CNN is Still Going to Let Ted Nugent come on the Network

Last Week, Rocker and Right Winger Ted Nugent was supposed to appear on CNN and Erin Burnett's Outfront.

Hours before he was scheduled to be on the show, he took a shot at President Obama and compared CNN to Nazi “propaganda”and accused Wolf Blitzer of failing as a journalist.

A short time after the comments and before he was set to be on Outfront, Nugent cancelled saying he was "sick."

No one inside or outside CNN believed him.

You would think after the guy trashed the network, the star Anchor and stiffed another show, that CNN would tell old Ted that he was no longer welcome.

But, CNN is starved for any ratings it can get and they must figure that Nugent can bring some viewers to the struggling cable "we used to do news" channel. 

So, Nugent is set once agin to be Erin Burnett's guest on "out front" at 7PM tonight.

Wolf Blitzer should stop by challenge him to a mud wrestling match after the show.

That's one time I would watch CNN.

Stay tuned.... 

Taking Over in Tampa

FTVLive tipped you off on this FIRST back on February 5TH.

We told you that Bill Berra the vice president of news for Journal Broadcast Group and WTMJ (Milwaukee) was seen interviewing at WFLA in Tampa. 

We said you could look for Berra to be the new News Director at the station replacing Don North, who left the station late last year.

Now word comes that Berra is going to be the new ND at the Tampa station. Just as we tipped you off to that weeks ago. 

CNN's Jeff Zucker Spotted with.....

FTVLive sources tell us that CNN President Jeff Zucker was seen recently meeting with former CNN President Rick Kaplan.

Kaplan was head of CNN from 1997 to 2000 before he was shown the door after 3 years.

Many think Zucker will be lucky to make it as long as Kaplan did at CNN.

No word on what the two were meeting about, but it sure would have been fun to be a fly on the wall of that room. 

Stay tuned.... 

It's like the Game Follow the Leader

And of course you guys all know who the leader is.

The details are in ScottLand

Tamron Hall to 3RD Hour Of Today

Everyone act surprised now. NBC has finally announced that officially that Tamron Hall has been named a co-host of TODAY's Take, the 9 a.m. hour of TODAY, joining fellow hosts Al Roker, Natalie Morales and Willie Geist.

“We’re really excited to officially welcome Tamron into the TODAY family,” said Don Nash, TODAY's Executive Producer. “She brings wit, enthusiasm and a keen sensibility to an all-around fantastic team, and I think Tamron, Al, Natalie and Willie will have a lot of fun together hosting the third hour.”

Hall, 43, has been filling in regularly on the show, reading the news, covering special events. 

She will keep her show on MSNBC which starting Today, moves to 11AM. 

Roker and the Mayor Make Up

11 days ago, FTVLive told you that Today Shows Al Roker was in a pissing match with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. 

This morning the two were kissing and making up on the Today Show. 

de Blasio was on the show this morning to cut the ribbon on the Today’s revamped Rockefeller Center outside space. 

NBC used the Olympic break to spruce up the plaza in hopes to hang onto the new viewers they got from the Olympic Games.

Roker was quick to bury the hatchet with the Mayor that he predicted would only last 1 term. ‘We’ll get this out of the way,” Roker opened. “We had a little chat about school closings and snow; we both want the best for school kids and our city.”

The mayor agreed. “Al, look, I think together letting the people know what’s going on with the weather, letting people know how to be safe  — that’s something we do together.”

He invited Roker to join the city’s sanitation department who's in charge of snow removal.  Roker accepted the invitation.

Well Damn! Would you Look at That!!

Back on October 1st on last year, FTVLive broke the world exclusive that CNN would be dumping Pier Morgan from his 9PM time slot.

When FTVLive reported the news, CNN denied our report.

Yesterday the NY Times reported exactly what FTVLive said was going to happen 5 months ago.

Morgan is being pulled off the 9PM. 

When FTVLive FIRST broke the story last year, Piers Morgan himself called FTVLive "a mad Blogger" and said our report was wrong. We are still waiting for Morgan to apologize for calling us "a mad blogger" and saying that our report was wrong. 

Morgan tells the NY Times that his show has "..... its course and Jeff and I have been talking for some time about different ways of using me.” In the FTVLive original report from 5 months ago we wrote, "Word is that CNN could offer Morgan another role at the network, most likely something outside of prime time and likely in the late night hours."

In other words FTVLive nailed the story to prefection when we broke the news last year. 

As for Jeff Zucker....wait till you see who the CNN boss was spotted by FTVLive spies recently meeting with.

We'll be posting that story a little be later this morning.

Stay tuned.... 

This Show has Been Prerecorded

CNN Media Reporter Brian Stelter got married this past weekend and CNN sources tell FTVLive that the network had tapped Frank Sesno to fill in for Stelter on "Reliable Sources" while he was off getting hitched.

