Spinning the Ratings in Houston

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Spinning the Ratings in Houston

​Every station in Houston can find something to celebrate in the reams of spreadsheets that document the four-week Nielsen sweeps period for May that ended Wednesday night. But KTRK (Channel 13), KHOU (Channel 11) and KXLN (Channel 45) had most of the numbers on their side.

In the flagship race for 10 p.m. newscast leadership, Channel 11 prevailed in households with a with a 6-4 Monday-through-Sunday rating to 5.7 for Channel 13 and 4.5 for Channel 2. In the weekday late news ratings for households, Channel 11’s lead over Channel 13 was 6.6 to 6.0, with Channel 2 at 4.5. At 9 p.m., KRIV (Channel 26) averaged 2.8 on weekdays to 0.5 for KIAH’s (Channel 39) NewsFix.

More after the jump.  ​

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Bomb Scare Knocks Newscast off the air (Updated)

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A Bomb scare at WFSB Hartford has the newscast off the air right now.  

The station was evacuated around 4:45 p.m.  They is airing a rerun of their "Better Connecticut" program.

The picture shows police set up in the stations parking lot. ​

Update: By ​6PM the station was back on the air. They did not mention the bomb scare only saying "Thanks for being with us after this unforeseen interruption"

Why Gov. Christie Lost His Today Show Co-Host Job

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Gov. Chris Christie was on the Today Show this morning and NBC had billed it as Christie was going to co-host the show.

He was on this morning, but NBC no longer called it "co-hosting the show."

​According to NBC, Christie sat down “for an extended interview.” 

The reason NBC changed Christie's appearance from co-host to interview is because Christie’s lesser-known primary opponent grounds for requesting equal on-air time. 

And God knows if we wanted to watch a news program hosted by someone we never heard of, we'd watch MSNBC. ​

“Gov. Christie will sit down with Today for an extended interview and he will be a part of a ribbon cutting ceremony to open the Jersey Shore for the summer season,” Today show spokeswoman Megan Kopf said in a statement. “He will not serve as guest co-host as we don’t want the ‘equal time’ rules to distract from the real focus of the show, which is to highlight the Jersey Shore.”

The federal rule aims to force broadcasters to afford equal airtime for legally qualified candidates.

But despite billing Christie’s appearance as an extended interview, a post on a Today show website still reads Christie will “co-host” the show for an hour.

By the way, we watched a bit of his interview and it was kind of boring. Maybe it was better that he didn't co-host after all.

 ​H/T politickernj.com

By George! What the Hell is Jeff Zucker Trying to Pull Here?

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It appears that CNN Boss Jeff Zucker wanted to hire George Stephanopoulos away from ABC News and give him a show on CNN.

He couldn't get Stephanopoulos, so he has now hired George Stroumboulopoulos. We're guessing that Zucker is hoping the viewers won't notice that George Stroumboulopoulos is not George Stephanopoulos.

Hell...you never know it might work.​

George Stroumboulopoulos is a TV host in Canada and will now have his own show on CNN called "Stephanopoulos".....no wait.... it will be called "Stroumboulopoulos."

The interview show will debut on Sunday, June 9 at 10:00PM but then it will be moved to the hotley watched time slot of Friday nights at 11:00PM.

"Stroumboulopoulos" will tape before a live studio audience (or at least as many live people that can find) in Los Angeles. 

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LA Anchor Says Good Bye

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LA Anchor Says Good Bye

KTLA Morning Anchor Michaela Pereira said goodbye yesterday as she heads from LA to the Big Apple.

After 9 years Pereira is leaving local TV news and headed to CNN.

She will be the news reader on CNN's latest attempt at a relevant morning show.

Pereira said good bye on air, online and maybe even over the phone if you called her. ​

 She chocked up while apologizing to viewers for "the longest goodbye ever."

The video of her good bye after the jump.  ​

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Anchor Shake Up in the Twin Cities

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It didn't take long for one Minneapolis station to shake up the Anchor team after a bad May book in the Mornings.

WCCO is replacing morning and noon Anchors Angela Davis and Mike Binkley (pictured) with Jason DeRusha and Jamie Yuccas.

Davis and Brinkley have been doing the morning shift for the past 5 years. ​Both will remain at the station, co-hosting the Sunday-night news editions and filling in for other anchors.

The change comes after WCCO's 6 a.m newscast came in third in demo during the May book.  

In all the other time slots the station is 1st or second. ​

News Director Mike Caputa did his best to spin the demotions of ​Davis and Brinkley.

"This wasn't about performance," Caputa said. "But we want to be in a position to grow. Expectations are high here to do better in the morning."

The Anchor changes will take place June 2 

"Smokin' Hot Badness"

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"Smokin' Hot Badness"

Usually ​when you see "Smokin' Hot Badness" as the headline of a story, it is followed up  by a picture of a really hot Anchor or Reporter (yeah....cuz we're kind of shallow like that).

You don't expect to see those words from a News Director in Memphis talking about the May ratings.

