What’s hot:

David Shuster - Shuster is hot. Very hot. In fact, he’s suddenly radioactive. The question is what’s his half-life?

Divisions over the Shuster suspension at 30 Rock - Not everyone thinks the Shuster suspension was deserved. Some think Shuster was a scapegoat to appease the Clinton camp and save the NBC debate scheduled for next week. Others think Shuster got it in the neck because his last name was Shuster and not Matthews or Olbermann or Russert, or (insert big NBC/MSNBC talent name here).

Super Super Tuesday Ratings for CNN - Some will say it was the heavy Democratic turnout that contributed to CNN’s Super Tuesday ratings; the “Liberals watch CNN” argument if you will. I say as long as topical news drives it, big ratings is big ratings.

Karl Rove debuts on FNC - Speaking as a former Poli Sci Major in college, it was fascinating TV watching “Bush’s Brain” functioning in real time analyzing the numbers and what they meant.

MSNBC goes VR - MSNBC debuted slick new VR technology as part of its Super Tuesday coverage and, speaking as a CGI and Video artist (in the little spare time I have), made CNN and Anderson Cooper’s 3D pie charts from Iowa look like old news.

David Zurawik on Campbell Brown - Zurawik’s shoot from the hip commentary of CNN’s Campbell Brown on Super Tuesday prompted a blistering response…from Greta Van Susteren over at FNC. CNN remained quiet but you just know Zurawik is off their Christmas card list this year…

What’s not:
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Post your submissions for this week’s What’s hot/What’s not. I’ll post the finalists on Sunday…

What’s hot:

Debate ratings euphoria - CNN scored big in the debate ratings twice this week.

FNC’s pre-Super Bowl programming - Coming in front of one of the biggest media events of the year, FNC is poised to benefit from non cable news viewers watching FNC talent and programming.

Karl Rove to join FNC - Say what you will about the man, he was still the biggest free agent any network could get. And FNC got him.

What’s not:

When is a demonstration not a demonstration - When only six people show up…

MSNBC dayside news continues to struggle vs. HLN - The numbers rose in January compared to December and November. But MSNBC’s dayside news ratings are hardly flourishing.

Post your submissions to this week’s What’s hot/What’s not. I’ll post the finalists on Sunday night…

What’s hot:

Ratings rise for the primaries - All the wall to wall political coverage is paying off with what so far is the most contested primary season in a generation. Everybody’s up and everybody is cramming in as much politics as possible to take advantage of the situation. For a change, however, I don’t think this is a manufactured media event (like tabloid gossip news sagas like Paris Hilton and O.J Simpson) but an honest to goodness attempt at covering a major story of real value.

Keith Olbermann starts blogging on Daily Kos - Olbermann’s critics will point to this as yet another sign of MSNBC giving the Countdown host too much latitude. Olbermann supporters will point to this as yet another sign that Keith is going his own way in a refreshing manner. Your mileage may vary…

Fox News to do pre-Super Bowl programming on Fox Broadcast - Fox News will be airing Fox News Sunday followed by two hours of political/sports coverage anchored by Shepard Smith on Fox Broadcast before the Super Bowl on the Fox Broadcast network.

“Keith runs MSNBC” - That quote in Men’s Journal wreaked all sorts of havoc this week. First, Fox and Friends went off on the quote. This was followed by Olbermann putting the FNC program on his worse, worser, worst list and suggesting the quote came from someone who was recently “fired” by the network. This was followed the next day by an anonymous tipster quote showing up on TVNewser pinning the quote on Davidson Goldin, recently departed from MSNBC as part of the December cutbacks. Goldin has vehemently denied being the one making the quote. However, and I don’t think many people picked up on this from reading TVNewser’s entry, what may have gotten lost in all this is, according to the TVN timeline as it’s written, that anonymous tip came before Olbermann’s on the air swipe. And that detail is one that suggests an interesting pattern. A very interesting pattern…

Update: I’ve gotten a few emails on this asking me what exactly I’m refering to. I thought it was rather evident but apparently it wasn’t. I was referring to the timing (anonymous quote first going to TVN and then later on Olbermann’s on-air spiel). Nothing definitive can be concluded from this but it’s co-incidental enough to raise a flag for me.
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Ok, here is the list of the hottest and not hottest cable news related stories for 2007. I hope I haven’t overlooked anything. These are not prioritized by the way…

What’s hot for 2007:

The Fall and Rise of Don Imus - Don Imus’ controversial comments about the Rutgers’ women’s basketball team, either rightly or wrongly, eventually led to his ouster from MSNBC TV and CBS Radio. Imus stayed under the radar for the next several months before re-surfacing with a new radio and TV gig.

