It was dueling body language experts tonight. First O’Reilly had his weekly body language expert segment and they analyzed Andrea Mitchell’s body language from last week’s Factor segment. Then later on during Scarborough Country, Scarborough had a body language expert on to analyze O’Reilly, though he called his expert a Psychoanalyst. And so it goes…

Ratings for January 8, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 964,000 viewers
CNN – 500,000 viewers
MSNBC – 336,000 viewers
CNBC – 202,000 viewers
HLN – 204,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,607,000 viewers
CNN – 751,000 viewers
MSNBC – 426,000 viewers
CNBC – 194,000 viewers
HLN – 291,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 304,000 viewers
CNN –185,000 viewers
MSNBC- 155,000 viewers
CNBC – 83,000 viewers
HLN – 81,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 424,000 viewers
CNN – 216,000 viewers
MSNBC – 191,000 viewers
CNBC –101,000 viewers
HLN –92,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 723,000 viewers (273,000)
American Morning – 320,000 viewers (140,000)
Imus in the Morning- 315,000 viewers (127,000)
Robin & Co. – 160,000 viewers (99,000)
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FNC handily beat CNN in the story of the gas smell that hit New York City yesterday…

9AM - P2+ (25-54)
Fox News Live – 944,000 viewers (347,000)
CNN Newsroom –493,000 viewers (188,000)
MSNBC Live– 370,000 viewers (143,000)
Squawk on The Street – 232,000 viewers (78,000) **Ran from 9am-9:30am
Squawk on The Street- 254,000 viewers (113,000) **Ran from 9:30-10am

10AM - P2+ (25-54)
Fox News Live – 1,080,000 viewers (277,000)
CNN Newsroom – 593,000 viewers (257,000)
MSNBC Live – 371,000 viewers (161,000)
Morning Call – 290,000 viewers (110,000) **Ran from 10am-12pm
CNN Headline News – 198,000 viewers (64,000) **Ran from 10am-10:30am
CNN Headline News – 185,000 viewers (66,000) **Ran from 10:30am-11am

11AM- P2+ (25-54)
Fox News Live – 1,111,000 viewers (289,000)
CNN Newsroom- 442,000 viewers (167,000)
MSNBC Live – 248,000 viewers (102,000)
CNN Headline News – 145,000 viewers (a scratch with 42,000) **Ran from 11am-11:30am
CNN Headline News – 148,000 viewers (a scratch with 32,000) **Ran from 11:30am-12pm

12PM - P2+ (25-54)
Fox Online – 1,107,000 viewers (364,000)
CNNI Your World Today – 562,000 viewers (215,000)
The Most – 124,000 viewers (a scratch with 34,000)
Power Lunch- 322,000 viewers (153,000) **Ran from 12pm-2pm
CNN Headline News – 123,000 viewers (a scratch with 14,000) **Ran from 12pm-12:30am
CNN Headline News – 128,000 viewers (a scratch with 28,000) **Ran from 12:30am-1pm

CNN has a special graphic with a countdown clock for the first 100 hours Democratic agenda in Congress…

CNN announced its primetime coverage plans for President Bush’s address on Iraq…

CNN will broadcast live President George W. Bush’s prime-time address on Wednesday, Jan. 10, unveiling his new Iraq War strategy, along with special editions of The Situation Room, Larry King Live and Anderson Cooper 360°.

Wolf Blitzer and Paula Zahn will co-anchor a special edition of The Situation Room at 7 p.m. leading up to Bush’s address at 9 p.m. Andrew Card, Bush’s former White House chief of staff, provides a preview of the speech. Following the president’s remarks, Larry King hosts a special edition of Larry King Live with commentary and analysis from U.S. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and John Warner (R-Va.), presidential candidate John Edwards and author and journalist Bob Woodward.

Anderson Cooper will then lead a special edition of Anderson Cooper 360° from 10 p.m. to midnight. Guests will include TIME magazine’s Joe Klein and David Gergen, a former presidential adviser now with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
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CNN’s Arwa Damon is embedded with the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry and has been reporting all day long (she just turned in a report on The Situation Room). Here is a transcript from Damon’s report on American Morning…

M. O’BRIEN: Breaking news from Iraq. A major gun battle erupting in the middle of Baghdad as we speak. CNN’s Arwa Damon is right in the middle of it. She’s on the phone now, embedded with U.S. troops.

Arwa, what can you tell us?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, it’s really it’s some of the more intense fighting that the capital has seen in quite some time. We are in an area that’s called Haifa Street. It is essentially in the center of the city and the gun battle here has been raging for seven hours now.

U.S. and Iraqi troops arrived here on site after a series of days that follow a number of clashes between the Iraqi army and the insurgents that operate in this area, including Sunni extremists. You can hear the gun battle still going on outside right within the area that I am standing in. U.S. and Iraqi forces see anything from mortar rounds, rocket propelled grenades, machine gun fire and small arms fire. They believe that the insurgents that they are fighting out there are those that will fight to the death.
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Wine Spectator Magazine has an interview with FNC’s Jim Angle about his love of wine…

WS: What about the American wines in your cellar?

