Despite heavy pre-promotion across NBCU’s television spectrum, including heavy promotion on MSNBC (though the network didn’t air the concerts themselves), the ratings for the NBC broadcast network’s coverage of Live Earth were flat. Bizofshowbiz’s Gary Bourgeault has the numbers…

NBC (GE) picked the wrong type of show to offer again, as their three-hour primetime “Live Earth,” drew very little interest, with only an approximate 2.7 million viewers tuning in. That’s even under the 3 million average they usually get for Saturday nights during the summer. It was only able to garner a 0.9 rating/3 share for the night.

I should point out that NBC only aired a small piece of the event and the majority of the performances aired live elsewhere on cable and satellite and Bourgeault doesn’t have those numbers. Still, it says something that after all that promotion NBC put into this and all the money spent on promotion that it couldn’t do better on its flagship network. At what NBC must have paid for promoting the show, some would no doubt argue it would have been more efficient to just make a donation and can the broadcast.

UPDATE: I was wrong. CNBC and MSNBC aired the special in part. CNBC averaged 326,000 viewers during the 7p-2a broadcast of the show. MSNBC averaged 303,000 viewers during the four hours on Saturday that they aired the special.

CNN announced that it will premiere CNN: Special Investigations Unit - Criminally Insane on Saturday July 14th at 8pm ET…

The images are all too familiar – crude, homemade videos that reveal the face of madness: Cho Seung-Hui, the killer at Virginia Tech, and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the teenage shooters at Columbine High School. Unfortunately, these grim self-portraits are revealed only after these killers committed their terrible acts of violence.

CNN: Special Investigations Unit looks at how these killers and other criminally insane mass murderers—Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Kaczynski—escaped detection for so long, and examines whether they could have been stopped. CNN: Special Investigations Unit – Criminally Insane, will premiere on Saturday, July 14, and Sunday, July 15, at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. All times Eastern.

Peering into the darkest corners of American society, anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien discovers that these killers are only the most visible tip of a mental health system in tatters. Overloaded, under-funded and geared toward short-term solutions, the system sends most of the mentally ill into prisons, not treatment centers. In prison, the mentally ill rarely get the care they need, sometimes emerging as dangerous as they were when they entered.
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Jim Walton’s memo to CNN on the promotion of Susan Bunda…

To: CNN Staff
From: Jim Walton

I’m pleased to share with you news of a senior-level appointment that recognizes a colleague’s unique contributions to CNN’s success and challenges her to focus her talents and experience on an important new assignment. Effective today, Sue Bunda assumes wide-ranging duties as executive vice president of content development and strategy for CNN Worldwide, furthering and providing leadership in our continuing integration of television and the Web. As reflected in her newly created title, Sue’s primary influence will be in show and program creation, including talent recruitment; and in leveraging the whole of CNN to enhance our viewer ship and business results.

In addition to developing content for our platforms and combining people, projects and resources in smart, efficient ways, Sue also will work with CNN Research to deepen our understanding of and relationship with consumers. She will form and lead a member services team focused on fostering and studying communities of CNN users. And I’ve asked her to lend strategic oversight to CNN’s charitable outreach. She will report to me as a member of the CNN executive team, and will continue to provide valued counsel and perspective to Jon, Ken, Susan, Rick, Tony, Jonathan and Greg, and to her colleagues throughout the organization.
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CNN announced that Susan Bunda has been promoted to EP of Content Development and Strategy for CNN Worldwide…

CNN news executive Susan Bunda has been promoted to the newly created position of executive vice president of content development and strategy for CNN Worldwide, it was announced today by Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide. In her new role, Bunda’s responsibilities will include developing programming for CNN consumer platforms and marshaling CNN talent, resources and experience on wide-ranging business initiatives. She is based in Atlanta at CNN world headquarters and reports to Walton as a member of the CNN executive team.

“With this appointment we are empowering Sue to help lead our continuing integration of television and the Web as the future of our news business,” Walton said. “Sue’s mandate is to bring her creativity, professional relationships and 20 years of experience with CNN to bear on platform-focused content creation, resource allocation, audience development and brand resonance. I look forward to her perspective and input at the most senior level of our organization and to the positive impact she will have on our product, marketplace position and business results.”

