Oh No! Not Again?!

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Here we go again.....

Austin's Time Warner Cable News Twitter sent out a tweet yesterday afternoon that included 4 photos of nude men. 

The tweet said  “TRAFFIC: Your 5:12 p.m. update. Too many!” The tweet included the photo of the naked guys. 

Of course, the offensive tweet was deleted and replaced by right after that by old stand by “My Twitter account has been hacked.”

Then, Time warner deleted the "hacked" tweet and posted this one: 

Look for the station to be posting a job opening in the next couple of weeks. 

This Gives New Meaning to Drive By Shooting

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WEYI (Saginaw) Reporter Ilse Lujan-Hayes took the driving live shot to a new level, when she did a drive by flu shot.

Watch the video and then see what we have to say below:

First off, the Reporter drives up to the flu shot, but has already has a clipboard in her car with the  consent form already filled out (ah, the magic of television).

The Reporter also says, "this is a fun way" to get a flu shot. Tell that to your 10 year old.

Also when Hayes gets her flu shot, it doesn't look like she's having fun.

Just saying....  

Bumped Up the Food Chain in San Diego

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KGTV News Director Joel Davis is moving up a step on the corporate ladder at the station.

Davis is being bumped up to Station Manager, effective Monday, October 13, 2014.  He had been the station's News Director since 2009.
 
In making the announcement ABC10/KGTV VP and General Manager Jeff Block said, "Joel has been at my side for more than five years, working hand in hand, and 10News has seen some tremendous successes in that time.  He is uniquely qualified for this position, and I look forward to Joel taking on day-to-day operations here at ABC10.”
 
"I am excited and humbled to be offered this new opportunity here at ABC10,” said Davis.  “I am so very proud of the great work our journalists and managers have done over the past five years, and the entire 10News team shares in my success!”
 
Prior to joining ABC10, Davis was Managing Editor at WFTV in Orlando.  Before that, Joel served as News Director at KFSN in Fresno and KBAK in Bakersfield.  Earlier in his career Davis was an anchor/reporter in Ohio and Iowa.
 
ABC10 has launched a national search for a new News Director to replace Davis.  In the meantime, he will serve as acting News Director.

H/T KGTV

Tacking on More News in Greenville

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Meredith owned WHNS (Greenville-Spartanburg) is adding another newscast later this month to t̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶d̶v̶a̶n̶t̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶p̶o̶l̶i̶t̶i̶c̶a̶l̶ ̶a̶d̶ ̶d̶o̶l̶l̶a̶r̶s̶give viewers the more news they all craved.

WHNS is adding new weekday newscast at 4 p.m. beginning on Oct. 20.

“The expansion at 4 p.m. is a natural progression of Fox Carolina’s growth in the Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville-Anderson market and our ratings success in the morning and late news products,” said WHNS General Manager John Hayes. “We are thrilled to be expanding our news presence and give the market its first look at the day’s important headlines, weather and traffic in the early evening.”

 With the addition of The Four O’clock News, WHNS will produce 6.5 hours of news daily, the largest amount of local news content in the market, according to the station. 

Jay Leno Back to NBC?

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There are reports that Jay Leno is headed back to TV and believe it or not, with NBC - but not the division you may guess.

The Hollywood Reporter says Leno will host a new show on CNBC. It will focus on Leno's love of cars and will air in primetime. Makes sense - a car show on a business channel?

So far, CNBC isn't commenting, but NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt has said he'd like to keep Leno in the NBC family in an 'elder statesman' role, a la Bob Hope. Now wait, is that a compliment?

CNBC's ratings have been lower than Piers Morgan's relevance, so it's a good bet Leno will be able to bring some new eyeballs to the channel.

From Traffic Anchor To Executive Boardroom

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It's not often that an on-air talent transitions from anchoring traffic reports to gaining a seat in an executive boardroom. Former KIRO-TV anchor Jenni Hogan is making it look easy.

FTVLive previously reported that Hogan decided to step away from KIRO, even though her Agent negotiated one of the sweetest deals in television allowing her to own and monetize her impressive social media following.

She started a social media company called TVinteract (Disclosure: TVinteract is a sponsor of FTVLive), designed to fill a void making it easy to put social media posts directly on-air. Within 8 months, her company was acquired by Seattle based Tagboard. Hogan became CMO or Chief Media Officer of the merged companies and now may be the first TV talent to get a key to the executive washroom.

