ABC, CBS and NBC joined the cable news networks carrying Pres. Obama’s remarks and signing of 23 executive actions tightening gun laws. Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos anchored on ABC, Brian Williams on NBC, and Scott Pelley on CBS. Jon Scott and Jenna Lee anchored for Fox News, Wolf Blitzer on CNN, and Alex Wagner on MSNBC.

The president pointed out that passing legislation “will be difficult” and took a shot (excuse the pun) at those who would oppose the legislation to “gin up fear or higher ratings or revenue.”

“There will be pundits and politicians and special interest lobbyists, publicly warning of a tyrannical all-out assault on liberty. Not because that’s true. But because they want to gin up fear or higher ratings or revenue for themselves.”

Coverage of Friday’s tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, will continue Saturday on the broadcast and cable networks.

On ABC, weekday anchor George Stephanopoulos will anchor “Good Morning America” from Newtown. Elizabeth Vargas will join him from New York. ABC’s Josh Elliott, Amy Robach and Dan Harris will report from the scene in Newtown.

NBC’s “Today” will also have the weekday team in, with Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie anchoring from Newtown. Lester Holt, Erica Hill, Ann Curry and Willie Geist will contribute to the program.

Anthony Mason and Rebecca Jarvis will anchor “CBS This Morning Saturday” from Newtown. CBS will also preempt “48 Hours” Saturday night for a special report on the shooting at 10pmET.

Fox News will be live at 5amET with “Fox & Friends First.” An expanded edition of “Fox & Friends” will air from 6-10amET, and will be simulcast on FBN. The 10am-noon business block will be preempted for live coverage anchored by Jon Scott and Jenna Lee. Scott will also host an expanded two-hour “Fox Report” beginning at 6pmET. Mike Huckabee‘s program will be live from NYC at 8pmET and Jeanine Pirro and Geraldo Rivera will host their primetime shows from Newtown.

MSNBC will focus on the shooting during regularly-scheduled programming and will be live until at least 7pmET Saturday night.

On CNN, Ali Velshi and Jon Berman will anchor from 6-9amET. Soledad O’Brien will anchor from 9-11amET, Wolf Blitzer will anchor from 11am-1pmET and Don Lemon will anchor from 1-3pmET. O’Brien will anchor from 3-5pmET, and Blitzer and Kate Bolduan will anchor from 5-8pmET. Anderson Cooper will anchor from 8-9pmET,  Lemon and O’Brien will anchor from 9-10pmET, and Cooper will take over again from 10-11pmET.

On HLN, Nancy Grace will host a special on the shooting tonight at 8pmET. Dr. Drew Pinsky will host a special live hour at 9pmET.

Credit: Shannon Hicks, The Newtown Bee

With the tragic shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, CT, the broadcast networks and cable news channels are changing up their plans tonight.

All three of the evening news anchors, Brian Williams, Diane Sawyer and Scott Pelley, will be anchoring from Connecticut tonight.

“The CBS Evening News” will expand to one-hour, and CBS will air a one-hour special report at 10 PM ET. “ABC World News” will also be one-hour, and ABC will be pre-empting Barbara Walters‘ interview with President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for a special on the shooting, with Sawyer and Chris Cuomo anchoring from CT. There will also be a special edition of “Nightline” with Cynthia McFadden anchoring from CT. “NBC Nightly News” will also be an hour, and “Dateline” will be pre-empting its holiday special for a report on the shooting at 10 PM.

On cable news tonight, the shooting will be the big story, if not the exclusive one.

MSNBC will be sticking with its normal lineup of hosts, with the shooting expected to be the primary story. Chris Jansing will host the 10pmET hour live from Newtown.

CNN will also be staying with its normal lineup, though the 10 PM edition of “AC360″ will be live instead of taped. With Erin Burnett in Afghanistan, Ashleigh Banfield will fill-in at 7 PM.  ”Piers Morgan Tonight” will be discussing the latest regarding the shooting, as well as gun control. Banfield will also anchor at 11 PM.

Fox News is pre-empting “The Five,” instead having Jon Scott anchor the hour. Bill Hemmer will anchor at 7 PM from CT.  ”The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity” will be live instead of on tape, and will be talking about the shooting, and “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” will originate from Connecticut and air from 10PM-midnight. In addition tonight’s edition of “Red Eye” is being pre-empted.

We will update this item as we get more information on coverage.

Veteran defense reporter Tom Ricks (who was on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” yesterday to talk about coverage of General Petraeus) had an interview on Fox News cut short after he criticized the channel on-air.

Ricks was there to talk about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. During the interview he said that “Benghazi generally was hyped, by this network especially.”

