MSNBC did something rare today. It had on a guest who had appeared on the Today Show. Having a guest on isn’t unusual. In fact it happens almost every day. What made it unusual was that the guest went from the Today set at 30 Rock to MSNBC’s studios in Secaucus. That rarely happens. What usually happens is after the Today interview is over, the guest is taken to another studio where a satellite interview is taped and then replayed later.

Today’s interview with the little crying girl from American Idol was taped earlier as well but it was in the studio. The difference between a split screen satellite interview and an in person interview is definately noticeable. ICN has heard numerous times from insiders who have complained about this issue where a Today interviewee isn’t brought over to Secaucus. Certainly logistics and cost play must come into play here because MSNBC would have to shuttle over the interviewee and coordinate set time to pull the interview off, even if it is taped. But when it’s done I think it makes a noticeable difference.

The reason I bring all this up is to highlight one of the benefits that should come MSNBC’s way when it moves to 30 Rock later this year. The issues about shuttling and coordination will be significantly reduced, if not eliminated entirely. Instead of having to drive the interviewee over, now all that has to happen is walk the interviewee over to the new MSNBC studios. I would be expecting to see more in studio interviews more often when MSNBC makes the move.

YouTube has a preview of the Daryn Kagan hosted documentary “Breaking the Curse”…

Cable News Daily Ratings for March 21, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 863,000 viewers
CNN – 505,000 viewers
MSNBC – 307,000 viewers
CNBC – 256,000 viewers
HLN – 258,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,914,000 viewers
CNN – 805,000 viewers
MSNBC –501,000 viewers
CNBC- 225,000 viewers
HLN – 507,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 236,000 viewers
CNN – 188,000 viewers
MSNBC – 121,000 viewers
CNBC – 86,000 viewers
HLN – 115,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 423,000 viewers
CNN – 277,000 viewers
MSNBC – 188,000 viewers
CNBC – 89,000 viewers
HLN – 181,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 707,000 viewers (279,000)
American Morning – 404,000 viewers (155,000)
Imus in the Morning– 360,000 viewers (149,000)
Robin & Co. – 240,000 viewers (125,000)
(more…)

The AP’s David Bauder writes about all the speculation and who reported what…

CNN cited the Politico report several times before Edwards’ news conference, but pulled back when correspondent Candy Crowley said Edwards staffers were casting doubt on it.

While MSNBC did not cite the report on television, the Web site MSNBC.com ran the information as a banner headline. MSNBC.com later apologized, saying it had relied on Politico “and a source who spoke to NBC.”

CBS News, which has a partnership agreement with Politico, posted the report on the CBS Web site without doing its own reporting, and later corrected it, a spokeswoman said.

NBC News anchor Brian Williams delivered his own correction after the network briefly interrupted regular programming for the Edwards news conference.

“When we came on for this special report, we delivered two headlines to you. Number one, that Mrs. Edwards’ cancer had returned,” he said. “Sadly, that headline turned out to be correct. The second headline was that John Edwards was ending or suspending his campaign for president, and as we just heard from the former senator, he said this campaign goes on. So that part of this story, at least for now, is incorrect.”

ABC News did not cite Politico, either on the air or Web, because its own sources were leading the network in the other direction, said Jon Banner, executive producer of “World News.”

“The pressure is on to get these things right, especially when it concerns someone’s health,” he said. “There’s some sensitivity to that.”

Fox News Channel and The Associated Press also did not repeat the Politico report, relying on their own reporters.

The cable channels were all over the John Edwards announcement this morning starting hours before it happened. At one point thanks to Ben Smith getting bad info, The Politico ran the story that Edwards was suspending his campaign. It turned out to be bogus and it got pulled. But not before a bunch of other news orgs picked up on it including CNN and MSNBC’s websites according to FishbowlDC. Did anyone run it on the air?

It was at least tacitly mentioned by CNN’s Candy Crowley, who in my opinion is getting unfairly ridiculed for noting that the Politico has a lot of cracker jack reporters over there. They do. But even a cracker jack reporter can get it wrong on occasion.

The Olrlando Sentinel’s Hal Boedeker liked MSNBC’s coverage (which Chris Matthews anchored for the full hour) because it was focusing more on the medical implications rather than the Presidential implications…

UPDATE: Emailers have sent in more information on what happened and when…

At 11:42 am ET, CNN reported the Politico story…
(more…)

CNBC announced that it will begin airing the 2007 Heads Up Poker Tournament on May 4th at 9pm ET and continue to air it every Friday at that time period through July 20th.

During America’s Newsroom this morning, Megyn Kelly reported that sources are indicating that the charges against former Duke lacrosse players could be dropped as early as tomorrow.

At 10AM, Kelly interviewed Inside Lacrosse’s Paul Caulfield, who confirmed from independent sources that the remaining charges against the three players of sexual assault and kidnapping may be dropped as early as tomorrow.

