Weekend Musings

Regis Philbin guest hosted Piers Morgan Tonight on Tuesday (5/29/12) and, in our opinion, did a wonderful job. He devoted the entire hour to interviewing David Letterman, who rarely makes these types of appearances. Letterman suggested twice that Regis would be a good fit with CNN. He also comically forgot Anderson Cooper's name. Here's the clip:

The big CNN talk this week were firings and hirings. But we also noticed some of our commenters reacting to an article on Broadcast & Cable.com:

Turner Broadcasting CEO Phil Kent admitted to being "very unhappy" with CNN's primetime ratings, but said it won't resort to tricks to increase viewership.CNN ratings hit a 20-year low in May and speaking at the Nomura U.S. Media & Telecom Summit Thursday, Kent said the company had plans to improve the quality of its broadcasts and increase viewership.

Kent said the ratings problems had two causes, some he called environmental and the others "self-inflicted."

Over the years, CNN has benefited from breaking news and in the first five months of this year, there have been few big stories, especially compared to last year's rush of unrest in the Middle East, tsunamis, reactor meltdowns and earthquakes.

Even the election has been "pretty boring to people," said Kent, who expects interest in politics to heat up.

"This is not an excuse. It's just a fact," said Kent, calling those factors about half the problem.

The self-inflected problems stems from the fact that "we haven't put the best shows on the air," he said.

Read more »

Piers Morgan Tonight News

Huffington Post has a few interesting articles today relating to Piers Morgan tonight. Next week PMT will have a week of guests hosts with Regis Philbin filling in on Tuesday night. Philbin's buddy David Letterman will be the guest.

There's also more trouble for Piers concerning the hacking scandal in the UK. BBC anchor Jeremy Paxman claimed in testimony today that Morgan taught him how to hack into a cell phone. HuffPo reported:

Morgan, who testified before Leveson in December, has long seen his name pop up at the fringes of the ongoing phone hacking scandal. He has vehemently denied ever having hacked a phone or having told anyone to hack a phone, and there has been no hard evidence linking him to the practice.
Still, accusations that hacking was rife during his editorship of the Daily Mirror -- or that he acquired private voicemails through hacking -- have persisted.Paxman -- who has tangled with Morgan about hacking before -- said that, at a lunch in 2002, Morgan first claimed to know the exact details of a conversation between the two (though he said it was quite possible Morgan was "imagining" when he said this), and then described how to hack a phone to him.

Piers' cheeky response on Twitter?

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Piers on Letterman

Piers Morgan was a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman recently and they spoke, among other things, about Larry King, CNN's ratings problems and Piers Morgan Tonight.

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Some Sanchez Follow-Up

We would be remiss if we didn't point out some of the follow-ups to the firing of Rick Sanchez.
First is David Letterman's Top Ten from Monday night:

Jon Stewart had a little to say on the subject:



And finally,former CNN senior producer Chez Pazienza worked with Sanchez at CNN and has know him for more than 20 years. Here's a bit of his take on the newsman:

As a local anchor, he was brilliant -- really, the best I've ever seen. That's because he understood that television on the whole was largely bullshit and that local news -- particularly the kind done so well at WSVN in Miami -- was just a lot of superficial dazzle. He figured if you could talk and talk well, what you were saying wouldn't really matter. He deserves credit for what one producer we used to work with together jokingly called his unique ability to "demystify television."

To read more of I, Sanchez check out Chez's blog Deus Ex Malcontent.

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Funnymen Look at CNN

Stephen Colbert's 'The Word' included Kyra Phillips and Rick Sanchez

Craig Ferguson on the retirement of Larry King and who (Anderson Cooper) could replace him.



David Letterman's Top 10 Reasons that Larry King retired:



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CNN's Statement on the Future of LKL via Letterman

David Letterman had an exclusive statement from CNN on the future of Larry King.

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An Emmy Nomination, Tasers and Whoops!

Congratulations to American Morning for their Daytime Emmy nomination. NBC's Today, ABC's Good Morning America and CNN’s American Morning go head-to-head in the 'outstanding morning program' category.