Ricks added:

I think, No. 1, I’ve covered a lot of firefights, it’s impossible to figure out what happens in them sometimes. And second, I think that the emphasis on Benghazi has been extremely political, partly because Fox was operating as a wing of the Republican party.”

Anchor Jon Scott ended the interview after that comment. Ricks told the New York Times‘ Brian Stelter that the segment was supposed to be about twice as long, and that an FNC staffer says he was “rude” after he was off-air. Video of the exchange, after the jump.

Read more

Colorado politicians were the lead guests on all of the Sunday public affairs shows. Governor John Hickenlooper was on ABC’s “This Week” and NBC’s “Meet the Press,” while a local Representative and some local officials were on CBS “Face the Nation.” Update: CBS notes that “Face” was the only show with Aurora Sheriff Daniel Oates, as well as New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netenyahu.

ABC also obtained video of the killer, from when he was attending a science camp at 18 years old:

With President Obama visiting Colorado this afternoon, the cable news channels are going live tonight, even in hours that have traditionally been for pre-taped programming or reruns.

On Fox News, “Fox Report” will have live coverage at 7, with Colorado native Jon Scott anchoring, while Jeanine Pirro will anchor her program from Colorado at 9 PM. Update: FNC will be live at 10 PM now, too. On CNN, Don Lemon will anchor a two-hour special from Colorado from 8-10PM ET. On MSNBC, Chris Jansing will anchor from Colorado from 7-10PM ET.

Reporter Amanda Kost from Denver station KMGH Tweets this photo from outside the Aurora, CO theater

The tragic shooting in Colorado is forcing many TV news programs to throw out their plans for the day, what would likely have been a slow Summer Friday.

As we noted earlier “CBS This Morning” is going live into a third hour of programming, a first for the network morning show. CBS also says that Scott Pelley will anchor the ‘CBS Evening News” from Aurora, Colorado this evening.

> Update: Pelley will also anchor a special edition of “48 Hours” in primetime tonight at 8 PM. Jeff Glor is also going to Colorado. He’ll anchor a split edition of “CBS This Morning Saturday” and anchor “Evening News” Saturday and Sunday and stay for Monday’s “CBS This Morning.”

> More: On ABC, David Muir will report from Aurora for “ABC World News,” with Chris Cuomo anchoring a live “20/20″ from Colorado at 10 PM ET. Diane Sawyer–who was supposed to be off today–will come in and anchor “World News” from New York.

NBC’s Brian Williams will anchor from Aurora, and “Dateline” will have an hour on the shooting in primetime.

On cable news, Fox News Channel’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” is forgoing what was supposed to be a taped special on the economy at 10pmET and will instead cover the shooting. Van Susteren will anchor from Colorado. Also, Fox News Channel’s Jon Scott–a Colorado native–is en route and will report from Aurora for “Fox Report.”

> More: NBC’s Chris Jansing was supposed to be traveling to London today for Olympics coverage. Instead she is heading to Colorado where she will anchor a 4pmET and 10pmET specials on MSNBC. Coincidentally, one of the athletes she profiled for the Summer games is from Aurora.

> More: CNN’s Anderson Cooper will be anchoring from Aurora, Colorado tonight as well.

On HLN this afternoon Kyra Phillips will make her debut on the network during “Evening Express” from 5-7 PM ET.

“Piers Morgan Tonight” EP Jonathan Wald says on Twitter that they will be covering the shooting:

You can bet we’ll be debating gun control live tonight. @piersmorganhas some very strong views.

— Jonathan Wald (@jonathanwald) July 20, 2012

We will update this story with more changes in coverage, as we get them.

NBC News threw a party last night, celebrating the 20th anniversary of its primetime newsmagazine “Dateline.”

While the mood was celebratory, it was hard to escape the elephant in the room. In an address to guests at the event, senior EP David Corvo paid tribute to a number of former “Dateline” staffers, including former anchor Ann Curry who bid farewell to the “Today” show earlier in the day.

“Ann had her own sweet, persistent way of coming into my office, day after day, trying to push us to do certain types of stories that we weren’t doing,” Corvo said. “Her legacy probably on the show more than anything else is ‘America Now,’ which has gotten a lot of awards, was fun to produce and made a difference in some people’s lives, which is what Ann is dedicated to.”

