Katie Couric Back to the Today Show?

Could Yahoo's Global Anchor be headed back to the Today Show.

30 Rock is buzzing that Katie and Matt could be reunited on Today.

Word is that  Couric is being considered as a substitute co-host for the “Today” show when co-host Savannah Guthrie goes on maternity leave this year.

“It makes perfect sense,” an NBC News staffer told the NY Daily News. “The viewers loved her and Matt Lauer together. This would be a chance to give them exactly what they want.”

Guthrie, 42, is five months pregnant and expected to be away from the show for a few months beginning in late summer.

There is almost no doubt that putting Couric in that spot would put the Today Show back on top in the ratings. It would be a stunt that would pay off for the Peacock. 

NBC officials cautioned that there have been no official talks with Couric’s camp about the fill-in job and that another fan favorite, Meredith Vieira, has also been suggested as a possibility, along with current “internal talent.”

“With the ‘Today’ show in a good place, we are blessed with great talent and many options to temporarily fill Savannah’s chair while she’s on leave, but there’s no plan yet,” an NBC News spokeswoman said. “Stay tuned.”

It appears that Natalie Morales' rising star at NBC has started to fall. Back in the day, it would have been a no brainer that Morales would have filled in for Guthrie. The idea that NBC is looking outside for Guthrie's fill in, dose not bode well for Morales.

We go Live to......ummmmmm..... Never Mind

We're going to go out on a limb here and predict that there will be at least one less live shot in the KXAN (Austin) newscast for a while:

Great Message

KIRO in Seattle covered a group of anarchists demonstrating on May Day — but it seems they didn’t really have a message, or if they did, they weren't going to share it on TV. 

The live shot proved that anarchists are really shitty interviews and that our public education is getting worse.

Let's cue up the video: 

No! Really?

Speaking of Seattle TV stations.....

You know those stupid quizzes you see on Facebook. The ones like "Take the quiz to see what kind of dog you are?" or "Which Kardashian are you?" or "What kind of tree are you?"

The time wasting quizzes are popping up all over social media and now one Seattle TV station has gone there.

KING has a wiz posted on their website, so you king find out which KING Morning News Anchor you are?

We really wish we were making this up, but we're not.

You can take the quiz here.

BTW FTVLive is most like Anchor Tracy Taylor. Poor Tracy...

Scary Moments for Vegas Reporter at the Bundy Ranch

KSNV (Las Vegas) Reporter Antonio Castelan was surrounded by a number of right wing supporters of  Sean Hannity's friend Cliven Bundy at Bundy's Ranch.

Castelan interviewed Bundy, and ended up getting interrogated by a right-wing radio host and his friends.

Castelan is Mexican American and as you might expect, that doesn't go over too well at the Bundy Ranch.

We give him credit for standing his ground while also getting the hell out of there.

Let's go to the video:

Huh?!

It appears that David Gregory's shrink at NBC has decided that Meet The Press needs to get hipper.

So, for some reason the Sunday talker brought on singer Will.i.am's to talk about everything from Obama to Benghazi.

How is Will.i.am qualified to speak on these issues? We have no idea.

The Twitterverse was also left scratching their heads:

H/T HuffPo

Cut Off Mid Sentence

Josh Elliot made his first appearance since bolting from Good Morning America.

Elliot hooked back up with Sam Champion on Champion's low rated Weather Channel show AMHQ.

Sam and Josh drank alcohol and gushed over how each other looked.

But then while Elliot was talking, Champion shouted out "We'll be right back!" and Elliot was cut of mid sentence.

Welcome back Josh....

Let's go to the video:

Can You Have Your Cake and Anchor Too?

WPTV West Palm Beach Anchor Shannon Cake was to have her job and a family life as well. So she has decided to pull back to part time. 

Cake, anchor of the 5:30 p.m. news on WPTV-Channel 5 and 10 p.m. on WFLX-Fox 29, says she’s stepping down from the Fox newscast after asking her bosses to work part-time.

Cake, who’s been at the NBC affiliate for 18 years, tells Gossip Extra exclusively that pressing family matters took precedent over her heavy work load.

“It’s something that we worked on for months,” said Cake, who’s also an investigative reporter. “My parents are getting older and my dad had a health scare recently. That was a wake up call.

“And then, when you get to sleep every morning at 2 a.m. after work, you’re not really good to anyone in the morning. My two children (3 and 5) need me.

“I’m going through what many working moms are facing, but I work for people who understand that.”