WREG ND Bruce Moore sent a memo out to the staff with the subject line "Smokin' Hot Badness." 

Imagine how disappointed the staff was when a they opened the email and saw it was about the May book.

Moore told the staff that they "mopped the floor with the competition." and took a shot at longtime rating leader WMC.

Read his memo after the leap.   ​

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See What Happens

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We'​re guessing (hoping might be a better word) that WXMI (Grand Rapids) Morning Anchor Mike Avery left his desk with his Twitter account open on his computer. 

This is the Tweet that Avery (more than likely a newsroom prankster) sent out around 6:45AM this morning:

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Since his co-anchor Sarah Brodhead was very quick to retweet it, we're saying she is the prime suspect. Either that or Avery is the oldest Justin Bieber fan ever. And maybe the first male one at that. ​

Gannett Station Widens Lead in Buffalo Ratings

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Gannett Station Widens Lead in Buffalo Ratings

It wasn't that long ago when WGRZ the Gannett station in Buffalo ​was in last place in the news ratings.

The Number 1 station was WKBW followed by WIVB and then WGRZ.​

You can flip that upside down now.​

WGRZ topped the news ratings from morning to evening. WIVB gets a win late, thanks to CBS prime time and WKBW continues to suck wind.​

As FTVLive told you a few weeks ago, WKBW GM Bill Ransom is going to retire later this year. When Ransom took over the station is was a solid number one. Under Ransom's leadership the station went from first to worst. And you wonder why the guy gets to retire, instead of being fired a long time ago?​

There was an interesting trend with viewers this rating book. Read what that was after the leap.  

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Back to The A-T-L

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WJLA (Washington) Anchor Cynne Simpson is leaving the Allbritton owned station and headed back to the market see was at before she came to DC.

Word is that contract talks between WJLA and Simpson had stalled and the Anchor started to explore other options.​

She is now heading to Fox O&O ​WAGA in Atlanta.

This isn't a first go around for Simpson in the A-T-L, she worked as an evening anchor at WGCL before heading to WJLA. 

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Fired St. Louis Anchor Explores Legal Options

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Fired St. Louis Anchor Explores Legal Options

It appears that Fired KMOV Anchor ​Larry Connors isn't going to go away quietly.

Connors' attorney Merle Silverstein sent a letter to KMOV GM Mark Pimentel telling the station that they want all records pertaining to Connors employment and firing to be preserved. 

Connors was sacked after he posted on his Facebook page that he thought he might be a target of the IRS after his interview with President Obama. Connors later admitted that his IRS trouble started well before the Obama interview.​

A copy of the letter sent to the station by Connors attorney is after the jump.  ​

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Everybody Wins (or Loses) in Orlando

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Everybody Wins (or Loses) in Orlando

But WESH-Channel 2 won the 5 p.m. news hour, WOFL-Channel 35 dominated the 10 p.m. hour and WKMG-Channel 6 was tops at noon. The May ratings period ended Wednesday.

WFTV was the favorite destination for early morning news. And WFTV continued to win the 6 p.m. half-hour in a close contest with WESH. The numbers in this story focus on the 25-to-54 age group, unless otherwise noted.

At 6 p.m., WFTV averaged 29,900 viewers to WESH's 27,400, WOFL's 22,100 and WKMG's 10,600. But WESH highlighted that it was reaching more 25-to-54 viewers than WFTV from 5 to 6:30 p.m., which has long been a stronghold for WFTV. Both WESH and WOFL were ahead of WFTV at 5 p.m.

More after the hop.  ​

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Sweeping Up in Chicago

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Sweeping Up in Chicago

The strong just keep getting stronger. At least when it comes to late local news in Chicago. Long top-ranked ABC-ownedWLS-Channel 7 extended its lead in the hotly-competitive late local news ratings in the Nielsen May ratings book that ended Wednesday night.

Monday through Friday, Channel 7's 10 pm newscast jumped to a 10.0 rating from a 9.0 rating a year ago to lead the pack by a wide margin. Among other things, the station appears to be benefiting from an aggressive schedule of on-air promotions for its newscast — an initiative instituted by general manager John Idler after his arrival a year ago.

Second-place NBC-owned WMAQ-Channel 5 inched up slightly in the May book to a 5.9 from a 5.7, while CBS-ownedWBBM-Channel 2 plummeted to a 4.8 rating from a 5.7, partly the result, perhaps, of a weaker lead-in audience in May. In the Chicago market, one rating point equals 35,000 households.

More on the Windy City ratings after the skip.   ​

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Holder Himself OK'd Search of Fox Reporter's Emails

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Holder Himself OK'd Search of Fox Reporter's Emails

Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.

The disclosure of the attorney general’s role came as President Barack Obama, in a major speech on his counterterrorism policy, said Holder had agreed to review Justice Department guidelines governing investigations that involve journalists.

"I am troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable," Obama said. "Journalists should not be at legal risk for doing their jobs."

Read more on the story after the bounce.  ​

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