George Stephanopoulos - TVNewser

Bill O’Reilly Doesn’t Think the AP Phone Taps Will ‘Amount to Much’

Chris Ariens — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:09:49 +0000

When a media outlet becomes the news, it’s interesting to watch how other media outlets cover the story. At issue today, the Justice Department admitting it secretly recorded phone conversations of five AP reporters and an editor. It was a big story on all the morning shows. (We already told you about the reaction on “Morning Joe” from the AP’s executive editor.) On “CBS This Morning” Bob Orr called it “a very aggressive investigation.” On the “Today” show Pete Williams called it “an unusually broad government effort.” But on “Good Morning America,” Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said this may be the least of Pres. Obama’s worries.

“I don’t think that’s going to amount to much,” O’Reilly said of the phone taps. “It looks like they went through the warrant process and they had authorization to look at these records — the Justice Department did. But president Obama, he’s got some problems now. He better start to get control of the situation because there’s a lot of stuff going on.”

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Robin Roberts Tops TV News Personalities on ‘Most Trusted’ List

Merrill Knox — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:09:42 +0000

Several television news journalists have landed on Reader’s Digest list of “The 100 Most Trusted People in America.” At #12, “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts is the most-trusted television news personality on the list.

In addition to Roberts, the morning shows are well represented: “GMA” anchor George Stephanopoulos is #57, while “Today” show co-hosts Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer are #85 and #97, respectively.

The three evening news anchors make the list –ABC’s Diane Sawyer at #25, NBC’s Brian Williams at #29 and CBS’ Scott Pelley at #63. ABC’s Barbara Walters (#34), Katie Couric (#37) and Christiane Amanpour (#56) are also among the most trusted.

From the cable news landscape, CNN’s Sanjay Gupta is #17 and Anderson Cooper is #50. HLN’s Dr. Drew Pinsky is #90 and Fox News anchor Shepard Smith rounds out the list at #100.

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Sunday Shows Scoping Out Sports World

Alex Weprin — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:39:07 +0000

Without an election in the near future, at least a few of the Sunday public affairs shows are branching out this weekend and covering something even more ingrained into the national psyche: sports.

CBS’ “Face the Nation” will be dedicating its show this week on “The Emergence of gay Athletes,” featuring interviews with Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, among others. The show comes as NBA player Jason Collins came out of the closet in Sports Illustrated, becoming one of the big news stories of the week.

“Fox News Sunday” meanwhile will see Chris Wallace interviewing boxing legend Mike Tyson (see the photo above). Wallace talks to Tyson about how he blew through hundreds of millions of dollars, and how he has been trying to turn his life around.

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George Stephanopoulos to Interview Jason Collins, First Openly Gay NBA Player, on ‘GMA’

Merrill Knox — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:10:34 +0000

ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos has snagged the first television interview with Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player. Collins, a free agent who played for the Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards this season, penned this week’s Sports Illustrated cover story, writing: “I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.”

Stephanopoulos’ interview, which is billed as an exclusive, will air Tuesday on “Good Morning America” and across the other ABC News platforms.

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Brian Stelter Booked on ‘GMA’, ‘CBS This Morning.’ What About ‘Today?’

Chris Ariens — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:35:43 +0000

As Ed Bark rightly pointed out in his review of “Top of the Morning” Brian Stelter got the most access from “Good Morning America,” spending countless days and one overnight shift embedded with the program. (It was the night last May, as the “Dancing with the Stars” after-party was being planned and the show’s overnight producer tried his damndest to get a dog — made famous for standing on things — on a cross-country overnight flight. Spoiler alert: He fails.)

That’s not a surprise since the ABC morning show had the best story to tell — breaking the “Today” show’s 16-year winning streak a year ago this month. It should also come as no surprise, then, that Stelter’s first network interview was with “GMA.”

“Here at ‘GMA’ we report the news, we rarely try to find ourselves at the center of it,” George Stephanopoulos said introducing Dan Harris‘ 2-minute story.

There was no “happy chat” after the story, when an anchor might normally add, “I read it! Great book!” Instead Stephanopoulos cracked wise about Stelter admitting he gets 9-10 hours sleep some nights — a luxury the millionaire morning anchors do not have.

In his first interview for the book, Stelter told me he hopes to go on all the morning shows. He’ll be on “CBS This Morning” tomorrow, but not to talk just about the book, but also about the media coverage of last week’s events in Boston. After reading “Top of the Morning,” something tells me getting on the “Today” show will be a tougher sell. But it would make for great TV. Something these shows are always looking for.