FBN launches - Rupert Murdoch’s long speculated about stab at a business news channel finally came to fruition this fall with the launch of the Fox Business Network. Which leads nicely to…

Defections and defectors - One of the first battles between the new upstart FBN and the established battle tested veteran CNBC was over talent, with FBN drawing first blood. This first manifested itself with a ridiculous battle over a “business news talent minnow” named Eric Bolling for which CNBC lawyered up big time with some high priced Manhattan attorneys to keep Bolling sitting on the sidelines and off FBN’s air until the last possible second. This however came on the heels of the news that CNBC’s “non-minnow” Liz Claman had decided to jump to FBN when her contract expired with CNBC (co-incidentally it expired within days of FBN’s launch).

So long Secaucus - MSNBC finally moved in to 30 Rock with a slick news studio. And with that came…
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What’s hot:

LOL! - It’s like someone let the laughing gas loose this week. Either that or the news writers are being groomed to write comedy in order to break the strike and this week was a test run. But whatever the reason the newiest things this week were all comedy related.

It was almost like watching a re-run of Jon Stewart’s appearance on Crossfire several years ago as Grodin kept beating up Hannity & Colmes (but wasn’t very fair and balanced about it as he saved most of his big bombs for Hannity). But not quite, as Grodin doesn’t quite have Stewart’s taste for the jugular. So, even though Grodin was serious at times, it came across more like a parody of Stewart’s Crossfire appearance than the second coming. It was still the funniest thing on TV this week though. And that’s saying something given this happened on MSNBC and this happened on CNN.

What’s not:

Zip. Like I said yesterday, slow week.

It was a weak week but two items still managed to squeak through…

What’s hot:

NBC cuts take form - The drip, drip, drip of the saga of the cuts to NBC and MSNBC continued this week with the revealing of the names of some of the people being let go. And, according to Jossip, more cuts may take place next week so even more names may be revealed. Will there be any shockers?

What’s not:

Carolyn Washburn - The moderator of this week’s Republican and Democratic debates got roundly panned for the way she moderated the debates. And it’s still going on…

What’s hot:

NBC News job cuts - For the second week in a row the budget crisis at NBC News dominates the blogs’ news cycle. Though admittedly there wasn’t much in the way of competition this week to prevent that from happening. The New York Post provided more details on what’s going on with the NBC News cuts as did some of the blogs.

Citizens United vs. CNN - The group Citizens United wasn’t at all happy with the way it was portrayed in last week’s CNN documentary. In fact it was so unhappy that it has been making noises about suing the network. So far it hasn’t done anything more than sabre rattling and the longer this goes on the less likely a lawsuit will come out of it.

What’s not:

Ad refusal - Not that networks are refusing to run some ads, but that every time this happens it seems to get turned into a major media event. Nobody is under any obligation to air every ad that comes their way, yet when an ad gets refused it’s treated like a crime against humanity just occurred and charges of censorship ring out. It sounds more like gotcha politics to me though.

The MSM asleep on the NBC News budget story - When Dan Abrams stepped down and Phil Griffin assumed a larger role at MSNBC, it was all over the place. The New York Times did a story. Variety did a story. Broadcasting & Cable, TV Week, etc, etc…This time, outside of the New York Post and the Hollywood Reporter, the only ones writing about the cuts and changes to NBC News, which arguably could have a bigger impact on the news division than the Abrams/Griffin/Bassalik story did, are blogs like ICN, TVN, and Jossip. Nothing from the NYT, The LA Times,Variety, The Washington Post, The NY Daily News, TVWeek, Broadcasting & Cable, etc, etc.

What’s hot:

New budget cuts coming to NBC News - Late Friday, ICN broke the news of budget cut meetings taking place at 30 Rock with an eye on Operational cuts. Though the cuts being looked at likely extend beyond operational…

CNBC wants to know what you think of FBN talent - Screen grabs from a CNBC Exchange viewer survey asking viewers to rate CNBC and FBN business talent leaked out. It didn’t take long for commenters to use that “Not concerned” quip against the network. Again.

