There’s been a lot of news lately about what’s going on with The Demo in Cable News. But what do the numbers really say? Well if you look at what has gone on this year so far, the early trend, and I emphasize the world “early”, suggests that CNN is trending down in the Primetime Demo while FNC and MSNBC are mixed with both having gone up and down.
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comes from Glenn Garvin in the Miami Herald…

CBS cuckoo for Cooper

Kids, pay attention in math class. Otherwise, you might grow up to be one of the numbers-illiterate folks at CBS News, who announced Monday with great fanfare that they’ve contracted with CNN’s Anderson Cooper to do five stories a year for 60 Minutes. If the CBS people were able to calculate percentages, they’d know that since the media-flavor-of-the-month Cooper took over last year from tired old Aaron Brown as anchor of CNN’s 10 p.m. to midnight news show, he’s lost 23 percent of the time slot’s viewers. In the 25-to-54 age bracket that news programmers value, the loss is an even more startling 36 percent. Oh, well. Maybe Katie Couric can help him out in her spare time.

Playboy Magazine’s David Sheff has an interview with the Fox Report’s Shepard Smith.

Indeed, he has emerged as one of the most influential television anchormen in the post-Jennings, Brokaw and Rather era, a feat made more impressive by his not being on a Big Three network.

Known for his gripping, irreverent, folksy, rapid-fire style, Smith anchors two daily Fox News Channel broadcasts: Studio B at three P.M., and, at seven, Fox Report, which had already trounced its cable competition before Smith broke from the pack last year with some of the most riveting Hurricane Katrina coverage found on any station. He placed himself on a New Orleans highway overpass that became a de facto refugee camp for sick and dying people who literally emerged –on foot and on homemade rafts–from the rising floodwaters. His passionate, emotional reportage won critical praise and tripled his ratings.

Here is an excerpt from a portion of the interview when the topic was New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina.
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MSNBC announced today (though it announced it on the air yesterday) that Hardball’s Chris Mathews will again co-moderate the New Orleans run-off debate on MSNBC, May 16 at 9 pm ET

As New Orleans prepares to decide who will lead them in their ongoing recovery, MSNBC will have live and exclusive national coverage of the runoff mayoral debate between current Mayor Ray Nagin and Mitch Landrieu, the lieutenant governor of Louisiana. The one-hour, commercial-free debate will take place on Tuesday, May 16 at 9 p.m. (ET), just four days before voters head to the polls to pick between Nagin and Landrieu on Saturday, May 20. Together again, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and WDSU anchor Norman Robinson will moderate the debate on issues critical to New Orleans’ future and the country’s preparation for future disasters. In April, Matthews and Robinson co-moderated a mayoral primary debate among seven candidates that the New Orleans Times-Picayune described as a “no-nonsense inquisition.” The debate will telecast live from WDSU’s studios in New Orleans and will also be streamed live on msnbc.com and wdsu.com. Also on MSNBC.com, viewers will be able to read about the two candidates and all the issues. “New Orleans is a beloved American city,” said Chris Matthews. “It deserves the best mayor it can get. My job is to ask the best questions of the men who say they can do the job.” “These are tough times that deserve tough questions,” said Norman Robinson. “My job is to help the voters determine who is best to lead this city from disaster to an abundant future.”

Ok, now this is going too far…

Oprah is looking for people who have been inspired by Anderson Cooper…(via TVNewser)

Did a story that CNN anchor Anderson Cooper reported on inspire you take action? Maybe his stories about the famine in Niger moved you to help the children there? Perhaps his personalized Katrina reports motivated you to help hurricane victims? Did Anderson’s special investigation on the Oprah show about poverty in America open your eyes - and inspire you do something about the situation? Has Anderson Cooper encouraged you to make the world a better place? If so, what have you done to take action? Maybe you’ve traveled to faraway places to help, donated your time to hurricane survivors, initiated a campaign for the less fortunate, staged a demonstration, or a food drive, or even adopted a child because Anderson Cooper moved you to do so.

If Anderson Cooper has inspired you to take action, The Oprah Winfrey Show wants to hear from you! Please tell us your story. Don’t forget to include your name, number and email address.

Anderson Cooper is not a Patron Saint, Oprah. Stop treating him like one. He’s just a guy who does stories for CNN. There are better people out there who are far more important for journalism and even they would not deserve this treatment from your show. Enough already!

I don’t know what’s more disturbing…this show’s concept…or the idea that people actually thought up this show’s concept…it reeks of shameless PR…

CNBC is trumpeting that it became the first network to broadcast a program live from the NYMEX this morning on Morning Call…

CNBC’s “Morning Call” today became the first program to broadcast live from the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange. “Morning Call” is broadcast weekdays 10 am-Noon ET on CNBC. Liz Claman co-anchored from the floor of the NYMEX. For the first hour, Mark Haines co-anchored from the New York Stock Exchange. This was the first time CNBC broadcast live from two exchanges. For the second hour, Claman anchored from the floor of the NYMEX and Rebecca Quick anchored from CNBC’s Global Headquarters. CNBC chose today for its first broadcast anchoring from the NYMEX floor because every Wednesday the world’s oil traders focus their attention at 10:30 am ET on the Energy Department’s data on crude oil, gasoline and heating oil supplies. CNBC was live on the NYMEX floor as the numbers were released. Claman interviewed Richard Schaeffer, the newly elected vice-chairman of the NYMEX, about the hottest topic on the trading floor - electronic trading and open outcry trading operating side-by-side. Claman also interviewed Eric Bolling, a floor trader who talked about oil prices and who also helped explain to us what all those hand signals the traders use really mean.

The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal has a few things to say about Anderson Cooper getting the 60 minutes gig…

But while Cooper offers a penetrating stare, an empathetic tone and relative youth–at 38, the former host of “The Mole” is 22 years younger than Steve Kroft and spots Andy Rooney almost half a century–what he does not bring to “60 Minutes” is a large fan base.

“Anderson Cooper 360″ was down 23 percent in total viewership and 36 percent among viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 in April from what Aaron Brown was doing in April 2005. Granted, the death of Pope John Paul II boosted those ‘05 numbers, but Cooper is still averaging only 701,000 viewers.

But he’s obviously a big deal, like Conan. Like Colbert. After all, you’re reading about him here.