JA: I love California. I drank a lot of Zinfandels in the Zin heyday of the early ’90s … I have a beautiful Cab Franc or two … I started buying Red Car when they first started out, as a kind of a California garagiste label. The thing about California Cabernet [Sauvignon] is that it’s gotten to the point where it’s kind of hard to justify a $90, 90-point wine, you know? You can get something like Harlan, which is going to be expensive even on the release, and even more so in the after-market–but you’re getting a profound wine for which every care has been taken, so you’re getting your money’s worth. But for an everyday Cab that’s rated 90 points, and it’s $90? I keep thinking, “Who the hell has $90 to pour away on a 90-point Cab, when you can get some lovely wine at a third of that price?” As far as the rest of the country, Oregon and Washington obviously make some great wines. When I was at NPR, I was substitute anchoring Morning Edition, and we did a piece on Maryland and Virginia wines. Maryland had some quite nice white wines, and Virginia had some pretty good reds.

(Note to Angle: If you haven’t already, try Rombauer’s Chard. There was a mad rush on the ‘03 and ‘04 vintages and they sold out here much to my chagrin but I’ve stocked up on ’05s. But I’m mainly a vintage Port fiend.)

Mutlichannel News’ Linda Haugsted writes from the Spring TCA about CNN announcing a week of tributes and specials commemorating Larry King’s fifty years in television in April.

CNN will mark talk-show host Larry King’s 50 years in television in April with a week of specials ranging from a roast to an interview of King during his program, with CBS anchor Katie Couric as his interrogator.

Bill Maher will host the roast, to be telecast during King-Sized Week starting April 16 at 9 p.m. each day. Executives said the network is negotiating with Angelina Jolie to participate in one of the evenings of the event.

King, talking with television critics meeting here for the next two weeks, noted that his contract is up in 2009, at which point he will have been at CNN for 24 years. Past that, “If they want me, I’ll stay,” he said, quoting a Milton Berle line, “Retire? To what?”

From an emailer…

This is strange. Jobs announced the iPhone this morning. It’s over 2 hours since his presentation ended. The iPhone combines internet, widescreen iPod, and phone in one. But CNBC from the start has been claiming that Apple’s new products include the iPhone (as described), plus a handheld internet communicator, plus a widescreen iPod. Those last two don’t exist–they’re part of the iPhone. But as recently as 20 minutes ago (around 3:10 pm ET - Spud) CNBC was still reporting that they were new, separate products! They’re going to interview Jobs, so maybe he’ll finally set them straight. But I don’t see how they could get this so wrong.

MSNBC announced its coverage plans for tomorrow’s all day Iraq focus and it’s far more ambitious than I tought it would be, highlighted by Richard Engel anchoring from Iraq for a full hour.

As President Bush prepares to lay out his plan for the future of Iraq in a primetime address to the country Wednesday, January 9th, MSNBC will preview the speech while also looking back at where the country stands – what has been accomplished and what’s next – in a full day of analysis and debate on the Iraq War. NBC News Baghdad Bureau Chief Richard Engel will anchor a daytime hour directly from Baghdad. NBC News Washington Bureau Chief and “Meet the Press” Moderator Tim Russert will also anchor, along with NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell, Chief White House Correspondent David Gregory, “Weekend Today” Co-Anchor Lester Holt and MSNBC Chief Washington Correspondent Norah O’Donnell.

Despite mounting pressure from many to scale back U.S. involvement in the war, the President is expected to call for deploying as many as 20,000 more troops in and around Baghdad. MSNBC will explore how the new Congress will respond. Will the President have the necessary support and resources? MSNBC’s daytime anchor schedule will be as follows: 9:00 am – Andrea Mitchell; 10:00 am – Chris Jansing; 11:00 am – David Gregory; 12:00 pm – Lester Holt; 1:00 pm – Richard Engel (from Baghdad); 2:00 pm – Tim Russert; 3:00 pm – Norah O’Donnell; 4:00 pm – Tucker Carlson (”Tucker”); 5:00 pm – Chris Matthews (”Hardball with Chris Matthews”); 6:00 pm – Tucker Carlson (”Tucker”); 7:00 pm – Chris Matthews (”Hardball”); 8:00 pm – Keith Olbermann (”Countdown with Keith Olbermann”); 9:00 pm – Presidential Speech, anchored by Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, with post-speech analysis from Joe Scarborough and others; 10:00 pm – Joe Scarborough (a special edition of “Scarborough Country”).
(more…)

HLN announced today that Glenn Beck will be doing a series of quarterly specials in 2007…

Headline News’ Glenn Beck, the nightly topical talk show featuring radio personality Glenn Beck, will produce a series of quarterly specials in 2007, titled “Exposed,” addressing some of the most hotly debated issues of the day, it was announced today by Ken Jautz, executive vice president of CNN Worldwide, to the Television Critics Association.

