State of the Union August 23, 2009

State of the Union with John King started off this morning with a discussion with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen and The US Ambassador to Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry (Ret.). The discussion focused on the recent election in Afghanistan (results from the election have not been determined); US troop levels in Afghanistan; whether or not the public understands the mission in Afghanistan; fighting drug production and replacing it with food crops; troop levels in Iraq (can the decrease in troops continue?); and the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

Next, King spoke live with three Senators: Sen. Richard Lugar (R), Sen. Joe Lieberman (I), and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D) in the DC Studio. The Senators were asked about the impact the release of the Lockerbie bomber will have on the US relations with Libya (which had been on the path of improvement); and the war in Afghanistan: what are the objectives? what are the appropriate troop levels? how long will we be there?

King then asked the panel about health care reform.

And finally, King asked Lieberman about a quote from Alec Baldwin that was in the July/August issue of Playboy magazine.

King stayed focus on the military with his America Dispatch this week. He visited Fort Riley to talk to the families that have members serving overseas.

At 10AM, it was time for Howard Kurtz and Reliable Sources. Kurtz spoke with Steve Kroft and Jeff Fager about the passing of Don Hewitt.

Next, Kurtz spoke with Jeff Jarvis. If you're a frequent reader of Buzz Machine then you're already familiar with Jarvis' announcement earlier this month that he has prostate cancer. Kurtz questioned him about his decision to be very public about his diagnosis and treatment options.

Kurtz' next panel included Anne Kornblut, David Frum, and Clarence Page. They talked about the White House blaming the press' coverage as well as O'Reilly versus Stewart in comments made about the town hall meeting protesters.

George Gombossy, a former reporter for the Hartford Courant, who says that he was fired because he did a negative story about an advertiser talked wtih Kurtz.

The final two segments focused on the career of Robert Novak, who passed away earlier this week and Jayson Blair's new career as a life coach.

Back to John King for the Sound of Sunday and bring in the pundits...

The first panel of the hour included Donna Brazile and Bill Bennett to discuss the release of the Lockerbie bomber; the war in Afghanistan; health care reform; and Bob Novak.

The CNN Diner segment was from Junction City, Kansas. King talked with Denise Ott, Buz Bruzina, and Bill Speer at Stacy's Restaurant.

Ed Henry, Jessica Yellin, and Dana Bash joined King in the studio for the final panel discussion of the hour. The topics that they covered this morning included: the Lockerbie bomber release, the war in Afghanistan, and health care legislation. The Lightening Round was all about wee-wee and Playboy...

That brings us to the 12PM hour and a repeat of a large portion of the first hour of the program. 44 minutes later, live programming resumed with The Last Word. This week, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) was the last guest of the morning and the interview focused on health care reform.

Here's John King's behind the scenes video for this week:

And finally, here are your links to this week's podcasts:

• State of the Union (video)
• Reliable Sources (video)
• State of the Union (audio)

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Ratings for the Week of August 10, 2009

Ratings for the week August 10, 2009 - August 14, 2009

	8PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 923,400 CNN 210,400 MSNBC 384,600 HLN 237,400
	9PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 817,800 CNN 255,750 1 MSNBC 298,600 HLN 142,000
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 685,600 CNN 213,250 1 MSNBC 223,200 HLN 166,200

Everyone had their place this week in the ratings. FOX swept first place in the Adults 25 - 54 demographic during all three time slots Monday - Friday.

Coming in second place this week was MSNBC. They held second place in all timeslots except for 10PM on Tuesday and Friday.

CNN found themselves mostly in third place. At 8PM, they came in third place three nights out of five, but the average for the week dropped them to fourth. At 9PM, they came in third place all five days (note: only four days were used in the average- Amanpour Reports special programming on Thursday night was excluded from the weekly average). At 10PM, two second place finishes, two third place finishes and one fourth place finish averaged out to a third place finish for the week. (Again, only four days were used in the average- Thursday was excluded).

HLN stayed mostly in fourth place this week. Although, even after coming in fourth place three times and third place only twice during the 8PM hour, their average for the week pulled them up to third place. At 9PM, they were consistently in fourth place all five days. At 10PM, they came in third place once and fourth place the other four nights (averaging out to put them in fourth place for the week.)

¹ 4 night average used. CNN special programming on Thursday night at 9PM and 10PM excluded. (Amanpour Reports)

^{^} Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS) Fast Track Nationals.

I have one non-ratings extra for you tonight. CNN may be the most trusted name in news, but would you trust them to answer questions on a game show for you? Last week, two of CNN's best political team appeared on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire as the "Ask the Expert". The first clip shows Wolf Blitzer and the second features Candy Crowley.

We are sad to report the passing of Robert Novak today. Novak was with CNN from the its inception and hosted the popular 'Crossfire', in addition to his reporting duties. He left CNN in 2005, after 25 years with the network. CNN has posted this tribute, narrated by Tom Foreman, for Robert Novak:

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