Here’s a comparison of O’Reilly’s and Olbermann’s numbers for last week…
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Anderson Cooper blogged about the U.S. attempts to evacuate its citizens today…

The U.S. government says it has evacuated more than 100 Americans, but their efforts are clearly lagging behind those of other countries. The French and Italians have gotten hundreds of their citizens out.

Some of the Americans who have made it out are clearly exasperated with the U.S. response. You see them checking into Larnaca’s beachfront hotels tired, frustrated, and a little stunned at what they’ve been through.

I just finished interviewing one American woman with three young children. The kids were bouncing on the bed of their hotel room, oblivious to the nightmare they just escaped.

The AP’s David Bauder writes about the dangers reporters are facing covering the Middle East Crisis and uses this morning’s incident with Shepard Smith as an example…

Shepard Smith ducked into a building in Nahariya, Israel on Tuesday after Hezbollah-launched rockets fell nearby, one destroying an apartment building. His live telephone report aired shortly after on Fox News Channel.

“At some point, probably, at home for viewers this becomes sort of an everyday event,” he said. “But when rockets are raining on your neighborhood, it is anything but ordinary to be here.”

Six months after ABC News’ Bob Woodruff was seriously hurt by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the conflict between being on the scene of a major story and keeping high-priced talent safe is again being faced by television networks trying to cover the Mideast violence.

While it’s clearly dangerous in Israel, the networks say it’s at least more predictable than what’s going on in Iraq.

FNC’s Shepard Smith has an exclusive interview today with the wife and father of kidnapped Israeli soldier Ehud Goldwasser gave an emotional plea to Goldwasser’s captors for a “a phone call, a photo, a message” to demonstrate that Ehud Goldwasser is still alive. Transcript follows…

SHLOMO GOLDWASSER: Since he was kidnapped from the Israeli side of the border while on regular patrol, we didn’t hear from him anything, not the slightest information if he’s alive or if he’s wounded or needs medical treatment. We know nothing.

ELAT KRANIT GOLDWASSER: I want a sign if he is alive because still now, I can only feel him here. But I want maybe to get a phone call, a photo, a message. Something that he’s alive. Something that I would recognize it.

SHEPARD SMITH: How do you make it through each day? I hear you’re the strong one.

ELAT KRANIT GOLDWASSER: Yeah. I can feel him. I can feel him. We are nine years together. Ten months ago, we got married. We have all the time to spend together, and I know that he will be back. I want to be sure that he will be back. This is why I need the photo.

SMITH: When you go to bed at night, knowing that your son is not here, wanting him back so badly, what do you think about? What do you say to yourself?
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Nancy Grace will have on Elizabeth Smart, her father Ed, and Utah Senator Orrin Hatch to discuss the sex offender registry legislation they are pushing for. The whole hour of the show will be devoted to this story. Nancy and her guests will take viewer calls as well.

Strong evenings for FNC, CNN, and MSNBC (and a nice night for O’Reilly and Hannity & Colmes). The crisis in the Middle East is causing a not unexpected ratings bump for all three channels and didn’t at all help HLN…

July 17
P2+ Total Day
FNC - 1,353,000 viewers
CNN - 735,000 viewers
MSNBC - 315,000 viewers
HLN - 196,000 viewers
CNBC - 168,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC - 2,240,000 viewers
CNN - 1,213,000 viewers
MSNBC - 515,000 viewers
HLN - 296,000 viewers
CNBC - 151,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC - 447,000 viewers
CNN - 299,000 viewers
MSNBC - 137,000 viewers
HLN - 77,000 viewers
CNBC - 60,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC - 662,000 viewers
CNN - 469,000 viewers
MSNBC - 186,000 viewers
HLN - 110,000 viewers
CNBC - 60,000 viewers
(more…)

UPDATE: These are Live+ numbers and not the Live numbers I normally post.

7/16
Total Day
P2+
FNC 1,076,000 viewers
CNN 663,000 viewers
MSNBC 299,000 viewers
HLN 254,000 viewers
CNBC 105,000 viewers

P25-54
FNC 405,000 viewers
CNN 278,000 viewers
MSNBC 135,000 viewers
HLN 112,000 viewers
CNBC 48,000 viewers

Primetime
P2+
FXC 1,744,000 viewers
CNN 1,096,000 viewers
MSNBC 437,000 viewers
HLN 291,000 viewers
CNBC 131,000 viewers

P25-54
FXC 597,000 viewers
CNN 437,000 viewers
MSNBC 154,000 viewers
HLN 118,000 viewers
CNBC 67,000 viewers

FNC landed in the top five basic cable channels in primetime last week. Here’s a list of channels that had over 1,000,000 viewers.

7/10-7/16 Primetime

USA 3,524,000
DISNEY 2,507,000
TNT 2,443,000
ESPN 1,847,000
FNC 1,723,000
LIFETIME 1,650,000
TBS 1,731,000
CARTOON 1,461,000
NAN 1,496,000
HALLMARK 1,465,000
DISCOVERY 1,310,000
SCIFI 1,252,000
SPIKE 1,222,000
MTV 1,083,000
AMC 1,160,000
HGTV 1,048,000
FX 1,159,000
FAMILY 1,131,000
HISTORY 1,042,000

UPDATE: Mediaweek’s Anthony Crupi writes up the story…

Fox News Channel finished the week at number four, bolstered by Shepard Smith’s on-the-scene coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, averaging 1.74 million viewers/1.5 HH. Hallmark Channel came in fifth (1.47 million/1.5 HH).

