American Morning will be starting at 5am Tuesday to cover the latest hurricane developments. FNC’s “the scoop” email revealed that Fox and Friends will be starting at 5am Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week.

AC 360’s first hour led the way in the Demo Friday.

Cable News Daily Ratings for August 17, 2007

P2+ Total Day
FNC – 837,000 viewers
CNN – 639,000 viewers
MSNBC – 316,000 viewers
CNBC – 240,000 viewers
HLN – 236,000 viewers

P2+ Prime Time
FNC – 1,304,000 viewers
CNN – 837,000 viewers
MSNBC – 515,000 viewers
CNBC – 154,000 viewers
HLN – 329,000 viewers

25-54 Total Day
FNC – 219,000 viewers
CNN – 211,000 viewers
MSNBC – 139,000 viewers
CNBC – 89,000 viewers
HLN – 96,000 viewers

25-54 Prime Time
FNC – 268,000 viewers
CNN – 267,000 viewers
MSNBC – 228,000 viewers
CNBC – 68,000 viewers
HLN – 112,000 viewers

Morning programs P2+ (25-54)
FOX & Friends – 1,026,000 viewers (342,000)
American Morning – 513,000 viewers (205,000)
MSNBC Live (7-9am) – 242,000 viewers (92,000)
Robin & Co. – 239,000 viewers (90,000)
(more…)

FNC’s Steve Harrigan is reporting live from Cancun as the weather deteriorates and the city prepares for the effects of Hurricane Dean…

The waves picking up here considerably as we’ve seen the day go by. Started out as a sunny morning here in Cancun, a lot of people out on the beach, now I’m looking at four or five surf and some really dark skies out in the distance; really dark rain, ominous. There were people out on the beach most of the day, still have a couple of people out. The big question for the tourists here as to whether they are going to stay or leave. The great majority has headed out to that airport; the airport still open, empty planes are arriving. They’re going out full.

FNC aired uReport submissions during today’s Live Desk with Martha MacCallum. During the show, FNC aired several photos submitted to uReport by a Minnesota viewer on Saturday.

We want to show you these photos sent in by a 22-year-old named Reed Welch. He took them in Caledonia, Minnesota. That is in Houston County, one of the six counties declared a state of emergency. These images are from Saturday, just after the devastating rain fell there. A state senator called the flooding the worst disaster that Southeast Minnesota has seen in a lifetime.

(more…)

CNBC announced that Mad Money is doing its college campus road trip again…

As colleges across America begin their fall semesters, CNBC’s Jim Cramer is gearing up again for his popular “Mad Money Back To School” tour-this time to the West Coast to broadcast on Friday, September 7th from the USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles in front of a live audience of students.

Cramer is the host of “Mad Money w/Jim Cramer,” which airs weekdays on CNBC at 6 PM ET and 11PM ET.

“We have always wanted to take the ‘Mad Money Back to School’ tour to the West Coast and we are so excited to begin this leg of the tour at USC Marshall School of Business,” said Jim Cramer. “Since we started the tour in 2005, we have been overwhelmed by the incredible reaction we get on campus. It gives ‘Mad Money’ an opportunity to reach the next generation of Wall Street minds and allows CNBC to reach the next generation of viewers.”
(more…)

At At 2:14pm ET, FNC reported that Michael Vick accepted a plea deal in his dog fighting case. Shepard Smith took over covering this with guest Judge Andrew Napolitano. CNN reported it at 2:20pm. What time did MSNBC break in? (UPDATE: MSNBC broke in about 2:16 pm)

UPDATE: A tipster says FNC beat even ESPN to the story by about fifteen minutes.

UPDATE 2: Did Smith take over for Skinner because Skinner is prohibited from covering NFL stories because her husband is Commissioner? If so, this would be the first on-air incident of this type since Daryn Kagan temporarily handed over anchor duties to (I believe) Kyra Phillips to report a breaking news story on Rush Limbaugh, whom Kagan was dating at the time.