“When Glenn’s first special, which was on the Mideast, set a new ratings record for Headline News, we knew we were onto something,” Jautz said. “Glenn’s unique style works well for his everyday show format, but giving him a full hour on just one topic really gives him the chance to delve deeper, in a way that clearly resonates with his viewers. We look forward to hearing what Glenn has to say on these timely and provocative issues.”

“We often don’t have time to fully explore the nuances of the issues that most Americans want to hear more about,” Beck said. “I’m looking forward to having that opportunity with these specials. As we peel back the layers on these topics, we will likely be sparking a lot of dinner-table debates, which is exactly what we set out to do with our show every night.”

The first Glenn Beck special will premiere in late February or early March. Among the topics the program will examine for the specials over the coming year include:
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CNN formally announced the debut of its Special Investigations Unit program this afternoon…

Expanding the network’s commitment to investigative reporting, CNN this month launches a new long-form investigative series titled CNN: Special Investigations Unit. The new program, airing Saturdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. (ET), will feature CNN’s top correspondents delivering in-depth hours on pressing issues currently in the news. The programs’ topical subject matter will complement CNN Presents, the acclaimed documentary series that will hone its focus on longer-lead-time, multi-hour “event” programming such as last summer’s blockbuster “In the Footsteps of bin Laden.”

CNN: Special Investigations Unit taps into the network’s worldwide resources and deep bench of top-notch journalists including chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, anchors Anderson Cooper and Soledad O’Brien, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, correspondents John Roberts, John King, Candy Crowley, Drew Griffin and others to offer a strong new brand of enterprise investigative reports.

“Special Investigations Unit pulls together our unparalleled stable of reporters and our unmatched journalistic reach,” said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. “There is no better team in television news to step up and fill the gaping void in in-depth reporting on the truly important stories of the moment.”
(more…)

Stephen Colbert of “The Cobert Report” will be appearing on The O’Reilly Factor on Thursday Jan 18th at 8pm ET, FNC and Comedy Central announced today. O’Reilly will then appear on The Cobert Report at 11:30 over on Comedy Central. This will be bigger than O’Reilly’s appearances on Letterman…

A colossal media event a year-and-a-half in the making will unfold when Stephen Colbert ventures into the “No Spin Zone” to make his debut guest appearance on FOX News Channel’s (FNC) The O’Reilly Factor on Thursday, January 18th at 8:00 PM. Later that evening Bill O’Reilly will grab his American passport and head over to “Colbert Nation” for his debut appearance on COMEDY CENTRAL’s The Colbert Report airing at 11:30 PM.

Colbert commented, “I look forward to the evening. It is an honor to speak face-to-face with a broadcasting legend, and I feel the same way about Mr. O’Reilly.”

O’Reilly added, “I’m really looking forward to speaking to a man who owes his entire career to me!”

UPDATE: The AP has the story…

It may feel like looking into the mirror for Bill O’Reilly and Stephen Colbert next week.

The Fox News Channel host and Colbert, who has essentially based his comic character every evening on Comedy Central on him, will trade appearances on each other’s programs Jan. 18.

I caught a piece of a TV ad this morning on MSNBC that said that the network would be spending all day tomorrow covering the future of Iraq, I presume to coincide with the President’s speech/address tomorrow night. I don’t know yet if this special coverage will mean special anchors…

Sunday night’s debut on FNC of Hannity’s America got off to a strong start; 1,048,000 Total Viewers and 302,000 in the P25-54 Demo. FNC’s 9pm hour was up 65% in viewers and 66% in the Demo from what the time period was averaging in December on Sunday nights . An hour by hour breakout is included for Sunday prime.

Cable News Ratings for January 6, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC –669,000 viewers
CNN – 515,000 viewers
MSNBC – 290,000 viewers
CNBC – 327,000 viewers
HLN – 268,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 661,000 viewers
CNN – 553,000 viewers
MSNBC – 278,000 viewers
CNBC – 424,000 viewers
HLN – 175,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 194,000 viewers
CNN – 195,000 viewers
MSNBC –128,000 viewers
CNBC – 139,000 viewers
HLN – 113,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 187,000 viewers
CNN – 168,000 viewers
MSNBC – 114,000 viewers
CNBC – 183,000 viewers
HLN – 78,000 viewers

Cable News Ratings for January 7, 2007
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Well not every CNN/HLN talent winds up with a deal contributing to CBS. Broadcasting & Cable writes that Glenn Beck will be contributing to ABC’s GMA…

Beck, host of HLN’s Glenn Beck, has appeared on GMA twice in the past two months to discuss the so-called “War on Christmas” and the threat of radical Islam, a frequent target of his commentaries. The inclusion of Beck, an outspoken conservative whose provocative remarks and sense of humor routinely draw the ire of liberal media watchdogs, comes as the No. 2 GMA strives to close the longstanding gap with the top-rated Today show on NBC.