MSNBC Cries Foul Over FNC's Ratings Gains

Talk about sore losers. 

MSNBC Boss Phil Griffin was happy when MSNBC's Rachel Maddow beat Fox News Anchor Megyn Kelly in the Monday night debut in prime time. Kelly won in total viewers, but lost to Maddow in the demos.

The next night, Kelly killed Maddow in the demos.  

"I have never seen it in all my years of cable," says Phil Griffin.

Griffin, president of MSNBC, says there's something fishy about Tuesday's ratings for the Fox News Channel, which were up significantly from a day earlier when Fox News debuted its new schedule. And he wants an investigation.

It is impossible." Griffin continued, "I have never seen it. They did election-night numbers in the demo Tuesday."

According to The Hollywood Reporter the Nielsen numbers Griffin refers to include MSNBC beating Fox News on Monday in the adults 25-54 demographic at 7 p.m. and tying Fox News at 10 p.m.

At 9 p.m. on Monday, MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show beat Fox News' new The Kelly File, hosted by Megyn Kelly, by a slim 10,000 viewers in the key demo.

By Tuesday, though, Fox News was back to its dominant self, with 573,000 in the key demo compared with 261,000 for MSNBC between the hours of 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Perhaps most dramatically, Kelly's narrow loss to Rachel Maddow from a night earlier was significantly reversed, with Kelly drawing an audience of 623,000 in the key demo compared with Maddow's 291,000.

Nielsen has not yet responded to Griffin's remarks.

On Wednesday, Kelly beat Maddow 384,000 to 299,000 in the key demo, with CNN's Piers Morgan Live at 117,000. And on Thursday, Kelly beat Maddow 376,000 to 288,000, with Morgan at 157,000.

Griffin's assertion that Fox News did "election night" numbers on Tuesday may have been hyperbole, considering on Tuesday Fox News had 2.65 million in primetime and 573,000 in the key demo, while on the night of the presidential election Fox News had 7.5 million viewers with 3 million from the key demo, according the Nielsen.

ND and Reporter are Dumped in Dayton

Sources tell FTVLive that WKEF News Director Wes Finley was shown the door yesterday at the Dayton, Ohio station. 

Finley has only been at WKEF since May 2011. 

Finley came to Ohio from WPMI in Mobile. 

Our source also says that Reporter Annette Peagler was also pink slipped from the station as well. 

Like we Said....

We told you earlier that Bill Weir was leaving ABC News and if was effective immediately. We said with such short notice, Weir was either fired or headed to another network.

Now word comes that Weir is headed to CNN and will be the network's Chief Innovation Correspondent.

Whatever the hell that is.  

Weir keeps CNN Boss Jeff Zucker's streak alive of only hiring people from either NBC or ABC. 

He starts at CNN next month.  

Bill Weir Leaving ABC News

Nightline Anchor Bill Weir is leaving the ABC's News and it is effective immediately.   

ABC News boss Ben Sherwood sent out a memo to the staff that is basically all about Dan Harris, who is taking over for Weir and very little about Weir. 

In other words it appears that Weir has either been fired or is headed to a competitor.

Here's the internal email sent out to the staff:  

I am delighted to announce that Dan Harris is becoming a co-anchor of Nightline.  Effective immediately, he joins Cynthia McFadden and Dan Abrams at the helm of our award-winning late night program which recently closed out the 2012-2013 season beating its competition on CBS in every demo and consistently improving ABC’s performance at 12:35 am.

Bill Weir informed me this week that he is leaving ABC News for another opportunity in the news business.

Dan will continue to co-anchor the weekend edition of Good Morning America, a role he has held since October 2010.  The show is posting its best ratings in years.  Just last week GMA Weekend won the 2012-2013 season as the most-watched Saturday morning program in total viewers and Adults 25-54.

Dan is one of our most versatile anchors-covering many of the biggest news stories for all of our broadcasts since he joined the network in 2000, including mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, Aurora, Colorado and Tucson.  He has covered natural disasters from Haiti to Myanmar to New Orleans. He has also reported from combat zones in Afghanistan, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, and has reported from Iraq on six occasions.

Dan has led ABC News’ coverage of faith, with a particular focus on the evangelical movement. He scored one of the first interviews with former pastor Ted Haggard after his sex and drugs scandal.