CNN’s YouTube Debate controversy - The controversy over Keith Kerr’s question and his ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign overshadowed the news of the YouTube debate generating the highest primary debate ratings ever.

Chavez vs. CNN - A graphical error on CNN International was seized upon by Hugo Chavez to beat the network over the head with. It was typical Chavez. The surprising aspect was the way CNN took Chavez so seriously when I think they should have just reported it as a mistake, apologized, and then dropped the matter.

FNC debuts new election vehicles - FNC took the wraps of its two Election Link vehicles and has been using them a lot since then.

What’s not:
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It was a slow news week with the Thanksgiving holidays but here’s this week’s What’s hot/What’s not…

What’s hot:

Shepard Smith - Smith signed a mega million dollar contract with FNC this week rumored to be between 7-8 million a year.

What’s not:

Nothing made my cut this week…

What’s hot:

CNN’s Democratic Primary Debate - CNN scored big in the ratings for its Primary debate last Thursday.

Out in the Open - CNN’s Out in the Open generated a lot of buzz on the internet this week when it did that segment on the McCain response to the Hillary Clinton question.

Lou Dobbs - The story broke in the Wall Street Journal that Lou Dobbs might be contemplating a run for President.

What’s not:
(more…)

What’s hot:

Rosie O’Donnell - The story flared up big on Monday and quickly died by Wednesday. But it was the talk of everyone; Would Rosie O’Donnell come to MSNBC primetime? In the end the story was overblown and the outcome predictable.

MSNBC admits going left in primetime - Giving Bill O’Reilly a huge adrenaline shot in his feud with NBC, an article in the New York Times talking about the Rosie talks came out framing the story as part of MSNBC’s turn left in primetime.

Glenn Beck gets a big raise - Glenn Beck signed a mega-million dollar deal for his radio program and consequently got his name in print all over the place. It doesn’t immediately impact his HLN program any, but there could be a coattail effect at some point.

The Situation Room and Lou Dobbs Tonight switch positions - There’s a lot of speculation about the kind of impact this switcheroo this will have on both shows. Still early days yet so no conclusions can be drawn.

What’s not:
(more…)

What’s hot:

MSNBC debuts in 30 Rock - A few technical glitches here and there but overall this week’s debut of MSNBC’s new studio in 30 Rock went relatively smoothly. The benefits were readily apparent with the marked increase of in studio guests, some of whom would never set foot in Secaucus. And the set is slick.

California Wildfires - They dominated the news cycle; so much so that CNN’s Planet in Peril debut got kind of lost in the deluge, somewhat spoiling what up until then had been a building wave of buzz.

FNC’s Republican Debate - By all accounts it was the liveliest debate of the season so far. It was so lively that some campaigns tried using debate footage in their ads and FNC had to put its foot down to stop it.

What’s not:

While there are a couple of things on my radar screen I don’t think anything really made the cut for this week…

What’s hot:

FBN Launches - After the several week long wave of buzz, FBN finally launched on Monday.

Get wars - It was a week of exclusives that didn’t turn out so exclusive as CNBC and FBN battled it out through the week. The war reached its crescendo with FBN’s Warren Buffett exclusive which you know just had to leave CNBC fuming. Which leads me to…

Liz Claman debuts on FBN - After weeks of speculation and hints that she would, Liz Claman signed with FBN and was on the air on Thursday. And she starts off by landing Buffett for an hour. What’s your encore going to be Liz?

America has two coasts - CNBC brought Fast Money out to Silicon Valley on Friday. CNBC also set up a Silicon Valley bureau earlier this year. FBN launched with a San Francisco/Silicon Valley bureau this week. ICN, being a completely unbiased disinterested Californian who wouldn’t dare stoop to partisan localism, says it’s about time the west coast gets a little love from a cable channel. And since ICN is a completely unbiased disinterested Northern Californian who wouldn’t dare stoop to partisan localism, I’ll add that L.A. bureaus don’t count. Actually, anything south of Big Sur doesn’t count but that’s another story…

MSNBC leave Secaucus - Just a little less than 24 hours from now the switch will be thrown in 30 Rock and a new day will dawn for MSNBC.
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What’s Hot:

FBN buzz - It’s deafening. How they managed to make it to launch without huge chunks of the programming plans getting out, I don’t know. The best I managed to do was acquire a copy of a program rundown which subsequently turned out to be out of date.