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Chaos Overnight as One Boston Blast Suspect is Dead, His Brother on the Loose

Chris Ariens — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:11:23 +0000

A holdup at a Cambridge 7-11 store around 10pm Thursday set off an all night pursuit for the suspects in the Boston Marathon blasts. By sunrise, an MIT police officer was dead, an MBTA officer was wounded, one of the suspects was dead and another suspect remained on the loose, both have been identified as brothers, originally from Chechnya, living in the Boston area. With multiple crime scenes in multiple locations, one suspect still at large, and the area in virtual lockdown, the overnight events kept local and national news crews on the air nonstop.

The first reports began coming in after 1am. Networks were cautious of not connecting the shooting of the MIT officer with the search for the bombing suspects. CNN International broke in to CNN/U.S. at 1:13am. MSNBC’s Mara Schiavocampo broke in at 1:18 with the news along with correspondent Kerry Sanders. At 1:24am Fox News’ Marianne Rafferty broke in to a re-air of “On the Record” with news of the MIT shooting.

At 2:24am, as it was becoming clear the holdup, carjacking and MIT incident were related to the blast investigation, CNN’s Jake Tapper held up his iPad to show new photos of the suspects that he’d been emailed.

ABC’s overnight show World News Now kept viewers up to date throughout the night with help from affiliates. George Stephanopoulos anchored his first special report for ABC at 4:30am. NBC’s Lester Holt anchored an NBC News special report around 3:30amET and CBS News broadcast a special report at 4:40am with Anne Marie Green.

Developing…

More, 8:27am: CNN’s Jake Tapper and John Berman, anchoring coverage, are talking to a Cambridge Rindge & Latin High School friend of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect still on the loose: “To think he’s capable of something like this is beyond belief.”

More: 8:35am: A Fox News is trained on a home in Watertown, MA where local and FBI officials have guns drawn. “Our cameraman is being told to back off,” said Brian Kilmeade.

FNC’s Griff Jenkins was near the firefight last night and this morning explained his rental car “is in the middle of the crime scene.”

More, 9:12am: On CNN, via an interview with CBS owned station WBZ-TV, the uncle of the brothers says his 19-year-old nephew had called another relative last night after his older brother was killed and said, “Forgive me and from now on we will be together.” After reporters apologized to him, the uncle added: “I’m sorry too, if he did this, I’m sorry too. I can’t believe it. It’s so crazy. It’s not possible. When I heard this on TV news, I was thinking how can it be like this?”

Update: ABC and CBS have expanded their morning shows beyond 9am as the manhunt for the 19-year-old suspect continues. NBC’s 9am hour of “Today” is also devoted to the breaking news. At one point, new ABC News correspondent Byron Pitts was reporting live as police officers moved him and other reporters away from an active location. A police officer could be heard telling the reporters: “Come on. Let’s go. Off the sidewalk, please. Around the corner.”

More, 9:35am: ABC showed what it called exclusive video of a bullet-riddled SUV being taken away by investigators. Brian Rossreported: “Our cameraman caught a shot of that car being towed away, a Mercedes SUV that the two brothers hijacked — carjacked at a gas station in Cambridge near Memorial Drive.” Explosive devices were reportedly thrown from car by the suspects. The driver was released by the brothers, unharmed.

More, 10:50am: All networks have their cameras trained on a neighborhood in Watertown, MA. CNN has said it is putting programming on a 5-second delay as local and federal authorities have their guns drawn imploring media to stay back.

More, 12:24pm: On CNN, correspondent Deborah Feyerick reported that, after being pushed back from an area in Watertown, police are now allowing reporters to return to their original positions closer to the search scene.

More, 1pm: CBS special report ends. Diane Sawyer continues on ABC; Brian Williams picks up across NBC.

More, 1:45pm: ABC’s Bianna Golodryga, who speaks fluent Russian, spoke to the father of the two bombing suspects, Anzor Tsarnaev, on three separate occasions today. Tsarnaev, who lives in Russia, tells Golodryga that neither the U.S. government nor the Russian government has contacted him at that time.

More, 2:09pm: Anderson Cooper cuts away from remarks from the suspects’ aunt in Toronto, who claims her nephews are innocent. “Clearly she is in a state of denial or not really aware of the whole impact of what has happened here, what is going on,” Cooper said. Megyn Kelly comes to the same conclusion on Fox News: “That’s the aunt,” she said.

