Hot Off The Press: The Latest TV News and Information - Page 1271

TV Notes
Cronkite Coverage On CNN’s Reliable Sources

The show airs from 10-11 a.m. ET Sunday, and according to tweets from host Howard Kurtz:

“Looks like Bob Schieffer will join us as well on tomorrow's Reliable. I may ask for six or seven hours.

Other CBSers on Reliable tomw: Don Hewitt, Connie Chung, Daniel Schorr, Susan Zirinsky, Bernard Shaw & more.”

http://twitter.com/HowardKurtz

Cable Nielsen Notes
Disney's 'Wizards'-'Hanna' crossover sets record
By James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter senior reporter, in his Livefeed blog, July 18, 2009

Disney Channel's cross-over special “Wizards on Deck with Hannah Montana” became the most-watched scripted telecast on cable so far this year.

The 90-minute Friday night event that featured cross-over episodes of "Hanna Montana," “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” and "The Wizards of Waverly Place" was seen by a massive 9.3 million viewers. It also marked TV's top scripted telecast this year among kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14. Disney Channel out-delivered second place CBS for the evening by more than 4 million viewers.

The program was the best time-period numbers for Disney Channel since the 2007 premiere of "High School Musical 2." It also topped previous the network's crossover events, drawing 82% more viewers than 2007's “Cory in the House," “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” and “Hannah Montana” mash up, and 41% more viewers than 2006's “That’s So Raven,” “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” and “Hannah Montana" combo.

http://www.thrfeed.com/

To give the "Hanna-Wizards" ratings even more perspective, last night's highest-rated network show, "Dateline NBC", averaged about 5.5 million viewers during its two hours.

Nielsen Notes
Cronkite’s Funeral Scheduled for Thursday
By Brian Stelter, The New York Times, in the “Media Decoder” blog, July 18, 2009

Plans were set on Saturday for a private funeral for Walter Cronkite, the pioneering CBS News anchorman who died Friday.

A service for relatives and friends will be held on Thursday at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Manhattan, a CBS spokesman confirmed. The Associated Press said “the Rev. William Tully will preside over the Episcopal service at the Park Avenue church, which the Cronkites attended for many years.”

A larger memorial is expected to take place in the next few weeks at Lincoln Center.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cronkite would be buried in Kansas City, Mo., next to his wife, Betsy, who died in 2005.

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...&twt=tvdecoder

Because he writes so wonderfully, and because his point of view comes from outside the often incestuously self-important NY-Washington media corridor, here is one last Cronkite obit from Aaron Barnhart:
Passings
Walter Cronkite, 92
By Aaron Barnhart, The Kansas City Star TV critic, July 18, 2009
Walter Cronkite, whose warm, personal style helped define the television news and earned him the title of “most trusted man in America,” died Friday night in his New York home surrounded by family. He was 92.

As the anchor of the “CBS Evening News” from 1962 to 1981, Cronkite was much more than the country’s most-watched newscaster. He became a reassuring interpreter of the events that roiled America and the world, from civil rights unrest to the Vietnam War to Watergate to the hostage crisis in Iran.

He also became a national icon. His signoff, “That’s the way it is,” was added to the lexicon of American popular culture. So was “Uncle Walter.”

The name Cronkite showed up in sitcoms and Johnny Carson’s monologues. John Anderson, who mounted a serious presidential bid as an independent in 1980, briefly considered putting him on the ticket as running mate. (“I wouldn’t turn it down,” Cronkite promised.)

Born in St. Joseph, Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. spent his first 10 years living in Kansas City before his father, a dentist, moved the family to Texas.

In his 1996 biography, “A Reporter’s Life,” Cronkite recounted his introduction to the news business at the age of 9. “I took the streetcar down to The Kansas City Star every Saturday night and, carrying as many papers as I could, caught the Troost streetcar back to the end of the line and peddled my papers there.” His net was only about 10 cents a week, but, he observed, “it was a beginning.”

Another early memory was of stretching out on the grassy slope beneath Liberty Memorial, watching the railyards full of activity and downtown Kansas City beyond them. “America was on display from that hill,” he recalled, “its history and its promise.”

He found a career and a wife in KC

If he dreamed of finding a mission in life worthy of that promise, it arrived at the age of 16 thanks to a man named Fred Birney.

A journalism instructor who circulated among Houston-area high schools, Birney appointed Cronkite editor of the school newspaper and then, in 1933, secured a job for him as the Houston Post’s correspondent at the University of Texas in Austin.

“Things could have been a lot different for me without Fred,” Cronkite told an interviewer in 2002.

