Zucker Explores Moving Kate Bolduan off New Day

Back on October 14th of last year, FTVLive told you EXCLUSIVELY about the troubled times at CNN's New Day.

FTVLive reported that New Day Anchor Chris Cuomo told CNN boss Jeff Zucker that he thinks he needs a new co-anchor. Cuomo told Zucker that Kate Bolduan is not a good fit for him and he wants someone new. 

Now word is Zucker is exploring that option.

CNN sources tell FTVLive that Zucker is in talks with CNN's DC Bureau Chief Sam Feist about a new role for Bolduan in DC. 

New Day was a pet project for Zucker and CNN sunk millions into making a morning show that they hoped viewers would watch. They haven't and Zucker is coming to realize that changes are needed.

It appears that Bolduan is about to be the first of those changes.

Stay tuned.... 

Out the Door in the A-T-L

It appears that WXIA Weather Anchor Mike Francis is no longer with the station, but no one is talking.

Francis was the chief meteorologist at the NBC affiliate since the summer of 2011.

The station has scrubbed his bio from the website.

The Atalanta Journal Constitution called Francis who said cryptically, “Everything is fine. My wife is calling me. I need to call you back.”

He didn't and the station isn't talking either.

Word is that longtime Weekend Weather Anchor Chris Holcomb is being bumped up to the main gig.

Amelia Earhart to go Missing from KUSA

Amelia Earhart, traffic reporter and pilot, is leaving KUSA when her contract is up in April to devote herself to aviation. She made the announcement on her Facebook page.

“It was good timing ahead of the around-the-world flight,” she said Monday. She’ll be on the air until mid-April. The flight, about 100 hours over 14-17 days, is slated for June, depending on weather. Her Channel 9 managers “made it clear fill-in options are open” and 9News will be covering the flight. “We are going to livestream from the cockpit, do interviews from the plane,” Earhart said, noting she’ll be the youngest woman to fly a single-engine around the world as she retraces the route of her hero.

“Now through June, my focus will be on flight training, planning, and preparation for the around the world flight. Beyond the global adventure, I have several opportunities to promote aviation, aerospace and the pursuit of passion and adventure,” she wrote on Facebook.

Earhart, who hedged on the familial link to her namesake for years, in August posted an apology, stating she was not related to the famed aviatrix.

KUSA news boss Patti Dennis said she has known of Earhart’s plan to leave the staff since late last year and has someone in mind to fill the position, not yet hired.

“She’s going full bore into the Fly With Amelia Foundation. She wants to devote herself to aviation.”

Denver Post

Fargo Reporter to Not be Charged in School Incident

Mellaney Moore

Good news for a Fargo Reporter.

The Reporter who faced possible criminal charges for entering schools without permission in Fargo, West Fargo and Moorhead will not be charged in Fargo, according to a city prosecutor.

A spokeswoman for West Fargo Public Schools said it’s likely that Valley News Live reporter Mellaney Moore will also not face charges in West Fargo.

In Forum writes that On Dec. 11, Moore wore a hidden camera as she walked into schools in Moorhead, West Fargo and Fargo without checking in at the main offices. The story, meant to expose flaws in school security, led police in all three cities to investigate the reporter’s actions.

By city ordinance in Fargo and West Fargo and state law in Moorhead, a school visitor who fails to register at the office can face a misdemeanor charge.

But Fargo Assistant City Attorney Jason Loos said Monday that Moore will not face charges in Fargo.

Loos said the school district decided late last week not to press charges against Moore, in part because the reporter was directed by a superior to do the story. In cases like this, prosecutors take into consideration the desires of the victim, the school district in this case, before deciding to move forward with the case, Loos said.

“The investigation showed that she did what she did under direction of her superiors or superior or someone over at KVLY,” Loos said.

Heather Konschak, a spokeswoman for West Fargo Public Schools, said the district is “strongly contemplating” following in Fargo’s footsteps and not pressing charges.

She said West Fargo could make a final decision by the end of the week.

“Truly, there is no positive purpose to be served by the school district pressing charges or prosecuting Ms. Moore,” Konschak said. “That is not the nature of what a public school does in a community.”

