Richelle Carey in today’s Prime News email laid out some new realities regarding the direction of the show starting Monday…

We’re about to shake things up on “Prime News,” too. You might’ve noticed it’s been a few weeks since Erica Hill left. Well starting Monday, Mike Galanos and I will be making over this show. The powerful stories, emotional interviews and controversial headlines won’t be going anywhere. But we’ll be bringing them to you in a whole new way. Think “Prime News” with attitude.

So tune in tonight for the end of “Prime News” as you know it and come back Monday when we roll up our sleeves and get to the point!

The emailer who forwarded this to ICN had this to add…

When I first heard Galanos was going to be hosting Prime News.. I recalled he’d been doing those “Straight to the Point” or whatever segments where he spews lots of opinion. So now it looks like Prime News/Beck/Grace will mesh better…And btw, I don’t have a problem with this change.. But, it looks like Prime News is getting a makeover towards more opinion.

Soup Cans has the latest round up on what fomer HLN anchor mainstay Lynne Russell is doing…

On Monday, Nancy Grace had its highest ratings since the program’s launch in February 2005. Yes, that was the night that the Van der Sloot video hit the airwaves, but it didn’t make an appearance on Grace’s program that night. So Grace’s viewers weren’t tuning in to see the video but what Grace had to say about the video.

Here are the numbers…

P 2+: 1,301,000
P 25-54: 509,000

The New York Daily News’ Rush and Malloy have the latest exchange between Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann…

At least Limbaugh has a friend in Glenn Beck. The younger conservative radio star declined to weigh in on Limbaugh’s “anal” expulsion Tuesday, which is probably a good thing, considering he’s recovering from hemorrhoid surgery. But Beck was happy to fire a few rounds at their mutual enemy, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

“[Olbermann] is never brave enough to say his political position on air,” contends Beck. Although he’s pleased that his latest tome, “An Inconvenient Book” has so far outsold Olbermann’s “Truth and Consequences,” Beck argues, “I don’t care about other hosts. I don’t need to throw people under the bus. If I saw Olbermann standing on the subway [platform], I might think for a moment about pushing him, but I wouldn’t.”

Olbermann responds: “The subway remark summarizes who Glenn is. If he (or anybody else) fell in front of a train, I hope I’d have the courage to emulate Wesley Autry and try to save him.”

Earlier this month I noted that in the head to head matchup between 9am-5pm ET dayside newscasts, HLN beat MSNBC in both Total Viewers and the Demo. I speculated that January would see a swing for MSNBC in dayside due to all the primary coverage. Well, the January numbers are now in and the results aren’t as conclusively in MSNBC’s favor as I had figured they would be.

Here are the numbers for November, December, and January. I’m including November and December again because I now have more granularity in the Demo breakouts than I had last time.
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It was announced at the end of Prime News that Mike Galanos will be taking over Erica Hill’s seat…

During the months of November and December, in the head to head matchup between dayside Monday to Friday 9-5pm newscasts, HLN beat MSNBC; the first time this has happened in over a year. Here are the numbers…

November 9am-5pm Live+SD ratings

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The AP’s David Bauder interviews Glenn Beck…

When he got a concerned call from the hospital’s chief administrator, Beck knew the tape had spread beyond his Web site. Sure enough, the Drudge Report had picked it up. It has reached nearly 800,000 views on YouTube.

Now that he’s more coherent, Beck doesn’t want to forget the things that really upset him during his medical nightmare.

He said he and his wife were made to feel less than human when he came to the hospital’s emergency room in intense pain (Beck isn’t naming the hospital). As his wife struggled to carry him, a triage nurse “was actually drumming his fingers on the door and sighing, like ‘come on,’” he told The Associated Press. “He never made eye contact with me during the whole thing. He never talked about pain. He left my wife and I in the dust.”

It took more than two hours to get any medication for pain “and it wasn’t a busy night at all,” he said.

Then there was the nurse who casually dismissed his request for oxygen, and a shower stall littered with old bandages. Several people treated him with compassion, but enough didn’t that Beck believes there’s a wider problem there.

HLN’s Glenn Beck will be interviewed by Neil Cavuto tonight on FBN…

Tonight on Cavuto (6-7pm ET), FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto will interview syndicated radio and television host Glenn Beck on his recent hospital disaster. Beck will discuss how his routine outpatient procedure turned into a medical nightmare and how the threat of lawsuits has created a lack of compassion in hospitals.

NewsBusters chronicles a slip up in a Nancy Grace TV ad that put Mitch McConnell on the screen instead of Larry Craig. (via TVNewser)

Amazingly, the esteemed Senator from Kentucky was sandwiched between shots of convicted Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, OJ Simpson, and other high-profile crime figures of 2007.

NewsBusters has been informed that after a number of CNN producers were sent our article on this subject, a senior CNN official contacted McConnell’s office to apologize for the incident.

I had to wait until I got home to post this because I wanted to see it first and a firewall prevented that from happening.