Thus began a steady uphill climb in journalism. While on vacation, he stopped in Kansas City, picked up a copy of The Star and read of an opening at KCMO radio. He was hired in 1936 as the station’s entire news and sports department.

He began visiting 12th Street, where the wild night scene “helped me grow up in a hurry.”

On Election Day, two policemen working for Tom Pendergast escorted Cronkite to a polling station and instructed him to vote — twice.

He met Betsy Maxwell, who had just been hired from the University of Missouri’s journalism school to write advertising copy for the station. She and Walter met on her third day of work and began a lengthy courtship.

“Betsy and I went from the studio to lunch and from lunch to dinner. And from KCMO through life together,” Cronkite wrote. The couple married in 1940 at Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral. Betsy Cronkite died in 2005, two weeks before the couple’s 65th anniversary.

Cronkite toiled in print and radio for almost two decades. In later interviews, he referred warmly to these formative years as a “journeyman reporter.”

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1331858.html

TV Notes
Cronkite’s Contributions Beyond CBS
By Brian Stelter, The New York Times, in the “Media Decoder” blog, July 18, 2009

Walter Cronkite’s contributions to television were not limited to CBS, the network that he called home for much of his life.

“It is fair to say there would be no Discovery Channel without Walter Cronkite,” said John S. Hendricks, the founder of Discovery Communications, in a statement on Saturday.

He explained: “When we struggled for funding and viability in the early 1980s, Walter was one of the first to see the possibility of a 24-hour channel dedicated to high quality storytelling about the world around us.” (Mr. Cronkite retired from the “CBS Evening News” in 1981.)

Mr. Hendricks said Mr. Cronkite’s guidance and support “were instrumental in securing the resources and distribution to first launch Discovery in 1985.” Later, he contributed programs to the channel, including an eight-part series called “Cronkite Remembers.”

In total, Mr. Cronkite made some 60 documentaries for a wide range of outlets. Douglas Martin writes: “Among many other things, he was the voice of Benjamin Franklin on the PBS cartoon series ‘Liberty’s Kids,’ covered a British general election for a British network and for many years served as host of the annual Kennedy Center Honors.”

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...&twt=tvdecoder

(The other network was, I believe, referring to her remarkable performance last night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360.)

TV Notes
Paula Abdul's manager:
She'll leave 'Idol' if 'rude' producers don't step up new deal
From The Los Angeles Times “Show Tracker” blog

Paula Abdul is unhappy. And unless the producers of "American Idol" change her frown to a smile soon, she'll dance like there's no tomorrow away from TV's No. 1 show.

"Very sadly, it does not appear that she's going to be back on 'Idol,' " David Sonenberg, Abdul's manager, told The Times when contacted about the judge's contract negotiations.

With auditions for the ninth season due to start Aug. 6, Sonenberg says he doesn't even have a proposal for a new contract from FremantleMedia and 19 Entertainment, the production companies behind the show. The new season is scheduled to premiere in January.

"I find it under these circumstances particularly unusual; I think unnecessarily hurtful," he said of the contract holdup. "I find it kind of unconscionable and certainly rude and disrespectful that they haven't stepped up and said what they want to do."

Updated: Sonenberg began managing Abdul at the end of June, he said. According to him, he has "reached out to the head of business affairs at 19" and told Fox that "Paula would love to be on the show." He said Fox told him he would hear from them, but "I have not received any proposal whatsoever."]

Representatives for Fremantle, 19 and Fox all separately declined to comment.

When TV stars (or their reps) air contract-renewal gripes in the media, it's often a sign that negotiations are entering a more active phase. Abdul -- whose tearful, tongue-tied feedback to contestants have made her a kind of batty sister figure to star "Idol" judge Simon Cowell -- may have special reasons to want to push the ball forward now, given that "Idol" host Ryan Seacrest just signed a deal worth a reported $45 million that will keep him on the job for at least the next three years. That pact effectively doubled Seacrest's salary.

Meanwhile, Cowell has a contract that expires next year and is jockeying for his own rich new payday. Published reports have floated a mind-blowing figure of $144 million, which Cowell has scoffed at, saying that talks are ongoing. (Fellow judge Randy Jackson is booked through 2011.)

But the situation is more complicated for Abdul. Last season, the producers added a fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi. Producers have not announced a deal with DioGuardi either, but the speculation is that her presence at the judging table may have been a shrewd move to tamp down any outsize contract demands that Abdul and her team might make. For their parts, both DioGuardi and Abdul have said recently that they want to return to the show. (DioGuardi's publicist did not respond to a request for comment.)

