John King Catches Home Run Ball at Red Sox Game

After the Red Sox humiliated the Cubs on Friday night, in their first trip to Fenway since the 1918 World Series, I hoping the Cubs could exact revenge on Saturday night.

This appeared on my Twitter feed ~
When I settled in to watch the game, I knew Mr. King was there, but never expected him to show up on my TV. The game progressed, the Cubs were leading 1-0, and then Ortiz hit a 2 run homer and this showed up on my twitter feed ~




Now I admit, I was mad about the home run and didn't notice the fan who knocked down the ball - but when I saw the tweets I backed up the DVR and this showed up on my television ~


Here's the video of John knocking down the ball and a few more shots of him and his "group" throughout the remainder of the inning ~



And a few more screen grabs ~





There was some talk on the video if the ball would be returned to Ortiz since it was Home Run #300 as a Bo Sox and John answered that question with a tweet ~




I replied with ~



No reply, but I'm thinking Mr. King and I were both happy at the end of the game; he had a bat signed by David Ortiz and my Cubbies won 9 to 3!





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Today's Special Programming from Ground Zero

PROGRAMMING NOTES:

Anderson Cooper will anchor live from NYC’s Ground Zero beginning at 11am ET today. Cooper will anchor CNN’s Newsroom coverage of President Obama’s visit to the site of the 9/11 terror attacks. Wolf Blitzer will join him live from CNN’s D.C. bureau for the special, which will be simulcast on CNN International.

CNN’s John King, USA will be live at 7 p.m. ET from Ground Zero. CNN anchor John King plans to interview former Secretary of Homeland Security and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge during the program.

Tonight on AC360 – airing at 10pm ET – among Cooper’s guests will be former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice who will give her thoughts on the death of Osama Bin Laden.



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A Few Odds & Ends 5/4/11

A few CNN related videos to share with you today. First Soledad O'Brien popped up on TMZ last night. Here's the clip:


Jon Stewart apparently was as taken aback by Piers Morgan's candidness during the Royal Wedding coverage as Anderson Cooper and the rest of us were. Here's that clip:


And this next clip is a radio interview that John King did with Ryan Seacrest the morning after the POTUS announced Bin Ladin's death.


Broadcast&Cable has a most interesting with Sam Feist, CNN VP, about the behind the scenes scramble to get anchors and reporters in place for the President's big announcement.

I called Wolf Blitzer, who was at home in Maryland watching the Washington Capitals game. And I said, "Get in. Now." He said, "What is it?" I said, "I don't know, but it's important." So he grabbed a jacket and a tie and he raced downtown to CNN Washington bureau. At the same time, our chief national correspondent John King was at the hockey game with his daughter, and he raced to the Washington bureau.


Here are some new numbers on CNN’s coverage of the death of Bin Laden.


Fast National data: Monday, May 2 – day two death of bin Laden:

Anderson Cooper 360 tops both FNC and MSNBC in both total viewers and the demo at 10 pm
Piers Morgan and American Morning top MSNBC in total viewers and demo.
In the Arena tops MSNBC in the P25-54 demo.

10:00 pm:
• CNN’s Anderson Cooper tops FNC’s Greta Van Susteren and MSNBC’s Ed Show in both total viewers and demo 25-54
• CNN has 54 % advantage over FNC and a 149% lead over MSNBC in key demo:

CNN: 2.921 million total viewers/1.282 million P25-54 demo
FNC: 2.707 million total viewers/ 830k P25-54 demo
MSNBC: 1.404 million total viewers/ 514k P25-54 demo


9:00 pm:
• CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight tops MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow show in the demo 25-54
• Has second highest demo 25-54 performance since launch (after Japan earthquake) and third highest total viewer number (also after Japan and premiere)
• Morgan has a +21% advantage in total viewers and +27% lead in demo 25-54 over Maddow

CNN: 2.009m total viewers/816k P25-54 demo
MSNBC: 1.665m total viewers/ 643k P25-54 demo
FNC: 3.001 m total viewers/946k P25-54 demo


8:00 pm:
• CNN’s In the Arena topped MSNBC’s Last Word w/ Lawrence O’Donnell show in the demo 25-54
• This represents a +29% advantage in demo 25-54 over O’Donnell

CNN: 1.554m total viewers/ 638k P25-54 demo
MSNBC: 1.593m total viewers/ 494k P25-54 demo
FNC: 4.476m total viewers/ 1.317m P25-54 demo

7:00 pm:
• CNN’s John King, USA topped MSNBC’s Hardball in both total viewers and in the demo
• This represents an +87% advantage in total viewers and a +136% lead in the demo over Hardball

CNN: 2.191m total viewers/877k P25-54
MSNBC: 1.174m total viewers/372k P25-54
FNC: 3.131m total viewers/1.021 P 25-54

6:00 – 9:00 am:
• CNN’s American Morning topped MSNBC’s Morning Joe in both total viewers and the demo 25-54
• Has a +48% advantage in total viewers and +75% lead in demo 25-54 over Morning Joe

CNN: 1.523m total viewers/704k demo 25-54
MSNBC: 1.028m total viewers/402k demo
FNC: 2.244m total viewers/914k demo




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Real Breaking News!

When the news broke of the impending announcement by President Obama that Osama Bin Laden had been killed by the US military CNN was quick to assemble a team and get on air. Wolf Blitzer anchored from Washington, DC.