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‘GMA’ at No. 1: ‘If You Spend a Long Time at No. 2, You’ll Never Stop Being Scrappy’

Chris Ariens — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 14:06:07 +0000

It was a year ago this week that ABC’s “Good Morning America” learned it had unseated “Today” as the leading network morning show. While “GMA” has gone on to win most weeks since, the race is still tight. That’s why ABC News president Ben Sherwood tells his team to play like they’re still behind.

In a B&C cover story, Sherwood tells Andrea Morabito, “My message to them repeatedly is when you knock the champs down who’ve been champs for 16-17 years, they get back up and they throw even tougher punches.”

“GMA” Senior EP Tom Cibrowski doesn’t think the morning shifts are over yet. He’s spent most of his 10 years with the “GMA” in “Today’s” shadow: “I think if you spend a long time at No. 2, you build those genes, the DNA becomes part of your structure that you’ll never lose, you’ll never stop being scrappy, you’ll never stop looking at your show as coming from behind.”

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Morning Shows Focus on Human Impact of Boston Bombings

Merrill Knox — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:39:25 +0000

Wall-to-wall coverage of the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon continues into the second day. ABC News, NBC News and CBS News all broadcast special reports for President Obama’s remarks from the White House press briefing room at 11:30amET. Lester Holt anchored from Boston on NBC, Anthony Mason anchored on CBS and Diane Sawyer anchored on ABC. The cable news networks also broadcast the President’s comments.

Faced with few overnight developments in the investigation of the bombings, the morning shows focused on the human impact of the explosions, interviewing eyewitnesses and victims that were at the marathon finish line.

On “Today,” Savannah Guthrie‘s interview with the President — which was taped before news of the bombings broke — was condensed due to NBC’s coverage from Boston. More of the interview will air later this week. In Boston, Matt Lauer did a number of interviews with victims of the attack, including one with a couple from a hospital room at Tufts Medical Center:

On “Good Morning America,” George Stephanopoulos anchored from Boston, joined by ABC’s Josh Elliott, Martha Raddatz and Brian Ross. Stephanopoulos interviewed a runner who crossed the finish line seconds before the first blast, and “GMA” used a spot-shadow to identify her in the video of the explosion: continued…

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Explosions at Finish Line of the Boston Marathon

Merrill Knox — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:23:28 +0000

The cable news networks pivoted to breaking news in Massachusetts shortly after 3pmET Monday afternoon as two explosions went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Fox News was the first cable news network to report the news at 3:06:18 p.m., followed just seconds later by CNN at 3:06:53 p.m. MSNBC reported the news at 3:08:45 p.m. All three cable news networks were several minutes minutes behind the first reports of the explosions on Twitter.

Fox News and CNN are relying on live pictures from Boston local stations. MSNBC has video from New England Cable News, which is owned and operated by NBC Universal.

> More: The broadcast networks also broke in with news of the explosions. CBS News was first at 3:10pmET, followed by ABC News and NBC News at 3:13 p.m. Scott Pelley is anchoring on CBS, Brian Williams on NBC and Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos on ABC.

> More: Matt Frucci, the incoming executive producer of CNN’s new morning show, is doing eyewitness reports from the scene for the network. Wolf Blitzer is anchoring. And on Fox News, Shepard Smith is talking with WGBH’s Emily Rooney, former network executive and daughter of Andy Rooney.

> More: Anderson Cooper is on his way to Boston and will anchor at 8pmET and 10pmET.

> More: Here’s affiliate video of one of the explosions, as seen on CNN:

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Morning Show Ratings: Week of April 1

Chris Ariens — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:00:10 +0000

A year ago ABC’s “Good Morning America” was rapidly gaining on NBC’s “Today” show which had held the crown of morning show leader for more than 16 years.

During this week last year “GMA” lost to “Today’ by 190,000 viewers. This year, “GMA” has a 702,000 viewer advantage on “Today,” even widening their lead from last week.

For the week of April 1, “GMA” wins in both total viewers and younger viewer and is up +8 in viewers and up +7 in the demo. The biggest gainer of the week is “CBS This Morning” which is up +13% in viewers and flat in the demo. “Today” is down -9% / -11%, respectively, vs. last year.

The averages for the week of April 1, 2013:

Total Viewers: ABC: 5.338M / NBC: 4.636M / CBS: 2.787M

A25-54 viewers: ABC: 1.952M / NBC: 1.889M / CBS: 1.011M

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Walters, O’Reilly, Couric and More Hit THR’s Media Power Party

Merrill Knox — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:57:50 +0000

As we told you yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter is out with its annual “35 Most Powerful People in Media” list. The honorees were feted at a “power-soaked New York party” at the Four Seasons restaurant Wednesday night.