"I get to walk into boardrooms with my power nails instead of power ties", says Jenni in her light-hearted, at-ease demeanor. "Knowing approximately 50% of the viewers are female, I'm representing them in a traditionally male dominated industry."

In a short amount of time, Jenni has positioned Tagboard as THE social media platform seen on stations in 3 of the 4 O&O groups, Gannett, Tribune, Raycom & Meredith. Internationally on the BBC, ABC Australia, Master Chef, LA7 Italy and Bell Media Canada. Just last week, Dr. Phil tweeted about using Tagboard along with ABC's Dancing With The Stars contestants.  The BBC used Tagboard to power their 14 hours of LIVE coverage on the Scottish independence vote. 7-million tweets came into the platform with the technology allowing them to be the first in the world to show the Prime Minister's tweet that announced the results.

Tagboard is already the leader in social media interaction used by several teams in the NFL, NHL, MLB, along with Root Sports and Formula Drift.

I know the boss is a big fan of Jenni's, but quite honestly, who wouldn't be?

Piers Morgan Just Doesn't Get It

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I'm not sure why media outlets continue to give Piers Morgan face-time? What's so fascinating about a bloke who's ratings have proven viewers don't like?

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Morgan says he knew in February that his time was up at CNN. FTVLive first reported Morgan was 'out' in October 2013 and he proceeded to call my boss, Scott Jones, "a mad blogger - and that CNN had picked up his 4th year". Who's mad now?

Now, Morgan is blaming everyone but himself for his demise, including Anderson Cooper.  He whines about how his ratings were so bad because no news was happening and the Winter Olympics took away viewers. Hey Piers - if you were as good as you think you are, people would tune-in. People make it a point to watch talent that is good, or a show that is compelling, so take your cue. It's one of the reasons networks will put hit shows in the middle of prime-time, to try and bring eyeballs to less popular or new shows.  You also might have tried actually promoting your show on Twitter, instead of getting into ridiculous, personal fights with Lords and Earls in the UK that no one gives a crap about here.

Here's another thing Morgan gets wrong. He thinks anchors are supposed to have opinions. They're not. Their job is to report facts and let the viewers decide. He's confusing 'anchors' with 'talking heads/hosts'. There's a big difference. Just ask Al Sharpton.

It's funny that this guy is now trying to tell anyone that will listen what's wrong with CNN and how they could fix it. Even as an intern, I knew what was wrong was CNN's decision to hire this gasbag in the first place. And if your Agent had any smarts, he would have warned you that being the first guy in after Larry King, was a big risk.

Here's my advice Piers: Take your "Editor At Large gig (whatever that is) and try to get back on America's Got Talent or maybe host Tool Academy. That's where your strengths are. Leave TV news programming decisions to those who understand the audience and have some talent.

 

When Did Twitter Become A Wire Service?

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A prime example of what's wrong with journalism these days occurred last night on Twitter. Former Baywatch actress Donna D'Errico tweeted that 7th Heaven actor Stephen Collins had shot himself. D'Errico lives near Collins. It would have been a big story given that Collins is under investigation for child molestation that occurred 40 years ago, EXCEPT, it wasn't true. Collins wasn't even home.

That didn't stop TV stations in LA from feeding the speculation in some form or another.  Twitchy did a nice job of screen grabbing some of the ridiculousness.

Kudos to LAPD for 'schooling' the Media on checking facts, first. Check out the tweets from the PIO on Huffington Post.

Whatever happened to confirming? Verifying? Double-checking? Every reporter who became a 'lemming', should be fired and so should the bosses that allow Twitter to be used as a wire service.

How Long Will Zucker Last at CNN?

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It takes a thick skin to be successful in Television, but if you're Jeff Zucker, your skin better be Kevlar. In a recent article, New York Magazine reveals the campaign against Zucker being hired at CNN. It's a fascinating read. Probably not so much if you're Jeff.

One thing is pretty clear: whatever luster Zucker had from his days as EP of NBC's Today Show, is gone. Zucker was fired at NBC after Comcast took over, but also largely over the debacle he created with the network's prime time programming and the Jay Leno/Conan O'Brien disaster. FTVLive was the first to report the Leno story, despite NBC denying it.

So far, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes is sticking with JZ. But how long will that last? Who has the odds in Vegas?

 

Big Bonu$ for Top Mouse

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Mouse House CEO Bob Iger could leave the Magic Kingdom in 2018 with a $60-million dollar bonus. In a filing with the SEC, Disney outlined a performance-based retention bonus for Bob Iger that could generate tens of millions if Disney brings in more than $76-billion over a five year period.