Dan has made it a priority to report on the world’s most vulnerable populations, producing stories about child slaves in Haiti, youths accused of witchcraft in the Congo and predatory pedophiles who travel from the U.S. to Cambodia.

He has also covered endangered animals from Namibia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and Nepal. On the lighter side, this Murrow and Emmy award-winner has also reported extensively on his favorite subject: his beloved cats.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Bill for many years of contributions to ABC News and for his friendship.  He helped launch GMA Weekend in 2004 and was named co-anchor of Nightline in 2010.  A gifted writer and storyteller, Bill has taken our audience around the world, reporting from atop the Golden Gate Bridge and under the waters of the Great Barrier Reef.  He has ventured where few have gone before including Foxconn in China giving viewers a rare glimpse inside Apple’s factories.

Bill’s style is singular; his voice unique; and we will miss him and, yes, his turkey frying safety tips.  I know you all will join me in thanking him for his contributions and wishing him the best.

Ben

How to Make it So Strangers Can't Find you on Facebook

Many people are not happy about a change in Facebook's privacy policy once again.  

“Who can look up your Timeline by name?” Anyone you haven’t blocked. Facebook is removing this privacy setting, notifying those who had hidden themselves that they’ll be searchable.

Many people are bitching about this change on.....wait for it.....Facebook?

Yes the same people that voluntarily signed up for Facebook at a cost of nothing.

The same people that post on their page about their hysterectomy surgery and their Grand Dad's problems with anal leakage, along with two thousand pictures on their kids. The same people that tell us every time they walk into a Starbucks and order a pumpkin laced triple grande venti (or whatever it is?).

These are the people that are complaining that Facebook is not respecting their privacy.  

OK, FTVLive is going to help you out here.

Here is how to change those settings on Facebook, so people can't find you listed on the site. 

Step 1 - Delete your Facebook page. 

Step 2 - Never go on Facebook again. 

That's it....you are now not subject to anymore Facebook privacy changes ever again. 

You're Welcome.  

Card's Fan Tries to Kiss Pittsburgh Reporter

The St. Louis Cardinals fans were happy when the Cards beat the Pittsburgh Pirates sending them to the NLCS.

WTAE (Pittsburgh) Sports Reporter Guy Junker (yes that's his real name) was live at Busch Stadium with his report. Of course you had the idiots in the background trying to get on TV. One St. Louis fan stepped it up a bit, when she tried to kiss Junker during his live shot.

Somewhere Joe Namath is smiling.  

Let's go to the video: 

By the way, give me some credit you had the words Junker, Kiss and Busch all in the same story and I didn't try and make some sophomoric joke. 

Contrary to what many think, I maturing.

OK...maybe not.

Really?! Team Coverage?

Hartford sources tell FTVLive that WFSB did full blown team coverage on their evening newscast of Weatherman Scot Haney's eating-cat-vomit incident.  

Really?! You're morning weather guy eats cat barf off the floor and you turn this into team coverage? 

Talk about beating a dead cat....vomit. 

If you haven't seen the video of this, here's the link  

$99,038 A Week to Anchor Morning Joe

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough has gotten divorced. Frankly, we don't see much news value in a cable news anchor getting divorced.

But, in the divorce papers, it was reveled how much money Scarborough makes to host his show on MSNBC. 

According to divorce documents obtained by TMZ, Mr. "Morning Joe" host earns $99,038 per week.

TMZ says that according to the divorce docs, Joe's pretty much making off like a bandit. For starters, the divorce docs state Joe will NOT be paying child support, and what his alimony amounts to is a morsel of his enormous salary.

According to the docs, Joe will fork over $30,000 per month for 5 years, then $25,000 per month for 2 years. Joe also gave her a lump sum of $150k, and he's paying the mortgage on their Connecticut home, and the kids' schooling. 

Couple of interesting clauses in the divorce papers -- Susan "acknowledges" Joe was faithful, devoted, and committed." A sentence perhaps intended to quiet allegations Joe was cheating.

Also, if Joe and Susan are both in the Conn. home there are house rules: Neither can enter the others bedroom barring a kid related emergency, and after 7 PM they're banned from the other's side of the house.

Hell for 100K a week, FTVLive will sleep in the garage. 

Signing off in Indianapolis

After 33 years behind the anchor desk, WISH Anchor Debby Knox, who has anchored plans to retire.

And of course she will do it during the November book.  