Speaking of American Morning they seem to be a much happier bunch lately. And obsessed with all things taser. Check out JR's reaction to a news story.

I'm enjoying Kyra Phillips subbing for new mom Kiran Chetry. I've loved Kyra ever since she did her mea culpa on Letterman. Her reason number 5 is killer.

If this is all new to you here's the original whoops that made Kyra Phillips the center of attention for a few days back in August of 2006. She is a very classy lady who knew enough to laugh along, even though she must have been mortified.

That's it for me today. Remember to keep those mics off and stay away from tasers! ~ Phebe




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Jack Caffer...tea or me?

Hi Everyone!

I grew up in the tri-state area where Jack Cafferty, Sue Simmons and the Live At Five team (NBC-NY) were "Must See TV" in my house. I proudly admit that I crushed on Mr. Cafferty, big time! Nowadays, I am thrilled to watch Jack on The Situation Room every night at 5pm! His blunt opinions about the policy makers of this country are refreshing, to say the least.

With that in mind, I decided to write a post about Mr. Cafferty's days at Live At Five. One Google search provided me with a great clip to share with you! The Gothamist was recently futzing around YouTube and found a segment that Jack did with David Letterman on Live At Five where each show simultaneously appeared on the other's for Letterman's anniversary (circa 1989).

Here is the clip and an excerpt from the article. Click here to read the full text.

Letterman on Live at Five/Live at Five on Letterman



While poking around on YouTube recently we stumbled onto this awesome clip from 1989 of David Letterman appearing on Live at Five and Live at Five simultaneously appearing on Late Night With David Letterman. In it, we see Letterman, whose studio 6A is just across the hall from WNBC's Live at Five's studio 6B, being interviewed by Jack Cafferty (and vice versa) on the occasion of a prime time anniversary show. Late Night taped its show every afternoon as Live at Five broadcast live, and Letterman on occasion popped in on Live at Five and was noted for complaining that WNBC's newscast got better guests then he did.

There are some gems, other than seeing what Sue Simmons and Al Roker looked like in 1989, such as a Top Ten List of Rejected Promotional Slogans for Live at Five, and Paul Shaffer and the band doing a cover version of the Live at Five theme.

If you live in the New York area please note that Sue Simmons will be interviewing Jack Cafferty at the 92Y in January 2008. Now I would pay good money to see that live! Here's the link.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this trip in the WAY-BACK Machine! LOL! I'll see you in two weeks! ~Sheryn

Turning An Embarrassing Moment Into Comedy ~ Kyra Phillips Style!

So have you ever done something completely embarrassing like fall flat on your face or stick your foot in your mouth at an inopportune moment? Of course like me, you probably have but have you ever done it live on national television in front of millions of people???

Back during the Democratic debate last month Larry King was caught on a live mic making some comments in regards to the way the show was being run and it made me think to a few years back when CNN news anchor Kyra Phillips had an unfortunate incident involving the ladies room and a live microphone. Kyra accidentally left her mic on when she went to the ladies room while covering a speech by President Bush in New Orleans – and her family gossip was broadcast live. In case you didn’t see it...

Well I am a strong believer that the best way to get over an embarrassing moment is to laugh at yourself before people can laugh at you and that is what Kyra did when she appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman to give the Top Ten List on Tuesday August 30, 2005. Kyra showed she was a good sport in this funny explanation of her side of the story





Kyra Phillips's Top 10 list:

10. Still haven't mastered complicated on/off switch.
9. Larry King told me he does this all the time.
8. How was I supposed to know we had a reporter embedded in the bathroom.
7. I honestly never knew this sort of thing was frowned upon.
6. I couldn't resist a chance to win $10,000 on America's Funniest Home Videos.
5. I was set up by those bastards at Fox News.
4. Like you've never gone to the bathroom and had it broadcast on national television.
3. I just wanted that hunky Lou Dobbs to notice me.
2. Okay, so I was drunk and I couldn't think straight.
1. You have to admit, it made the speech a lot more interesting


I have to say I am pretty impressed with how Kyra made a situation that could have been really horrible into something hopefully she can laugh out loud now. Hope you enjoyed this trip down CNN memory lane!