CNN contributor Peter Bergen joined Wolf in the CNN DC studios.


Ed Henry reported from the White House lawn.

John King was at the magic wall with a geography lesson on where Osama was hiding out.


Also Fran Townsend, Jason Carroll from Times Square in NYC, Chris Lawrence from the Pentagon, Gloria Borger, Nic Robertson by Skype and David Gergen all spoke with Wolf.



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Some Catching Up

Because of the big news week in Egypt we've neglected a few CNN domestic items.

At the top of the list is John King and Dana Bash's announcement that they are expecting a baby this summer. The Kings have been married since May of 2008 and this is their first child. John has 2 children from his a previous marriage. ATC sends congratulations to the lucky couple.




The Hollywood Reporter published a Q & A with Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide on Thursday. Here's a portion, read more after the jump.

THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?

Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.

THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?

Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.

THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?

Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.

THR: How do you explain that?

Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.

THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?

Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now





LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – As president of CNN Worldwide, Jim Walton oversees the news operation's television, online and mobile businesses around the world.

A day after CNN's parent company Time Warner reported its latest earnings, Walton spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the cable network's 2010 financials, the early performance of Piers Morgan Tonight and the importance of U.S. primetime show.

The Hollywood Reporter: CNN had a record operating profit in 2009, and I hear you brought in another record profit for 2010. Is that true, and how big was it?

Jim Walton: We had a really good year in 2010. We had a fantastic year, and yes, we grew up profits over 2009. It was another earnings record, so we are really pleased...I am speaking about the worldwide business of CNN.

THR: How big a profit?

Walton: As you know, Time Warner doesn't break out our earnings, so I am not allowed to either. I can't.

THR: That is several record years in a row, isn't it?

Walton: That is seven years in a row of profit growth. That's pretty good. While the journalism industry is under siege, we continue to grow.

THR: What were the main drivers of your growth?

Walton: There are a lot of men and women here who work really hard. We have a pretty diverse business that is spread out around the world. And we got multiple revenue streams - television, the Web and mobile. It's not one television network. It's a big old honking news machine.

THR: The continued profit growth seems to be in some contrast with your continued U.S. primetime ratings challenges that are often in focus. Is that just not as important a factor?

Walton: I don't want to minimize it. The primetime programming on CNN U.S. is very, very important, and those ratings are important to us. But the ad revenue generated by our primetime programming on CNN U.S. is only about 10% of our total revenues. We have other parts of our business that are as big or bigger than that.

THR: What were some of the growth drivers for CNN last year?

Walton: Over the years, as various economies go up and down around the world, we are in so many different economies that we have a lot of touch points and are not weighed down by any one thing. We also have television, Web and mobile. Advertising is a huge component of our business domestically and internationally, but the distribution business is big for us. The Web business is big for us, mobile is growing, and we are in the syndication business as well.

THR: What do you predict for your business for this year?

Walton: I'm not allowed to give forward-leaning statements on financials. What I can tell you is that I am confident that we are going to have another great year. We have some new programs on CNN. We will be launching a new primetime program on HLN. We have some digital additions that we are going to make over the next four, five months. And the international business continues to evolve. So, I am very confident that we are going to have another strong year.

THR: You mentioned new programs. How do you feel about the performance of Piers Morgan so far?

Walton: It's spectacular. I'm really pleased. He is so clever, he is really smart, he is a big personality. And he works hard and does his homework. He's been stepping into the Egypt story now. We couldn't be happier.

THR: What about ratings? Have you noticed what kind of guests and topics do better for him or whether the show does better when he steps into breaking news versus has celebrity guests?

Walton: It's really too early to put a stamp on it. Piers and his producers and Ken Jautz who runs CNN U.S. will work together and look at what happens each day, review and always try to make it better each day. I can assure you that Piers will be every bit a part of the conversation, and the interview will be the basis of what that program is. But I think it is in its early days. He has tried all sorts of different types of shows in the two and a half weeks he has been on the air. Maybe that's what it will always be like.

THR: Parker Spitzer has been on the air longer, and you have tweaked that a bit. How happy are you with it now?

Walton: Much has been said and much has been written about the program. If you look at it just on its merits, it's one of the smartest programs on television - whether cable or broadcast. It fits very much within the brand of CNN and what it stands for. And if you look at the last 10 days or so, its performance has gotten a lot better and the past couple of nights it has beaten MSNBC. It's got some momentum right now.

THR: How do you explain that?

Walton: We had a couple of folks who weren't television professionals, and now they have got some time under their belts. They are performing, and the show just gets better and better.

THR: Anything you can say about the chatter that it will be just Spitzer one day?

Walton: I have got a little saying here at CNN internally that you can't burp without somebody somewhere writing. CNN commands a lot of attention, which is great. What you can count on is that we have Dr. Drew coming on HLN in primetime soon. That's the talent focus for our company right now.

THR: You have added personalities to primetime since Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes joked last year that some time CNN may be a bit boring. Do you feel you have made real progress?

Walton: It's in the eye of the beholder. What is funny to somebody is not funny to somebody else. What is exciting to one person might be boring to somebody else. But everybody who performs at CNN in an anchor role needs to be very, very smart and be able to relate to and be relevant to their audiences. We are not trying to be funny necessarily.

(Editing by Jill Serjeant)






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