Monkey See...

Monday, Miles O'Brien was on American Morning with a story of a promising new technology that allows a chip to interact with neurons in the brain and allowed a monkey to move a prosthetic arm with just its thoughts. It's an incredible achievement that hopefully will lead to better prosthetics for amputees or those paralyzed with a spinal injury:

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Tuesday on NewsRoom, Wilf Dinnick had a final story from the earthquake zone in China, about kindergartens being set up in tents to allow children to regain a sense of normalcy:

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Friday during American Morning, there was breaking news about the unemployment rate, and they were in such a hurry to get it on the air, they filmed Ali Velshi at his desk -- nothing like what you'd expect:

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Last week, Christiane Amanpour was on American Morning to talk about the Iranian nuclear program and former president Jimmy Carter's comments regarding Israel's nukes:

Christiane also appeared on NewsRoom to discuss Iran:

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A couple of programming notes: John Roberts and Campbell Brown host a special looking at the challenges facing the next president. It airs tonight and tomorrow night.

And Fareed Zakaria has an interview with Henry Kissinger on Sunday's GPS:

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Where in the World...?

Travel has really dropped off with the end of the primary season, so next week I will be expanding the correspondents I "track." But for this past week:

Monday, Candy Crowley was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Suzanne Malveaux and Wolf Blitzer were both in NYC.

Tuesday, Candy was also in NYC, for the final primary race results.

Thursday, Candy was in Bristol, Virginia for her big interview with Barack Obama. 

Friday, Erica Hill filled in as host of AC360.

Today, John King (above) was back on the air, reporting from the Clinton rally in DC*. I know he's been missed! Candy was also covering the rally.

* I originally wrote NYC, many thanks to Ms Sapphire for pointing that out! 

My bad! And yes, he did get a great tan on his honeymoon!

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That's it for me today, other than this: tomorrow is Nic Robertson's 46th birthday. Seems like we need a little NicPorn in honor of that, hmm?

(That just never gets old... Happy Birthday, Nic!)

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Ratings At A Glance

Ratings for the week May 26 - May 30, 2008

	8PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 446,200 CNN 227,600 MSNBC 430,500 1
	9PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 371,600 CNN 271,800 MSNBC 273,000 1
	10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 243,000 CNN 278,000 MSNBC 231,250 1

The big story this week: Scott McClellan's controversial book. FOX may have came out ahead for the week for the 8PM & 9PM hours but MSNBC had some strong ratings for these time periods as well. MSNBC won the 8PM & 9PM time slot on Thursday night. COUNTDOWN aired an interview with Scott McClellan at 8PM. Once again, CNN takes the 10PM hour with Anderson Cooper 360.

¹ 4 day average. MSNBC Memorial Day Special Programming excluded.
^{^} Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS) Fast Track Nationals.

Ratings for May, 2008

8PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 480,143 CNN 219,947 MSNBC 438,889

9PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 369,429 CNN 278,895 MSNBC 238,059

10PM^Adults 25-54 FOX 280,368 CNN 320,429 MSNBC 216,111

The averages for the month of May shows FOX and MSNBC with strong ratings during the 8PM hour. FOX wins the 9PM hour for the month. CNN wins the 10PM timeslot.

^{^} Courtesy Nielsen Media Research; Demographics where noted; Live + Same Day (LS) Fast Track Nationals.
Averages include Monday - Friday regular programming and does not include primary coverage.

June 3rd was the last Primary of the 2008 Presidential Election. Here's an excerpt from a CNN Press Release about the final primary election night coverage:

Last night, CNN dominated the cable news competition, out-delivering both Fox News and MSNBC in primetime (8–11p) and throughout the network’s extended election coverage (8p to 2a) of the Montana and South Dakota primaries. During primetime (8-11p), CNN averaged an impressive 3.519 million total viewers, 34% more than MSNBC’s 2.627 million, and a 47% advantage over FOX News’ 2.389 million. In the key demographic P25-54 during primetime, CNN was also top-rated with 1.415 million, a 34% lead over second place MSNBC’s 1.053 million, and staggering 91% advantage over FNC’s 739k.

Throughout CNN’s extended coverage (8p–2a) the network also handily outperformed the competition with 2.529 million, MSNBC placed a distant second with 1.732 while FOX News trailed with 1.679 million total viewers. CNN also led among the P25-54 demo, averaging 1.033 million, MSNBC followed with 696k and FNC was behind with 549k.

CNN peaked with 4.525 million viewers during the 10p hour with Anderson Cooper, the only network to top 4 million for an hour.