UPDATE 3: An FNC insider says Jane Skinner recused herself from reporting on the story, hence why there was a contingency plan in place with Shepard Smith taking the lead on the story.

FishbowlDC is reporting that Chip Reid will be leaving NBC/MSNBC.

MSNBC’s release on Countdown’s airing this Sunday night on NBC before an NFL Football pre-season game….

MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann will bring his unique take on the day’s events, from politics to pop culture, to a primetime network audience this Sunday night. A special edition of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” will air on Sunday, August 26th at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT on NBC, leading into the network’s “Sunday Night Football” pre-season NFL matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers, live at 8 p.m. ET. Olbermann is joining the network’s “Football Night in America” studio team this season. The special edition of “Countdown” will be broadcast live from MSNBC’s studios.

“Countdown’s” network debut comes on the heels of the program’s stellar performance this year. According to Nielsen Media Research, the program attracted 721,000 viewers in July, up an incredible 88% over July 2006. “Countdown” continues to be the number two cable news program at 8 p.m. ET, beating CNN by a 20% margin for the year.

“I’m delighted we’re getting a chance to show off in a bigger storefront window,” said Olbermann. “It’s much better than trying to take it door-to-door. I do advise new viewers to sit well back from their screens.”
(more…)

Janice Dean: Meteorologist?

UPDATE: ICN has heard that Dean is now officially a Meteorologist, so the lower third was not an error. Apologies to all concerned.

Tonight, on Larry King Live, Christiane Amanpour talks to Larry about her upcoming documentary event “God’s Warriors”. She and a panel of religious experts spoke with Larry about extremism in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. Transcript highlight follows…

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: Do the Muslim fundamentalists want to change regimes where they have power? Do the Israeli fundamentalists want to change — Jewish fundamentalists want to change Israel? Christian fundamentalists want to change America?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well…

KING: They do, right?

AMANPOUR: That is one of the unifying factors of all of these segments of these religions. Yes, the Christian evangelicals who we focus on want to change laws to make it a much more Christian country, which is a backlash against some of the Supreme Court rulings over the last 40-odd years; whether it be prayer in school or whether it be the other issues.
(more…)

Johnny Dollar has the audio of Geraldo Rivera mixing it up with Laura Ingraham over…wait for it…illegal immigration.

FNC’s Marianne Silber reported live this morning from Jamaica on the effects of the highly anticipated Hurricane Dean…

It rained for hours; it probably rained for eight-nine hours pretty hard. We were, once we left the balcony right where we’re standing - we were out here most of the time – but once we left and went downstairs, that’s what we were dealing with most of the night. The wind was still going pretty good, that died down this morning and I think everyone here is probably feeling lucky.

Tamron Hall will be in for Mika Brzezinski all this week on Morning Joe…

Special weekday version regarding Chris Matthews coming out of the Cheney clip: First name or expletive? This was referred to me via a tipster and I think it’s ambiguous and with ambiguity you have to err on the side of caution and so I say “first name”.

The Wasington Post’s Howard Kurtz writes about the latest PEW survey…

The level of war coverage continued to vary on the cable news channels, claiming 18 percent of the airtime on CNN, 15 percent on MSNBC and 8 percent on Fox News. By contrast, MSNBC is branding itself as the political channel, devoting 21 percent of its time to the early stages of the campaign, followed by 10 percent at Fox and 9 percent at CNN.

CNBC announced this morning that the Finale for the Fast Money MBA Challenge will air on Wednesday August 22nd at 9pm ET…

There’s only two teams left standing in the financial fight for bragging rights and $200,000. On Wednesday, August 22, the bulldogs of Yale will battle the longhorns of Texas in the final round of CNBC’s first original game show “Fast Money MBA Challenge” at the Nasdaq Marketsite in New York City’s Times Square. Both teams think they have what it takes – but only one will go home with cold hard cash.

