network news

As the first episode revealed, NBC has misread not only Kelly’s talents but also the changing nature of our cultural wars.

ABC and NBC claimed ratings crowns for their news programs in the 2016-17 TV season that ended last week, but their kingdom of viewers is still getting smaller. The average number of viewers watching network evening newscasts each night during the 2016-17 season was 23.1 million, down 4% from the 2015-16 season. In the morning, the three networks’ total was 12.2 million viewers, a decline of 5% from the previous year.

The former Fox News anchor vowed to put aside the hard-edged interviewing style that made her famous and turned her energy Monday full-bore into the launch of a new morning program. Kelly told a live studio audience in the opening moments of her new Megyn Kelly Today that “I’m kind of done with politics for now,” and said she hoped instead to help viewers “get yourself through the day, to have a laugh with us, a smile, sometimes a tear — and maybe a little hope to start your day. Some fun! That’s what we want to be doing.”

In her 60 Minutes debut as a special correspondent, she talked to 14 Americans about how they feel about the president — the results were decidedly mixed.

It’s a testament to the power of the Sunday-night newsmagazine that it seeks to absorb one of television’s biggest stars into its fabric instead of the other way around. One of the medium’s best-known celebrity interviewers will do some, but will largely work against type in reporting stories, said Jeff Fager, the show’s executive producer.

The big three broadcast networks offered up special and expanded editions of their morning news broadcasts Monday morning with a focus on Hurricane Irma.

In his new book Fifty Years of 60 Minutes, Jeff Fager reports on the rise of CBS’s flagship newsmagazine and the role the producer played in making America’s must-watch TV news program a dynasty.

That was the case throughout Sunday’s gripping coverage of Hurricane Irma’s assault on Florida. Journalists were the shock troops allowing the nation to experience the storm from the comfort of their living rooms. Networks all brought their top teams in on the weekend for special coverage, non-stop on the news channels. Yet when a huge tree limb crashed to the ground behind NBC’s Gabe Gutierrez, forcing him to scurry away during a live shot, it illustrated the danger many journalists faced.

Bannon, speaking in a 60 Minutes interview that will air Sunday on CBS, said the “Billy Bush Saturday, to me, is a litmus test.” It was not clear from the video clip what New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had advised Trump. But Bannon said he told Christie, “The plane leaves at 11 o’clock in the morning. If you’re on the plane, you’re on the team. Didn’t make the plane.”

Network and cable news channels are planning full-force coverage of Hurricane Irma, the massive Category 4 storm already described as a “nuclear hurricane” by one Florida mayor — a description quickly seized by cable anchors.

By the time even news junkies get to Sunday morning, there can be a plaintive need for a mental health break. There may be physiological limits on how many times they can watch Sen. Lindsey Graham, among others in our public life, in a given week. But the three stalwarts of broadcast television — ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation and NBC’s Meet the Press — endure amid the obvious media fragmentation and may have cause for a certain self-congratulation amid via a vaguely surprising Harvard study.

With a new book to promote, Hillary Clinton is preparing to re-enter the public eye. Her first stop: an interview with Jane Pauley on CBS Sunday Morning this coming weekend.

Steve Bannon, the ousted White House strategist, sat for an interview with CBS News’ Charlie Rose on Wednesday afternoon in Washington. The full interview will air Sunday on 60 Minutes with portions of it set to run Thursday on CBS This Morning. 

Twelve years ago, headlines across the United States told of chaos and anarchy that supposedly was sweeping New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating landfall. The horror and mayhem that news organizations so widely reported 12 years ago proved highly exaggerated. It is useful now to recall the erroneous and exaggerated coverage of Katrina’s aftermath because the destructive sweep of Hurricane Harvey in Southeast Texas at the end of last month gave rise to little such egregious misreporting and produced few if any examples of the media having “rioted” in their storm coverage. For news organizations, Harvey was no Katrina.

They’ve lifted people into boats, connected families through social media, flagged down rescuers and, in one case, coaxed people out of a flooding apartment house while on television. Most news reporters try to stay out of their stories, but say the dire situations they’ve seen because of Hurricane Harvey and its remnants left them no choice.

ABC News has hired Katie Nelson in a new role as executive producer, ABC News content. She will lead editorial coverage for distribution across the news operation’s sites, apps, social media, streaming services and emerging platforms, reporting to ABC News VP digital, Colby Smith.

The Weather Channel has covered the story live around the clock since 5 a.m. ET on Friday and plans to continue until 1 a.m. Saturday, if it has wound down by then. “What I’ve tried to do is not cede the story to anyone else once the forecasting has been done,” said Nora Zimmett, the channel’s SVP of programming. Traditional news outlets have relied on water-logged correspondents to tell the story of Harvey and its aftermath. Network star power has been in short supply in Texas, with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt the biggest name on the scene early.

The networks’ morning news programs flooded the airwaves with dramatic and, at times, over the top coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

My in-depth and comprehensive content analysis of the mega-group’s news-producing stations suggest that it just might be. I wonder if David Smith knows about this.

Legendary NBC broadcaster Tom Brokaw blasted President Trump’s criticism of the news media on Thursday, firing back after Trump questioned at a rally earlier this week whether members of the press liked the country.

25.6 million viewers watched Monday afternoon TV coverage of the eclipse. 27.8 million viewers watched President Trump’s Afghanistan address that night.

NBC News recently began production on Stay Tuned, a twice-daily newscast produced exclusively for users of the social media platform Snapchat. Young anchors Gadi Schwartz and Savannah Sellers tape their two-to-three minute programs in the Rockefeller Center studio belonging to the company where such innovations as color TV were developed. But making a newscast designed for a vertical screen of a mobile device did not require a technological breakthrough.

The venerable Sunday public-affairs mainstay is joining forces with the American Film Institute for a film festival to be held in November in Washington D.C. Submissions for what is expected to be a slate of seven short-length documentary films are now being accepted. It’s a surprising extension of a TV mainstay that is in the midst of its 70th year on the air.

Megyn Kelly’s upcoming morning program will be called Megyn Kelly Today. The title was to be unveiled at NBC internal meetings Thursday, sources said.

PBS and CBS each received more than 40 nominations for the 38th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards, which were announced today by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times is asking Fox News’ morning show “Fox & Friends” to apologize for what the newspaper calls a “malicious and inaccurate segment” about […]