TVSquad

While viewership continues to slip and all that "Katie is leaving after the election" talk still swirls, it looks like the industry actually likes her show.

The CBS Evening News won the Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast from the Radio Television News Directors Association the other night. ABC won the most awards, including Best Overall, Documentary, Hard news, Spot News Coverage, and Videography. Not really sure what the difference is between Best Newscast and Best Overall, but maybe Best Overall combines all facets of a TV network's news division while Best Newscast just focuses on the 30 minute nightly show that the network does. Either way it's something I'm sure you're going to see in ads for The CBS Evening News.

CBS News also won for Best Web Site (I'd link to the full list of awards but the RTNDA site seems to be down right now.)

[via TV Newser]

I hate being scared at Halloween. I mean, scary movies and costumes are one thing, but I can't stand it when people just jump out from hiding to shock you. Such an easy, cheap way to freak out someone. It's only funny when you do it to someone, not when it's done to you.

The news anchors at KXTV in California know that feeling. At the start of a segment on the morning news the other day, they were greeted by a pack of knife and bone-wielding creatures and completely freaked out on camera. And this isn't one of those times where the anchors really knew about it ahead of time. You can tell by the screams that they were caught completely off guard. I'm also sure several viewers had to change their underwear too.

My favorite part is Melissa Crowley, who pretty much says "the hell with my friends!" and actually runs out of the studio.

Maria Shriver is leaving television news, and it's all Anna Nicole Smith's fault.

The ex-NBC newswoman and wife of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger says that TV coverage of the death of Anna Nicole Smith (and all of the other stories that came from her death) led her to quit TV news forever. She made the comments during a speech at the Conference For Women. She says that watching the nonstop coverage made her realize that TV news had changed and she no longer wanted to be a part of it. She has plenty to do as First Lady anyway.

All this talk about Katie Couric's low ratings, how people don't like her, her New York interview, etc, etc. But did you know that she's actually the highest paid of the three nightly network news anchors?

Couric makes around $15 million a year. Over at NBC, Brian Williams is making around $10 million a year. Charlie...sorry, Charles Gibson? He has the most buzz right now but he actually makes the least, around $8 million a year. He didn't get a raise (nor did he want one) when he made the jump from Good Morning America to ABC World News (though I assume he'll get one when his contract is renewed in two years). He says the money thing is "irrelevent." Well, it would be to me too if I was getting $8 million a year.

So here we go again: yet more ammunition for the "Katie is bad, Charles is good" crowd.

[via TV Newser]

On August 21 at 8:00 p.m., FOX will debut Anchorwoman, a comedy/reality TV program focusing on a swimsuit model who moves to the quiet community of Tyler, Texas to try her hand at local news reporting.

As a twist, the series will take place in an actual newsroom, KYTX-TV, a CBS affiliate. Actual newspersons will appear on the program, which has many people in the community asking if this is such a good idea.

I'm not exactly sure what they mean by "powerful" whenever these lists come out. Does it mean influence? Does it mean the most-watched? Probably a mish-mash of both, since the list includes anchors and network executives. Here's the list, according to TV Week. Last year's rank is in parentheses.

1. Roger Ailes - Chairman and CEO of FOX News (1)

• A little bit of new info on the Katiegate case.
• Dancing with the Stars is unfair to those with two good legs.
• This week's wacky TV news video...involving vastectomies.
• I still don't understand Keith Olbermann's constant attacks on Anderson Cooper. [via Radar]
• If you want a star for your next birthday and David Hasselhoff is busy, maybe you can get this guy.
• What is Justin.TV? [via Pop Candy]
• TeeVee.org isn't happy about Andy Barker, P.I. being canceled either.
• Here's some behind the scenes info on that Get Smart movie, starring Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway and Alan Arkin.

Both CNN and Fox News were fighting to get a seat in the front row of the new White House press briefing room, and CNN has won.

The White House Correspondents Association decided to give the front row seat to CNN "based on CNN's 27 years of covering The White House, as well as the resources it brings to the in-town and travel pool, and its daily prescence at the briefings."

CNN wasn't the only winner. Veteran journalist Helen Thomas, who was knocked back to the second row to make way for the cable news outlets recently, will get back her front row seat. The association has decided to honor a commitment they made to Thomas years ago. She has been covering The White House since the early 60s.

The new White House briefing room will be ready in June. (And if anyone isn't sure what that headline means, I'm referring to an old commercial with Bob Uecker.)

[via TV Newser]

I know, you might be thinking, who is Stephen Talbot and why should I care what he thinks of the TV news biz? Well, Talbot is a producer and writer for PBS' Frontline (his new episode, News War, debuted earlier this week), but that's not why I'm posting this. I'll explain that after the jump. In the meantime, go read the chat he has at The Washington Post's site and look at his picture closely. Where have you seen him before?

Talbot has a lot of interesting things to say about the news industry. He likes local news, but doesn't like it when they focus on just local stories, fears that people will just wake up one day and wonder why the only news they get is stuff about Anna Nicole and Britney, and he explains why Connie Chung gave up her great reporting career to do...well, whatever the hell she's doing now.

Oh, where have you seen him before?

OK, not her actual house, but the show she "lived in" on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It really is in Minneapolis, and it's on the market for $3.6 million.

Of course, this house was only used for exterior shots on the show. The actual sets for Mary's apartment and Rhoda's oh so funky 70s bachelorette pad (remember those beaded curtains and the colors?) were on a Hollywood lot. The home is an 1892 Victorian, bought for $1.1 million by the current owner, and he has spent even more fixing it up. I think it looks really nice in the pic, and I'm sure with the location and the classic TV connection, someone will snatch it up.

Though I'd wonder about tourists. As the article says, past owners have been annoyed by people coming by and taking photos. Maybe they should charge to tour the place. Nah, that wouldn't work. People would just say "hey, this looks nothing like Mary's apartment!" Then they'd leave in a huff and go try to find the offices of WJM-TV.

[via TV Tattle]

First they introduced that "Doc-Bloc" at 10pm every night (oh boy, more shows about prisons and teachers who rape kids!), then they changed their on-screen graphics, and now they've made it very easy for me to watch CNN in the afternoon.

Rita Cosby is anchoring at 1pm.

Now, nothing against Cosby personally. I'm sure she's a nice woman and newsperson. But...her voice. I'm sorry, but there's no possible way that I can listen to her Brenda Vacarro-meets-Grover-from-Sesame-Street voice for two, three, four hours a day. I don't know if this is a permanent move or if she's filling in for someone, but if she's on, I'm watching CNN.

It's getting more and more clear that the only reason to watch MSNBC at all is for Countdown With Keith Olbermann, which has quickly become Must-See television.