Insiders say that Stelter did not want a guest host filling in for him and as one CNN insider says he "put up a hissy fit."

The entire  show for "Reliable Sources" was pre taped earlier in the week and sources say that is the first time that the entire show was prerecorded in the history of the show. 

It's a shame they didn't go live with the show, they could have had more on the Piers Morgan getting cancelled news.

Yeah right, like that would have been covered. 

That Looks so Familiar (Updated)

Yesterday, bad weather delayed the Daytona 500 by almost 6 and a half hours.

Fox Sports filled the long weather delay window by running a repeat of last year's race. The network had a crawl at the bottom of the screen, saying that the current race was in a weather delay and that this was a repeat of last year's race.

Unfortunately, TV screens have been so gummed up with crawls that viewers don't read them anymore. Twitter was lit up with people tweeting about last year's race believing that it was live.

While Fox Sports ran the crawl, they also should have called over to sister Fox News. FNC tweeted the news that Jimmie Johnson had won the race just like he did last year. Problem was, FNC was watching last year's race.

Doh!

BTW After the weather delay, Dale Earnhardt Jr. won this year's race.

Update: Fox News did apologize for their stupid mistake:

Anchorman 2 to be Re-Released

On the week of Feb 28th, the movie Anchorman 2 is going to be re-released for one week only.

Being billed as "Anchorman 2 Supersized" the latest release will be rated R and as the movie trailer says it will include 763 new jokes.

Which would mean the re-released version will have 762 more jokes than the original Anchorman 2.

Just saying.... 

Netflix Gives into Comcast's Extortion Plot

Netflix has agreed to pay Comcast to make sure their movies stream smoother over Comcast Internet.

So in other words, Comcast basically held Netflix hostage by slowing down the streaming of Netflix movies.

It was flat out extortion on the part of Comcast.

This just opens the door for stupid retrans fights on the Internet, just like we see with TV stations. 

The slide down a very long and slippery slope has begun. 

Bitter Alec Slams the Media

The last we heard from Alec Baldwin, he was throwing down gay slurs in the streets of New York and getting fired from MSNBC just days after he started.

Now, Baldwin still trying to cling to what is little left of his fame, has penned a piece for NY Magazine saying that he is sick of New York and may have to move.

Wait!

Isn't that Sean Hannity's gig over at Fox News?

Baldwin also decided it was time to rip a few people at his old network and across the street. 

In the piece Baldwin writes that:

“Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough “is neither eloquent nor funny.”

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is “a phony who doesn’t have the same passion for the truth off-camera that she seems to have on the air.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper is “the self-appointed Jack Valenti of gay media culture,” referring to the late president of the Motion Picture Association of America who created the film-ratings system.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out of NY Alec. 

Farrow and the Money Honey Debut Today

Fox Business Network and MSNBC will have a couple of new kids in school starting Today.

Maria Bartiromo, who was at CNBC 20 years, makes her debut on Fox Business Network.

She anchored "Closing Bell" at CNBC, but she will be working an earlier shift at FBN. "Opening Bell With Maria Bartiromo" will air from 9 to 11 a.m. weekdays starting this morning. 

Over at MSNBC, the network kicks off a new schedule that includes "Ronan Farrow Daily" premiering at 1 p.m., and "The Reid Report" with Joy Reid follows at 2 p.m.

You can just feel the excitement can't you?

Can't you?

Well?

Quiet on the Set

MSNBC has built a new set in one of their studios.

The new set will be used for "The Cycle" but some staffers think at least one other program will be on the new set as well. 

FTVLive spies sent along this picture of the new MSNBC set:

Houston Anchor Headed to CBS

KHOU Weekend Anchor Vicente Arenas is heading off to CBS News Miami as a national correspondent.

Arenas will be the first KHOU reporter to go straight to CBS News as a national correspondent since Dan Rather according to an internal memo sent to the KHOU newsroom by News Director Philip Bruce.

Bruce writes: 

But there’s something very special about KHOU’s connection to CBS. We have many KHOU alums working there now behind the scenes. And now Vicente joins the ranks.

Here’s an interesting fact---Vicente Arenas is the first KHOU reporter to go directly to CBS News as a national correspondent since Dan Rather.

He’s not gone yet---and even though the news director typically is the last to know anything about what’s happening in the newsroom, I’m betting there’ll be a party.

H/T Mike McGuff

Ummmmm.... I Think I've Heard that News Already

The NY Times, Politico and Twitter are acting like there is breaking news happening with word that CNN is pulling the plug on Piers Morgan's show at 9PM.

Not sure why everyone is acting like this is big news.

If you logged onto FTVLive last year on October 1st, you would have seen that we literally broke this latest breaking news last year. Here's the link to our story on CNN dumping Morgan from last year. 

We'll have more on this Tomorrow, plus some very interesting news as to who Jeff Zucker was seen recently meeting with. 

Maybe 6 months from now, the other sites can break that story as well.

Stay tuned....