Knox, who is WISH's lead anchor during the 6 p.m., 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, is the "longest-running female news anchor in central Indiana," the station said. She started at WISH as the noon news anchor in fall 1980 after working at TV stations in Elkhart and South Bend.

Let's go to the obligatory sound bites. 

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity to be part of the community as well as an incredible journey to cover the important events and people over my career at WISH-TV,” Knox said in a prepared statement.

“Central Indiana viewers, as well as those of us who have had the pleasure of working with Debby, have all benefited from her talents and her dedication to quality journalism,” said Jeff White, WISH-TV president and general manager, in a prepared statement. "It is with mixed emotions that we say so long. While we’re sad to see her retire, we’re happy for the next chapter in her life and the additional time she’ll have to spend with her family.”

The station has not yet named a replacement for Knox.

Her last scheduled newscast is Nov. 26.

H/T Indianapolis Business Journal  

NEWS DIRECTOR PENS CRIME DRAMA (SPONSORED)

"In the crazy, cutthroat world of TV news, sometimes the only thing worse than missing the big story, is getting it."

Messages, the new novel by TV news veteran and textbook author Forrest Carr, is now available for the Kindle and Kindle reading apps.   Messages follows three friends as they embark on television news careers at the height of the golden age of local TV journalism.  In their search for Truth, Justice, and Ratings, they'll risk it all.  And before it's all over, one of them will be fighting for his job, another will be fighting for his sanity, and the third will be fighting for his very life.

"Messages is sort of a 'buddy cop' crime drama," Carr said, "featuring reporters instead of police officers.  It tells a captivating story, but also sheds a rare light on a bygone era of TV news, a time that put the industry on the path to become what it is today – for better or worse.  Most popular works of fiction dealing with TV news have focused exclusively on big-city and network operations, which are very different from the medium-to-small stations where most Americans get their local news.  Messages gives readers unique, sometimes hilarious, and often surprising insights into a process that's central to the American way of life."

Messages is available for download on Amazon.com.  Search "Messages by Forrest Carr" or follow this link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ECK0DBK

What to Do When the Reporter Won't Wrap Up a Live Shot

One WFAA (Dallas) Anchor is getting in very good shape. 

Why? 

Because the damn Reporter hasn't learned how to wrap up a live shot.

Watch the video and you'll see what we're talking about: 

Weekend Joe?

MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” team of Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinsk might be soon working Weekends.

The New York Post reports that the MSNBC show might move over from cable to NBC on Sunday mornings.

While no such deal is done, persons close to the show have been telling friends that the team is taking over “Weekend Today” ’s Sunday show, sources said.

The talks are very much fluid and there is no guarantee of any expansion, other sources said.

An NBC spokeswoman said, “No comment.”

Just two years ago, the political TV duo were ready to bolt NBC for CBS News before NBCUniversal boss Steve Burke stepped in to keep them in the fold.

The talks, several sources said, dovetail with the arrival last summer of Deborah Turness as the NBC News chief.

“They made a big play for ‘Sunday Today’ and ‘Meet The Press,’ but Turness is not inclined to dump [‘MTP’ host] David Gregory,” one source noted.

Giving them “Sunday Today” could be seen as a compromise — or an interim step, the source added.

I Did Something I have Never Done Before....

Yesterday, I did something in all my years on this planet that I have never done before in my life.

Salsa Dancing?
Nope.

Try to act mature?
Nada.  

So just what was it? 

Find out in ScottLand

Heading up the News at Twitter

According to sources close to the situation, NBC News chief digital officer Vivian Schiller is currently the leading choice for Twitter’s Head of News position, which the company hopes to name soon.

AllThingsD reports that Twitter has been looking for an experienced newsperson to lead the company’s efforts in the news media space since earlier this year. That person would report to Twitter’s head of media Chloe Sladden, who also oversees Twitter’s TV, sports, music and politics verticals.

With the eventual appointment, Twitter aims to both legitimize itself as a serious news distribution tool, while also courting and cooperating with other longstanding news institutions.

Twitter’s ideal candidate is a sort of “elder statesman or woman” type, a seasoned news veteran that has both been around the news room and commands respect from the industry.

Schiller fits that profile. Before her current position at NBC Digital, she held senior positions at CNN, Discovery, NPR and the New York Times.

Anthony Weiner vs. Sean Hannity

Anthony Weiner went on Sean Hannity's show last night and it was mindless television, but it was entertaining.