News

'The Early Show' is finally going HD, according to a new report from Media Bistro. It seems a little odd that it's taken the show so long to switch, especially considering that its morning show rivals, 'Today' and 'Good Morning America,' already broadcast in HD.

Perhaps this is CBS' attempt to boost ratings and skew to a younger audience, which was nudged along a couple of years ago when it re-launched the show with a colorful new widescreen set. According to Media Life, the show averaged a measly 2.52 million viewers during the first three months of 2010, putting it in third place among the network morning news programs.

The Peabody Award winners were announced today and they included their usual mix of enlightening documentaries and popular favorites, both of which are equally worthy of recognition.

This year's list didn't have many fictional shows, but the one's they picked more than made up for their absence. ABC's 'Modern Family' and Fox's 'Glee' both picked up awards, the only two sitcoms on the list. HBO's 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' and 'In Treatment' were also the only dramas on the list.

Other notable winners include 'The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson' for his sit-down with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, HBO's documentary 'Thrilla in Manila,' PBS' 'Frontline' for their stirring report on Bernie Madoff and '60 Minutes'' expose on "The Cost of Dying."

Earlier today Brad told you about the guests that Sarah Palin is going to have on her first special for FOX News, 'Real American Stories.' One of them was supposed to be LL Cool J, but now FOX has removed him from the special. Why? It's a little complicated.

It seems that this isn't a new interview with the actor/singer. It's an interview he did in 2008 with the FOX News web site Real American Stories and the network was just going to rerun that interview. Palin would have only introduced the interview. But when LL Cool J (real name: James Smith) found out that they were running the old interview, he tweeted his displeasure (as most people now do).

One of the weirder entertainment feuds, one even weirder than the famed Nipsey Russell-Herve Villechaize knife fight of 1976, has emerged in our midst.

A few days ago, Oscar winning director James Cameron got extra chatty with a Hollywood Reporter, er, reporter and let loose on anti-global warming zealots and Glenn Beck (and no, that last sentence wasn't meant to be redundant). It got so heated and ridiculous that it made me wish 'Celebrity Deathmatch' was still on the air and not in the claymation format.

Beck, of course, heard the comment in which Cameron claimed Beck had once referred to him as the "Antichrist". Beck dove into his archives, found the rather un-Christian reference he made towards the 'Avatar' director and post a full response to Mr. Cameron on his Wednesday show.



Of course, that's not the whole story.

Actually, that's putting it mildly. James Cameron probably has a higher opinion of mosquito bites because as Ned Flanders once put it, "They sure are fun to scratch."

Cameron had a sit down with Hollywood Reporter reporter Alex Ben Block for the DVD release of his Oscar nominated film 'Avatar' and the two somehow got to talking about global warming and the pandemic of people on both sides of the aisles.

This segued into that all-important political topic of Glenn Beck, prompting Cameron to call him a "[BLANK]ing [BLANK]hole," only he didn't say "blank." Use your imagination.

I've never understood the animosity that Andy Rooney attracts by a certain segment of the TV viewing population. Take his segment on last night's '60 Minutes' (video after the jump). He talked about the jobless rate and the jobs that are available now and how maybe - just maybe - we need more plumbers and other people who actually do something more than we need, well, people who do my job.

This isn't a new stance by Rooney. He's been saying the same thing for years. Rooney just turned 91 years old so he's earned the right to repeat things if he wants. But I know that Rooney has talked about this before because, well, I've actually read what Rooney has written over the years. Most people who dislike Rooney know him for only one thing, his weekly segments on '60 Minutes.'

But the guy has been a journalist since World War II and has written several books and a weekly column for decades, but the people who find him "unfunny" or "irrelevant" only know him from the CBS show.

Here's a bit of news from our "Department of News that Everyone and Their Mother Saw Coming." Needless to say, they've been a little behind with the health care bill debate, and Tiger Woods' apology .

Christiane Amanpour has accepted the offer from ABC's news division to anchor the Sunday show 'This Week,' taking over for George Stephanopolous, who now anchors 'Good Morning America'. This means she'll be leaving CNN where she has racked up an impressive 18-year body of work consisting mostly of international reporting and journalism.

However, does this give her the chops to moderate a political fueled talk fest? There are yeas and nays on both sides of the question.

Though it hasn't been officially announced yet, FishBowl DC is reporting that CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour has been offered the job anchoring ABC's Sunday morning news show 'This Week.' The show was previously anchored by George Stephanopolous, who is now on 'Good Morning America.'