MSNBC’s new studios revealed - Though it was nothing more than a tease on Thursday night, we got to see the new studios at 30 Rock which MSNBC will move to a week from Monday.

What’s Not:

For the second week in a row, nothing made the cut…

What’s Hot:

Chris Matthews - For all the wrong reasons. First he gets destroyed by Stewart on “The Daily Show” (unfairly in my opinion, but destroyed nonetheless). Then he celebrates the 10th Anniversary of Hardball by making some comments at the party about the current administration which quickly spread all over the internet. On Friday, it was reported by TVNewser that Matthews would talk about the comments on Hardball but to me it seemed like the Hardball segment didn’t really address the issue head on but skirted around it…

More cable news channel sniping - FNC had been on the receiving end of some jabs recently from both CNN (over O’Reilly) and MSNBC (Dan Abrams on FBN talent looking like Joey Lawrence). This week saw a concerted effort on Fox and Friends to take aim at CNN’s “God’s Warriors” series and, late in the week, devoting time to Chris Matthews’ comments.

Dueling Happy Hours - CNBC launched a new segment on “Fast Money” called “Happy Hour”. It turns out FBN was planning its own program called “Happy Hour”. The similarities and coincidences were so many that charges of theft by the peacock business channel circulated the blogs, including this one. Friday, “Your World” took the wraps off Happy Hour as the talent took repeated shots at its soon to be rival network. CNBC, for its part, maintains that their version was part of the original concept of “Fast Money” but wasn’t being used due to Fast Money’s current time slot but would be used in its new timeslot.

FBN’s microsite launches - The first real hints of what FBN would be about surfaced this week with the launch of FBN’s microsite. Still, most of the programming specifics have yet to be revealed.

What’s Not:

Nothing made the cut this week.

What’s hot:

I really can’t think of anything that deserves Hot status this week. It was so dull…

Not…

Bill O’Reilly - No matter which side of the issue you come down on regarding O’Reilly’s comments on eating at Sylvia’s restaurant, and I think O’Reilly got a bum deal for the most part this time, you can’t deny the buzz generated by this story drowned out just about everything else this week including, unfortunately, the far more newsworthy launch of the new Fox Report with Shepard Smith. Oddly enough it wasn’t Keith Olbermann who was the big beneficiary of O’Reilly’s predicament this week, at least in terms of buzz. Rick Sanchez and Out in the Open barged in on Countdown’s “territory”; so much so that nobody on the blogs was talking about what Olbermann said this week…probably because they kept waiting to see what Sanchez and CNN would do next.

What’s not:
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What’s hot:

FBN’s announcements - Fox Business Network has been in the news almost every day this week with talent hires. The near daily announcements has kept FBN in the industry write-ups which is always good when you’re launching a network and want to create buzz before the launch.

HD in the news - High Definition was already in the news recently with CNN HD’s launch. This week CNBC became available in High Def and word leaked out that Fox Business Network will also be available in HD when it launches.

Not hot:

HD in practice - Some kinks still need to be worked out.

What’s Hot:

FNC scoring the Petraeus/Crocker exclusive - FNC and Brit Hume had them to themselves. Everyone else had to sit and wait their turn and subsequently nobody spent the amount of time with them that FNC did.

Anderson Cooper 360 - Anderson Cooper reported from Iraq this week. But Cooper was overshadowed by confusion over the future of the second hour of his show late in the week.

MSNBC’s Primetime 9/11 rebroadcast - Although I don’t understand rebroadcasting this a 2nd year in a row, I’m in the minority apparently as the 9/11 rebroadcast of the Today Shows coverage of 9/11 brought MSNBC big numbers and won it the primetime Demo.

What’s Not:

O.J. Simpson rears his ugly head - Friday was an ominous day for those of us still recovering from the 1994-1995 saga. O.J. Simpson was named as a suspect in a “robbery” attempt in Las Vegas. Suddenly, cable news was having major O.J. flashbacks. It went into overdrive Sunday when he was arrested. I’d plead for some self-restraint but, alas, I know better…

Appendectomies - ICN hopes Keith Olbermann has a speedy and complication free recovery…

What’s Hot

FNC’s New Hampshire Debate - This week FNC scored the highest rated debate of 2007 so far when it came to New Hampshire Wednesday…

The CNBC/FBN skirmishing continues to heat up - Fox Business Network still hasn’t launched and CNBC is showing signs of paranoia. This was exemplified by the highly unusual Eric Bolling injunction the network sought using high powerd Manhattan attorneys and was subsequently denied. All for a part time contributor. A tad heavy handed don’t you think?

