Sweeping Up in Houston

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KPRC has come out on top of the November book in Houston. The station wins in mornings, evenings and late news, including the three biggest newscasts.

In Adults 25-54, Monday-Friday 6:00am ratings, KPRC Local 2 took the top spot:
KPRC 2.3
KTRK 2.0
KRIV 1.3
KHOU 1.2

In Adults 25-54, Monday-Friday 6:00pm ratings, KPRC Local 2 was first again:
KPRC 2.3 
KTRK 2.0 
KHOU 1.2

And at 10:00pm, Local 2 News was #1 in the five and seven day ratings despite KTRK getting more than a full rating point advantage from their weekday 9p ABC lead-in. The ratings for Monday-Sunday were:
KPRC 2.7
KTRK 2.6
KHOU 1.7

“The numbers show viewers are making a point to switch over to us and that’s the sign producing great newscasts on a consistent basis,” said KPRC VP/General Manager, Jerry Martin “I’m proud of the entire KPRC team for this great accomplishment they have earned by working hard every day and proud to know that Houston has made us their trusted choice.”

H/T Mike McGuff

Split Decision in Austin

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Two stations are claiming victory in Austin.

KVUE and KXAN both notched first-place wins.

Austin 360 writes that ABC affiliate KVUE is the region’s top choice for news mornings and at 10 p.m., while NBC affiliate KXAN ranked No. 1 middays and at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., according to Nielsen data.

Stations in Austin and elsewhere across the country use ratings in November and three other “sweeps” months to set advertising rates.

Mornings have been an especially strong time period for all of Austin’s TV stations for several years now – and that trend continued in November. At 6 a.m., for example, newscasts airing on KEYE, KTBC, KVUE and KXAN combined to reach about 50 percent of Central Texas households watching TV at that hour.

No other local news time slot comes close to grabbing that much audience share in Austin.

KVUE once again came in first at 4:30 a.m., 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., but it was Fox-owned KTBC that reported some of the strongest year-over-year gains. Ratings for each installment of Fox 7’s five-and-a-half-hour morning show were up by double digits, including an 80 percent jump at 4:30 a.m., 63 percent at 5 a.m. and 47 percent at 6 a.m.

We Interrupt This Program....

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WOAY-TV is off the air in Bluefield/Beckley/Oak Hill West Virginia. The station's website says it's experienced a 'catastrophic failure' at their transmitter.

Here's the announcement.

Or, it could be because it couldn't take another day of broadcasting the images of Rosie O'Donnell on "The View".  

Either way, the people most unhappy are in the sales department. Lots of 'make-goods' and no Christmas bonuses.

Hey, what about streaming on that thing called the internet? 

 

Don Lemon: "I'm Just A Newscaster"

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CNN liability-anchor Don Lemon is at it again. TMZ caught up with him in a 'walk and talk' and the self proclaimed, "Twitter King" had a lot to say, as usual. None of it appropriate for a network anchor.

We, along with the rest of the industry, continue to be amazed at how this guy keeps his job? Maybe this is really a Jeff Zucker/David Kenny working pilot for a new reality show: "Keeping Up With Don Lemon"? In fact, let's come up with some working titles. Tweet your ideas to us @FTVLive. The winner will get to be Senior VP of Programming at your choice of either The Weather Channel or CNN.

Sources: Howard Kurtz, Lauren Ashburn Break Up

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Back in September, FTVLive told you that Fox News decided not to renew the contract of Howard Kurtz's girlfriend Lauren Ashburn.

Kurtz and Ashburn started a strange relationship when Howie started appearing and heavily promoting a podcast that Ashburn was doing.

The podcasts were awful, but when Kurtz was pushed out at CNN and headed to Fox News, he took Ashburn with him and somehow convinced Fox News to pay her.

FNC finally figured out that she was pretty much useless and did not renew her contract. Unfortunately, Fox has not yet figured that Kurtz is just as useless and he is still employed...for now.

But, sources tell FTVLive that Kurtz and Ashburn don't even talk to each other anymore. Word is that Ashburn basically believes that Howie through her under the bus and that got her bounced at FNC.

How bad is it between the two?

It's so bad that they both quit following each other on Twitter. 

If this was high school that in itself would be a really huge deal. 