CNN’s audience also surged online with 10.6 million unique visitors going to CNN.com for last night’s primary coverage. The Political Ticker, CNN.com’s political news blog, generated 1.9 million page views yesterday.

CNN.com Stats:

• Unique Visitors - 10.6 million
• Page Views - 73.6 million
• CNN.com Live - 500,658 streams
• CNNPolitics.com - 10.1 million Page Views
• Political Ticker - 1.9 million page views

Source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, domestic and international editions combined

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Viewing History Globally

Before the final primaries were held on Tuesday night the matter of seating the Florida and Michigan delegates had to be settled. CNN contributor Donna Brazile is a member of the DNC's rules and bylaws committee and during Saturday's meeting, Donna had the chance to speak. The first was during the Florida debate.

Donna Brazile also spoke during the Michigan debate.

While the citizens in the United States were experiencing this historic night, nations around the world were waking up to the news. As a Canadian who has been watching these primaries with extreme interest I am also interested in what other countries have been thinking. CNN had correspondants in various nations share thoughts on the news of the first African American becoming the Democratic nominee. In this first video clip we see reaction from Hong Kong, Germany and Japan.

The second clip of reactions from around the world features France, Kenya and Isreal.

To give us a propective like no one else can Jeanne Moos gives us the Moos Unusual look at history in the making.

Tonight I end with a great clip from this morning's "American Morning". Kyra Phillips and Sanjay Gupta were discussing the uses of the Nintendo Wii as Ali Velshi and Sunny Hostin demonstrated the hoola hop game. If you caught our sister blog, All Things Anderson you know Anderson Cooper received a Wii for his birthday. Hopefully Mr. Cooper saw this segment and will give the Wii a try.

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The Morning Papers and More

I really had intended for my post today to head in an entirely different direction but sometimes things come across my desk that are just too good to pass up. Today it is not as much the content as it is the coincidence.
First Ms. Sapphire sent me this brief clip from Wednesday's American Morning that shows John Roberts and Kyra Phillips looking at the morning newspaper headlines.

You probably already see the direction I'm heading, right? Reading the headlines of the day was a trademark of former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, on his program NewsNight. Thanks to BA I have a wonderful example to share with you.

I miss the aw shucks charm of Mr. Brown, everything has become so slick and over produced since his departure. And speaking of Aaron's absence from the airwaves he did a short interview recently with Michael Martin at New York Magazine.com.

Low-key CNN anchor Aaron Brown was bumped aside in 2005 for Anderson Cooper. Now his CNN contract is up, and he’ll resurface next month as host of a PBS documentary series. He’s also pitching a public-radio show, appearing in an upcoming Kevin Costner movie as himself (“My worst nightmare,” he says), and teaching journalism at Arizona State University. He spoke to Michael Martin.

Why PBS?
I pretty much burned through the other networks. And I like the concept of a PBS audience. TV people like to think the audience has a stake in the program, but they don’t. A PBS audience literally does.

Do you have psychic scars from CNN?
Mostly I laugh about it. In my time there, they paid me to go away, they paid Connie Chung probably a lot to go away, they paid Paula Zahn to go away.

Do you watch TV news?
Like a lot of people in the world, I’m kind of busy. Six-thirty rolls around, I’m not always in front of the TV. CNN’s political stuff has been good, but once the campaign’s over, Anna Nicole Smith returns. I don’t judge it. I just don’t want to do it.

What’s your take on Katie Couric?
It’s difficult to make a program work if the buzz is that it’s going away.

How about Keith Olbermann?
It’s a good television program. No, it’s a very good television program. That’s how I want to put that.

You’ve let your hair go gray.
I think I just got older and stopped giving a shit. On the other hand, the first thing I did when I left CNN was have Lasik surgery.

Well, your replacement is famously gray.
I don’t think it would have made any difference.

Since we must assume one of the main reasons for Mr. Brown's departure was ratings we have now arrived at our last topic of today's post. I'm far from a ratings expert, but even I can tell that CNN had an amazing night on Tuesday. Here are the official numbers from CNN...our ratings expert will break it down for everyone on Friday night.

Last night, CNN dominated the cable news competition, out-delivering both Fox News and MSNBC in primetime (8-11PM) and throughout the network's extended election coverage (8PM-2AM) of the Montana and South Dakota primaries.

During primetime, 8-11PM, CNN averaged an impressive 3.519 million total viewers, 34% more than MSNBC's 2.627 million, and a 47% advantage over Fox News' 2.389 million.

CNN peaked with 4.525 million viewers during the 10PM hour with Anderson Cooper, the only network to top 4 million for an hour.

