Post your reactions to the debate, and the coverage therein, here…

UPDATE: CNN’s Political Ticker was doing real time analysis…

The Salt Lake Tribune’s Derek P. Jensen and Rosemary Winters preview tomorrow night’s many weeks in the making big BIG debate and has advice for the combatants…

OK, so it’s no Lincoln-Douglas. It’s no Kennedy-Nixon. It’s not even Bush-Kerry. No grand orators will take part. It won’t decide who occupies the Oval Office. It won’t draw a nationwide TV audience.

But Friday night’s debate between liberal Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and conservative talk-show host Sean Hannity could prove wildly entertaining.

There is obvious interest. The nearly 2,000 tickets for the 8:30 p.m. clash at the University of Utah’s Kingsbury Hall sold out within two hours. And despite the circuslike buildup surrounding the charity event, the topic is serious indeed: Anderson’s call for an end to the Iraq war and the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

To help debate-goers, viewers and listeners - plans call for it to be broadcast live on Fox 13 as well as KSL Newsradio - score the showdown, we offer this guide:

As with the Democratic Presidential Debate, MSNBC.com has put up an interactive website to rate the Republican contenders…

Martha Stewart appeared on Your World with Neil Cavuto this afternoon and discussed a wide range of subjects. Highlights follow…

ON IF SHE WILL VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON:

“I like Hillary; I think she’s a very astute woman. I think she has a lot of great experience, I think she has a lot of knowledge too and yet I haven’t really said who I’m voting for, actually I can’t really vote. Do you know that? I can’t vote right now…. I think there’s a problem still. But anyways we’re looking into all of that. I think I have to in Maine, but I think that Hillary is a very excellent candidate. But I’m waiting to hear all the other candidates too.

ON HER FRIENDSHIP WITH ROSIE O’DONNELL:

“Rosie is a volatile person and Rosie - she should, we’re actually - I’m scheduling a dinner with Rosie. I’d like to talk to her, I’d like to see what she’s really thinking about.

This morning I mentioned a Chris Jansing behind the scenes report on the debate set with Debate EP Phil Alongi and NBC News Senior Producer Marian Porges. I waited all day for MSNBC.com to post the video because I thought it was interesting. But, inexplicably, it never was posted. YouTube had the video but it’s gone now…

CBS News has a preview of this Sunday’s interview…(via TVNewser)

He has never called for the deportation of all illegal immigrants, but Lou Dobbs believes the U.S. could pull off such a feat if it really wanted to.

The CNN anchor, whose stance against illegal immigration has helped raise his ratings but also fueled criticism, speaks to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl this Sunday, May 6, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Dobbs is against amnesty programs for illegal immigrants and the president’s guest worker proposal, so Stahl wonders whether Dobbs thinks the government could deport all illegal immigrants. “I’ve never called for their deportation,” says Dobbs. “But at the same time, when this president and open-borders, illegal-alien-amnesty advocates say, ‘You can’t deport them,’ my answer is, ‘You want to bet?’ because this is the United States. I think this country can do anything it sets its mind to,” he tells Stahl.

HLN beat MSNBC in the Total Day and Primetime Demos. However HLN also beat MSNBC in Total Viewers in Primetime. Fox and Friends has been showing increased strength recently. It had a bigger Demo than American Morning had total viewers. In fact it beat all the competition combined in the Demo. O’Reilly led the way in the Demo in prime time. Lou Dobbs Town Hall special beat Countdown but not by leaps and bounds. Countdown came in fourth by the way…

Cable News Ratings for May 2, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 860,000 viewers
CNN – 463,000 viewers
MSNBC – 256,000 viewers
CNBC – 228,000 viewers
HLN – 220,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,885,000 viewers
CNN – 902,000 viewers
MSNBC – 437,000 viewers
CNBC – 324,000 viewers
HLN – 446,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 250,000 viewers
CNN – 155,000 viewers
MSNBC –93,000 viewers
CNBC – 67,000 viewers
HLN – 100,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 424,000 viewers
CNN – 263,000 viewers
MSNBC – 153,000 viewers
CNBC – 84,000 viewers
HLN – 157,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 880,000 viewers (390,000)
American Morning – 380,000 viewers (139,000)
MSNBC Live- 223,000 viewers (87,000)
Robin & Co. – 145,000 viewers (86,000)
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Extreme Mortman picks up on a question in today’s White House Briefing. The blurb is so small I’m not going to take hits away from his site by quoting it.

