Friday night capped off a long week for local, state and federal investigators, the people of Watertown, Cambridge and Boston and the media covering the manhunt for 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and this longer than most week in Boston. A few of the correspondents still on the scene last night had put in some of the longest days in a long time. “I guess I started working thursday at 5:00 a.m. and have been working straight through,” said NBC’s Kerry Sanders, a Boston area native, not long after Tsarnaev was taken into custody last night. “It’s hard to keep clear everything that’s been going on.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper began reporting Thursday morning too, through the chaotic overnight events of Friday morning, into late Friday afternoon. FNC’s Bill Hemmer reported for about 32 hours straight Thursday into Friday. And NBC’s Lester Holt, stationed in Watertown, a city which had been under siege all day, finally jubilant as local, state and federal officials made their way out of town. “They were preparing for the worst. Now they are basking in the applause of the crowd. I may be punchy because I have gone 40-some hours without sleep,” said Holt, adding, “I have a big grin on my face. This does take me back to one of the very few good memories of the time related around 9/11. That was when we recognized the hard job our first responders do. They got their credit. That’s what we are seeing here in Watertown tonight.”

Holt, Sanders and dozens of other correspondents and anchors — network and local — who’ve worked long hours all week, are back on the air this morning as the full investigation into the bombings gets underway.

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.

A week from today, the “Today” show will broadcast live from the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum for a nationwide hiring fair supporting veterans and military spouses.

The show marks the one-year anniversary of “Hiring Our Heroes,” a joint NBC News and U.S. Chamber of Commerce initiative to get veterans back into the workforce. The two organizations have hosted more than 100 hiring fairs since March 2011 and have committed to 400 more in the coming year.

NBC News will feature “Hiring Our Heroes” pieces across all NBC platforms, kicking off on the Sunday edition of “Today” this weekend. Tom Brokaw, Kerry Sanders and Natalie Morales will contribute reporting for the series.

The party’s still going at the Edison Ballroom in Times Square as the “Today” show celebrates its 60th anniversary. The morning milestone began with a welcome from “Today” frontman Matt Lauer before singer Pit Bull took the stage.

Fourth hour hosts Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford were early arrivals, with Kotb (below) front and center during Pit Bull’s set. We spotted NBC News president Steve Capus and “Today” EP Jim Bell working the room, as longtime EP and, later NBCU president Jeff Zucker was deep in conversation with former “Today” anchor Meredith Vieira.

“Today” senior broadcast producer Don Nash, who’s been with the show more than a third of its life — 23 years — tells TVNewser tomorrow’s anniversary program is not to be missed. All former living on air talent — save for Joe Garagiola and Gene Shalit who aren’t able to make it — will be a part of the show. And we spotted many of them at the party tonight, including Tom Brokaw, Katie Couric, (above) Barbara Walters, John Palmer and Hugh Downs.

NBC spared no expense flying in correspondents from other NBC bureaus including Andrea Mitchell, Kerry Sanders, Kevin Tibbles, Janet Shamlian and Luke Russert.

Brian Williams stopped in after “Nightly News.” And we chatted with “Today” anchors Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Wolfe and Amy Robach, here with husband Andrew Shue, and said hello to Willard Scott on our way out. Other “Today” regulars celebrating  included Jill Rappaport, Martha Stewart, the Scotto family and Bobby Flay. We chatted with Andy Cohen (mostly about NeNe Leakes) who later tonight will be interviewing Rosie O’Donnell on his Bravo show, “Watch What Happens Live.”

Rounding out the crowd: Willie Geist, Jeff Rossen, Martin Bashir, Carl Quintanilla, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Tyler Mathisen, MSNBC president Phil Griffin and CNBC president Mark Hoffman and many more I may have missed. Because, as I said, the party is still going. Then, tomorrow at 7am, “Today” takes the party nationwide.