(CNN's source for these numbers:Omniture SiteCatalyst, domestic and international editions combined

That's it for me for this week. Next week we have a real treat for you. CNN's Ali Velshi will be answering our questions in a new 'Getting to Know.... Until then~Phebe

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A Pail In Comparison

With tonight being last of the 2008 primaries, eventually the focus of this election will go from "Who is the nominee?" to "Who is the running mate?" If you were asked to describe the Vice Presidency in 10 words or less, how would you do it? Well, Richard Stengel of Time Magazine only used 5 words on Monday’s the Situation Room. Wolf Blitzer was talking with Stengel, Gloria Borger, and Jack Cafferty about the role and power of the Vice President.

This is not the first phrase that came to my mind, but I obviously need to brush up on my VP factoids. There’s some history behind Stengel’s words. John Nance Garner who was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s VP from 1933 – 1941 reportedly described the office of the vice presidency as being "not worth a bucket of warm piss." Members of the media have been known to use the toned down “warm spit” version of this quote. (Source: Wikipedia)

One last Situation Room clip, this one is from a few weeks ago when Jack Cafferty was talking about his blog. The Cafferty File blog reached has had over 10 million page views!

If you visit the blog, you'll notice on the sidebar that PC users can download a Situation Room screen saver.

CNN’s special correspondent, Frank Sesno, has a new talk show, but you won’t see it on CNN. Episodes of The Global Wire will be available on the web and it will feature a bipartisan range of distinguished foreign policy thinkers as guests. The first episode was filmed in front of a live audience at The George Washington University and features a conversation with Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) on the global challenges facing the next president. Episodes of the show are available for viewing on the Center’s website, www.usglobalengagement.org, as well as on the Center’s YouTube Channel, www.youtube.com/cusge. (Source: Press Release)

Former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is scheduled to be the second interview in this series.

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Wilf Takes a Hike

On Saturday, I posted several of Wilf Dinnick's reports from the area of China ravaged by the recent earthquake. Over the weekend, he and his crew went to extraordinary lengths to provide CNN viewers with an unprecedented look at the "quake lake" that threatens to hit local residents with another tragedy. When the Chinese Army refused to take them over the mountain to see it for themselves, Team Dinnick went in the hard way:

After the long, six-hour slog, CNN/Domestic picked up the International feed for his report:

But this morning, his follow-up interview from back at the base camp was interrupted by the breaking news of Senator Kennedy's surgery:

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So what's Barack Obama reading these days? Well, it's the latest book by Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World, and I bet the senator was TiVo'ing Fareed's new CNN show on Sunday morning, too! Here's how our latest anchor introduced the first edition:

Looks like it will indeed be a hell of a ride -- and it's great to have a little international flavor back on Domestic again!

Enjoy your week!

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Debating A Trip Down Memory Lane

On Friday, CNN broadcast a follow up report from Tom Foreman, Jamie McIntyre, and Zain Verjee on their commute to work race. This time, the race involved slugs. No, this had nothing to do with a science project. Slugging to work is fairly common in the Washington, D.C. area where commuters who want to use the HOV lane pick up passengers who want a free ride to work.

On Issue #1, Ali Velshi talked to all three of the great commuter race participants.

CNN recently started a new contest. They want their iReports to come up with a new commercial for iReports. Here are the details from the website:

Calling all iReporters!

Create your own promo commercial to help us promote the new iReport.com. If the community votes your promo #1, it may get shown on CNN. You can also win cool prizes – video editing equipment or a video camera to help you create more iReports.

Visit iReport.com to watch and download the stories that have inspired you. Check out our Creative brief and Tool kit for some helpful hints on what makes a good promo. Promos must be 15 OR 30 seconds in length. Entries will be judged on creativity and how effectively they motivate people to check out iReport.com.

Prize Information: Grand Prize (1): One (1) Mac Notebook; 13-inch: black, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, 250 GB hard drive, double layer SuperDrive and Adobe Creative 3 Production Premium. Approximate Retail Value (“ARV”) is $3,108.00. First Prizes (9): One (1) Panasonic PV-GS320 video camera. ARV is $450.00 each.

Here we are- the first week June, 2008 and we’re finally coming up on the end of the 2008 primary elections. Do you remember the first week of June last year? We weren't even sure when the primaries were going start.

CNN was preparing for their first set of debates on the St. Anselm College campus in New Hampshire. Way back then, there were eight Democrats still in the running. (Can you name all eight?) If you're interested in taking a trip down memory lane, CNN's website can provide you with video, transcripts and analysis from the debate.

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