UPDATE: Olbermann Watch has the video of the question and answer…

Tony Perkins will be appearing on Fox and Friends this weekend as a guest co-host…

Tony Perkins will be co-hosting FOX News Channel’s FOX & Friends both Saturday and Sunday this weekend (7-10AM). Perkins is currently working at WTTG FOX 5 Morning News in Washington DC.

FNC will be airing “Crime Scene: Gambling on Love” on Saturday night May 5th at 9pm ET and Sunday May 6th at 4pm ET…

FNC’s Greta Van Susteren hosts this special that focuses on the mysterious death of Kathy Augustine, one of Nevada’s most prominent political figures. During her 15 years in public office, Augustine had been a State Assemblywoman , State Senator and the first woman to ever be elected Controller. Greta reviews the eleven-week investigation that came up with the shocking answer and now, a suspect that sits in a Reno Jail cell awaiting trial.

Those who saw it, what did you think of Tucker Carlson’s turn in the Imus slot. The format wasn’t the usual Tucker format. These guys seem to like it…and Willie Geist. It seemed a tad Red Eye-ish to me with all the back and forth banter though.

I’ve been watching this morning and I really like it!! Way better than Smerconish or Miller. Tucker does a good job with the phone interviews and also keeps the banter flowing among his co-hosts. I like all of them, too.

I hope this one is a keeper.

The Reliable Source’s Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts have an interview with a very pregnant Norah O’Donnell…

You might not know it to see her on TV, but Norah O’Donnell is pregnant. Reeeallly pregnant. As in, she’s due to deliver twins in two weeks.

“When you’re anchoring, they really only show you from here up,” the NBC and MSNBC Washington correspondent told us, drawing an imaginary line across her chest. She said she doubted viewers can tell, “unless my face has gotten wider?” No, not really. She did show off the belly on-air last week, though, for a “Today” report on the very pregnant Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who went on to give birth to a son just days later.

The New York Daily News’ David Bianculli trashes CNN’s 2 hour Larry King special airing tonight…

CNN marks Larry King’s 50th year in broadcasting tonight with a shoddy two-hour special.

It’s so bad, that CNN isn’t doing King any favors by showing it.

What you don’t see nearly enough of is what King does best. Instead, much of the time is devoted to other people talking about the times as they changed, discussing “The Graduate” and Michael Jackson,

Princess Diana and Star Jones.

Star Jones?

Exactly.

FTVLive is reporting a rumor that Campbell Brown will jump to CNN and replace Paula Zahn…

MSNBC’s pre-debate coverage got off to an early start during Tucker Carlson’s 6-9 am show when Carlson tossed to Chris Jansing, who flew clear across the country to the Reagan Library in California after working a mid-day shift in Secaucus yesterday and is probably operating on three hours sleep and coffee vapors (I get up at 5 am PST every morning out here and she was already up and on the air).

Jansing gave a behind the scenes report, taped yesterday, ahead of her Noon ET hosting stint. The report featured a rare on camera appearance by Debate EP Phil Alongi talking about debate set details.

UPDATE: An emailer says Jansing has been giving hourly reports from the Reagan Library throughout the day…

FNC’s Red Eye is sporting a new look. An emailer commented “It looks like the basement of a NYC building. All the walls have a brick pattern and metal signs on them. The two windows which used to have the Red Eye logo and a purple background on them now show odd random video clips.”

More pics after the jump…
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As noted earlier this evening, CNN got ahold of a copy of part of Don Imus’ contract with CBS. CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin looked over the clause, reprinted below…

Company [CBS Radio] acknowledges its familiarity with the program Conducted by Artist [Imus] on the station [WFAN] prior to company’s ownership thereof and it, and its familiarity with the reviews and comments, both favorable and unfavorable concerning Artist and his material by critics, reviewers and writers of the various media both in New York and nationally. Company acknowledges that Artist’s services to be rendered hereunder are of a unique, extraordinary, irreverent, intellectual, topical, controversial and personal character and that programs of the same general type and nature containing these components are desired by Company and are consistent with Company rules and policies.

Al Sharpton, CNN Contributor Roland Martin and The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz also joined Anderson Cooper to discuss what the clause could mean for a potential Imus lawsuit. Transcript follows (and apologies in advance for the bad formatting)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We begin tonight with explosive news about Don Imus. This is a copy of part of his contract with CBS Radio. We obtained it exclusively. Somebody believe what it says could give the former radio host a golden parachute, forcing CBS to pay him tens of millions of dollars. Why? Because, although he was fired for racially charged remarks, Imus may argue he was only doing what his bosses wanted him to do.

CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin actually has the details of the contract and the words in it that you may find shocking. We will talk with him a moment. But, first, here’s CNN’s Randi Kaye. And we caution you that some viewers may be offended by the language in her report.
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