Debating Ratings

CNN's Thursday debate draws 5.4 mil total viewers and 1.7 mil in the golden 25-54 demo -- CNN's best debate showing this election cycle.  See where CNN falls among other networks' debate ratings.  TV by the Numbers

Related:  Thursday Jan. 26, 2012 cable news ratings.

America Held Hostage: Fox News 'The Five'

This hilarious bit is why Fox News The Five is holding viewers hostage (figuratively and willingly) at 5p. The ensemble show is smart to showcase its cast like a reality show develops characters. Thursday The Five fleshed out the hosts' personalities by linking Republican presidential candidates' high school yearbook photos making the news to their own dweeby yearbook shots.

Bob Beckel

Beckel on Dana Perino:  "She looks like a hostage." Greg Gutfeld: "I didn't know Dana was in The Princess Bride."

Gutfeld on Gutfeld: "The hair was the inspiration for the modern ballistic helmet and can withstand extreme weather conditions as low as fifty degrees below zero."

Beckel on the photo submitted by Eric Bolling: "It looks like Boogie Nights!"

(HT: Johnny Dollar)

CNN's Wolf Blitzer: 'Tiny Mouse' Takes Out 'Giant Elephant'

Wash Post Chris Cillizza The Fix:  "Gingrich tried to return to his days of ragging on debate moderators, but it went poorly. . . . Blitzer: 1. Gingrich: 0. . . . Jacksonville, Fla., and CNN put on one of the best debates of the GOP presidential race."

CNN reveals debate secrets:  "AARP:  Argue.  Attack.  Respond.  Presence."

Related: Reuters CNN video Santorum, Gingrich lash out at the media. CNN: Final Florida push beings after contentious debate. CNN:  Romney beats Gingrich at his own game.

Best lines via Wash Post:

Rachel Maddow: Trivial Pursuit

In 1985 I was a question on Jeopardy!  The winner hit the buzzer in a millisecond.  Not so for MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.  Too obscure for even Ken Jennings or "Watson."



(HT: Breitbart TV NewsBusters)

Caption This!

NYT Friday front page (website)

Ann Curry's Brain Farts

Ann Curry's frequent on-air f**kups? "NBC producers don’t bother correcting her. 'It will only make it worse.''"  NYP

NYP hounds Curry Friday for her latest flub Thursday:  telling viewers they need a "mug shot" on their resumes when she should've said head shot.  She blames "poor eyesight," says the Post, but that doesn't explain screwing up the facts. NYP leaves out this December 2011 gem:

Ann Curry Accidentally Says 'Semen' During Bill Clinton Segment 

Fox Vox Populi: #1 SOTU Ratings

Obama fingers Fox #1 in SOTU ratings!

TV by the Numbers

Wash Post's Lisa de Moraes:  Notice how MSNBC copped more viewers than CNN? It’s the first time MSNBC has outstripped CNN for a SOTU telecast. (There surely was much rejoicing at MSNBC on Wednesday afternoon.)

38 mil -- Obama's lowest SOTU audience.  Bill Carter NYT

Fox's Greg Kelly 'Strenuously Denies' Rape Charges

Hunky Fox & Friends Weekend former host Greg Kelly charged with rape.  In a law office. Complicating matters is Greg's dad -- NYC police commissioner Ray Kelly.  Greg is now the popular host of Fox 5 a.m. show Good Day New York.

The Marine ex-fighter pilot covered the Iraq War for Fox News, and served as Fox's WH correspondent for a time.

 NYP Huffington Post NYDN NYT Fox 5

Greg fan site.

Update:  DA "doubts" charges.  Kelly on "leave of absence."  Richard Huff NYDN NYP
Texts sex "consensual."  NYDN

Chelsea Clinton NBC Correspondent: Is It Over?

Chelsea feels her pain.

Has Chelsea Clinton's NBC News Rock Center career hit rock bottom? Did the guy crafting this press release leave out NBC in Chelsea's bio for a reason?

Chelsea was pimping community servitude in an appearance arranged by the Clinton Global Initiative and Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk.  "Chelsea Clinton Promotes Philanthropy" spins the AP.

UK Daily Mail

Obama: 'America is back!'

Shovel ready: Obama's brass warfare "Lower the temperature in this town."

Hillary (crying over spilled milk):  "A great speech, Mr. President." Pearls before swine.

Have not (The Most Famous Secretary Since Fawn Hall) and Have (Apple Heiress).

Who's in Michelle Obama's box?

Chart courtesy The White House.

Watch Obama's SOTU "standard" or "enhanced!" Last year it was "we do big things" and "the Sputnik moment."  This year "brought to you by the Soros Fund."


This year:  "We know how to fix it." Problems? "We know how to solve them."  Transcript

Must-read Wash Post fact check. "O Uses Buffett's Gal Friday as a Speech Prop" NYP
"The President launched his campaign Tuesday night" NYDN
"Obama’s speech was flat" Wash Post columnist Dana Milbank

Wash Post's Hank Stuever:  ABC kicked off its broadcast of President Obama’s State of the Union address Tuesday night with the graphics and language that would accompany a reality-style showdown, in which a long rumored comeback (that would be the president’s) finally takes center stage. ABC started with grainy images of the Republicans attacking the president’s record.“Can he rally our country and our government in the middle of an election year?” the narrator wondered in reality’s unmistakable tone of hype, boxing rings, movie trailers. Keywords flashed across the screen — programming for airheads. “Now! Tonight . . . ”

 
Stuever:  "Obama droned . . .  As expected, Obama’s best work was achieved by walking us once again across the precarious rope bridge of class divide." 

Reel Politico

A lone Fox News personality shows up in Politico's five-year tribute video. Twice.

A sea of NBC and MSNBC: Brokaw, Gregory, Matthews, Mitchell, Russert, Brzezinski, Scarborough and more. Schieffer, Dan Rather, Couric, Sawyer, Charlie Rose, the terminally unintelligible Arianna Huffington . . .



(H/t NewsBusters)

Katie Couric: 'I have a real understanding of where my sweet spot is.'

Katie Couric and wrangler Jeff Zucker pimping their new daytime talker to Variety at NATPE this week in Miami.

And to The Hollywood Reporter.  Katie as Oprah has been cleared in 93% of U.S. TV markets months before her September 2012 debut.

Fox's Shep Smith: Using His Noodle

As is his custom, Fox News anchor Shep Smith drills down the menu at this year's traditional off-the-record lunch for big shot TV news stars -- peppering his entire 3-4p show starting with Vegetable Lasagna sans pasta.

Shep went so far as to read the definition of lasagna on the air.  Lasagna IS pasta. So why is the WH serving up a misnomer?

Obama "led us to believe he was practicing his speech," observed Shep after 35 minutes of pumping the lunch.

And the wine . . . $37 a bottle, Shep reports from Studio B. 

TV News SOTU: Usual Suspects

2011 SOTU

The Hollywood Reporter

Fox News Shep Smith mans Fox TV coverage until 10:30.  Al Gore's obscure Current TV runs Obama's SOTU AND a Special Edition of Keith Olbermann's Countdown.

Jon Stewart on CNN's John King: 'We've got the moderator, the MODERATOR of the debate evading questions now! We're through the looking glass!'

"Oh my fucking God. He shanked it!  King shanked it!" The Daily Show Monday Jan. 23, 2012.

5:20 in:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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