Donald Trump

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the network said that Trump decision not to appear anymore on Fox shows seemed to have been prompted by its decision, shortly before noon, to cancel his scheduled appearance Thursday on The O’Reilly Factor.

The Republican presidential frontrunner’s appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tuesday shows just how important the guest can be in the late-night competition. The show averaged a 3.7 household rating, according to Nielsen metered-market ratings, its best since its Sept. 8 debut.

The move, which Trump announced via Twitter on Friday morning, gives him full ownership of the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants and completes a divorce begun in June when NBC announced it was ending its business relationship with Trump, who had starred on the network as host of The Celebrity Apprentice.

In a Tuesday letter to the cable news network, the billionaire says he’s the reason the network sharply increased its rates ahead of the Sept. 16 debate in Simi Valley, Calif. CNN should view debate coverage as a public service and give up profits, he said.

By questioning Donald Trump about this behavior, FNC’s Megyn Kelly has assumed the role in the 2016 campaign of Edward R. Murrow, who questioned the demagoguery of Joe McCarthy in the 1950s, and by fiercely defending Kelly against Trump’s spurious attacks against her, Roger Ailes has assumed the role of William S. Paley, the legendary CBS mogul who believed in Murrow.

Despite Trump’s recent run-ins with Fox News’s Megyn Kelly, Univision’s Jorge Ramos and other media figures, it’s fair to say that many of the reporters who’ve interviewed Trump tend to like him back. That’s not necessarily a comment on his politics or his outsize personality but on his unfiltered style of dealing with the press.

Donald Trump, a politician, and Jorge Ramos, a journalist, butted heads Tuesday night at a news conference in Iowa. Although politicians and journalists clash every day — exchanging insults and trading slights — this tussle has spilled into the quick-moving media stream because neither Trump nor Ramos is a normcore performer. Trump loves playing the cantankerous truth-teller, and Univision anchor Ramos subscribes to the provocateur school of journalism.

“I think I handled that well. I got a lot of credit for it,” Trump boasted Wednesday to conservative radio host Laura Ingraham a day after his bodyguards escorted Univision’s Jorge Ramos out of an Iowa news conference.

Jorge Ramos, the Miami-based anchor for Univision, stood up at a news conference and began to ask Trump about his immigration proposal, which includes ending automatic citizenship for infants born in the United States to parents in the country illegally. As Ramos began to speak, Trump interrupted him, saying he hadn’t called on Ramos before repeatedly telling him to “sit down” and then saying, “Go back to Univision.” Ramos then made to leave.

The Republican presidential front-runner-turned-TV-critic had welcomed Kelly back from a vacation Monday night by tweeting that he liked her show better while she was away. Trump said Kelly “must have had a terrible vacation” because “she’s really off her game.” He retweeted a message that referred to her as a bimbo.

NBC’s Meet the Press had its biggest audience in more than a year for its Trump interview on Aug. 16, leading that show’s biggest competitors — ABC’s This Week and CBS’ sFace the Nation — to feature phone interviews with the New York businessman this past Sunday.

In interviews this week, bombastic presidential candidate Donald Trump is touting his ratings-grabbing popularity and suggesting he should be paid to show up for interviews. He’s even toying with the idea that CNN should make a $10 million donation to charity if the network wants him to take part in its upcoming debate.

Donald Trump’s surprisingly durable campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination continues to be ratings rocket fuel for TV news. An hour-long interview with Trump taped earlier in the day with CNN’s New Day co-anchor Chris Cuomo drew 1.1 million in the 9 p.m. ET time slot on Wednesday. The audience is the largest for the cable news channel in that hour since April 28, when it covered the anti-police riots in Baltimore.

Despite his polarizing viewpoints, blunt assessment on the state of America and crass comments regarding women — or maybe because of it — TV networks (and advertisers) are eager for Trump to remain in the race for as long as possible.

David Zurawik writes that he is sensing a fear of Donald Trump on the part of some networks and cable channels. The Baltimore Sun columnist asks whether the news media ever gain the upper hand and be able to use encounters with Trump to vet him for voters, or whether the businessman and former reality-TV star will continue to use the media to enhance his candidacy.

NBC’s entertainment chairman, Bob Greenblatt, announced Thursday that the show would not be back next season, but will return in the future with a new host.