Ike Walker, news director for Valley News Live, said he had no comment.

Gone in Phoenix

Back last summer, FTVLive was the FIRST to report that longtime KTVK Anchor Patti Kirkpatrick was off the air, her desk cleaned out and the station not talking.

Since we first broke the news, FTVLive has followed up with a number of stories about Kirkpatrick being MIA and the station remaining silent on the issue.

Viewers took to social media, emailed and called KTVK, never to get a straight answer.

This week, the station finally pulled Kirkpatrick's bio from the station's website, 7 months after she last was seen on air.

Word inside the station is staffers have been told that Kirkpatrick is not coming back.

No word on when the station will get around to telling the viewers the same thing. 

Out the Door in Phoenix

Patti Kirkpatrick isn't the only Anchor gone from the Phoenix airwaves. 

Insiders tell FTVLive that KNXV AM Weather anchor Amy Murphy has told the station that she is leaving.

Word is that Murphy isn't sticking around for the Feb book and is signing off on Friday. 

She did not stay long at the station, Murphy joined KNXV in November 2011.

No word on a replacement. 

Monkey See, Monkey do Part 3

Ok let's get one thing straight.... if your station doesn't have a news set made out of ice.... why the hell not?

Now KTVB in Boise has jumped into the ice desk game and unveiled their new set made out of frozen water.

The way the weather has been, we expect this set to still be around in July.

MSNBC is Changing Their Daily Line-up

Not that anyone cares....

But here is the new MSNBC daytime line-up that starts Feb 24th and should be changed again sometime before Summer: 

9 a.m.: "The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd

10 a.m.: "Jansing and Co."

11 a.m.: "NewsNation with Tamron Hall"

Noon: "Andrea Mitchell Reports"

1 p.m.: Ronan Farrow's show (name has yet to be announced)

2 p.m.: Joy Reid's show (name has yet to be announced)

3 p.m.: "The Cycle"

4 p.m.: "NOW with Alex Wagner"

NY Wants Sean to Stay

While the Sean Hannity moves to Florida countdown clock continues to tick away at the bottom right side of this page, Jon Stewart is doing one last push to get the Fox News Anchor to stay in New York.

And he called out all the stops to get Sean to Stay. 

The Daily Show
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Signing off in Portland

Carl Click

For Portland-area TV viewers. Carl Click is a familiar face. Between his time working for KGW-TV as a sports and field reporter, and his time as an anchor --  first on KGW, then on KATU -- Click has been a reliable presence.

But Click says that he's retiring -- from KATU, at least.

According to a press release, Click is retiring from KATU, where he's been working since 2005. Click has anchored the station's morning newscast and also co-hosted "AM Northwest," the weekday morning talk show, for two years.

Click, who is involved in many community activities in his home of Vancouver, will be at KATU until March 31.

The Oregonian 

New Anchor Team Hits the Air in O-Town

WFTV Anchors Jorge Estevez and Nancy Alvarez started their new gig last night delivering the news at 10 p.m. on sister station WRDQ.

Their schedule will be 10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays on WRDQ and at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Sundays on WFTV. 

"I don't really consider myself an anchor. I'm a reporter," Alvarez, 36, said Monday to the Orlando Sentinel. "I've been assigned to anchor a newscast. I'm a reporter first."

Estevez, who turns 39 Friday, echoed that sentiment. "The secret is to be a solid reporter who can anchor a newscast versus a solid anchor who can go out and report," he said. "The secret is getting out there in the community."

Viewers will see them reporting on the 4, 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts.

Alvarez knows the community well after working at News 13 and WKMG-Channel 6. She joined WFTV nearly four years ago after a three-year anchor stint in Fort Myers.

Estevez has been back at WFTV for nearly two years after working for six years as an anchor at the CBS station in Miami. He had worked at WFTV for five years before that.

" (Orlando) It's a big enough city where it's cosmopolitan, but yet at the same time there's a family, community, neighborhood feel," he said.

Alvarez said she and her husband, WFTV photographer Chris Miller, wanted to bring up their family here. They have two children, ages 3 years and 6 months.