Dateline EP Liz Cole likened the party to a “family reunion,” and it did feel that way. TVNewser spotted Hoda Kotb (who at one point danced in the DJ booth), correspondents Chris Hansen, and Keith Morrison, original anchor Jane Pauley (but not Stone Phillips) and former “Dateline” correspondent and current Fox News anchor Jon Scott. The event, held at Catch in New York’s Meatpacking District, was the second 20th anniversary party for the series in less than a year (see our report from the first one, here). Former NBC News president and “Dateline” EP Neal Shapiro was there, as was current NBC News chief Steve Capus, who praised the program:

Read more

The expediency of TV news is not meeting well with the depth involved in the ruling on the Affordable Care Act of 2010, more commonly known as Obamacare.

“Be cautious with us, we’re trying to do the best we can,” said Bill Hemmer on Fox News, at 10:11am. “We may need to update our lower third, which may not be correct,” added Megyn Kelly, which stated the court had ruled the individual mandate unconstitutional.

At 10:07, CNN’s Kate Bolduan reported the same: “It appears as if the Supreme Court justices have struck down the individual mandate.”

“Wow, that’s a dramatic moment, if in fact the Supreme Court has ruled the individual mandate is in fact unconstitutional,” said Wolf Blitzer.

In fact, they didn’t and it was more complicated than that.

At 10:11am, a breathless NBC justice correspondent Pete Williams got it right in an NBC/MSNBC simulcast, “They have said that it can’t be upheld under the commerce clause, the individual mandate can’t. But [Chief Justice John Roberts] said it can be upheld under the court’s taxing authority. So the bottom line here is the Supreme Court has upheld the health care law. It is a penalty, not a tax.”

That clear enough?

Probably not. Our suggestion: see how the three evening newscasts report it, or read the New York Times.

As for the broadcast networks:  Matt Lauer anchored on NBC until 10:26am, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos on ABC, with Terry Moran at the court also aired their special report until 10:26. On CBS, Scott Pelley was in Washington along with Jan Crawford at the court with their special report running until 10:30. And FNC’s Jon Scott anchored on FOX stations until 10:27

HLN, CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg and C-Span, are also giving the decision extensive coverage.

Fox News continues its reign as the cable news king, but the News Corp. news channel is not immune to the slowdown in cable news. This was Fox’s lowest quarter since the second quarter 2008. In primetime, Fox News is down -1% in total viewers and down -14% in younger viewers.  In total day viewing FNC is up +2% in total viewers and down -5% in younger viewers. Fox News has the top 13 cable news programs in Total Viewers and 13 of the top 15 in A25-54 viewers.

The ratings for Q2 2012:

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 1.791M Total Viewers / 355,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 1.052M Total Viewers / 254,000 A25-54

With primetime showing declines: Bill O’Reilly down -18% and Sean Hannity down -16% in younger viewers, FNC’s daytime programs lead the demo growth. “America Live with Megyn Kelly” had the largest year-to-year gains up +21% in A25-54 viewers. Kelly was out on maternity leave for much of Q2 ’11.

“Happening Now” with Jon Scott and Jenna Lee is up +16% and “Studio B with Shepard Smith” (subject of this week’s “My First Big Break” on mediabistroTV, see it Thursday) was up +16% in the younger demo.

“The Five” had its highest ranked quarter. Appropriately, the 5pm show is the 5th most-popular show on cable news, but it is down -21% in the demo vs. Glenn Beck which aired at this time last year. Also, late night show “Red Eye” had its highest-rated quarter in Total Viewers.

As usual, Fox News comes in first among the cable news channels in May, but even the perennial ratings leader was not immune to a decline this month. Compared to May 2011, FNC is down -6% in Total Viewers and -12% in the A25-54 demographic in Total Day. In primetime, the network is down -9% in Total Viewers and -23% in A25-54 viewers.

The ratings for May, 2012:

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 1.692M Total Viewers / 326,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 1.011M Total Viewers / 248,000 A25-54

Like last month, the daytime programming on Fox News performed particularly well among younger viewers in May. “America Live with Megyn Kelly” was up +11% compared to last year, and “Studio B with Shepard Smith” was up +8%. The second hour of “Happening Now,” co-anchored by Jon Scott and Jenna Lee, also gained younger viewers, up +16% compared to last year.

Fox News was down significantly in primetime in May, posting its lowest weekday ratings since July 2008. “Hannity” is down -8% in Total Viewers and -20% in the demographic compared to last year, while “On The Record with Greta Van Susteren” is down -13% and -20%, respectively. “Fox Report” is down -13% in Total Viewers and -19% in the demographic.

“Fox & Friends First,” which debuted in March, was up +31% in Total Viewers and +29% in A25-54 viewers compared to last year, when a repeat of “The O’Reilly Factor” ran at 5amET. This gives the network its highest rating during that timeslot since the coverage of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005.