If there is a war between Donald Trump and Fox News Channel, it is an unconventional one. It is not mutually assured destruction; it is mutually beneficial combat.

On Monday morning, after 72 hours on the brink, Fox News Chairman-CEO Roger Ailes called Donald Trump to assure him that he would be treated fairly by the network. And Trump, who according to a source with knowledge of the situation, had threatened to boycott Fox News altogether, agreed to appear on Fox & Friends and Hannity.

“Keeping Up With Trump” could be the title of the continuing televised saga of Donald Trump’s run for the presidency. For the past two or three decades, this is a guy who has never exactly been invisible when it comes to drawing the attention of television cameras and news media. But the exposure he’s getting now is breathtaking.

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama is joining several other Latin American nations in dropping out of the Miss Universe pageant in protest over Donald Trump’s comments about immigrants. The Miss […]

The suit against Univision for dropping the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants claims breach of contract, defamation and First Amendment violations, and contends Univision turned on him because it supports Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton for president. Ora TV, a company backed by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, said it was scrapping a project in development with the outspoken mogul, and Mexico announced it won’t be sending a contestant to the Miss Universe contest, which Trump partly owns.

The flap over comments he made about immigrants during his recent presidential campaign kickoff speech has some wondering if the backlash may spill over to his globe-spanning empire of real estate properties. Mexican media giant Televisa also said it would no longer be doing business with Trump. But other experts say NBC’s dramatic action simply gives “The Donald” more of the attention and publicity he craves.

The media giant says its decision comes in the wake of “disrespectful” remarks by Donald Trump that the company says offended the entire Mexican population.

NBC has ended its relationship with Donald Trump over comments he made recently about Mexican immigrants, saying: “At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values. Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.”

Politicians campaign to win votes and collect contributions. So somebody who is unfettered by either of those concerns represents a bit of a wild card — and a reason why Donald Trump is sucking oxygen out of the Republican presidential race.

This week’s remarks about Mexican immigrants led Univision to cancel its plans to carry the Spanish-language telecast of next month’s Miss USA Pageant, a joint venture of Donald Trump and NBCUniversal. Trump’s remarks are more than offensive. Such comments are dangerous when espoused by prominent and powerful people. They reinforce prejudices in our culture that can lead to cruel discrimination and, as we saw in Charleston last week, worse — far worse. NBCU now needs to step up and sever all ties with Trump. It won’t be easy, but it will be the right thing to do.

The network issued a new statement late Thursday distancing itself from the TV personality and presidential hopeful.

The network said Thursday it would pull the plug on the July 12 Miss USA telecast and has severed its business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which produces the Miss USA pageant, due to what it called “insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants” by Trump, a part owner of Miss Universe.

Those are what’s on my mind this afternoon. First is the good news for broadcast spectrum sellers that the FCC is listening to the EOBC and the NAB and making changes in the incentive auction rules. Second, the commission needs to listen to broadcasters and require DirecTV to keep its 12-year-old promise to carry all local TV stations in a market. Quit stalling. And, third, please NBC, cut all ties to Donald Trump. The network and the nation will be better for it.

Real-estate mogul and reality television star Donald Trump said Tuesday he will seek the Republican nomination for president. He’s the 12th high-profile Republican to enter the 2016 race, with more to come in the weeks ahead.

The Peacock Network wants The Donald to sign on the dotted line for two more seasons of The Celebrity Apprentice ahead of the live finale of the current season on Sunday, May 20.

NEW YORK (AP) — Mob boss widow Victoria Gotti, singer Clay Aiken and IndyCar champ Michael Andretti are on tap for the next edition of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice.” Host Donald […]

Margaret Sullivan says that Lesley Stahl blew an important chance to call Donald Trump out as a liar on his Iraq War position in her 60 Minutes interview Sunday. “Stahl — busy trying to herd the other rhetorical cats set loose in the interview — did not say what she should have,” she writes, kicking off what’s likely to be a healthy streak of meta-criticism on the media’s closer scrutiny (or lack thereof) of Trump’s claims.

NBC is publicly disavowing a report in the New York Post that it is shelling out $160 million to Trump and co-producer Mark Burnett for another two seasons of Celebrity Apprentice.