UPDATE: These are Live+ numbers and not the Live numbers I usually post.

Total Day
P2+
FNC 979,000 viewers
CNN 670,000 viewers
MSNBC 309,000 viewers
HLN 253,000 viewers
CNBC 119,000 viewers

P25-54
FNC 321,000 viewers
CNN 260,000 viewers
MSNBC 156,000 viewers
HLN 98,000 viewers
CNBC 41,000 viewers

Primetime
P2+
FNC 1,157,000 viewers
CNN 677,000 viewers
MSNBC 304,000 viewers
HLN 234,000 viewers
CNBC 100,000 viewers

P25-54
FNC 332,000 viewers
CNN 212,000 viewers
MSNBC 151,000 viewers
HLN 86,000 viewers
CNBC 45,000 viewers

Broadcasting & Cable’s John Eggerton writes the News and Documentary Emmy nominations which were announced today. CNN is in a peculiar spot. Its cancelled Newsnight is up against the program that replaced it, Anderson Cooper 360, for the Oustanding Feature Story in a Newscast category. Though it’s not clear from the article that the 360 nomination in that category occurred after Newsnight was cancelled or it occurred when both programs were on the air.

The cable leader was not CNN or Fox, the latter does not enter, but History Channel with a dozen nominations, followed by National Geographic (OK, Fox part-enters since it is part owner, but FNC does not submit nominations), Cinemax with seven, HBO and CNN six apiece, and Discovery with five.

FNC’s Shepard Smith was under fire again today while reporting live from Nahariya at 10:15 am ET. This is the second day in a row Smith has been on the air during an attack. Yesterday during Studio B, Smith spent a large amount of time broadcasting from the floor of the studio ducking incoming Katyusha missiles, and event Johnny Dollar got video of.

Today, while Smith was reporting live via phone en route to do an interview in Nahariya, missiles began to hit. One fell forty yards away from him. Smith left the car to find cover in a nearby building and had an on-the-spot interview with a police officer on the scene. After the strike had passed and the interview ended Smith returned to the car to head to another impact site. He gave another live report from that location.

Extreme Mortman thinks what it considers CNN’s confusion about Israeli broadcast restrictions concerning rocket attacks…

CNN reporters and anchors are having a tough time understanding why the Israeli military might want TV to show some discretion during time of war. They seem, well, bothered and annoyed. Check these out from CNN transcript and transcript:

Based on those transcripts I don’t get the same impression Mortman does. It seems to me like they’re just explaining it to the viewer…

The Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Scott Leith writes about CNN expanding its weather studio.

CNN meteorologists typically haven’t gotten much recognition, and certainly not the fame of some counterparts at the Weather Channel or the big broadcast networks. Even CNN’s weather studio in Atlanta has been a symbol of second-class status: A tiny space, two floors removed from the main newsroom. Marciano compared it to being seated at the kids’ table at Thanksgiving.

Yet if you watch CNN today, you should notice a change. The weather men and women of CNN have a flashy new set, and it’s in the big newsroom. “It’s not just eye candy,” Marciano said. “It’s actual, new-and-improved stuff.”

It also is a sign that weather has bumped up in importance at CNN.

The network had wanted to upgrade its weather studios for a while but fast-tracked the change in the wake of last year’s busy hurricane season.

UPDATE: CNN issued a release announcing this. BTW all morning long American Morning’s Chad Meyers has been showing off the new weather set…

CNN viewers today got their first look at the new CNN Weather Center, the most state-of-the-art weather forecasting and reporting center in the broadcast industry, it was announced today by Jack Womack, senior vice president of domestic news operations and administration for CNN/U.S.
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FTVLive is reporting that Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy will be hosting a new morning show on Fox and Twentieth Century O&O’s this winter…

UPDATE: FNC issued a release this morning on this which also makes news that Huddy and Jerrick will leave Dayside in the fall…

Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television announced today the launch of a new, live, national morning program, scheduled to begin airing in January 2007. The new show will originate from New York and will air on all the owned-and-operated Fox affiliates.

Hosted by Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy of FOX News Channel’s “DaySide,” the show will be live from 9-10 a.m., in most markets, and feature entertainment and general interest programming. Both anchors will continue their “DaySide” duties until Fall 2006.
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David Gregory is anchoring MSNBC Live from Washington D.C. at 9 am…and Gregory just tossed to Brian Williams via phone…

USA Today’s Peter Johnson writes about the Presidential colorful metaphor and which networks bleeped it out and which didnt…

CNN broadcast and posted unedited video. The New York Times and The Washington Post reported the word in Web stories. On CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News, MSNBC and USA TODAY, the word was excised in videos and Web stories (though an audio clip with a warning at USA TODAY included it). The Times and the Post said they’d publish the word today; USA TODAY will not.