Providence Station to Add 6:30 Newscast

WPRI in Providence has decided to tack on a 6:30PM newscast starting at the end of the month.

The show will air on sister station Fox Providence and will be geared to viewers that miss earlier evening newscasts due to an increasingly busy life schedule, according to Karen Rezendes, the station’s news director.

The show will be anchored by Shannon Hegy and Steve Nielsen. 

et's go to the obligatory sound bites made up by the Creative Services Department:

“We’re expanding our early evening news coverage to help fit the busy lifestyles of our viewers in Southern New England,” Rezendes said. “Our news team is committed to providing them more local news and weather content when they want it.”

“I’m honored to be a part of this new venture for Eyewitness News,” Hegy said. “People are getting home later and later from work these days and I’m excited along with Steve to bring them news at a time that is convenient.”

“I am excited to take advantage of this new opportunity to bring local news coverage to Rhode Island at an entirely new time,” Nielsen said. “Our new show at 6:30 p.m. on Fox Providence will allow us to continue to bring viewers all of the key stories of the day, while also going more in-depth on the stories people care about. Shannon and I can’t wait to start.”

Let's Hope Zucker Does a Better Job with Primetime

CNN boss Jeff Zucker says that 2014 will be the year that he shook up primetime.

Let's hope he can do a better job than he did with the AM block.

In 2013, Zucker focused his attention on mornings at CNN.

How'd that work out for him?

CNN spent millions of dollars to blow up the mornings and launch CNN's 'New Day'. But, New Day has been the same old story in the ratings.

In fact looking at the numbers from last Thursday, New Day failed to reach 200,000 (New Day had 175,000) total viewers and pulled in a tiny 67,000 viewers in demo.

Compare that to Robin Meade's show on HLN 'Morning Express', a show that gets little promotion and cost Zucker just a fraction of New Day cost.

Morning Express pulled in 251,000 total viewers and  doubled New Day in the demos 134,000.

So now, Zucker has set his sights on primetime.

Uh-Oh. 

CNN's Zucker Fires Back at Fox News and Roger Ailes

Three days ago, FTVLive told you how Fox News king Roger Ailes took a big shot at CNN boss Jeff Zucker's new strategy, a strategy that includes less news and more entertainment. 

Now, Zucker is firing back at FNC and Ailes.

At the TV Critics Association press tour Zucker insisted that "CNN is not and never will abandon our first and fundamental brand equity, which is news and breaking news," He said. 

Speaking about Roger Ailes and the new book coming out about him, Zucker "confirms basically what we've known all along," which is that the Republican Party is being run by Fox News, which is "masquerading as a news channel."

Fox News didn't seem very bothered by the Zucker quotes and suggested that Zucker’s ratings woes seem to be the motivation behind his own deflecting.

The bottom line is that if Roger Ailes and Jeff Zucker continue this pissing match, I'm going to have a lot of material.

Oh Boy! 

This is one Very Smart and Determined Dog

We want to introduce you to Lucy.

Lucy is not only very determined, she is very smart. Her owner put some chicken nuggets in the toaster oven and then left the room.

Now you must know that the toaster oven is on a counter than Lucy cannot get onto. Well, the owner thought she couldn't get onto. What Lucy's brain work as she figures out how to get to the toaster oven, open it and enjoy.

I promise you that this video will make you smile:

Seattle Station Ain't No Saint

FTVLive FIRST told you that the News Orleans Saints had blocked Seattle station KIRO on Twitter.

Now KIRO is acting more like a rabid fan than a TV station that is supposed to be unbiased in their coverage.

Here are just a few screen grabs, so you see what we're talking about. 

The bottom line is trolling Twitter is never a good thing and really not wise if you're a TV news department:

CNN Calls for All Hands on Deck Meeting

Sources tell FTVLive that CNN boss Jeff Zucker has scheduled a town hall meeting for January 22nd for all CNN staffers worldwide.

Word is that it will be telecast live to the bureaus across the world.

Insiders tell FTVLive that many see this town hall meetings as Zucker's attempt to reconnect with the staff that has largely rejected him, with the exception of his inner circle.

Stay tuned.... 

Fired Norfolk Anchor Faces Federal Charges

FTVLive FIRST told you that WTKR had parted ways with anchor Juliet Bickford.

Now we know why.

Bickford faces Federal charges for filing a false tax return.

Bickford is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court Wednesday morning to plead guilty to a false tax return charge, a misdemeanor, according to court records

Bickford is accused of filing $35,000 worth of phony medical and dental deductions with her 2011 tax return.

Her attorneys, Thomas Shuttleworth and Lawrence H. Woodward Jr. declined to comment.

WTKR general manager Jeff Hoffman said this morning that Bickford resigned for personal reasons, but declined to comment further.