Four female anchors have been flown to West Palm Beach for screen tests with 10 p.m. male anchor, Jay Cashmere, who’s staying put.

WPTV is contracted by WFLX to provide its nightly, hour-long newscasts.

As for Cake, News Director Michael Garber says Cake’s afternoon duties have not been firmed up.

“We just wanted to maintain Shannon’s presence in our anchor lineup, which was important to us,” he said.

Obama Cracks Them Up at WH Correspondents Dinner

The White House Correspondents Dinner, or "Nerd Prom" as it is referred to went down last night in DC.

So how bad was last year for President Obama? “Things got so bad,” the president said, “the 47% called Mitt Romney to apologize.”

That got a big laugh, as did other self-deprecating remarks — and stinging jabs at Republican leaders and the media — the president made during his routine at the 100th White House Correspondents' Assn. Dinner on Saturday night.

The president began his speech mocking the litany of roadblocks his administration hit last year, sarcastically calling it his “stellar 2013.” One recurring gimmick was the flashing of images on a screen. The president, playing straight man, would make a comment and then the image would provide the punch line.

He said that one of the good things about HealthCare.gov, the website that launched Obamacare, was that it also launched one of the year’s biggest movies. Up on the screen: A poster for “Frozen.”

The president noted that someone had thrown a shoe recently at Hillary Rodham Clinton. Up on the screen: An image of Vice President Joe Biden, holding a shoe.

At the end of his routine, Kathleen Sebelius, the former Health and Human Services secretary who oversaw the botched Obamacare website roll out, made a cameo to “fix” a glitch in a video the president was attempting to play.

But Obama eventually turned from self-deprecation to teasing 2016 contenders and criticizing news coverage.

Joel McHale, who stars on NBC's “Community” and hosts “The Soup,” followed Obama with his own roast of the president, 2016 hopefuls and gridlock in Washington. He promised his remarks would be “amusing and over quickly, just like Chris Christie's presidential bid.”
Prior to Obama's remarks, Biden appeared in a video with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who stars as a fictional vice president running for a shot at the Oval Office in HBO's “Veep.” The two are chided for eating ice cream in the White House kitchen by the first lady, known for promoting healthy eating. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) and his predecessor House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also make appearances.

The president's best jokes:
On CNN's plane coverage: “I think they're still searching for their table.”
On Fox News: “Let's face it, you'll miss me when I'm gone. It’ll be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya.”
On MSNBC’s presence at the dinner: “They're a little overwhelmed. They've never seen an audience this big before.”
On the House speaker, alluding to his seemingly ever-present tan: “These days, House Republicans are giving John Boehner a harder time than they're giving me, which means orange really is the new black.”

H/T LA Times

Anchor Bounced in Portland

Back in April, FTVLive told you that Bruce Sussman, was pushed out Chief Meteorologist at KOIN, the CBS affiliate in Portland.

Now we have learned that Morning Anchor Chad Carter has also been kicked to the curb. 

Carter had been at the station since November 2010, coming from KPTV across the street.

His bio has been deleted from the KOIN website and he posted this message on his Twitter account:

Breaking News! FTVLive Takes a Day Off

As hard as this is to believe, I am taking Today off.

It's not because I want to, but I have to travel Today and I will not have the chance to update the site.

FTVLive has gone over 300 days without taking off a single day. I have updated 7 days a week for the better part of a year.

Christmas, New Years, Easter, FTVLive updated all those days as well.

If you a TV Executive, this is the day you should have mass layoffs, or suspend staff. This is your one day to throw the bad news out there and not get raked over the FTVLive coals.

FTVLive will be back on Saturday and over the weekend with some updates. We will be back to full strength on Monday.

I will use Today, to thank each and every one of you, plus all of FTVLive's awesome sponsors for making this website a big success.

I get hundreds of emails each week from people saying how this site is a must read and how they stop by several times a day to see what is going on in this crazy industry that we have all, for some reason, decided to work in.

Since FTVLive is taking the day off, feel free to do so yourself. Just tell your boss that we said it was OK.

Have a great weekend! 

Masked Man Forces St. Louis Station to Cancel Live Shot

KMOV in St. Louis canceled a live shot because of some guy in a mask.

Police in Belleville are investigating after a masked man showed up in the background of a KMOV live shot Wednesday during the  5 p.m. newscast.

Reporter Brittany Noble was scheduled to go live and throw to her package about a string of thefts from construction sites in southeast Belleville. 

