REPUBLICAN CONVENTION — A LAUGH FOR YOUNGER VIEWERS

With its tilt toward conservative viewers, Fox News Channel was certain to capture the most viewers during the Republican National Convention last week. And it did. What turned out to be surprising, however, was that it was not No. 1 among the 18-34 age group who tuned in. But then, Fox’s principal competitors, CNN and […]

PATTINSON TO FACE GRILLING FROM JON STEWART

ABC’s Good Morning America was hoping to win back viewers who switched to the Today show en masse during the Olympics by trumpeting its scheduled interview with Robert Pattinson — his first since the tabloids splashed the news that he had broken up with actress Kristen Stewart for allegedly cheating on him. But on Monday […]

CATHOLIC LEAGUE’S PRAISE OF DELTA DOESN’T FLY

Delta Airlines has denied that it yanked its advertising from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart after receiving complaints from the Catholic League about Stewart’s joking remark last month that “perhaps women could protect their reproductive organs from unwanted medical intrusions with vagina mangers.” (He was satirically criticizing Fox News for denouncing the network’s pursuit […]

LATE-NIGHT TV SHOWS CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE

The demise of George Lopez’s late night show has underlined the obstacles that late-night programs in general continue to face from increasing competition and from viewers watching programs that they recorded earlier in the evening on their DVRs. Today’s (Friday) New York Times observed that the first half hour of NBC’s Tonight show averaged 3.6 […]

STEWART, COLBERT MAY RETURN TO HULU

Comedy Central’s The Daily Show and The Colbert Report may soon be restored on Hulu, the video website owned by News Corp. (Fox), General Electric (NBC Universal), Disney (ABC), and Providence Equity Partners, the New York Times reported today (Monday). Comedy Central, which is owned by Viacom, a company that has taken a tough stance […]

JON STEWART: A MODERN-DAY ED MURROW?

In what today’s (Monday) New York Times suggested was an Edward R. Murrow/Walter Cronkite moment in terms of the media’s influence on public policy, comedian Jon Stewart’s recent broadcasts urging passage of the 9/11 “first responders bill” are being credited for saving the bill from almost certain defeat. “I’ll forever be indebted to Jon because […]

CONAN’S BIG RATINGS: HOW LONG WILL THEY LAST?

It wasn’t the 10.3 million who tuned in for his swan song on NBC’s Tonight show last January or the 9.2 million who tuned in for his debut on that show the previous June, but the 4.2 million viewers who watched Monday night’s premiere of Conan were a whole lot more than those who watched […]

RICK SANCHEZ’S WIFE COMMENTS ON FIRING

Former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez has yet to comment publicly on his firing last week, but his wife Suzanne has. Writing on her Facebook “wall,” Suzanne said that her husband apologized to Jon Stewart for his remarks during a radio interview last week. “Jon was gracious and called Rick ‘thin-skinned.’ He’s right,” she wrote. She […]

OBAMA DRAWS MORE LAUGHS THAN LENO AT WHITE HOUSE DINNER

President Obama upstaged Jay Leno at the White House Correspondents Dinner over the weekend. While Leno was ostensibly the comedy headliner at the affair, the president (reportedly with an assist from writers of The Daily Show) was the one who brought down the house with zingers aimed at everyone from Vice President Biden to Florida […]