It's 10:40pm on Wednesday, July 20. Brian Stelter here with the latest on BeReal, CNN, Netflix, Hell Gate, Byron Allen, "House of Dragon," and more... Back in prime time |
This summer's hearings by the House's January 6 select committee have been building momentum – and audience interest – in the run-up to Thursday's prime time session. One might have expected the opposite: For the TV ratings to dwindle over time, since the story of Donald Trump and the Capitol attack has been so well established, and summer tends to be a sluggish news period. But the opposite has happened, at least judging by cable ratings data: CNN and MSNBC viewership has been increasing. The opening prime time hearing on June 9 was the highest-rated across the board, of course, since a greater number of people are home in the evening and able to watch on TV. But ever since the committee settled on an afternoon window, for hearing #3 on June 16, tune-in has been growing. CNN averaged 1.5 million viewers during the hearing that day; 2.1 million for hearing #4; 2.4 million for hearing #5; and 2.6 million for hearing #6. MSNBC has gained audience over time too. The cable outlets may be taking some share from broadcast, but channels like ABC and CBS have continued to draw eyeballs for the hearings as well. Major news sites have noticed traffic spikes for 1/6 scoops. And Google Trends has shown healthy spikes for "when is next january 6 committee hearing" searches all summer long. What does this portend for Thursday's prime time hearing? Hard to say. I don't know if it's realistic to expect the summer season "finale" to surpass the "premiere." But the committee has certainly succeeded in keeping the attention of America's political junkies. Trump devotees are the exception to that rule, but even they have dropped the "nobody's watching the hearings" talking point that was trotted out in June. In a streaming and on-demand world, the total reach of the hearings to date is unknowable, but many tens of millions of Americans have soaked up the committee's findings, which is no small thing in a fractured media space... Cable and broadcast coverage plans NBC, ABC and CBS will pre-empt regular prime time programming for the hearing. PBS will also carry it live. On CNN, Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper will anchor special coverage beginning at 7pm ET. On MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and Nicolle Wallace will do the same. At midnight, Don Lemon will take over on CNN and Stephanie Ruhle will take over on MSNBC. As for Fox News, well, the network has not responded to repeated requests for comment about its coverage plans. Every time Fox News has shown the daytime hearings, its ratings have tanked, so all signs point to a repeat of the first prime time hearing: The flagship channel will stick with Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity; the much-lower-rated Fox Business will show the hearing; and Fox-affiliated broadcast stations will be offered the Fox Biz feed as an option. Generally speaking, Fox and Newsmax garner audience loyalty by griping about the hearings... It's still happening "As committee members try to get to the bottom of the past attempt to steal the election, our democracy remains under attack by the same forces," Jake Tapper said as he opened "The Lead" on Wednesday. Among the examples he cited: >> In Wisconsin, WISN in Milwaukee broke the news that a top state lawmaker "says former President Trump called him last week in another push to decertify 2020 presidential results..." >> In Arizona, the state's Republican party censured its Republican House speaker, Rusty Bowers, after Bowers testified to the 1/6 committee... >> In Maryland, GOP primary voters chose Dan Cox, who is "a big disseminator of Trump's election lies," Tapper said... Tapper made the point that Trump is far from alone: Lawmakers, party chairs, former White House aides are "still spreading Trump's lies. And they aren't even just saying it. Many of them are campaigning on it and winning Republican primaries on it, even as they fight to undo the country's election laws today, right now. The clear and present threat to American democracy continues." |
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-- Politico's most-read article right now: This summer's "slow drip of negative coverage" has eroded support for the former president, "at least on the margins," insiders tell David Siders... (Politico) -- WaPo's scoop on Page One of Thursday's paper: "Even a day after Jan. 6, Trump balked at condemning the violence..." (WaPo) -- Rep. Jamie Raskin said on "AC360" that outtakes from Trump's Jan. 7 video recording session will be shared at the hearing. "It's extremely revealing how exactly he went about making those statements, and we're going to let everybody see parts of that," Raskin said... (CNN) -- Harvard researchers who "conducted the largest study yet of what motivated Jan. 6 rioters" say the "top motivation is clear: Trump..." (NBC) -- In related news: "Bipartisan group of senators cuts deal to change election laws in response to January 6 attack..." (CNN) |
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AT&T reports earnings before the bell and Snap reports earnings after the close... "Nope" opens in previews... Comic-Con kicks off in San Diego... |
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Midterm watch -- Arizona: The Trump-backed candidate for Senate in Arizona, Blake Masters, "has turned to questioning whether the 2022 midterm election will be legitimate," CNN's Alex Rogers reports... -- Pennsylvania: John Fetterman's "first media interview since suffering a stroke days before the May primary election" went to Julian Routh of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette... -- Also Pennsylvania: The Verge's Makena Kelly wrote about the "online tit for tat" between Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz... -- Georgia: Maya King's lead about Herschel Walker's 10-minute stump speech says it all: On Tuesday "he told no new whoppers, made no obvious mistakes and allowed reporters to witness the whole thing." King says "that seeming nonstory was actually news, given how Mr. Walker's candidacy has been going recently..." |