From CBS News, chairman Jeff Fager was there, along with “CBS This Morning” co-hosts Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell, “60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer, “Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley and “Sunday Morning” correspondent Mo Rocca. CNN’s Piers Morgan was there, as was Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. The “Today” show’s Willie Geist and “Live!” co-hosts Michael Strahan and Kelly Ripa attended, along with talk show hosts Wendy Williams and Katie Couric. And from ABC News, president Ben Sherwood, “The View” anchor Barbara Walters, senior VP for content and development James Goldston and “Good Morning America” anchors Lara Spencer and George Stephanopoulos, who was with his wife, Ali Wentworth.

More pictures of the event in THR’s gallery.

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Morning Show Ratings: Week of March 25 and Q1 2013

Chris Ariens — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:10:13 +0000

For the first time in 19 years “Good Morning America” has won a Q1 in Total Viewers and for the first time in 20 years, “GMA” has taken the A25-54 demo in Q1. The ABC morning show won last week in both measurements as well, though “Today” got close in the demo.

#3 “CBS This Morning” showed the most year-over-year growth in the quarter: +13% in total viewers and +4% in the demo. This is the closest CBS has gotten to NBC in a first quarter in total viewers since 1995, and in A25-54 viewers since 1994.

“GMA” was also up: +9 / +1%, respectively for the quarter. “Today,” which lost its 16-year reign as the morning leader at the start of Q2 2012, was down double digits: -12% in total viewers / -17% in the demo.

For the week, “GMA” was the only show to grow in both measurements: +6% / +11%. “CBS This Morning,” was up in total viewers compared to the same week last year: +12%, but was down -2% in the demo. “Today” was down -9% / -16%, respectively, but got within 4,000 younger viewers of “GMA.”

The averages for the week of March 25:

Total Viewers: ABC: 5.159M / NBC: 4.511M / CBS: 2.711M

A25-54 viewers: ABC: 1.837M / NBC: 1.833M / CBS: 991K

The averages for Q1 2013:

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ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Lands Obama Interview

Alex Weprin — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:26:15 +0000

President Obama will give an exclusive interview to ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, the network says.

Stephanopoulos will speak to Obama tomorrow, with the first excerpts to air on “ABC World News” tomorrow evening. The full interview will air Wednesday morning on “Good Morning America” and in the wee hours of Thursday on “Nightline.” Other excerpts will air on ABCNews.com, Yahoo! and the other ABC platforms.

The President is trying to woo congressional leaders in an effort to avoid yet another budget showdown, and end the sequester. Obama was last interviewed by ABC in December, and by Stephanopoulos two years ago, in April 2011.

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ABC’s ‘This Week’ Snags Surprise Interview With Dennis Rodman

Alex Weprin — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:06:03 +0000

Credit: Lorenzo Bevilaqua/ABC Television

ABC’s “This Week” scored a surprise interview with former NBA star Dennis Rodman and Shane Smith, the co-founder of VICE. Rodman just returned from North Korea, where he watched the Harlem Globetrotters play basketball, and partied with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

Rodman and the VICE crew were the first Americans to meet with the North Korean leader since he assumed power. He is known to be a big basketball fan.

“He wants Obama to do one thing: Call him,” Rodman told George Stephanopoulos. “He said, ‘If you can, Dennis – I don’t want [to] do war. I don’t want to do war.’ He said that to me.”

Rodman called Kim Jong Un ‘my friend,” drawing pushback from Stephanopoulos, and ended the interview by saying “don’t hate me.”

Rodman’s trip was documented by VICE for its upcoming HBO newsmagzine. Video of his “This Week” appearance is here.

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Pope Benedict Coverage: ABC News

Alex Weprin — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:22:27 +0000

With Pope Benedict XVI set to resign on Thursday, U.S. networks are beginning to plan for coverage of the unprecedented (at least in modern times) event.

George Stephanopoulos and Terry Moran will lead the network’s coverage of the Pope’s departure, anchoring “Good Morning America” from the Vatican on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as two special reports Thursday morning. Moran will anchor “Nightline” from Rome on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as contribute to the network’s coverage. David Wright, Ron Claiborne, Cokie Roberts and Christiane Amanpour will also report from the Vatican.

Wright covered the death of Pope John Paul II and the election of Benedict, while Roberts’ mother, Lindy Boggs, was the Ambassador to the Holy See from 1997-2001.

Diane Sawyer will lead the network’s coverage of the Conclave in March.
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