But in Abdul's case, that seems dependent on getting the right dollar amount. Sonenberg has said his client has not been well-compensated in the past.

She's already looking toward an "Idol"-less future, he says, though Abdul's foray into non-"Idol" programming, the 2007 Bravo show "Hey Paula," was not a success.

"She's not a happy camper as a result of what's going on. She's hurt. She's angry," Sonenberg said. "I think at this point we're going to be considering everything, including some kind of a competition show. She has tremendous ideas for a whole variety of shows."

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...7460.htmlstory

Passings
CBS Evening News Salutes Walter Cronkite

When news came of Walter Cronkite’s death last night, the early edition of the CBS Evening News had already ended. It was Friday and the staff had, to a great extent, left.

But Ms. Couric and the show’s producers put together a special, updated edition of the Evening News for the West. And it included many appreciations, along with the final time Cronkite’s voice would be heard introducing Katie Couric and the CBS Evening News.

Click here to watch that very special edition:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?...ewsVideoArea.1

TV Notes
On The Air Tonight
Sunday Network Prime-Time Programming Options

(Reminder: If you are recording these programs, check your network listings for precise start/end times. For PBS, please double check your local listings.)

ABC:
7 America's Funniest Home Videos (R, February 8)
8 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: McCully Family (R, October 26, 2008)
9 Desperate Housewives (R, February 15) HD
10 Brothers & Sisterss (R, March 22) HD

CBS:
7 That's the Way it Was: Remembering Walter Cronkite HD
8 Big Brother 11
9 Cold Case (R, January 11) HD
10 Without A Trace (R, April 28) HD

Fox:
7 Til Death (R, October 8, 2008) HD
7:30 American Dad (R, May 17)
8 The Simpsons (R, April 26) HD
8:30 King of the Hill (R, May 17) HD
9 Family Guy (R, May 10)
9:30 The Simpson s (R, March 1)

NBC:
7 Dateline NBC HD
8 Merlin: A Remedy to Cure All Ills HD
9 Movie: Meteor (part two, two hours, 2009) HD

PBS
7 Check your local listings
8 Nature: Superfishg (R, May 4, 2008) HD
9 Masterpiece Mystery: Miss Marple, Series IV: They Do It With Mirrors (90 minutes) HD

CW:
7 Valentine HD
8 Sunday Movie The Thomas Crown Affair (two hours, 1986, R) HD

TV Notes
On The Air Tonight
Some Sunday Cable HD Prime-Time Options (All times Eastern)

A&E
9 Gene Simmons: Puppy Love HD
9:30 Gene Simmons: South of the Border HD
10 Hammertime: The Lose Episode HD
10: Hammertime: Giving Back HD

Animal Planet
9 Untamed and Uncut: Mother Nature’s Nightmares HD

Biography
9 I Survived: Alfred, Jan & Jerry; Ebony HD

CBS Sports
9 ASA Action Sports World Tour: 2008 LG ASA Action Sports World Championships HD

CNN
10 a.m. Reliable Sources: CBS colleagues reminisce about Walter Cronkite HD

Discovery
8 Deadliest Catch: Roughest and Toughest Moments HD
9 Deadliest Sea HD

ESPN
6 MLB: New York Mets at Atlanta Braves HD
9 ESPY Awards (two hours) HD

Fox News Channel
8 FOX Report HD

HBO
9 True Blood HD
10 Hung HD
10:30 Entourage) HD

HDNet
8 Vince Gill and Friends Live at the Ryman (R) HD
10:05 Clint Black Live - Drinkin' Songs & Other Logic (R) HD

Lifetime
9 Drop Dead Diva HD
10 Army Wives HD

MLB Network
8 The Pen 5: An On and Off the Field Look into the Philadelphia Phillies Bullpen (R, 30 minutes) HD
8:30 The Pen 6 (30 minutes) HD
9 Special: Rickey Henderson, Hall of Famer HD
10 Inside Studio 42 With Bob Costas: Jim Bouton (30 minutes) HD

National Geographic
7 Direct From the Moon: A Japanese lunar orbiter beams high-definition images back to Earth. HD
9 Living On the Moon HD

Speed
7 SPEED Report HD
9 Wind Tunnel With Dave Despain HD

TBS
10 Dark Blue (R, pilot) HD

TLC
8 Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist (R, repeated at 11) HD
9 The Tiniest Toddlers HD
10 World’s Strongest Toddler (R) HD

VH1
10 Brooke Knows Best (30 Minutes) HD

USA
9 Law & Order: Criminal Intent HD
10 In Plain Sight HD

Critic’s Note
Cronkite and More
By Hal Boedeker, Orlando Sentinel Television Critic, in his blog “The TV Guy and More”, July 19, 2009

I'm betting that Bob Schieffer's tribute to Walter Cronkite will be one of the best. Schieffer has cited Cronkite, who died Friday, as mentor and inspiration.