This would be quite a change for Amanpour. Her work on CNN has her trotting all over the globe (and hosting her own international affairs show 'Amanpour'). Sources say that she has told friends that she doesn't want to move to Washington, D.C., she wants to do the show out of New York City and also travel a lot for the show and report from foreign locales. This could change the focus of 'This Week' from mostly domestic political issues to international issues.

I'm wondering if CBS has tried to get Amanpour on a full-time basis. CNN's Anderson Cooper does regular reports for '60 Minutes' and so has Amanpour.

Two seconds may not seem like much in the real world (in fact, there's two seconds you'll never get back right there). In TV, however, it can mean an eternity (there goes another two seconds).

ABC News has admitted that footage from Brian Ross' report on recalled Toyota and their sudden acceleration problems contained a misleading shot of a speedometer.

Ross and Southern Illinois University professor David Gilbert went for a ride in a Toyota to recreate the supposed electrical failure that causes the sudden acceleration. Footage of the speedometer's needle spiking was actually taken when the car was idle and not while the car was in motion.

Sometimes morning TV can be more than perky weather girls and middle-aged anchors with over-sized coffee mugs.

One of the U.S. Marshal's most wanted criminals is now in custody thanks to the unlikely partnership of Regis Philbin, Kelly Ripa and John Walsh.

Just a week after being added to the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted list and one day before his case was to be profiled nationally on FOX's 'America's Most Wanted,' former state corrections officer Albert James Turner, Jr. is now in custody.

Walsh visited 'Live with Regis and Kelly' Friday morning to discuss the 1,000th episode of the long-running true crime show and his interview with President Obama. He previewed the upcoming cases Friday morning, and the right person was watching.

As a U.S. Marshal's press release states, "a viewer tip led to Turner's arrest this morning at a mall in Concord, N.C. He was taken into custody without incident."

Few very shows have had the distinction of saying they made it to the 1,000 episode threshold. Even fewer can say they got to sit down with a sitting president. Now 'America's Most Wanted' has both.

The show's creator and host John Walsh scored a visit with President Barack Obama at the White House. Here's a sneak preview. You can watch the full interview when it airs at 9 p.m. Eastern Saturday on Fox.

America, we need to talk.

There was a time when you were my favorite country in the world. Sure, you invented the Snuggie and insisted on airing multiple shows about making cakes for some reason, but you were always pretty stable. Well, that's changed and I think I know why.

You're addicted, America. You're addicted to something more insidious than nicotine or cocaine or Pokémon: you're addicted to Opinion Based News Shows.

Don't deny it! I've seen the signs! What started as an innocent attempt to have more talking points at parties has begun to rage out of control. Sometimes it seems you can't even make a move without a little taste of Keith or Glenn just to get you "right".

Well, I'm not going to watch my friend go down without a fight. This is your wake-up call America. This is your intervention.

Is there a worse news anchor than Rick Sanchez on TV right now? I can't think of one. He's over the top, arrogant, pushy, massively exploitative, and just unwatchable. I truly can't even listen to his voice. The tone, the cadence, the delivery... It makes me vomit a little bit in my mouth when he's on. I certainly don't want to have a "national conversation" with him. Thank God Shep Smith is on at the same time.

Here's Sanchez during the Chile earthquake coverage a few days ago. Savor the moment when he actually yells at the expert he has brought on. I think Jacqui Jerras just wants to get off camera somehow and hide in her office.

[via Gawker]

Back a couple of years ago, when there seemed to be a new "Katie Couric is going to leave 'The CBS Evening News' soon" story every hour, one of the names mentioned as her replacement was CNN's Anderson Cooper. Now it looks like those rumors are back, and Cooper's name is being brought up again, only this time a little bit more seriously.

The New York Times is reporting that CBS execs have talked to Cooper about the anchor position. Cooper is already part of the CBS family, contributing to '60 Minutes,' so it's not something that is coming out of left field.

Did it seem weird to anyone else that Oprah Winfrey managed to score the first big interview with Olympic wonderboy Shaun White? That's because her awesome Oprah powers allowed her to scoop the entire mainstream media.

Actually, CBS' 'Early Show' had plans to do a remote interview with the snowboarder, but Oprah's people snatched it away from them in the zero hour.

One of the network's news producers wrote on her blog that she had everything from flights to remote broadcasts set up to interview White following his medal ceremony, but "it's tough to compete with Oprah and a private plane."