Shortly before air time, Noble and cameraman Alonzo Metcalf noticed a man wearing a white mask pacing in the background and occasionally ducking behind a truck, KMOV news director Brian Thouvenot said.

"The man went away, then came back (with a different mask)," Thouvenot said. "So for the safety of our crew, we decided to cancel the (live) shot."

The crew went to the van and called Belleville police, Thouvenot said, adding that Metcalf kept the camera rolling and collected footage of the masked man.

Later, Noble posted some video of the man on her Instagram account. She also wrote: "I wanted to go live @5 today but this guy kept watching me so I called police. If you know who he is contact them."

Thouvenot said one of the masks was that of the Michael Myers villain character in the "Halloween" movies.

Although neither mask could be described as a Ku Klux Klan-type head covering, Thouvenot said the white masks — and the fact that Noble and Metcalf are both black — prompted station managers to proceed as they did.

Belleville police have not commented.

H/T St. Louis Post Dispatch

New ND Named in St. Louis

Word is that KMOV in St. Louis has taken the "Acting News Director" title for Brian Thouvenot.

e's now the guy in the chair. 

Thouvenot takes over for Sean McLaughlin who bolted for Scripps and is now running all of their news departments.

Thouvenot has gone up the ranks, he was a producer at KDNL and an EP at KMOV before taking on the roles of Asst. ND and now News Director.

Did Buffalo Anchor ad lib Racist Comment?

WGRZ (Buffalo) Anchor Maryalice Demler has been known to shoot her mouth off during some of her ad libs in the newscast.

But, her latest ad lib has some people raising their eyebrows and others calling her comments racist.

At the end of the 6 p.m. newscast Wednesday, viewers heard Demler shout "what!" as sports anchor Adam Benigni read a story on the shoplifting citation that Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston of Florida State received for failing to pay for $32 worth of seafood at a Florida grocery store.

After Benigni finished, Demler followed with the ad-lib.

"Did he have a shopping cart or were crab legs stuffed in his hoodie?" asked Demler.

Winston is black. Of course, people of all races wear hoodies. But hoodie has been a racially charged word since the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in Florida two years ago. Martin was wearing a hoodie when he was killed. It became a symbol of Zimmerman's suspicions about Martin and remains a symbol today.

At best, Demler’s ad-lib was in poor taste and insensitive. At worst, it was a stereotyped conclusion.

This is not the first time Demler’s choice of words has been debatable. In December, she posted to Twitter a photo of herself with Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and called him  "a sweetheart of a guy." 

WGRZ General Manager Jim Toellner tried to defend Demler, telling the Buffalo News "hoodies are almost a uniform among all college kids," he said. 

Nice try, but not everyone is buying it. 

H/T Buffalo News

Shepard Smith Calls CNN The "Phony Plane Channel"

Yesterday, FTVLive told you about the story that Gawker ran as they continue to try and out Fox News Anchor Shepard Smith (you can read that story here).

An interesting side note to the story is the email that Smith sent out to the staff at FNC about the Gawker story.

In the email, Smith denies the story from the gossip website, but in doing so he takes a big shot at CNN.

Smith writes "Things you might read today are horseshit. As phony as 24-hour breaking news on The Plane Channel."

Ouch!

H/T The Daily Banter

Even the Chicago Mayor has not Watched CNN's Chicagoland

FTVLive told you that the ratings for CNN's Chicagoland were not very good.

How bad were they?

The Mayor of Chicago says he hasn't watched any of the episodes and he's the star.

CNN has come under fire for basically promising the Mayor that the show would make him look good. 

Yesterday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel sought to pivot away from questions about how his top aides worked with producers to coordinate scenes for CNN’s “Chicagoland” documentary.

Emanuel said that his spokeswoman already had answered numerous questions about the administration’s involvement with “Chicagoland.”

On Friday, the Chicago Tribune reported that more than 700 city emails showed Emanuel’s senior staff working hand in hand with “Chicagoland” producers to develop story lines, arrange specific camera shots and review drafts of a CNN news release officially announcing the show.

On Wednesday, Emanuel took reporters’ questions for the first time since the Tribune story was published. Asked whether his staff’s work with the producers to set up key interactions for the eight-part TV series was appropriate, Emanuel said his communications director, Sarah Hamilton, already had covered the topic.

“Look, Sarah has answered that question tirelessly,” Emanuel said. “I think if you look at that, there’s a lot of different views, in which (the producers) expressed they didn’t get all the cooperation they wanted.”

They didn't get the ratings they wanted either. 

Just saying....