So ladies, Howie is back on the market and I bet you all are drooling over that prospect.

Ok...maybe not. 

The Intern Takes Over

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As the Intern gets ready to take off for his Winter Break, he wanted a chance to update FTVLive before he left.

Since our computer has gone belly up and we have to get on the road very early this morning, we're giving the Intern the reigns for most of the day.

I'll be back in the office late Today and be back in the big chair for Tomorrow's updates. 

Right now...without further adieu..... we give you the FTVLive Intern.

How Do You Know When The Weather Channel Is Lying....?

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...apparently every time they put out a press release.

Remember when The Weather Channel was dropped by DirecTV? As FTVLive reported back in April, the satellite provider only agreed to put The Weather Channel back on after they promised to reduce their non-weather reality programming by half. 

Hopefully DirecTV negotiated an 'out', because TWC CEO David Kenny is back to desperation moves to try to get viewers. He's announced that "Prospectors", "Highway Thru Hell", and "Why Planes Crash" are returning to the network. 

An insider tells FTVLive TWC dropped the 4-5am show M-F which did better than Sam Champion on many occasions. On weekends, no more weather from Noon-2pm, which means for 17 straight hours on Saturday and Sunday, the only forecast is at the bottom of the screen.

Maybe Kenny and Jeff Zucker could co-produce a new reality show and book deal: "How To Crater Successful Networks For Dummies"?


Nashville Station Pimps For News On Twitter

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You'd think a TV station that employs journalists should be a little more classy than begging Twitter users for help. Journal's WTVF-TV is apparently looking to do a story on discrimination of fat people:

 

 

 

By the looks of the 1 retweet, it doesn't appear @NC5_Plus has much influence. Still, Jerry Springer would be proud. Somehow, we doubt this will continue when Scripps takes over in 2015.

Did CNN Really Lose A Saints Player?

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There doesn't seem to be a day go by, that CNN hasn't screwed up doing something. The latest is a controversy surrounding an interview with New Orleans Saints' Benjamin Watson.

Watson was being interviewed about the events in Ferguson by Brooke Baldwin. When he started making references to "sins" and "Jesus Christ", the signal suddenly went bad. Certainly that's not unusual in TV, but take a look at the way Brooke Baldwin handles it:

The controversy continues with CNN's print version by Steve Almasy. 

Oddly, Don Lemon isn't involved in this one? Maybe he got sucked into a black hole.

h/t Newsbusters

Bodies Start To Fall In Vegas

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Any time a station is bought by one of the two mega-groups (Sinclair or Nexstar), people start losing their jobs. Now that Sinclair has bought KSNV-TV in Las Vegas, the 'cutting back' has begun.

Jon Ralston, who hosts "Ralston Reports", has been told he's done. His show airs at 6:3pm in Reno and Vegas. GM Lisa Howfield says the time slot will be filled with "expanded local news". That's code for, "more news with no additional expense".

Ralston has done the show for 14 years. Merry Christmas.

h/t Las Vegas Sun

ABC Produces Social Media Newscast

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It was bound to happen at some point and it appears ABC is the first. World News Tonight anchor David Muir is doing a daily one-minute newscast specifically for Facebook.

The show is called "Facecast: The One Thing". We get the 'Facecast' part, but 'the one thing'? It's a stupid name, so hopefully someone from creative services will explain what it means?

One thing is certain; Muir will have more eyeballs than Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric. In the first day, Muir had more than 97,000 views.

Here's the announcement from ABC News.

Cox's Fox Off In Boston

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If you're a Verizon FiOS customer in Massachusetts & Rhode Island, you're going to have to go to a friend's house to watch WFXT (Fox). Verizon and Cox Media Group are in a retrans dispute. 

The station went dark to more than 400,000 customers. Of course, both sides say the other is to blame.

The ones who get screwed the most, are the customers; which makes for some entertaining social media. Let's see who can withstand the heat the longest?

Longtime Memphis GM and News Director Out

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whbq.gif

Sources tell FTVLive that the GM and News Director at Cox owned WHBQ are gone from the Cox owned station.

Longtime General Manager John Koski and News Director Ken Jobe were told that their services were no longer needed and are out.

Jobe has been on the J-O-B since 2003 at the Fox affiliate. 

Word is that Cox wants to make changes and are starting at the top.