Andrea Mitchell and Jeff Zucker

Kerry Sanders and Jenna Wolfe

(Photos: Chris Ariens)

TV news anchors, correspondents and meteorologists may not have to go far from their New York headquarters to cover Hurricane Irene as the Category 3 storm barrels toward the East Coast.

With the 11amET advisory, the storm continues its catastrophic path toward North Carolina, the DelMarVa peninsula and the coasts of New Jersey, New York and New England.

The Weather Channel just added an “EXTREME” threat level category from eastern North Carolina to southern New England.

NBC’s Al Roker is in the appropriately named Duck, NC alongside his Weather Channel colleague Stephanie
Abrams. “We’ll stay here through tomorrow then head to either coastal New Jersey or New York,” Roker tells TVNewser between liveshots on MSNBC.

ABC’s Matt Gutman, CBS’s Mark Strassman, NBC’s Kerry Sanders, CNN’s John Zarrella and FNC’s John

Read more

NBC’s Kerry Sanders, who has covered the Casey Anthony case since Caylee Anthony first went missing, reported on the media coverage of the trial for “Today.”

As we’ve been reporting the trial has been a spectacle not seen in many years. In fact the judge in the case has said Anthony’s trial might “even dwarf” the coverage of the so-called “trail of the century,” the first OJ Simpson trial — in the last century. The biggest ratings beneficiary is HLN which continues to see stellar daytime ratings, and for Nancy Grace‘s (the second-most watched show in younger viewers Tuesday night) and other shows in primetime.

The biggest change since O.J.? The media has gotten social. Here’s Sanders’s piece from this morning:

Read more

NBC's Kerry Sanders covers the Casey Anthony trial from Orlando.

Part 1 of 2: In the pre-dawn hours this week and last, hundreds of people have gotten in line at the Orange County Courthouse, hoping to get one of 50 front-row seats to the trial of Casey Anthony. Millions more at home have been glued to their TV sets watching gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial of a mother accused of killing her daughter, three years after the crime.

It’s the kind of court TV that hasn’t been seen since the days of, well, CourtTV.

“Short of O.J. Simpson, I have not come across a case with the level of mystery, intrigue and outrage that Ms. Anthony’s story offers,” says Ashleigh Banfield, a veteran of CourtTV and NBC News, who is covering the trial for ABC News.

NBC’s Miami-based correspondent Kerry Sanders has been covering this story since day one, reporting on Caylee Anthony‘s disappearance for the “Today” show from her bedroom in June 2008. “In 30-years, I’ve covered my share of trials from ‘the outlaws’ motor cycle gang, to political corruption, to pedophile murderers. This is by far the story with the most viewer attention ever,” Sanders tells TVNewser.

While gavel-to-gavel coverage has been a staple on TruTV’s “In Session” and on HLN, Orlando stations have also been carrying live trial coverage, pre-empting soap operas and talk shows.

Bob Jordan, news director of ABC affiliate WFTV, tells TVNewser more people watched the trial on his station as well as on Fox O&O WOFL and cable station CFN13 combined, than watched the Miami Heat – Dallas Mavericks NBA playoff game in prime time last night.

WFTV’s afternoon trial coverage is attracting more viewers than ABC’s soap operas and has “greatly exceeded” re-runs of “The Oprah Winfrey” show at 4pm, Jordan says.

And the interest goes beyond TV.

Read more

The “Today” show is responding to a handful of critics in Florida who believe a recent segment “unfairly labeled” their city.

Last Tuesday, NBC’s Kerry Sanders reported live while driving through a parking lot in Wellington, Fla. on the rise in car surfing incidents across the country. His story included several video clips from YouTube and reported on two recent deaths in De Bary, FL, north of Orlando. But some in Wellington wonder why their city was included in his story, which appeared simply to be a backdrop for his live shot.

