The Hollywood Reporter released its 2013 “35 Most Powerful People In Media” list, and TV news dominates the winners. The list looks at the most dominant media personalities in New York.

The list includes (in alphabetical order) Roger Ailes, Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, Anderson Cooper, Bob Costas, Katie Couric, Jeff Fager, Pat Fili-Krushel, James Goldston, Phil Griffin, Sean Hannity, Megyn Kelly, the “60 Minutes” team, the “Today” team, Rachel Maddow, Piers Morgan, Bill O’Reilly, Scott Pelley, David Rhodes, The “Good Morning America” team, the “CBS This Morning” team, Diane Sawyer, Ben Sherwood, Barbara Walters, Brian Williams and Jeff Zucker.

Some of the recipients gave interviews, others did not. You can see the full list here.

As usual, Fox News Channel’s programming topped the competition in the first quarter of 2013. The network notched the top 13 programs among total viewers and the top six in the A25-54 demographic.

“The O’Reilly Factor” was the number one show on Fox News and cable news overall, averaging  2.88 million total viewers and 428,000 demo viewers for the quarter.

“The Rachel Maddow” show was number one on MSNBC in both total viewers and the demo, averaging 928,000 and 263,000 viewers, respectively. The program placed 14th in total viewers and seventh in the demo for the quarter.

HLN’s top show for the quarter was “Nancy Grace,” which cracked the top ten programs among younger viewers. Grace’s program placed 16th in total viewers and ninth in the demo, averaging 778,000 and 252,000 viewers, respectively.

CNN’s top show in total viewers was “Anderson Cooper 360,” which placed 28th and averaged 533,000 viewers. “AC360″ also led the network among younger viewers, placing 29th and averaging 155,000 in the A25-54 demographic.

CNBC’s top program in total viewers was “Squawk On The Street,” which averaged 274,000 viewers. “American Greed” was the network’s top show in the demo with 99,000. “Lou Dobbs Tonight” was FBN’s top-rated show in both total viewers and the demo, averaging 105,000 and 25,000 viewers, respectively.

The full rankers are below.
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25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 269 | MSNBC: 110 | CNN: 94 | HLN: 179

• Primetime: FNC: 359 | MSNBC: 202 | CNN: 87 | HLN: 271

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MSNBC continued as the number two cable news network in the first quarter of 2013, second only to Fox News in both Total Day and primetime. But like the competition, MSNBC is down across the board compared to the year-ago quarter.

The ratings for Q1 2013 (Nielsen Live + Same Day data):

• Primetime (Mon-Sun): 755,000 Total Viewers / 225,000 A25-54
• Total Day (Mon-Sun): 431,000 Total Viewers / 141,000 A25-54

In Total Day, MSNBC leads CNN by just +29,000 Total Viewers and +19,000 A25-54 viewers. In primetime, MSNBC’s lead gets slightly wider: +165,000 Total Viewers and +51,000 A25-54 viewers.

Compared to the Q1 2012, MSNBC was down -6% in Total Viewers and down -1% in A25-54 viewers in Total Day. In primetime, the network was down -8% and -4%, respectively. Ratings for the cable news networks got a boost in Q1 2012 from debates and primaries during the Presidential election cycle.

It was a mixed bag for the network in primetime compared to the year-ago quarter. Ed Schultz‘s program, which is moving to weekends this month, was down -11% in Total Viewers and -4% in the demo. (Note: percentages are based on a blend of Live +7 and Live +3 data.) “The Rachel Maddow Show” was down -3% in Total Viewers but up +5% in A25-54 viewers, while “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” was up +2% and flat, respectively.

MSNBC grew among younger viewers in its late afternoon programming: “The Cycle” was up +13%, Martin Bashir‘s program was up +41% and “Hardball with Chris Matthews” was up +17% compared to Q1 2012.

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MSNBC’s Chris Hayes would like to see more hosts of color on the cable networks – including his own.

“It’s a problem,” says Hayes, a lifelong Caucasian. “People’s opinions, interpretations of news, journalistic instincts, editorial concerns are the product of the people they are, the experiences they have, the way they move through the world.

“It’s why organizations, companies, the Senate, the U.S. Supreme Court benefit from diversity. … Diversity produces people with a specificity in their world view, and it benefits the product.”

Hayes’ product, ‘All In with Chris Hayes,’ debuts Monday in the 8 p.m. slot formerly occupied by Ed Schultz. Rachel Maddow (Hayes’ mentor) follows at 9, with Lawrence O’Donnell at 10.

It is a Murderers’ Row of liberal brainiacs. It is also, like the prime-time lineups at CNN and Fox News, blindingly white – a state of affairs to which Hayes says he has given “obsessive thought.”