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-- One of the day's strangest news cycles: "Joe Biden says he has cancer during speech, sends White House scrambling to explain..." (Mediaite) -- New reporting from CNN's Evan Perez and Kara Scannell: "The federal investigation into Hunter Biden's business activities is nearing a critical juncture as investigators weigh possible charges..." (CNN) -- Jack Shafer's latest carries this headline: "You trust the media more than you say you do..." (Politico) |
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"I can never go back" War correspondent Lynne O'Donnell, a columnist at Foreign Policy magazine, says the Taliban abused her and forced her to retract some past articles under the threat of jail time. O'Donnell is now safely out of Afghanistan and says "I can never go back." The NYT's Katie Robertson says "the forced retraction by a Western journalist underscores the increasing restrictions on the press in Afghanistan..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE |
-- TikTok is "the fastest growing news source for UK adults," according to a survey by the UK comms watchdog Ofcom... (Guardian) -- "The battle for Prime Minister is now in the knockout round," so CNN's Bianca Nobilo illustrated it by getting in the boxing ring... (Twitter) -- "The Guardian's parent company has recorded its strongest financial results since 2008, aided by more contributions from online readers and increased income from its international operations..." (Guardian) -- Bloomberg published, and then retracted, a story saying "that some Fox News executives and hosts had failed to hand over documents" in Dominion's lawsuit. "Fox News says it met a July 1 deadline to hand over records," and Bloomberg said it regrets the error... (Bloomberg) |
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Continuity at CNN After months of speculation about all sorts of shakeups to CNN's leadership team, chairman and CEO Chris Licht has retained the network's veterans and promoted "from the ranks of insiders who worked for his predecessor," the NYT's Ben Mullin wrote Wednesday. Michael Bass, Amy Entelis and Ken Jautz, the interim co-heads of CNN earlier this year, remain in the key roles they have held for years. Among the promotions: >> Virginia Moseley, CNN's senior vice president of newsgathering, becomes EVP of editorial, gaining oversight of some digital teams. "The move consolidates the oversight of news," Mullin wrote. >> SVP Johnita Due becomes "executive vice president of integrity and inclusion, a newly created position" that includes news standards, Variety's Brian Steinberg wrote. TVNewser has the complete memo here. CNN poaches WaPo's comms chief Kris Coratti, the Washington Post's chief comms officer and general manager of WaPo Live, is joining CNN next month as EVP and head of global communications. It's a homecoming for Coratti, who began her career at CNN in 2000. Licht said she will "support and advance CNN's core values of trust, transparency and accountability in journalism..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR |
-- Cat Rakowski, the "Morning Joe" booking authority, is leaving MSNBC and joining FGS Global as a managing director... (Twitter) -- AP veteran Brian Carovillano is joining NBC News as head of standards... (Twitter) -- In London, Evening Standard acting editor Charlotte Ross has departed "suddenly," and deputy editor Jack Lefley will take her place... (Press Gazette) -- Most-talked-about Twitter thread of the week: New Yorker archive editor Erin Overbey, a self-described "institutional critic," took aim at David Remnick... (Twitter) -- Overbey's thread prompted the publication to respond: "The New Yorker is deeply committed to accuracy, and to suggest that anyone here would ever knowingly introduce errors into a story, for any reason, is absurd and just plain wrong..." (Beast) -- The American Journalism Project's next three grantees: Verite, a sister newsroom of Mississippi Today for New Orleans; ICT, formerly known as Indian Country Today; and NYC-based THE CITY. They're receiving a combined $3.15 million... (AJP) -- Knight Foundation announced another round of financial support for local news, giving $20K each to 25 newsrooms to help strengthen their digital platforms... (Knight) |
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High hopes for Hell Gate AN PHUNG WRITES: What NYC journalists are reading today: A profile of Hell Gate, a blog-like news site founded by five journalists who, after being subjected to years of instability in New York media, decided to band together and strike out on their own. The site launched a paid model on Wednesday. Ashley Wong explains that the founders "kept returning to a tantalizing idea: What if there were a lean, mean news publication owned and operated by the journalists themselves, beholden to no hedge funds, advertisers, for-profit companies or billionaires? An outlet whose sole mission was to write great stories about one of the greatest cities in the world? How hard could that be?" Read on... |
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Byron Allen acquires Black News Channel assets "Media mogul and network executive Byron Allen is acquiring Black News Channel out of bankruptcy for $11 million," the WSJ's Jonathan Randles reports. The low-rated channel shut down in March and laid off its staff, but Allen is vowing to revive it: "Allen Media Group will deliver a best-in-class network to serve the underserved African-American community and the advertisers who want to reach this extremely valuable audience..." |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE |
-- Last week Bobby Burack reported that Chris Cuomo "has had talks with the cable news network NewsNation about a return to television." On Wednesday NewsNation announced that Dan Abrams will have Cuomo's "first nationally televised interview since leaving CNN." It will air next Tuesday... (NextTV) -- "In case you missed it," Philip Bump says, "Tucker Carlson last night specifically endorsed 'great replacement' and also looped George Soros into it..." (WaPo) -- Instant classic: Isaac Chotiner's unbelievable deadpan-funny interview with Alan Dershowitz about his "Martha's Vineyard Cancellation..." (TNY) |
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BeReal tops the chart The BeReal photo app is, in the words of Casey Newton, "generating legitimate enthusiasm among TikTokers, Twitter addicts, and college students" right now. "On Monday, BeReal became the No. 1 free app in the iOS App Store," Newton reports, and as of Wednesday night, it's still there, ahead of TikTok and YouTube. It's generating more and more press coverage as a result. Read Newton's analysis here... |
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'Dickie V.' is more tribute than documentary BY BRIAN LOWRY: "Dickie V." is understandably first and foremost a heartfelt tribute to ESPN's Dick Vitale, who acknowledges being in the "last chapter" of his life as the 83-year-old basketball analyst has battled cancer. But strictly as a documentary, the film glosses over how Vitale's bombastic style has influenced other practitioners of his craft during his 40-plus-year TV career, and doesn't address his unabashed cheerleading for the game and top coaches. It's thus sentimental, but to borrow one of Vitale's catchphrases, not quite a primetime player, baby. More here... |
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-- In-depth new story by Josh Rottenberg and Glenn Whipp: "Did departing academy chief Dawn Hudson ruin the Oscars — or save them?" (LAT) -- "Veteran publicist Cari Ross has joined Gersh to serve as senior VP of communications," the first in-house comms exec in the agency's history, Chris Gardner reports... (THR)
-- "Upcoming contract negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood's biggest employers are expected to include an echo boom of another industrywide conflict from the recent past," Cynthia Littleton reports... (Variety)
-- "Filming in Los Angeles stabilized above pre-pandemic levels in the second-quarter of 2022 after posting three consecutive all-time quarterly records," Winston Cho reports... (THR) -- "Faze Clan, one of the biggest esports companies in the world, has officially gone public via a SPAC merger with B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp," Jay Peters reports. "The deal values Faze at $725 million..." (The Verge) -- The ESPYS are airing now. Check ESPN.com for highlights... (ESPN) |
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Netflix, the next day Everyone has an opinion about Netflix's Q2 earnings and Q3 projections. Let's take a look. Shares closed up 7% on Wednesday. As Paul R. La Monica wrote, "the bullish 'it coulda been worse' case is overshadowing continued concerns about growth." >> Stratechery's Ben Thompson says "Netflix's earnings beat expectations, but were still concerning," and adds that "if Netflix ever wants to sell itself then Microsoft makes all kinds of sense as an acquirer..." >> CNBC's Alex Sherman says the Q2 results are a "pivot point:" Either leading to a "new period of sustained gains" or failed attempts to restart growth... >> Martin Peers, in his first column for Bloomberg, says "Wall Street's enthusiasm for NFLX Q2 results misses the underlying problems: growing sub losses in its biggest markets..." >> In other Netflix news: The streamer is "shuffling and simplifying the executive team on its animation film group" after Tuesday's acquisition "of Australian-based animation studio Animal Logic," TheWrap's Brian Welk reports... >> Netflix has also "quietly pulled the plug on its popular Twitter customer-help account after 13-plus years and more than 900,000 tweets," Variety's Todd Spangler reports... |
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HBO releases "House of Dragon" trailer BY OLIVER DARCY:
HBO on Wednesday released the official trailer for "House of Dragon," the 10-episode prequel series that takes place 200 years before the events of "Game of Thrones." The trailer for the series, which premieres August 21, offered up several looks at the dragons, as you might expect. AV Club's Emma Keates has four key takeaways from the trailer here...
>> THR's James Hibberd is also out with the second part of his piece on the show, in which the cast talks about their characters... |
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FOR THE RECORD, PART SEVEN |
-- "Quidditch is changing its name to quadball to cut ties with J.K. Rowling," Scottie Andrew reports... -- Ana de Armas says there is "no need for a female" James Bond... (Variety) -- Apple Original Films has acquired Jennifer Lawrence's "Causeway..." (Deadline) -- "Bridgerton" has added new cast members, including Daniel Francis, Sam Phillips, and James Phoon... (TV Line) -- Olivia Coleman, Luke Evans, and Jessie Buckley are set to star in Netflix's "Scrooge: A Christmas Carol..." (Deadline) -- Judd Apatow and Jimmy Miller are producing a comedy from the "SNL" writers group known as "Please Don't Destroy..." (THR) -- Wes Anderson's "Asteroid City" will be released by Focus Features... (Variety)
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Peak docu-TV? BY BRIAN LOWRY:
Almost exactly a year after HBO aired its Woodstock '99 documentary, Netflix has announced a docuseries, "Clusterf**k: Woodstock '99," to premiere Aug. 3. Here is the three-parter's trailer...
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FOR THE RECORD, PART EIGHT |
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LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST... Pets of the day! Reader Tara J Kohinska emails a photo of Scout, the "elder statesmen" of the household: "He is also a huge fan of Reliable Sources and wonders if you will be putting out an all-feline version in the future!" |
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Thank you for reading! Email us your feedback, tips and pet photos anytime. We'll be back tomorrow... |
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