York Daily News reports Weber "was found in his bed with several stab wounds in his neck and upper torso," and police believe he died Friday night.

Weber spent nearly a decade doing the news at WABC for "Curtis and Kuby," before becoming a freelance anchor in 2008. His last newscast was March 15. Weber's active blog (where the pictures are from) was last updated Friday.

Steve Jones, VP and general manager of ABC News Radio, called Weber a "consummate journalist" and "lifelong fan of radio" in a staff memo today.

Click continued to see the full memo from Jones...

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Former CBS Newser Steve Sando died Tuesday at the age of 48. Sando, who lived in St. Paul, MN, had a number of health issues. He was hospitalized several weeks ago with problems relating to his heart and diabetes.

Most recently Sando was the broadcast technical manager for the 2008 Republican National Convention.

In 1990, Sando was named operations director of special events for CBS News. He later served as director of operations for London and all of Europe for the network and headed up CBS' presidential election coverage in 1996.

After the jump, some reflections from TVNewsers on Sando's passing...

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NPR's Leroy Sievers, the former Nightline executive producer whose battle with cancer was documented on his NPR blog, died last night.

Sievers was one of Ted Koppel's executive producers at Nightline, and later moved with Koppel to the Discovery Channel where he oversaw the 2007 documentary "Our Children's Children's War," which aired in March 2007. Sievers, along with Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth Edwards, was prominently featured in Koppel's "Living with Cancer" broadcast, which aired on Discovery in May, 2007.

Sievers was first diagnosed with colon cancer in 2006. By June of this year it had spread to his brain, shoulder blades, liver, pelvis and lungs.

• Related: ABCNews.com, The "Heart of Nightline"

Merv Griffin, who was producing up until his final weeks of life, died today of prostate cancer. Griffin was one of Hollywood's most boundless executives. He began his career as a singer, hosted "The Merv Griffin Show" for more than 20 years, created the hit game shows Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy! and, later in life, became a real estate magnate.

"My father was a visionary," Griffin's son, Tony Griffin, said in a statement issued today. "He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized." Griffin's latest project Merv Griffin's Crosswords premieres in syndication next month.

Griffin was a guest on FOX & Friends just last month. In what would be his last interview, Brian Kilmeade asked Griffin about his legacy and how his television show impacted politics: "The Kennedy White House would call my producer," Griffin said, "so they became aware of how valuable the talk shows were to a candidate." "The 23 years I did my show, nobody knew what my political affiliations were." Merv Griffin was 82.

Legendary Los Angeles anchorman Hal Fishman died today. Fishman, who would have turned 76 on August 26, suffered from colon and liver cancer. Fishman had anchored KTLA's 10pm newscast since 1975. He joined the station in 1965, and contributed to the station's Peabody Award-winning coverage of the Watts riots that year.

KTLA's newsroom was named in Fishman's honor in 2000.

>From an LA emailer: "I can't think of another local news anchor anywhere I've lived who has had such a strong connection to his audience and city. Watching him when I go home is like catching up with an old friend."