And Cronkite praised Schieffer's skill through the years. I think Uncle Walter was overjoyed when Schieffer replaced Dan Rather on the "CBS Evening News." Maybe it's because Cronkite and Schieffer shared the common touch, which they never lost during career success.

You can see Schieffer on CBS' "Face the Nation" at 10:30 (check your local liostings) this morning on CBS. He will welcome historian Douglas Brinkley and former Sen. John Glenn, who will talk about Cronkite's coverage of the space program. Schieffer's commentary will end the program.

"CBS Sunday Morning" is likely to have a thoughtful Cronkite tribute this morning. That program starts at 9 a.m..

CNN's "State of the Union" will salute Cronkite during the "Reliable Sources" hour at 10 a.m. this morning. The guests will be Connie Chung, Daniel Schorr, Bernie Shaw, "60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt and CBS producer Susan Zirinsky. Zirinsky oversaw the CBS tribute that will air at 7 tonight in the "60 Minutes" slot.

If you want to be reminded of the Cronkite touch, the History channel will present "Live From '69: Moon Landing" at 8:30 p.m. Monday. The special offers CBS footage of the Apollo 11 lunar landing and Cronkite's memorable work as anchor.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/ent...he-union-.html

Critic’s Notes
On The Air Tonight
Cronkite Salutes, Lindsay's Return
By Roger Catlin, Hartford Courant TV Critic, in his “TV Eye” blog, July 19, 2009

Weekend newscasts have been full of tributes, but the death of iconic anchorman Walter Cronkite Friday at 92 will be properly cited with two shows on the network that gave him his career.

This morning "CBS Sunday Morning" (CBS, 9 a.m.) will include tributes by other newsmen and clips of his past work. Tonight in place of "60 Minutes" will be the official CBS News special "That's the Way It Is: Remembering Walter Cronkite" (CBS, 7 p.m.) with comments and stories from current anchors Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson as well as reporters such as Mike Wallace, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Ted Koppel and Diane Sawyer and citizens ranging from Spike Lee to Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, comic Robin Williams, George Clooney and President Obama.

Lindsay Lohan returns to the Disney company fold to revive her career with an agreeable enough little romp "Labor Pains" (ABC Family, 8 p.m.) in which she pretends to be pregnant in order to keep her publishing job. Your instinct may be to bash the star (and why is that exactly?). But she's actually pretty good in it and there's a cast that includes Cheryl Hines, Chris Parnell and Janeane Garofalo.

There are worse ways, in other words, to spend your Sunday. To wit: "Big Brother 11" (CBS, 8 p.m.).

Samuel L. Jackson hosts the 17th ESPY Awards (ESPN, 9 p.m.) from Los Angeles, and, alas, not Bristol. The whole thing was taped Wednesday.

"Ace of Cakes" (Food, 10 p.m.) returns for a new season, with Chef Duff whipping up something to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alaska's statehood. Taking a cue from leaders there, he quits right in the middle.

Another group of successful or aspiring designers assemble to compete for TV stardom on a fourth season of "Design Star" (HGTV, 10 p.m.). The format is changed slightly, the show is set now in Los Angeles, new judges Genevieve Gorder and Candice Olson are joining returning judge Vern Yip.

It's the conclusion of the two-night mini-series "Meteor" (NBC, 9 p.m.) with Christopher Lloyd, Billy Campbell and Marla Sokoloff. Usually, you could expect the thing to crash or have a near-miss in the conclusion, but it was pretty much of a disaster last week.

Cheeky Brit Graham Norton hosts the new reality competition "Most Popular" (We, 10 p.m.), which offers $10,000 to the member in the audience everybody likes best.

The role Gordon Gekko played in inspiring the worldwide economic meltdown will likely not be mentioned in "The AFI Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute to Michael Douglas" (TV Land, 9 p.m.).

Never turn down an opportunity to see "An American in Paris" (TCM, 8 p.m.), part of a double bill tonight about Americans abroad, also featuring "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (TCM, 10 p.m.).

