CNN to Use Empire State Building for Election Night

CNN's latest election night gimmick will be using New York landmark Empire State Building in their election coverage. 

This is what CNN had to say in their press release: 

As the Senate results are projected and allocated to candidates, a vertical LED illuminated “meter” located atop the spire of the building will ascend in either red or blue—reflective of the party. Once an illuminated color—red or blue—reaches the top of the spire, that party will take control of the Senate.

Mediaite points out that it’s kind of like counting down to the New Year, only with politics.

If the LED stops halfway and flashes green up it means they found the missing plane. 

Sarah Palin: CNN's Carol Costello Invigorates Me

Sarah Palin was on the Fox Business Network and she had a message for CNN's Carol Costello and her other “haters."

Palin said, “bless their hearts those haters out there they don’t understand that it invigorates me it wants me to get out there and defend the innocent…So, hey the more they’re pouring on the more I’m going to bug the crap out of them by being out there with a voice, with the message, hopefully running for office in the future too.”

You betcha.... 

MSNBC Continues to Shed Viewers

MSNBC had it's lowest rated month in almost a decade.

The network continues to shed viewers at an alarming rate.

Comparing Oct. 14 to Oct. 13, MSNBC lost almost 50% of their demo and 40% of their viewers in primetime. 

The "lean forward" network is leaning way back in the ratings.

CNN also saw their ratings drop from last year and if it wasn't for MSNBC totally sucking gas, the CNN numbers would not be considered very good. The brightest spot for CNN is that morning show "New Day" knocked off MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

No surprise, Fox News won the cable news race in a walk. The highlight for FNC was Greta Van Susteren's "On the Record" had it's best demo month ever.

Rev. Al Sharpton Drops Pounds As Fast as MSNBC Drops Viewers

The Rev. Al Sharpton has never met a camera he didn't like, he used to be the same with sweets.

And while Rev. Al will never give up his appetite for the spotlight, he did give up the sweets.

Even at his own birthday party at the Four Seasons, Sharpton did not have one bite of his own birthday cake.

It’s not simply that he hasn’t had any sweets in years. He hasn’t had dinner in years, either.

The NY Daily News says you can call it “the Al Sharpton Diet,” but this once-rotund reverend has dropped from 305 pounds to exactly 129.6 pounds. The precise weight was recorded this week on Sharpton’s bedroom scale at 5 a.m., when the man of the (much less) cloth begins his day.

Sharpton has shed 60% of his much-mocked weight — and he did it without surgery, diet pills or a single Weight Watchers meeting.

“I could take all the cartoons in the tabloid newspapers, but I couldn’t take my daughter punching me in the belly and asking why I was so fat,” Sharpton recalled. “That was my inspiration to lose the weight. And probably the last time anyone hurt my feelings.”

That incident with his daughter happened nearly 15 years ago, when she was 12. But it wasn’t until more recently that Sharpton devised his strategy to drop the pounds — just stop eating.

That’s only a minor simplification.

Around six years ago, Sharpton cut out red meat. A year later, he did away with chicken — no small feat for a guy who ate fried fowl three times a day (with grits and eggs for breakfast and on a sandwich in the afternoon, plus a half-chicken for dinner).

Eventually he cut out so much food that he was subsisting on a single lunchtime salad (albeit with one perk: a chopped egg). That’s when the weight really started coming off, at a rate of about 2 pounds a week. And as he got thinner, he found he missed food less and less.

“I’m conditioned now so that I never get hungry,” he explained.

Read more on his diet at the NY Daily News

Jeff Zucker Not Opposed to Airing Movies on CNN

As CNN boss Jeff Zucker tries to suck the last bit of news out of the cable news network, here comes another gem.

Zucker says that he is not opposed to airing scripted movies on what used to be a news channel. 

Zucker has already caught heat for abandoning hard news in favor of reality television and documentary features.

During a press lunch on Monday, Zucker said he would be “open” to such a move, saying in response to a question, “We have looked at that; thus far, we’re not doing that, but I’m not opposed to it. We have no imminent plans but it might be a logical extension in the next year of so.”

At the same time, Zucker acknowledged that he would likely face a backlash if CNN made the transition into fictionalized programming. “Some people would find it odd,” he said. But the “CNN brand has to evolve.”

"Fictionalized programming," didn't CNN already try that with Piers Morgan?

Just saying....

H/T Mediaite 

Big Changes Coming to CNBC?

FTVLive has been telling you about how 2014 has been an awful one for CNBC, ratings wise. The financial network has seen their ratings dip to all time lows and it now appears that changes may soon be coming to cable net.

It appears that CNBC has quietly been doing some research, not only on their talent, but on their news philosophy as well. 

Here are some screen shots from the research project that CNBC is currently conducting. 

Stay tuned.....

As We Predicted...