TVNewser notes that CNN had to switch over to HLN for some unknown reason. BreitBart has the video…

Update: TVNewser says smoke was seen near the studios…

I had heard about this ad for a few weeks but had never seen it until now. HLN is running an ad claiming that more people tune in to it per month than either MSNBC or FNC. The sole stat it mentions is that in 2007 25 million people per month, of the P25-54 Demographic, watched HLN, which is more than either MSNBC or FNC. Sounds like HLN is taking a page out of its mother network’s playbook and is tossing out CUME numbers to make itself look good.

TV Decoder’s Brian Stelter blogs about CNN/HLNs Osama/Obama gaffes and has CNN reaction…

Gail Shister interviews Showbiz Tonight’s A.J. Hammer and EP David Levine about the program…

TVNewser has a Q&A with Glenn Beck…

The New York Post’s Don Kaplan writes about Nancy Grace being hospitalized…

NANCY Grace, the lightning- rod CNN Headline News host, was hospitalized over the weekend for blood clots in her lungs, the network said yesterday.

Grace, 48, gave birth to twins last week and her medical condition has been attributed to her pregnancy, a CNN spokeswoman said.

Last Week, Variety’s Brian Lowry looked at coverage of the California Wildfires. And Glenn Beck’s name came up…

Despite this vast region’s unparalleled variety, the prevailing image of Southern California from a distance is best summed up in a joke by the comic Gallagher, in which he compared Los Angeles with a bowl of granola — a mixture of fruits, nuts and flakes.

This perception neatly dovetails with the Eastern establishment’s condescending attitude, from the D.C. politicians who come here strictly to tap into big local money to news organizations that capitalize on celebrity foibles as a growing component of their tabloid-style content (even MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann incorporates a regular “Keeping Tabs” segment chronicling star shenanigans) — a paper-thin perspective buttressed, fairly or not, by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s current starring role as California’s governor.

The myopia crested in the idiocy of radio and CNN host Glenn Beck, who drew appropriate rebuke for saying while the fires raged, “There is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.” Never mind that most of the homes were lost in San Diego, a typically conservative bastion, as Beck simple-mindedly lumped together everyone west of Nevada under the Democratic tent.

Even more traditional anchors, however, couldn’t resist the La-la-land stereotypes, with CNN’s Don Lemon delivering a little quip about Yoga being offered in Qualcomm Stadium, the spot where fire evacuees assembled.

The New York Post’s Michael Starr writes that Nancy Grace has given birth to twins…

CNN Headline News star Nancy Grace made her own headline yesterday - giving birth to twins a little earlier than expected.

Grace, 48, was due to deliver near the end of the year. But she developed fluid in her lungs and her doctor determined “it would be best for Nancy, and for the twins” to deliver them ASAP, said her spokeswoman, Janine Iamunno.

The New York Times’ Brian Stelter profiles Glenn Beck…

“I guess I’m too stupid to self-edit, so I tell people exactly the way I feel,” Mr. Beck said in an interview. “I truly believe radio is the most powerful medium there is. It’s really treated so many times as a bastard child of other mediums. It is the most effective medium, when it’s done right, because it reaches right into the listeners and connects with them on a one-on-one level.”

HLN’s release on the news that Robin & Company will become Morning Express which CNN Observations broke a while back…

Headline News’ flagship morning program Robin & Company becomes Morning Express with Robin Meade, effective Monday, Nov. 5, it was announced today by Ken Jautz, EVP of CNN Worldwide.

In an effort to give its viewers the news they need in the morning, in the manner that today’s busy lifestyle requires, Morning Express will continue to deliver news reports every 30 minutes, along with breaking news as warranted.

“We aim to provide a quickly paced and comprehensive summary of the news, which matches people’s needs in the morning as they’re preparing for their day,” Jautz commented. “The show’s energy and style stand out in the morning broadcast landscape, and the new name better captures that.”
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The Rocky Mountain News’ Mike Pearson has a Q&A with Nancy Grace…(via FTVLive)

3 Do you think you ever go overboard with your prosecutorial zeal?

“I think I’m just telling the truth. Now the truth can be pretty harsh sometimes. What should I do, sugarcoat it? Why? I’ve got one hour to cover a story . . . People tend to become a homogenized creation of the airwaves. I did not go to law school for that.”

4 You’ve been parodied on Saturday Night Live and Boston Legal. How do you feel about being a pop-culture icon?

“I don’t think I’m a pop-culture icon. I think I’m easy to make fun of, and that’s OK. I laugh right along with it. I saved all the Boston Legals on my TiVo, but I haven’t seen the one where I get hit in the head with a shovel, and then go right back on the air with a bandage on my head.”

5 You seem to spend a lot of time on celebrity news, specifically Britney Spears. How does that jibe with your mission to help solve crimes?

“I don’t see the celebrity news, I see the child custody issues. To me, when a celeb commits a crime that I feel is worth shedding light on - and celebs commit crimes every day - I feel very strongly. I’ve just seen so many cases where children were abused and mistreated. From what I’ve seen firsthand, cases that involve women and children get treated less stringently than other cases, and I really resent that. You know what, it’s a relief not to always have (to talk about) a murderer.”