Sunday's biggest show, probably rightfully so, is "True Blood" (HBO, 9 p.m.), part of a solid lineup that also includes the new "Hung" (HBO, 10 p.m.) and "Entourage" (HBO, 10:30 p.m.), which has one of those romantic E episodes tonight, as they plan dates for Vince's opening. And earlier they have Meryl Streep singing in "Mamma Mia!" (HBO, 7 p.m.).

The popular network special "Michael J. Fox: Adventures of an Incurable Optimist" (TLC, 8 p.m.), gets a replay on cable.

Joan Collins guest stars on the latest Miss Marple caper, "They Do It With Mirrors" on "Masterpiece Mystery" (PBS, 9 p.m.)

It's the final round in the British Open (TNT, 6 a.m.), picked up by ABC at 8 a.m. -- and sending "This Week with George Stephanopolous" into a sand trap.

The Tour de France (versus, 7:30 a.m.) is still in the mountains.

Baseball includes Tigers at Yankees (TBS, 2 p.m.), and Mets at Braves (ESPN, 6 p.m.).

Sunday Talk
Bob Schieffer: Sen. Orrin Hatch, Rep. Charles Rangel and former astronaut Sen. John Glenn.
David Gregory: health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Mitch McConnell.
John King: White House budget direcyor Peter Orszag, Sens. Patrick Leahy and Jeff Sessions, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Chris Wallace: Peter Orszag, Sen. Judd Gregg, astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/

An Appreciation:
A Nation's Anchor
A newsman and reporter, he connected with the American heartland on television
By Tom Brokaw, in the Washington Post, Sunday, July 19, 2009

Walter Cronkite was born in Missouri, educated in Texas and grew up to become the most trusted man in America by a vote of his countrymen. He was a man with many sides: sailor, race-car driver, bon vivant, and, most of all, journalist and role model to so many of us who shared his profession.

For more than half a century he was in the middle of the biggest stories of his time. He covered World War II on bombing runs out of England and on the ground at the Battle of the Bulge for United Press, the clickety-clack news bulletin wire service that formed his journalistic sensibilities for the rest of his career.

When Cronkite made his way to the anchor chair of the CBS Evening News, he became America's old-fashioned managing editor, an avuncular figure so comforting he was widely known as Uncle Walter as he guided the nation through the assassinations of two Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr.; Chicago in 1968; Vietnam; man's first steps on the moon; Watergate; the resignation of Richard Nixon; and the meeting of Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin.

He famously concluded that Vietnam could not be won, and at that moment President Lyndon Johnson knew that if he had lost Cronkite, he had lost middle America.

Walter was a seminal force in making the network evening news broadcasts appointment television across the country, a time of day when millions tuned in to find out what had happened in their world.

Those of us at NBC News and ABC News were justifiably proud of the work we were doing on that run of historic news events, but Walter was the marquee name. While he wasn't resistant to the vanities that come with such fame, he was helped immeasurably by the sardonic wit of his lifelong mate, Betsy, who saw her role as the anchor to windward of the most trusted man in America.

On a Kentucky Derby weekend Walter and I were invited to go aloft in separate hot air balloons. As we lifted off, I could hear Betsy saying to Walter over the two-way radio, "We're down here dividing up your things. Do you still want that burial at sea?"

Broadway opening nights and movie premieres -- and they didn't miss many -- were always enlivened by the presence of the Cronkites, who had a wide range of good friends, including John Steinbeck, Eli Wallach, Toots Shor, Mike Wallace, Andy Rooney, Jackie Kennedy, Art Buchwald, and Bill and Rose Styron as well as -- get this -- Mickey Hart, the drummer for the Grateful Dead, a fellow sailing enthusiast. Walter occasionally appeared on stage at Hart concerts.

When he left the anchor chair, Walter continued to advance the cause of serious, no-nonsense journalism, often from the journalism school named for him at Arizona State University. He also began to speak out on some political causes that interested him, promoting conservative critics to say, "Aha, I told you so."

Nonetheless, when he died Friday at the age of 92 he remained Uncle Walter to generations of Americans who saw him as a wise and fair man with a nautical title and a sailor's skill of getting them through rough seas by keeping a steady hand on the tiller and his eyes on the far horizon.

Tom Brokaw is a special correspondent and former Nightly News anchor for NBC.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...800610_pf.html

TV Sports
Tom Watson

Tom Watson tees off at 9:20 a.m. ET in the (British) Open. On ABC. And not, until next year, in HD.

Just wondering if somehow ABC could maybe give us just a little more coverage of golf between the incessant and repetitive commercials and network promos for shows which won't premiere for two months?

Could be. But these promos haven't prompted me to remember to set my DVR.