H/T Virginia Pilot 

Erin Burnett to Takeover Piers Slot at CNN?

Jeff Zucker has been talking a lot on how he plans to shake up CNN's primetime schedule.

Zucker has not let on what he plans to do, but Variety reports that ideas on the table, according to people familiar with planning at the network: an emphasis on new programming at 10 and 11 p.m.; a possible half-hour program, potentially featuring Bill Weir, former co-anchor of ABC’s “Nightline”; and, conceivably, moving 7 p.m. host Erin Burnett and 9 p.m. host Piers Morgan into other duties if their programs do not gain more traction. Even Anderson Cooper, who recently signed a new contract to stay at the network, could be placed at the helm of something else during the daypart, according to one of these people.

So, CNN might replace Piers Morgan at 9PM?!

Hmmmm....Where have I head that before.

Mad Blogger my ass. 

Oh No Anderson! Not Again

Anderson Cooper has done it again. When he's not talking about a guy giving oral sex to his 85 year old Mom, he's talking urine.

Cooper wanted to know more about the guy that peed into the Polar Vortex and so he did his own investigation to see if the video was real?

Yes folks....This is CNN.

Chicago Reporter Fighting DUI Charges

It appears that WBBM Investigative Reporter Dave Savini is not going down without a fight.

FTVLive told you 5 days ago that Savini was busted for DUI and a number of other charges. 

The Chicago Tribune reports that Savini will legally challenge the suspension of his driving privileges following his weekend arrest for driving under the influence, according to court documents filed this week.

Savini’s attorney, Terry Ekl, filed a petition Wednesday in DuPage County seeking to rescind the Illinois statutory summary suspension that would automatically go into effect 45 days after the arrest.

The petition says Naperville police did not have probable cause to charge Savini with driving under the influence. The petition also says police did not follow proper procedures during Savini’s arrest and blood-alcohol test.

According to DuPage County court files, Savini’s blood-alcohol level registered .134 in the early-morning hours of Jan. 4, following his arrest by Naperville police on misdemeanor charges of DUI, battery, child endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident.

Savini, 47, was stopped about 1:30 a.m. Saturday after he allegedly got into an altercation with a man in the parking lot of a Taco Bell in the 1200 block of Rickert Drive in Naperville.

According to police, Savini and another man were involved in a minor vehicle accident, and Savini shoved the man as he tried to photograph the license plate of Savini’s SUV.

Savini then drove away along with two passengers, whom police have only identified as teenagers. According to other court records, Savini has two teenaged children.

Police said they stopped Savini, who lives in Naperville, about 3-1/2 miles from the restaurant.

According to court documents, Savini had the odor of alcohol on his breath and he had bloodshot, glassy eyes. The documents also said he failed field tests and admitted consuming alcohol.

His case will be in court Jan. 21.

The New Orleans Saints Block Seattle TV Station on Twitter

The NFL New Orleans Saints don't only throw blocks on the field, they do it on Social Media as well.

The Saints are playing the Seattle Seahawks this Weekend in the NFL Playoffs and the team just chopped blocked KIRO from accessing their Twitter account. 

Oh it's on like Donkey Kong now!

Christie Bridge Scandal Bores Cooper and Letterman

David Letterman thinks the Chris Chritie bridge scandal is a bit boring and it seems that Anderson Cooper agrees with him.

On last night's show Letterman said that, "If a political scandal doesn't involve hookers or photos of somebody's junk, I'm not interested."

Later when Cooper came on the show he seemed to agree. "If he was in a hot tub with babes and Mayor Ford smoking crack, that'd be a scandal," Cooper said. 

The Ice Rap

FTVLive showed how WKYC in Cleveland made there news desk out of Ice.

The station is proud of their ice desk and WKYC's Robin Swoboda was spotted throwing down a few rap lyrics from the ice desk.

And of course she then threw some hot water in the cold air, because you know, that's a thing now. 

Let's go to the video: 

Anchor Gone From Houston Station

Our buddy Mike McGuff says that apparently KTRK ABC13 weekend anchor Adela Uchida is no longer with the ABC owned and operated station.

Her bio has been removed from the station's website, her official station Facebook page deleted.

Uchida came to KTRK in 2008 from WILX (Channel 10) in Lansing, Michigan where she was the 6 and 11pm anchor. She also worked in Colorado and Arizona. 

According to her bio, Uchida has interviewed the likes of President Barack Obama, Adam Clayton of the rock band U2, rocker Alice Cooper, author Amy Tan, a governor and a number of lawmakers like Senators John Cornyn and Debbie Stabenow among others.

She also hosted channel 13's Asian American community affairs show Visions. Since 2009, she has participated in every Chevron Houston Marathon.

Uchida recently won an Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) 2013 National Award in the Asian American Pacific Islander Issues-Television category.