Rumors for this first started surfacing on Tuesday on Paidcontent.org. NBC Universal and News Corp. jointly announced this morning the formation of an online video site for NBCU and News Corp. content. However I don’t see anything in there covering cable news which is unfortunate though understandable since, financially, cable news is like the tip of a pin for both of these mega-media companies. I am curious as to how it was decided which mega-media company’s name would go first in the release though. Was it a coin flip?

News Corporation and NBC Universal will launch the largest Internet video distribution network ever assembled with the most sought-after content from television and film, it was announced today by Jeff Zucker, President and Chief Executive Officer, NBC Universal and Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation. The video-rich site will debut this summer with thousands of hours of full-length programming, movies and clips, representing premium content from at least a dozen networks and two major film studios.

AOL, MSN, MySpace and Yahoo! will be the new site’s initial distribution partners. Their users, who represent 96 percent of the monthly U.S. unique users on the Internet, will have unlimited access to the site’s vast library of content. This media alliance will offer consumers free long- and short-form video and create a compelling platform for advertisers, targeting the rapidly growing audience of online video consumers. Charter advertisers include Cadbury Schweppes, Cisco, Esurance, Intel Corporation and General Motors.

“This is a game changer for Internet video,” said Peter Chernin, President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corporation. “We’ll have access to just about the entire U.S. Internet audience at launch. And for the first time, consumers will get what they want — professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live. We’re excited about the potential for this alliance and we’re looking forward to working with any content provider or distributor who wants to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity.”

“Anyone who believes in the value of ubiquitous distribution will find this announcement incredibly exciting,” said Jeff Zucker, President and CEO of NBC Universal. “This venture supercharges our distribution of protected, quality content to fans everywhere. Consumers get a hugely attractive aggregation of a wide range of content, and marketers get a novel way to connect with a large and highly engaged audience.”
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Paul Begala takes a few shots at FNC in The Politico…(via FishbowlDC)

As a loyal Democrat and paid commentator on CNN, I am hopelessly biased — but at least I admit it. The folks at Fox News, on the other hand, are just as hopelessly biased — and they deny it. While I openly admit that I love all things Clinton, think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is strong and brave, see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as Harry Truman reincarnated and don’t believe George W. Bush would know the truth if it bit him on the ass, Fox insults our intelligence by feigning fairness.

The Hill has an article on dressing for TV…(via FTVLive)

Dressing for TV is not easy. The camera adds 10 pounds, and colors must be chosen with care.

The key, says Megyn Kelly, co-anchor of Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom,” is bright colors. She and other Fox correspondents have a style department that oversees their ensembles. “I was a corporate lawyer and my entire wardrobe was black, brown, navy and gray,” Kelly recalls. That might be acceptable in a courtroom, she says, but for TV, “it’s dull and not interesting to look at.”

Now her wardrobe is bursting with “reds, yellows, purples, pinks and oranges.”

As A.B. Stoddard, The Hill’s own TV personality, notes, “Turquoise, purple, red and orange may have gone out of fashion 15 years ago, but they are still the most flattering on television. Banana Republic Beige and chalk-gray are hip but can add several years or make you look nauseous.”

Yesterday, new sets debuted on Hannity & Colmes and Your World with Neil Cavuto. The reason for these changes came about because those programs were moved temporarily out of Studio D so that Fox could launch the Mike & Juliet show. Because the Mike & Juliet show set is so elaborate the entire studio had to be reworked to allow for faster turnaround for the FNC programs that would normally share the space with Mike & Juliet. Live Desk with Martha MacCallum will be moving there next week.

ICN has heard that new studios are being built at FNC. Some of these will more than likely house the new Fox Business Channel.

The Salt Lake Tribune’s Derek P. Jensen and Bob Mims write that a date has been set for “the debate” though it’s still not certain there will be a debate…

Hannity says the gloves could come off on May 4 or May 18 - and that any and all media outlets can cover it.

Late Wednesday, Anderson’s spokesman, Patrick Thronson, said May 4 would work.
The only problem is the University of Utah plans to hold its commencement ceremony on that day in the Huntsman Center, the site where the U. student government has proposed to host the debate.

Thronson said May 18 would not work for the mayor.

The Associated Students of the University of Utah proposal calls for KUED’s Ken Verdoia to moderate, which Anderson has agreed to as long as Verdoia has the final say over format. The mayor would not agree to having KSL as a co-sponsor, which ASUU wants.

I’d seen all of MSNBC’s new anchor commercials except one, Norah O’Donnell’s. YouTube has the commercial…

Josh Gerstein in the New York Sun blogs about CNN reporters appearing on Lou Dobbs Tonight…

I don’t begrudge Mr. Dobbs his high-profile platform since he represents the views of millions of Americans who are often ignored by the press and the major political parties. Still, I find it curious that Fox News keeps its journalists off of Bill O’Reilly’s theatrical, viewpoint-driven TV show, but CNN still lets its reporters appear on Mr. Dobbs’s program.