Diversity is his top priority, he says. ‘All In’ will feature a wide variety of guests, especially conservatives. Hayes followed the same practice on his MSNBC weekend show, ‘Up with Chris Hayes,’ which debuted in 2011.

“I can’t control my gender, race or sexual orientation,” says Hayes. (He and his wife, law professor Kate A. Shaw, have an 18-month-old daughter.) “I can control who we have on and what voices we introduce to viewers.”

Those voices will be streamlined on ‘All In,’ Hayes says. Discussions will run up to 17 minutes, less than half as long as the marathons on his two-hour ‘Up.’

“I want to create a show that a lot of people watch, and produce really good TV,” says Hayes, who never met a complex sentence he didn’t like. “I want it to be high-quality journalism – compelling, dynamic and addictive.”

Hayes’ admiration of Maddow borders on hero worship. She gave Hayes his first shot as a guest anchor.

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25-54 demographic (Live +SD)

• Total day: FNC: 241 | MSNBC: 130 | CNN: 92 | HLN: 161

• Primetime: FNC: 319 | MSNBC: 211 | CNN: 116 | HLN: 184

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During a Reddit “Ask My Anything” earlier this month, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow expressed admiration and respect for Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith.

“Some of us can pull off seeming like human beings on TV, some of us can pull off V.O.G. authority, but Shep is really very good at both,” Maddow wrote.

Now we know that the love is mutual. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Smith says of Maddow:

I know Rachel. I’m a fan of Rachel’s. But what she said very generously is I do regular guy and voice of God at the same time. By voice of God, she means you can be a news anchor and be taken seriously and then when it’s fun, you can have a little fun. We all know each other in this business. It’s a very small community, and we all pretty much like each other. And I admire and respect Rachel. Everything in this thing we do to me is Ole Miss and LSU. I love Ole Miss; I hate LSU. And that’s how MSNBC and Fox News viewers are, and I understand it and I respect it because I hate LSU.

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10 years ago, “Shock and Awe” kicked off the Iraq War. It was a made-for-TV war, with explosions rocking the skies above Baghdad, and correspondents reporting live on cable news from their hotel balconies.

TV news not only covered the war, but promoted it as well, regularly featuring guests who beat the war drum, and ignoring those that had opposing views. Sometimes, as The Huffington Post’s Jack Mirkinson notes, it was a vicious circle:

Perhaps the most notorious example of the Washington-media nexus over Iraq came when Dick Cheney appeared on “Meet the Press” in September of 2002. He cited the lead story in that morning’s Times as he talked to Tim Russert (“I want to attribute it to the Times,” he memorably said). The story, by Miller and her colleague Michael Gordon, said that Hussein was busy using aluminum tubes to help build nuclear weapons. The Bush administration had leaked that story to Miller. The circle was complete.

The war has not been forgotten. With the President making his first mideast trip of his second term, cable news is finding time to look back at Iraq. Throughout the week a number of segments about the war are on tap at the “big three” cable news channels, nestled in between the other day’s coverage.

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Today Zev Chafets‘ biography of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes Roger Ailes: Off Camera, hits bookstores. We’ve been combing through the book, and will be highlighting a few noteworthy portions.

One of the recurring themes in the biography is the friendships Ailes has formed with both his colleagues and competitors.

Two in particular stood out: his longtime friendship with ABC’s Barbara Walters, and his more recent friendship between FNC’s cable news competitor Rachel Maddow.

With regard to Walters:

“Roger is a huge name and everybody knows who he is, but he doesn’t strive for fame,” [Walters] said. “He lives a quiet life. I was very happy when he finally married…”

“I dated Barbara a couple of times, or took her out as an escort, but we never had an affair,” Ailes told me. “We probably could have at some point, but we were always married or between marriages or talking about marrying someone. We never got beyond that point, but we trusted one another, and we still do.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow first met Ailes at a White House Christmas party in 2009 (pictured above):
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MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell is interviewed by Salon. The interview focuses on O’Donnell’s cameo in the new movie “Olympus Has Fallen,” and segues into his scripted TV past and cable news present. O’Donnell plays himself working at a fictional TV news channel in the movie. When asked why he says yes to appearing in films, O’Donnell replied:

Because I miss show business so desperately that I will do anything short of pornography at this point to hang around sets and have fun.

Sets are really fun workplaces and everyone there is creative and energetic. These are the most creative electricians in the world. They’re not the electricians who come to your house. They’re the most creative carpenters, the most creative carpenters, writers, directors, directors of photography: there’s a great spirit to a film set that is unique in American workplaces by far. And it is the most fun I’ve had in my professional life.

He was also asked whether he had any advice for his new primetime colleague Chris Hayes:
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