Iger's current salary is $2.5-million per year - but with his bonus, he brings in about $34.4-million annually. That's a lot of 'fast passes'.

I think a lot of people would agree, just being married to Willow Bay should be 'bonus' enough.

H/T Los Angeles Times

Former WCBS Anchor Pleads Guilty

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Former WCBS Anchor Rob Morrison plead guilty and was sentenced to two years of probation on a misdemeanor charge Tuesday at Stamford Superior Court for calling and texting his estranged wife 109 times during a short period of time.

Morrison has maintained that he contacted his wife Ashley Morrison to check on the well-being of the couple's 9-year-old son Jack after the couple had a heated argument. He said he pleaded guilty to breach of peace, because he felt that it would be "selfish" to take the case to trial.

"At this point, it's long overdue, but this is a resolution that's good for my son, good for my wife and great for me," he said.

Judge Erika M. Tindill entered a protective order, barring Morrison from having any contact with his wife except through written communication. The written communication must pertain to the couple's son. Although the protective order is in effect until 2020, it can be modified. The protective order was proposed by the prosecution and was not agreed upon by Nancy Aldrich, Ashley Morrison's attorney.

Morrison said he will abide by the protective order, and he holds no grudges against the prosecution for requesting it. He said he will have to take "baby steps" toward resuming a normal family life, starting with requesting the modification of a protective order in the future.

"This case has been in the prosecutor's officer for a year-and-a-half," he said. "They're doing their job."

Morrison said he has been spending more time with his son, helping him with math homework, watching his lacrosse games and helping coach his basketball team. He said he hopes to one day resurrect his television career, and he is in talks to do an in-depth television interview. He hopes relaying his story on television will teach an important lesson to his son about telling the truth.

""In a nutshell, it's the story of a man who took a lot of things for granted in life, particularly his marriage," he said.

We're guessing if the interview does air, it will be during sweeps.

Just saying.... 

H/T The Hour

Piers Morgan Bombs on Fox News

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Piers Morgan was sacked from CNN because of his low ratings. Morgan has blamed everyone from Jeff Zucker to Anderson Cooper for his bad ratings.

The only person Piers did not blame was himself.

On Monday night, Morgan was a guest on Hannity on Fox News.

Guess what? 

His ratings sucked there as well. 

Morgan's appearance on Hannity was the lowest rated of the prime time shows on Fox News on Monday night. Hannity pulled in 224,000 in the demo. O'Reilly pulled in 410,000, the Kelly File pulled 300,000 and even O'Reilly's repeat beat Hannity's number with 254,000. 

So, even when Piers Morgan pops up on the number one cable station, he still pulls the ratings down. 

And he can't blame Anderson Cooper this time. 

Peacock Panic? ABC News Tops NBC in Evening News Race

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ABC's World News Tonight has been beating NBC's Nightly News for some time now in the prime demo.

But, now with David Muir anchoring the broadcast, ABC has not only beaten NBC in the demo, but total viewers as well.

And, if you believe Page Six, NBC bosses are once again in full panic mode.

The gossip page writes that NBC is holding crisis meetings over the future of “Nightly News With Brian Williams” after Muir's historic ratings win.

For the week of Sept. 29, ABC’s newscast scored an across-the-board win in total viewers — 8.4 million — as well as the golden demos, adults 25 to 54 and adults aged 18 to 49. NBC’s “Nightly News” trailed with 8.2 million viewers.

Sources tell us that after the release of the figures Tuesday, “the NBC News morning call was very somber. A meeting was held with the ‘Nightly News’ executive producer to try to motivate the staff. There will be further crisis meetings.”

To make matters worse, we’re told that Brian Williams and NBC News president Deborah Turness — whose next mission is to halt the show’s declining ratings — don’t exactly see eye to eye.

One insider described their relationship as “icy.”

That relationship can’t have been helped after she said in an August Times piece, “NBC News hadn’t kept up with the times in all sorts of ways, for maybe 15 years . . . I think the organization had gone to sleep.” She later clarified this was about their digital operation.

An NBC rep said, “The only tension in our morning call was about getting our colleagues safely out of West Africa.” And about Deborah and Brian, “That is absolutely false. They talk all the time and meet multiple times a week. In fact, Deborah just drove to Philadelphia to see Brian accept an award at a lunch two weeks ago.”

Stay tuned...