I thought CNBC was going to be playing this cool since this is really CNBC’s battle to lose as far as I’m concerned and FBN has everything to prove, Roger Ailes’ and Rupert Murdoch’s somewhat dismissive comments over the past few months regarding the Peacock business network nonwithstanding. But CNBC sure doesn’t seem to be acting very cool or very secure right now. This is not a good sign.

Cable News getting re-infected with Anna Nicole syndrome - Rita Cosby and her Anna Nicole book caused an unusually public case of pushback between the various parties involved. And it all played out over the various news nets throughout the week.

What’s Not

Cable News getting re-infected with Anna Nicole syndrome - Her son is dead. She’s dead. The custody battle has been decided. It’s over people. Stop pandering and drop it already! Sheesh…
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What’s Hot

CNN’s Publicity Department - When CNN has something big cooking their publicity machine tends to go all out, but this week ratcheted things up to another level with the publicity for “God’s Warriors”. In addition to the usual blanket publicity campaign there was a concerted effort to reach out to the blogger community this time. Although the event was sort of scripted, with questions being submitted in advance rather than a free flow chat, just the fact that CNN tried this maneuver is notable.

Christiane Amanpour - This one is rather self-evident. You had to be living under a rock to not notice Amanpour’s profile this week.

Keith Olbermann - Though he was off Countdown most of the week, Olbermann’s name was all over the press with the announcement that NBC was going to run Countdown before the NFL preseason game Sunday night.

Geraldo Rivera - Whether it was mixing it up with Michelle Malkin, Laura Ingraham, or Michelle Dellaroche, Rivera was front and center in the topic of illegal immigration this week.

FNC opens Studio E - Fox and Friends was the first show to debut in FNC’s brand new Studio E, but it won’t be the last. Up on deck, The Fox Report and Studio B (but will it still be called Studio B?)…

What’s Not

Tammy Haddad - Haddad was removed or resigned (depending on whose story you believe) as EP of Hardball this week. Haddad will still be a force in MSNBC’s D.C. Bureau but this was a definite prestige hit for her.

I’m starting a new weekly feature called What’s hot/What’s not. The purpose is to highlight the people/events/channels that are noticeably noteworthy. Something can be hot/not hot and be either a negative or a positive thing. Or both. The way I will go about doing this is every Saturday I’ll ask for reader submissions for the hot and not hot categories for the week. On Sunday I’ll post the hottest/not hottest which may be from those submissions or I may choose something that nobody suggested. But for today, I’ll forego the nomination process and instead put out this week’s items to give you an idea of the kind of things I’m on the lookout for.

What’s Hot:

Anderson Cooper - Twice this week Cooper was on the air for big news stories (Peru earthquake, Seismic Bump mine event) and both times he got the best Demo numbers in cable news. Of course, FNC and MSNBC would be quick to ask, “Yeah? Well, what about his Demo numbers when he doesn’t have a breaking news event to skew his numbers?” True. But, this week at least, Cooper is hot!

Joe Scarborough - Scarborough was hot this week. He memorably trashed Don Imus, revealed that people in the MSNBC newsroom booed the 2003 SOTU, and beat up Bill O’Reilly for using said event against his network. Good news: He got a lot of media attention and internet attention as a feisty and unpredictable media personality. Bad news: It’s questionable whether this notoriety will help his program’s below-Imus-in-the-Morning ratings any.

FNC’s 1/2 Hour News Hour - Despite performing well for the network, FNC’s comedy program is not going to be airing new episodes after September 16th and may be retooled for a re-launch in a different form at some future date. This doesn’t make sense to me. The program is doing well but it’s not continuing? Where’s the other shoe? All too often, whenever you see the words “mutually decided” in an announcement, there is more going on than meets the eye. Speculating about whether more is going on and what that might be is what makes this hot!

Alexis Glick - Twice this week Alexis Glick hosted Your World. Glick had been working behind the scenes at FNC until News Corp. announced the launch date for Fox Business Network. Now her appearances and profile on FNC are increasing as preparations are being made to launch FBN in October.

What’s Not:
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