Jon Bon Jovi - TVNewser

Making News Rather Than Covering It: Tales From Campaign 2012

Alissa Krinsky — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 10:04:39 +0000

Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, and Ricky Martin were just three of the numerous celebrity endorsers of President Barack Obama in 2012. All appeared at re-election events, part of a meticulously organized entertainment publicity effort.

One of the key players in attracting talent and overseeing coordination was former GMA and 20/20 Senior Producer – and former CBS News consultant and NBC News producer – Eric Ortner (photographed at right with Jon Hamm at the Democratic National Convention in September).

Now a Los Angeles talent manager and tv/film producer, Ortner became co-chair of the campaign’s Entertainment Advisory Council. He tells TVNewser the celebrity mix was important in helping the campaign “build a network for voter registration and get-out-the vote-efforts” and to “engage and mobilize the audience”.

Otrner says his background as a tvnewser - who’d covered politics for the networks - was helpful. “The real benefit and brilliance” of the entertainment council effort, he reflects, ”was that celebrity surrogates provided media that the campaign didn’t have to buy.”

(Photo Courtesy of Eric Ortner)

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The Morning Ticker: $23M Telethon, Day of Giving, Katie’s Tour

Chris Ariens — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:19:39 +0000

NBC News announced nearly $23 million dollars was raised during the one-hour telethon and concert for Sandy victims Friday night. Nine NBCU networks broadcast the special. “Today” reported the telethon raised “record donations.”

“Good Morning America” kicked off ABC’s “Day of Giving” for Sandy victims. Everyone from Barbara Walters to Sesame Street’s Grover are manning a phone bank set up in Times Square Studios.

Katie Couric‘s visits to The Rockaways and Staten Island this weekend will be shown on her show today. New Jersey native Jon Bon Jovi and Brooklyn-born Steve Buscemi will also be on “Katie” today.

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NBCUniversal Networks to Air First Hurricane Sandy Telethon

Chris Ariens — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 08:56:06 +0000

NBCUniversal will hold a telethon on 9 of its networks including NBC, Bravo, CNBC, E!, G4, MSNBC, Style, Syfy and USA Friday night at 8pmET. “Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together” will be hosted by Matt Lauer.

The event will feature performances by artists including Christina Aguilera, Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Sting, and appearances by Jimmy Fallon and Brian Williams.

Money collected will be donated to the American Red Cross relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy.

In the past — including after 9/11, the South Asian tsunami in 2005, hurricane Katrina in 2006 and the Haiti earthquake in 2010 — networks from multiple broadcasting companies came together to host a telethon. At this point, NBCU is taking the lead and going it alone on its own networks for the Sandy telethon. They say other networks are welcome to join tomorrow’s telethon.

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The Common Thread of ‘Person to Person’ and ‘Rock Center’

Chris Ariens — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:26:34 +0000

The NBC and CBS news divisions each programmed an hour of primetime Wednesday night to mixed viewer results.

On CBS, it was the return of “Person to Person,” the iconic interview program hosted first by Edward R. Murrow and later by Charles Collingwood. The new iteration pairs Charlie Rose and Lara Logan (shouldn’t it be ‘People to Person’?) and last night featured interviews with George Clooney, Warren Buffet and Jon Bon Jovi.

On NBC at 9pm, the new day and time for “Rock Center,” a blockbuster interview with one-time White House intern Mimi Aflord who discussed it great — and at one point not-safe-for-primetime — detail, her affair with Pres. John F. Kennedy, including rubber duckies and fixing eggs. The interview by Meredith Vieira — in her debut on the show — took up most of the hour. According to the overnight ratings:

At 8pm “Person to Person” came in third in its timeslot drawing 6.02 million viewers and a 4.2 rating/6 share in households. The show was up against “American Idol” (17.91M viewers) and sitcoms on ABC (7.88M). The CBS News show outperformed sitcoms on NBC.

At 9pm “Rock Center” built on its lackluster sitcom lead-in, drawing 5.28 million Total Viewers and a 3.7 rating/5 share in households, but came in 4th in the hour behind, CBS, ABC and FOX.

If you caught the “Rock Center” interview you might have noticed an interesting parallel between it and “Person to Person.” The “Rock Center” story included a clip from an interview done 50 years ago this month, on February 14, 1962, when First Lady Jackie Kennedy took Collingwood on a tour of the White House. The hour was produced by CBS News but also aired on NBC, and, four days later, on ABC.

The Museum of Broadcasting said the Collingwood report, “was the first primetime documentary to explicitly court a female audience.” Sort of what “Person to Person” and “Rock Center” went for last night.

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CBS News Gets the Most from Adam Lambert Controversy

Chris Ariens — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:48:06 +0000

CBS’ “The Early Show” got the most out of its late add Adam Lambert this morning. Lambert, who was scheduled to appear on GMA this morning, was canceled by ABC late yesterday morning due to his sexually charged performance at the AMAs Sunday night.

On “Early,” a story and interview aired in the 7:30am half hour, Lambert answered viewer questions in the 8am half hour before performing the first of two songs at 8:42am.

In the interview with Maggie Rodriguez, Lambert said the outrage after his AMA performance was a “double whammy.”

“I think it’s because I’m a gay male and I think people haven’t seen that before,” said Lambert.

Asked if he would do anything differently, Lambert laughed and said, “I would sing it a little bit better.” Lambert then assured parents watching that his morning show concert “is appropriate, I promise.”

