Update: One of my sources now says Ryan’s camp just canceled the interviews. So, false alarm, I guess.

GOP VP nominee Paul Ryan will be sitting down with a handful of TV news outlets for a series of round robin interviews to air on Thursday, two people familiar with the matter tell TVNewser. Ryan is expected to speak with the network morning shows, and possibly a few other programs, they said.

Ryan has given a handful of interviews since being selected to be Mitt Romney‘s running mate earlier his month. Thursday is the final day of the RNC however, and will culminate with Romney’s speech. The interviews allow the day to begin with Ryan, and end with Romney. Appearing on the network morning shows guarantees the largest possible audience for the interviews.

25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 286 | MSNBC: *NA | CNN: 110 | HLN: 121

• Primetime: FNC: 187 | MSNBC: 182 | CNN: 89 | HLN: 177

	5p:	6p:	7p:	8p:	9p:	10p:	11p:	12a:
Fox News	TheFive:	Baier:	Shep:	Huckabee:	Hannity:	Greta:	Huckabee:	Hannity:
	266	264	253	172	174	214	142	141
MSNBC	Olympics:	Matthews:	Matthews:	Lockup:	Lockup:	Lockup:	Lockup:	Lockup:
	NA*	60	66	101	168	276	234	206
CNN	Newsroom:	Blitzer:	Newsroom:	Presents:	Morgan:	Newsroom:	Presents:	Morgan:
	83	88	98	90	74	105	84	83
HLN	Mysteries:	Mysteries:	Mysteries:	Mysteries:	Mysteries:	Mysteries:	Mysteries:	Mysteries:
	99	125	194	149	196	187	153	184

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When the news broke Friday night that Mitt Romney was going to announce his running mate, and that the running mate would be Rep. Paul Ryan, the news channels didn’t get much of a ratings bump. In fact, for MSNBC, the ratings dropped precipitously — down 1/3 in the demo — when the network switched from “Lock Up” to extended coverage of the news at Midnight.  Fox News, which was first with news of the announcement, saw a Total Viewer drop from 10pm to 11pm when the news broke, though they added demo viewers. See the Friday Scoreboard for details.

As for Saturday, here are the cable news ratings for the announcement — the lead-up in the 8amET hour and the event in the 9am.

• Cable Ratings, Aug. 11, 2012, 8amET

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• FNC’s Brit Hume gets the first sit-down solo interview with GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan. Hume talks with Ryan tomorrow in Denver. Portions will air throughout the day, with the full interview on “Special Report with Bret Baier” at 6pmET.

• Greta Van Susteren will be hosting tonight’s “On the Record” from her home state of Wisconsin. She’ll be live from Rep. Ryan’s hometown of Janesville. Van Susteren interviewed House Speaker John Boehner in the Central Wisconsin city of Wausau Sunday. Gov. Scott Walker will also be a guest.

• Dan Senor, the husband of former NBC and CNN anchor Campbell Brown, becomes a senior adviser to Rep. Ryan. Politico reports, Senor “will be serving in a much broader role with Ryan, helping on things like debate prep and the convention speech.”

At 9:20, Mitt Romney took to the stage with the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA as his backdrop. At 9:28, he brought out his running mate on the Republican presidential ticket, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.

NBC News began its special report at 9am with Brian Williams anchoring from London, joined by Peter Alexander in Norfolk, and Chuck Todd and David Gregory in Washington. CBS News broke in at 9:03 with Anthony Mason and Rebecca Jarvis anchoring with Jan Crawford in Norfolk and Bob Schieffer in Washington. David Muir on ABC News began a special report at 9:10 with Jonathan Karl in Norfolk and George Stephanopoulos, by Skype from a well-appointed home.

Wolf Blitzer led coverage on CNN, Bret Baier on FNC, and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow was up for Chris Hayes‘ show with Andrea Mitchell in Norfolk. FBN and HLN also carried the announcement live.

ABC continued with its special report until 9:51, NBC and CBS until 9:52.

On Fox News Baier will continue until 11am when John Roberts picks up anchoring until 1pET.

FNC is producing a modified weekday schedule: “The Five” will be in for a special hour today at 5, Baier is back for “Special Report” at 6pm followed by Shepard Smith anchoring “Fox Report” at 7pm, “Huckabee” at 8, “Hannity” at 9 and the pride of Appleton, Wisconsin, Greta Van Susteren will host a live “On the Record” at 10pmET.

What a difference four years makes.

While Paul Ryan‘s name had been near the top of many VP pick lists, the confirmation came a good 9 hours before the official announcement. News networks confirmed the choice late last night with their sources, while @MittRomney confirmed it this morning, sending a Tweet at 7:45am.

That’s quite a contrast from four years ago, when John McCain chose Sarah Palin has his running mate. On the morning of Friday, August 29, 2008, the day after Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech at the DNC, the news networks scrambled to confirm Palin, the relatively unknown Alaska Governor, as the pick.

90 minutes before the announcement, FNC’s Carl Cameron was first with the news, just like he was last night with details of the Romney pick.

Fox News broke into the 11pmET reair of “The O’Reilly Factor” with the news that Mitt Romney would be announcing his VP pick in the morning. Carl Cameron confirmed the announcement would be on the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA at 9amET. “All signs have pointed to the likelihood of Paul Ryan as running mate, the congressman from Wisconsin,” said Cameron in his report at 11:04pm.

Following the news, the Tweets with confirmations from other news organizations began rolling in.  ”Norfolk” and “USS Wisconsin” began trending on Twitter.

MSNBC broke in with the news at 11:29pm and CNN broke in at 11:33pm with a report from CNN International.

“Nightline’s” Cynthia McFadden led the ABC show with the news (and updated the show for the West Coast at 2:35amET). Expect expanded coverage from the cable and broadcast networks in the morning, including Bret Baier anchoring FNC’s coverage from Miami. And fortunately for NBC and MSNBC, they won’t have to decide whether to interrupt the Olympics, as Olympic programming doesn’t start until 10amET on both networks.

> More: At 12:01amET, NBC’s Chuck Todd reported live on MSNBC that Ryan was the pick. At 12:22amET, the NBC broadcast network broke in with the news.

> More: On ABC, David Muir, who has been covering the Romney campaign, will anchor a special report beginning at approximately 8:45amET. George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl will contribute. CNN’s coverage begins at 7amET with lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer, along with Candy Crowley, John King and Gloria Borger.

CBS News has named Paul Ryan and Nancy Kramer as SPs of 48 Hours Mystery. Both currently serve as producers of the program.

Ryan joined 48 Hours Mystery in 1999 and has been with CBS News since 1997. Kramer came to the program in 2001, and joined CBS News in 1993.

Click continued for the CBS News release…

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