"I think Orlando gives me the perfect balance," Alvarez said. "It's a great place for the news, and it's a great place to raise kids."

ESPN VP this/close to Landing at Today Show

ESPN vice president  is close to landing at the Today Show.

The website Deadspin says that a deal appears likely, we're told, though Horowitz still has to extract himself from his contract with ESPN.

Deadspin writes that at the moment, one source says, ESPN president John Skipper is trying to coax a sizable ransom out of Comcast, NBC's parent company. The source put the chances of the deal going through at "70-30 or 65-35."

Deadspin says, it's not clear what Horowitz's new position would be. We're told that Don Nash would stay on as Today's executive producer and that Horowitz would oversee him.

Sources tell FTVLive that it would like be the Senior Vice President of the Today Show job that would be getting.

Horowitz got his start at NBC Sports, working as a researcher for the 2000 Olympics and quickly making his way into the producer's chair. 

Stay tuned.... 

Former Austin Anchor Gets Devastating News

Loriana Hernandez

Back on December 3rd, FTVLive told you that KTBC (Austin) Fox 7 Anchor Loriana Hernandez was leaving the station to join her husband Cesar in the DC area to raise their 19-month old son Gabriel under one roof.

Now word comes that Hernandez has been dealt a devastating diagnosis. A routine blood test revealed a very aggressive form of Leukemia. 

Hernandez was diagnosed on Friday and flies to Baltimore to begin treatment at Johns Hopkins today.

If you would like to help her out with expenses, a crowd funding page set-up for donations: https://fundly.com/loriana-s-win

Let's wish her the best. 

Andrea Mitchell Talks About Breaking Bieber Coverage

FTVLive showed you the clip of MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell cutting off Congresswomen Jane Harmon mid sentence for coverage of Justin Bieber in court.

It was another low for the cable news network that doesn't like to cover news. But, it seems that Mitchell wasn't exactly elated to be covering the Bieber story at all.

She talked to CNN's Brian Stelter and according to Stelter, Mitchell sounded a bit uncomfortable with breaking away for Bieber.

"It was obviously awkward and unplanned," she said of the sudden toss to a Florida courtroom. "All I can say is, so be it. It's the luck of the draw." She called this "a virtue of cable news" — never knowing when one news story will suddenly interrupt another.

In this case, she said, she began her 1 p.m. newscast knowing that the Bieber arraignment would probably take place at some point in her hour.

"We had no idea what time the arraignment would actually hit," she said. "I was trying to get as much news on as I could, both about Syria and the report of the government's privacy panel."

"I got back to the interview with Harman as soon as we could," she said.

Mitchell also pointed out that CNN devoted more time to Bieber coverage than MSNBC — "it is CNN leading the saturation coverage," she said — while "we were on it for minutes."

As bad as CNN's over coverage was on Bieber, CNN boss Jeff Zucker says he was entirely comfortable with it. 

CNN's Zucker "Comfortable" with Bieber Coverage

Jeff Zucker

CNN's boss says he has no problems that his network threw real news out the window and went wall to wall Bieber.

“I’m incredibly comfortable with the way CNN covered the Justin Bieber story,” Zucker said at the RealScreen Summit conference.

“It’s easy to pick on that coverage, and what people often do is they cover the Bieber story by deriding what other people are doing. That’s their way in. The Bieber coverage was never wall-to-wall…I don’t think CNN had it out of proportion at all. When you take the whole of what we do, it’s completely in the right proportion. No news organization is perfect, and CNN is not always perfect. But I think we had this right. We did cover the Bieber story, and I’m not going to apologize for what we did.”

Oh God....CNN is doomed. 

Move Over Jay Leno

Matt Lauer sat down in a funeral home (we think) with Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon in what Lauer called a "Today Show exclusive."

Since we doubt neither CBS Morning for Good Morning America is going to run a 5 minute commercial for Jimmy Fallon, calling it an exclusive was a bit of a stretch.

There is no question that NBC is doing a much better job from a PR stated point pulling the plug on Leno than Jeff Zucker did when he was ruining....errrrrrr..... in charge at NBC.

Here is the interview fro Today.

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