CNBC’s “Fast Money MBA Challenge” champions will receive $200,000, awarded by TD Ameritrade, to be split among all team members. The prize money must be used for tuition, repayment of school loans, books, room and board or other school related expenses.
(more…)

The AP’s David Bauder interviews Christiane Amanpour in conjunction with the upcoming premier of “God’s Warriors” on CNN…

“I’m not interested in drumming up false fears, or falsely allaying fears,” CNN’s chief international correspondent told The Associated Press by phone from France, where she added last-minute touches to the series. “I just want people to know what’s going on.”

Amanpour traveled extensively over eight months to work on the series. The trips to Amanpour’s native Iran are most fascinating. She explored the ancient roots of the conflict between Shiites and Sunnis, and talked with one of the country’s most accomplished female politicians about how Muslim women are treated.

Another segment tried to explain why so many devout Muslims are willing to give their lives to a cause.

“To the West, martyrdom has a really bad connotation because of suicide bombers who call themselves martyrs,” she said. “Really, martyrdom is actually something that historically was quite noble, because it was about standing up and rejecting tyranny, rejecting injustice and rejecting oppression and, if necessary, dying for that.”

MultiChannel News’ Steve Donohue writes about the latest Verizon FiOS addition; sans MSNBC probably, in the New York area to take on Cablevision and its exclusivity agreement. This could become a real problem for MSNBC in the #1 market in the nation if FiOS continues to build momentum and they start losing viewers in the market due to defections from Cablevision.

Verizon continues to ratchet up its offensive on Cablevision Systems, winning a video franchise in Garden City, N.Y.

The Long Island town granted Verizon its 56th franchise in New York Aug. 16.

I thought after the “Contact” debacle that CNN was blocking talent from appearing in entertainmente roles. I guess that doesn’t include Larry King who, TVSquad’s Richard Keller writes, will appear in the season finale of The Closer…

He will be appearing as himself on the set of Larry King Live interviewing real-life Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez about the high-profile murder investigation that Sedgwick’s character on the show, Deputy Police Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson, can’t seem to get a handle on. Also appearing on the show will be Court TV personalities Dominick Dunne and Rikki Klieman.

The New York Times’ Allessandra Stanley writes about the “Farewell Karl” tour yesterday on the talk show circuit…

When Mr. Wallace argued that executive privilege did not prevent him from answering a reporter’s questions (“Why did you push to fire some U.S. attorneys in the president’s second term?”), Mr. Rove turned testy. “I know you don’t understand you’re being an agent of Congress when you ask me that question,” he said. “But you are.”

Fox News is usually considered by Bush officials as a safe harbor. But Mr. Wallace had the most prickly, and probing, interview with Mr. Rove, which is not surprising; Mr. Wallace has a way of needling his guests, Republicans and Democrats alike. Last year, he goaded Bill Clinton into an angry outburst during a discussion of Osama bin Laden.

UPDATE: Video…

UPDATE 2: Salon’s Juan Cole writes about yesterday as well…
(more…)

The New York Times’ Steven McElroy writes that Countdown with Keith Olbermann will air on NBC this Sunday before an NFL pre-season game…

“ ‘Countdown’ is rocketing right now over at MSNBC — its ratings are going through the roof,” said Phil Griffin, senior vice president of NBC News. (In July Mr. Olbermann’s show averaged 721,000 viewers, an increase of 88 percent over last July, according to MSNBC.) Mr. Griffin added, “The world has changed, and I think people have come in line with the smart, focused approach he has on the show.” No immediate plans for additional network appearances of “Countdown” have been made, but Mr. Griffen did not rule them out. “It may be the first of several times you see Olbermann on the network,” he said.

I questioned why Cavuto would be part of the Superbowl. But after seeing this I may have to rethink my position because though these cross-promotional efforts are really getting out of hand…they seem to be the norm now.

UPDATE: Ok, I’m slow but this didn’t click with me at the time I posted it…
(more…)

Walking behind the talent after your weather segment is over. Domenica Davis; last night on The Lineup. By the way, note the crawl asking for comments about the crawl…

Fox and Friends kicked off as the first program to air from the brand new Studio E.
(more…)