Interestingly, in the story leading up to Lambert’s interview, the kiss and the crotch smash, which were part of his AMA act were blurred out, but in the same story, Madonna’s kiss with Britney Spears at the 2003 VMAs was not, leading some to accuse CBS of a double standard. Or it may be, as ABC News told us yesterday, that that kind of performance just isn’t appropriate “so early in the morning.”

After his first song, Lambert’s mom came to the stage and Rodriguez asked her what she thought of the controversy surrounding the AMA performance: “I was a little taken aback,” she said, “but I just went with the flow.”

As for morning show leader the “Today” show, EP Jim Bell tells the AP’s David Bauder they did not consider booking Lambert because the show already had planned a performance with NBC’s artist in resident Jon Bon Jovi.

> Update: Video of the interview, after the jump…

continued…

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Bon Jovi’s Unusual Arrangement with NBC

kevin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:14:57 +0000

Jon Bon Jovi is coming to NBCU in a multi-network arrangement. For the next two months he’ll be an “artist in residence” while promoting his new album, “The Circle.”

But the arrangement was not done with the network approaching the singer. Instead, Bon Jovi’s manager suggested the idea, and the New Jersey rocker took it to NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker, who developed it with Jeff Gaspin, NBC’s chairman of entertainment. Bon Jovi will exclusively appear on NBC programming. The NYTimes reports:

These appearances will include the “Today” show, “The Tonight Show,” “The Jay Leno Show” and “Saturday Night Live” — and even an interview on the “NBC Nightly News” with Brian Williams.

Bon Jovi is even appearing on Bravo’s “Inside the Actors Studio,” where he will undoubtedly discuss his Olivier-esque roles in “Moonlight and Valentino” and “National Lampoon’s: Pucked.”

Singers often appear on TV news programs to promote their work or causes, but an elaborate arrangement like this including both entertainment and news programs is uncommon. When asked how the deal fits within the news division, an NBC News spokesperson told TVNewser, “Any appearance by Bon Jovi will fall within NBC News standards.” The spokesperson also told us Bon Jovi would have been booked for a concert and a “Nightly” story regardless of the “artist in residence” title.

The “Nightly” segment will be part of the “Making a Difference” series and will highlight Bon Jovi’s philanthropic work. Reports The Times: “His foundation has supported the building of about 200 houses in Newark and Philadelphia and has plans to participate in setting up a project called a Robin Hood restaurant in Red Bank, N.J., an idea that came from a previous segment on the NBC newscast.”

This is not the first time “Nightly News” has featured a popular musician on the program. In 2006, Brian Williams traveled to Africa and followed Bono for three days covering his humanitarian efforts.

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The Long Weekend: Final Notes From WHCD

SteveK — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:07:32 +0000

All the photos from Bloomberg’s ultra-exclusive party are available to the public, courtesy of Bloomberg/Vanity Fair After Party.

Check out the Jersey boys (Gov. Jon Corzine and Jon Bon Jovi), the Tweeters (Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore) and this pairing on the left — the heroes of the night (Capts. Richard Phillips and Chesley Sullenberger).

The Daily Beast’s Rachel Sklar (who writes today why this whole thing matters) shares her pics on Flickr, with some more interesting pairs, including the guys to the right — RNC Chairman Michael Steele and CNN’s Roland Martin.

Wrapping up the FishbowlDC coverage:

• Photos from Friday night’s Poliwood screening
• Newseum’s Friday night comedy panel
• Capitol File party coverage

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Is ABC News Hogging White House Dinner Guests?

Chris Ariens — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 13:41:27 +0000

The Hill reports on next weekend’s White House Correspondents Association Dinner – the party of the year where the media elite, politicos and Hollywood stars come together.

But, The Hill reports, “news outlets are grumbling” about ABC’s guest list. “Several people pointed to ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos‘s close friendship with [Obama Chief of Staff Rahm] Emanuel, and questioned how the network got so many big names.” Those names include Emanuel, adviser Valerie Jarrett, CIA Director Leon Panetta and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice.

Rice was an easy get. Her husband is the Executive Producer of Stephanopoulos’ Sunday show.

But ABC says its other stars including Terry Moran and Jake Tapper booked many of the Obama staffers while Stephanopoulos was only involved in securing one guest…

continued…

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Making the Move — Invesco

SteveK — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:40:15 +0000

Sometime around 3amET, the cable and broadcast networks will be making the move to Invesco Field, to set up for Sen. Barack Obama‘s acceptance speech.

The move was described to us as a “disaster,” by an insider today, but it has to be done. ABC News political director David Chalian said it will be like, “covering two different Democratic Conventions.”

NBC anchor Brian Williams tells TVNewser, although it will be a, “logistical challenge,” it has been done before. “Everyone has got to remember Kennedy did it in Los Angeles,” he said. “But this will be something.”

CBS Early Show EP Zev Shalev told TVNewser this morning he’s happy with the anchor handling the duties. “We’re blessed by a guy who can talk off the cuff,” he said of Harry Smith. “He’s experienced and terrific.”

And although Shalev said it’s, “going to be a big challenge,” he said, “It’s why I like television.”

Tomorrow will have Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, 80,000 people in the crowd and staging that has been described as resembling an “ancient Greek temple” (and described to us as looking like the White House Rose Garden). Any guesses on ratings for tomorrow night?

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