The village manager, Paul Schofield, “wants a clarification from the Today show,” writes The Palm Beach Post‘s Frank Cerabino. The Broward-Palm Beach New Times reports, “The City of Wellington wants a correction from Matt Lauer,” who introduced the segment. And councilwoman Anne Gerwig brought it up at last week’s council meeting: “The implication is clear from watching it. It’s implying that it’s here, and it’s not.”

A “Today” spokesperson tells TVNewser, “The goal of the piece was to raise awareness about the serious dangers of car surfing. The was no inaccurate reporting in this story, and we stand by it 100 percent.”

Video of the “Today” segment is after the jump…

Read more

At 10:18pmET tonight, Manuel Gonzales, the first of several rescuers began to descend into a mine shaft to begin the process of retrieving 33 miners who’ve been trapped deep under the Chilean desert for 69 days. 18 Minutes later, at 10:36, Gonzales had arrived 2,040 feet below the desert. And all of it was captured live on television — both on the surface and down below — and is being broadcast around the world.

The coverage on U.S. channels had begun hours earlier, and will continue overnight and into tomorrow.

“The O’Reilly Factor,” the highest-rated show on cable news, ran in its entirety at 8pm with the action from the mine site running in a split screen at times. “Hannity” at 9pm included more rescue coverage with Shepard Smith contributing from New York and correspondents Steve Harrigan and Adam Housley in Chile. “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” devoted the entire show to the rescue.

MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” at 8pm ran a regularly scheduled show including a live report from NBC’s Kerry Sanders from the mine site. Rachel Maddow at 9pm ramped up coverage including a Q&A with Natalie Morales also on site at the mine. By 10pm, Lawerence O’Donnell was anchoring continuing coverage as the first miner, Florencio Avalos entered the capsule at 10:55pm for his ascent to the surface. O’Donnell: “We haven’t had cameras in a position like this before in a crisis like this. To be able to deliver this imagery. This is awe inspiring at every level.”

CNN preempted “Parker-Spitzer” at 8pm in lieu of live coverage of the preparations anchored by Anderson Cooper, with Larry King picking up at 9pm and Cooper returning at 10pm. In the minutes leading up to Avalos’ return to the surface, correspondent Gary Tuchman, who arrived on site Monday, called it “the ultimate live shot.” Tuchman admitted that although he and his media colleagues are a stone’s throw from the mine shaft, TV viewers have a much better perspective with the multiple cameras used in the operation.

• NYT’s Brian Stelter has more on the TV news coverage.

>> Update: 11:11pmET: The first miner, Florencio Avalos, emerged from the capsule, safe.

>> More: ABC’s “Nightline” will be a special hour long broadcast tonight with Bill Weir anchoring live from San Jose, Chile.

TV News correspondents are descending on Chile’s Atacama desert as the rescue of 33 miners trapped since August 5 is now just days away.

“Today” show national correspondent Natalie Morales left New York for Chile on Friday and began reporting today for NBC News and The Weather Channel. NBC News Miami-based correspondent Kerry Sanders, (with Morales, right) who has been in Chile since Sept. 28, has been reporting for several NBCU channels, including MSNBC and CNBC.

ABC’s Jeffrey Kofman who was one of the first American news correspondents on the scene in August, remains on site. John Quinones is also there working on a report for “20/20″ to air this Friday and Diana Alvear is reporting for NewsOne and ABC News Radio.

For CBS News, Seth Doane is in place. Fox News Channel’s Steve Harrigan has been in-country since last Tuesday reporting for the cable news channel and CNN has a team of 14 people on the ground including Karl Penhaul who’s been on the ground since August 23 for both CNN/U.S. and CNNI. All-platform journalist Patrick Oppmann is also reporting for the network and Gary Tuchman will be on air soon as he just arrived this morning.

BBC World News America’s Matt Frei will anchor tonight’s show from the scene in Copiago and will remain until the miners are freed.

TV News crews in position near the mine site in Chile’s Atacama Desert where rescuers finished drilling 566 meters underground Sunday in an effort to free 33 trapped miners.