“This is an exciting opportunity to build on the successes of CNN Worldwide,” Bunda said. “I believe in the people and the wealth of ideas here and look forward to finding ways to deepen the connection with our viewers.”
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Cable News Ratings July 7, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 562,000 viewers
CNN – 358,000 viewers
MSNBC – 310,000 viewers
CNBC – 326,000 viewers
HLN – 238,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 710,000 viewers
CNN – 425,000 viewers
MSNBC – 299,000 viewers
CNBC – 318,000 viewers
HLN – 253,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 163,000 viewers
CNN – 121,000 viewers
MSNBC –143,000 viewers
CNBC – 234,000 viewers
HLN – 96,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 171,000 viewers
CNN – 141,000 viewers
MSNBC – 127,000 viewers
CNBC – 218,000 viewers
HLN – 85,000 viewers

Cable News Ratings for July 8, 2007
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MSNBC’s release on today’s Super Tuesday coverage…(via FishbowlDC)

MSNBC’s non-stop political coverage continues [today] with “Super Tuesday” for July 10, 2007. Coverage will begin at 9:00 a.m. (ET) with NBC’s Chip Reid anchoring from Washington, DC. MSNBC interviews throughout the day will include Democratic party Chairman Howard Dean, former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge, presidential candidates Chris Dodd, Duncan Hunter, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Huckabee, Mike Gravel, Ron Paul and Tommy Thompson.

MSNBC is asking viewers to get involved in the process on this “Super Tuesday” by soliciting opinions and questions through www.politics.msnbc.com. Viewers can log on and speak their mind about what issues they think will weigh most heavily on the elections, what kind of candidate they think America is ready to elect and how they think the war in Iraq will affect the elections.

MSNBC and NBC anchors throughout the day will include MSNBC Anchors Contessa Brewer, Tucker Carlson, Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and “Hardball” correspondent David Shuster, as well as NBC’s Chief White House Correspondent David Gregory and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell.
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TV Week’s Michele Greppi sounds a discordant note in the slate of Mika Brzezinski press that’s been all over the internet in the wake of Brzezinski’s Paris Hilton “statement”…

Perhaps most telling was an exchange between Mr. Ridley and Ms. Brzezinski.

He suggested there was so much more than met the gimlet eye to Ms. Brzezinski’s too-ballyhooed June 26 “insurrection” on “Morning Joe” in which she refused to read her script about the release of Paris Hilton from jail—and then tried to burn the script before finally shredding it.

Remember, please, that this is a woman who first joined MSNBC in 2000 on “HomePage,” a midday show that tried to appeal to women by perching the trio of feminanchors on the anchor desk. This also is a woman who carefully combs long bangs over her forehead and then spends most of her time on-camera slooooowly finger-combing the bangs first off and then back onto her face—a face that seemed so perfectly refreshed when she returned to MSNBC as a fill-in several months after leaving CBS News that, if The Insider weren’t so old and overweight as to make it pointless, she’d ask for the name of Ms. Brzezinski’s, um, uh, “skin doctor.”

When it was noted that the clip of the Howard Beale-lite bit had been played more than 2 million times on YouTube, Mr. Ridley ribbed: “You just happened to have a lighter in your pocket, and the shredder just happened to be nearby. I love that real journalism works out like that.”

To which Ms. Brzezinski retorted: “It started out real, and then it became a statement.”

Huh?

This woman is a danger to herself without a script.

Page Six dishes about MSNBC GM Dan Abrams being back on the air at 9pm…

DAN Abrams is said to be thrilled to be back on the air at 9 p.m. at MSNBC, where he’s also the general manager running the cable channel. With Joe Scarborough doing the morning time slot vacated by Don Imus, “Scarborough Country” has been put on hiatus, and the 9 p.m. slot is now “Live with Dan Abrams.” “He’s having a blast,” said a friend of Abrams, who is doing both jobs for now. Asked if Abrams would give up his management duties, an MSNBC spokesman said, “If it becomes permanent, that will have to be discussed.”

Variety’s Michael Learmonth writes about NBC’s longform strategy as it combines NBC News Productions and NBC Media Productions into Peacock Productions…

NBC News is consolidating its longform units, including newsmagazine “Dateline,” into a division called Peacock Prods. that aims to expand into reality and nonfiction entertainment.

The unit, formed from NBC News Prods. and NBC Media Prods., as well as “Dateline” staff, will serve as an inhouse production company for everything from new episodes of “Dateline’s” “To Catch a Predator” franchise to reality shows like A&E’s “Dog the Bounty Hunter.”

NBC’s news division sees nonfiction programming, reality skeins and even live events, produced largely for cable, as a growth area naturally suited to the storytelling skills of “Dateline” producers.

Internally, NBC News prexy Steve Capus, who adds the title of president of Peacock Prods., is telling staff to think of the division as NBC “news and information,” reflecting its new emphasis.

“There have been times in the past where the news category was viewed too narrowly,” Capus said. “This is expanding the definition of what a news division has to offer.”