10 days ago, FTVLive wrote, "Look for a job opening at one Fargo station very soon. 

KVRR Sports Director Jim Nelson was busted aggravated assault charge for allegedly punching a man in the face, breaking his nose."

It appears our prediction has come true. 

Nelson's bio has been scrubbed from the station's website and his old job has been posted online. 

Not that anyone is surprised by this news. 

Indy News Crews Covers Crappy Story

Despite whatever story you were sent out to cover yesterday, it was not as shitty as the story in Indianapolis.

Indy TV news crews were sent to a tractor-trailer that overturned on a ramp off of Interstate 465.

The truck was carrying thousands of gallons of human waste when it flipped over.

Which of course left one helluva a skid mark. 

Tip your waitresses, I'm here all week. 

Maine Anchor Pops Up Again as Model

FTVLive has been tell you about  WMTW morning Anchor Erin Ovalle popped up as a model in an ad that appeared in Maine Magazine.

Then the next month, there she was again in another ad in the same magazine.

Well, three times is a charm, because Ovalle is once again in Maine Magazine this month, helping shill for a local hotel. 

As we have been pointing out, it's not a good idea to have your Anchor pimping a local business, while at the same time reporting the news.

It's obvious that her bosses see no problem with this conflict of interest, since she seems to be popping up in the mag month after month. 

We do have to say, that in this month's ad, she seems to be bored with the whole modeling thing.

Just saying.... 

Josh Elliott to Pop up on Today

You can expect to see former Good Morning America Anchor Josh Elliott show up on NBC's Today Show this week.

Page Six says that Elliott's  six-month noncompete clause with rival ABC has expired.

Elliott has already appeared on “Today” doing NFL-related segments, but this time he have a news-reading role.

And the Josh Elliott to replace Matt Lauer rumors will start in 3.....2......

CBS Stays Mum on Ex-Reporter's New Book

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Former CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson blasts the Tiffany Network in her new book and CBS seems to not want to talk about it. 

In her book, “Stonewalled: My Fight for Truth Against the Forces of Obstruction, Intimidation, and Harassment in Obama’s Washington,” Attkisson charges that CBS higher-ups quashed her reporting on the deadly attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, as well as reports on the federal “Fast and Furious’’ gun-running scandal and the president’s ObamaCare debacle.

The NY Post says that no one at CBS seemed to want to talk about Attkisson's claims. 

The paper says that CBS boss Les Moonves failed to answer repeated phone calls or an e-mail seeking comment.

A secretary for David Rhodes, president of CBS News, immediately volleyed a Post reporter’s phone call to company spokeswoman Sonya McNail. Before the reporter could even ask a question, McNair curtly said, “We decline to comment. Thank you. Bye.”

“Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley’s assistant did not respond to numerous e-mails, and he didn’t return a call to his office.

Attkisson said in her book that under Pelley’s leadership at “Evening News,” her investigative pieces began getting killed regularly.

Former “Evening News’’ Executive Producer Patricia Shevlin, now a producer at “60 Minutes,” also didn’t return a call, with the CBS operator saying the top exec was too busy to talk to The Post.

Attkisson has claimed that after she complained that the network shelved several of her reports on Solyndra — the Obama-supporting green-energy firm that went bankrupt despite hundreds of millions of dollars in government handouts — Shevlin replied, “What’s the matter, don’t you support green energy?”

Attkisson, who worked at CBS for 20 years, finally quit the network in frustration earlier this year.

Attkisson’s publicist said she won’t be giving any interviews until next week, although she’s staying busy on Twitter going off on the dangers of vaccinations.

“One of the most instructive things at the time, for me, was when govt researchers told me that even though all the studies showed flu shots didn’t work in the elderly, they figured the STUDIES were wrong because they “knew” flu shots worked!’’ Attkisson tweeted.

“Kind of reminds me of today’s CDC that looks at all the scientific links between vaccines and autism but ‘knows’ it can’t be so, so it changes the study data or finds other explanations for why the data says what it says,” she wrote.

The book is set to be released Nov. 4.

DC News Director Headed to SoCal? (Updated)

Earlier Today, FTVLive FIRST told you that former WJLA GM Bill Lord is going to be named the new News Director at WUSA.

He is replacing  Fred D'Ambrosi.

So the question is, where is D'Ambrosi headed? 

Sources tell FTVLive that you can expect to see D'Ambrosi headed back to San Diego and taking over the ND job at KGTV. 

Before coming to DC, D'Ambrosi was the ND at KFMB in San Diego for 12 years. Now, it looks like he is headed back to SoCal.

He would replace Joel Davis at KGTV.  Davis was bumped up to Station Manager. 

Updated:  D'Ambrosi tweeted out this in repsonse to FTVLive's story:

Our story was headlined "DC News Director Headed to SoCal?" notice the question mark at the end. We never said it was a done deal or was definitely going to happen. #facts