The L.A. Times editorializes against Glenn Beck’s California Wildfires “joke”…

Conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck is the latest high-profile figure to say something idiotic in the face of tragedy, but he’s got plenty of company. Disasters can bring out the best in humanity as rescuers risk their lives to save others and communities band together to rebuild, but they can also bring out the worst.

“I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today,” Beck told the audience of his nationally syndicated show on Monday, as parts of Malibu were in flames. That actually ranks pretty low on the mindless insensitivity scale compared to some of the sludge uttered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin said his city was devastated because “God is mad at America”; in this, he was in full agreement with a host of Islamist bloggers who claimed that the hurricane represented Allah’s judgment on America’s sins, including a Kuwaiti minister who wrote that the storm was “a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire.”

The L.A. Times’ Andrew Blankstein writes about Glenn Beck’s California fire comments on Monday…

On Tuesday, Beck said his comments were misinterpreted by “a few liberal bloggers.”

“The wildfires in California are a tragedy,” he said during his radio program. “I don’t want anyone to lose their home. I don’t care what their political stripes are. I don’t want a soul to lose their home, and anyone who doesn’t want to make me into an evil supervillain would understand that.”

“Those who don’t listen to the show … , let me give you a little piece of advice,” Beck added. “You have to engage what I would like to call your brain. You actually have to think: I might be making a joke; I might be serious.”

That knife cuts both ways Mr. Beck. You might want to engage that thing you would like to call your brain before you shoot your mouth off with an ill-advised attempt at humor. It can cause trouble, y’know (see: Imus, Don)

The Huffington Post’s Jason Linkins blogs about Glenn Beck’s comments regarding some of the residents of Southern California who are losing their homes in the fires down there. Beck does realize that the Southland is the more conservative end of the state, doesn’t he?

Amid CNN’s full-spectrum coverage, however, only one man has had the guts…err–rather, the mental derangement–to find the silver lining in the inferno. That person? Glenn Beck, who told his listeners, “I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.”

Uhm…okay. What’s the context? Somehow, Beck was attempting to make a point about how we “need to come together” and how “we’re all one America” and that “just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean you hate America,” and somehow, instead of all this heading towards some great big Kumbaya-drum-circle moment where Noah’s dove lights on Beck’s shoulder and the entire world gets bought a Coke, it culminated with Beck celebrating how the Fire Gods were smiting the domiciles of our nation’s enemies.

CNN Observations notes that Robin & Company will change its name to “Morning Express with Robin Meade”…

What exactly does a crime show like Nancy Grace and an environmental documentary like Planet in Peril have in common? Search me. But that didn’t stop CNN from having Anderson Cooper appear on Nancy Grace tonight to promote CNN’s mega documentary.

Johnny Dollar has the audio from the John Gibson radio program where Gibson responds to Joe Scarborough’s shots at FBN…

TMZ.com gives Nancy Grace a going over for her segment on Britney Spears…

Bumptious TV griller Nancy Grace can’t get her Britneys straight! During Grace’s kvetchfest on CNN’s Headline News, she kept insisting that Britney showed up at Van Nuys Jail on Monday while wearing a pink wig and carrying her little dog. Not true! Cameras caught Britney arriving at the jail wearing her brunette weave!

The Las Vegas Review Journal’s Norm Clarke writes that former HLN anchor Sophia Choi will be anchoring KVBC’s 4 and 6pm newscasts. (via FTVLive)

HLN’s Robin Meade interviewed country music star Kenny Chesney prior to his concert in Atlanta (video). Meade ended up joining Chesney onstage for a duet. Chesney also took time out to do a special military salute for the daily “Salute the Troops” segment on Meade’s “Robin & Company” morning show (video).

It’s Giuliani, not Guiliani. (via My Two Sense)

HLN’s Robin & Company bested MSNBC and its Morning Joe program in both the P2+ and P25-54 categories. This is the first time in more than two years (July 2005) that HLN has surpassed MSNBC in P2+ in the morning.

P2+
6-10a Robin & Co. 212,000
6-9a Morning Joe 206,000

P25-54
6-10a Robin & Co. 95,000
6-9a Morning Joe 74,000

GQ’s Benjamin Wallace has a profile of HLN’s Glenn Beck. (via TVNewser)

“Here’s a comment that will get me fired,” Glenn Beck says from behind the custom-made standing desk (bad back) that dominates his tiny CNN office in New York. In the flesh, he is thinner, less pink, and softer-spoken than the close-talking guy on television. Still wearing radio casual—bleach-spotted jeans, Adidas sneakers—from the morning’s three-hour broadcast, he forks down a take-out salad while going over material with one of his writers for tonight’s TV show, which will be devoted largely to the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. “This guy makes you have respect for suicide bombers,” Beck says, trying out today’s career-immolating zinger. “At least they’re killing themselves because they believe in something larger.”

“I love that,” says the writer, who stands on the other side of the desk. “And it’s true.”

“Whew,” Beck says. “I can’t wait for the letters we’re going to get.”
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CNN Observations notes that Robin & Company is looking to start a podcast…