| | | | A historic night for cable news. Here's what happened on the first weeknight in 21 years without a Bill O'Reilly show: | | Tucker Carlson said O'Reilly "set a high bar, and I'm going to do my best to meet it. Thanks for sticking with us." Some of the advertisers who abandoned Fox's 8pm hour were back, Variety's Brian Steinberg reported.
At 9, "The Five" in prime time was almost a carbon copy of the 5pm iteration, but with a 25-minute-long A block. Bob Beckel seemed surprised when the control room told him to keep talking. The reason was obvious: to avoid going to commercial and giving viewers a reason to change the channel... | | | President Trump probably likes the new lineup | | Dylan Byers emails: Carlson, "The Five" co-hosts and Sean Hannity all dedicated their hours to boosting President Trump, tearing down Democrats and preying on conservative anxieties -- from liberal college campuses to $425 jeans. Perhaps most mysteriously, both Carlson and "The Five" kicked off their shows by discussing how Trump was more popular than Hillary Clinton -- a candidate he defeated nearly five months ago. Carlson's first segment was literally titled "Trump Wins Again."
With this kind of programming, Fox News will likely maintain its following. But it may take some time for viewers to get used to the new lineup. The ghost of O'Reilly loomed large...
-- Flashback: Dylan's story last Friday: Fox News is "likely to stay the course..." | | -- BuzzFeed's Steven Perlberg reports that Carlson is shopping a book...
-- James Poniewozik tweets: "What Tucker Carlson probably has going for him: for the Fox audience, anti-anti-Trumpism is just as pleasing as pro-Trumpism"
-- Anti-Fox group Media Matters' POV: "Fox News' new evening lineup is O'Reillyism without O'Reilly" | | Over on CNN, Jake Tapper kicked off a week of prime time editions of "The Lead" with two big guest bookings. Elizabeth Warren gave Trump an F for his first 100 days, while Chris Christie gave him a B. An hour later, in a town hall with Anderson Cooper, John Kasich offered an "incomplete" instead of a letter grade... | | | Can Maddow keep her winning streak going at 9? | | Rachel Maddow had an advantage over the CNN and Fox shows I've mentioned -- because she's been in her MSNBC time slot for nearly a decade.
Partly because of that consistency and predictability, she's been challenging Fox this year, scoring daily and weekly wins in the 25-54 demo at 9pm, a trend that I detailed in this story for CNNMoney...
-- Notable stat: According to Nielsen data, Maddow also narrowly topped Fox's 8pm hour last week, making her #1 on cable news outright... though only in the demo... | | I know I'm going to devour the Monday night ratings just like everybody else on Tuesday. But let's all resist the urge to reach any conclusions after just one day or just one week... | | | "He doesn't need to make up fake facts" | | That was Anderson Cooper on "AC360," saying it's not unusual for Trump to say/tweet things that are simply untrue, but it SHOULD be unusual. "It isn't something we should be desensitized to..." | | Monday as told through five CNN banners | | TRUMP DISMISSES NEW POLLS AS "FAKE NEWS"
POLL: TRUMP'S APPROVAL RATING HITS NEW LOW
TRUMP: I DON'T SUPPORT WIKILEAKS (HE LOVED IT IN 2016)
DESPITE TWEET, PRESIDENT TRUMP LOST POPULAR VOTE
TRUMP PUSHES WALL FUNDING TO SEPT. (NOT FROM MEXICO) | | @RealDonaldTrump wrongly called two real polls "fake news" on Monday morning. On "AC360," Glenn Beck said those media attacks continue to please the president's base. This Beck comment was thought-provoking:
"I think that's really who he defeated during the election -- the press." | | Bill O'Reilly released a nearly 20-minute-long podcast on his web site Monday evening. "I am sad that I'm not on television anymore," O'Reilly said. "I was very surprised how it all turned out. I can't say a lot because there's much stuff going on right now." He teased more info to come.
O'Reilly also said his web site will be the foundation for his future programming. The vision, he said, is to have guests and segments and turn it into a "genuine news program" for paying subscribers. Presumably he'll show up on camera soon? Read Tom Kludt's full story here... | | -- Stephen Colbert's easy joke: "O'Reilly has a podcast for subscribers to his website, so your grandparents may call you tonight with a 'computer question...'"
-- More: Lloyd Grove says O'Reilly "sounded weirdly chipper, considering the mortifying humiliation he had just sustained..." | | ...If O'Reilly has talked with the aforementioned Glenn Beck about how hard the online broadcasting model can be... | | WashPost's Callum Borchers says it sounds like O'Reilly is going on a "revenge tour," not an apology tour: "When O'Reilly says 'the truth will come out,' he is not talking about the conclusion of some ongoing lawsuit. It appears that he is talking about an effort on his part to cast himself as the victim of some kind of left-wing conspiracy..." | | | Megyn Kelly's Sunday show will start in June | | Dylan Byers emails: Megyn Kelly will officially start at NBC News next month, joining Kate Snow on the network's Sunday night programming, a source confirms. Her own Sunday show will premiere in June, executive produced by NBC veterans David Corvo and Elizabeth Cole. The news was first reported by Page Six, which has all the details here... | | | Step back and think about it... | | In just the first four months of this year, Fox News has parted ways with its two biggest stars, Kelly and O'Reilly. Monday really marks the beginning of a new cable news age... | | | Murdoch's show of support? | | Rupert Murdoch took Fox News co-presidents Bill Shine and Jack Abernethy to lunch at Marea on Monday, Mediaite's Colby Hall reported. The AP just so happened to have a photographer outside... | | | Another Andrea Tantaros lawsuit | | Tom Kludt reports: Former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros, having already sued the network for sexual harassment, is now accusing it of orchestrating a "criminal scheme" involving what she claims were illegal electronic surveillance and online harassment of her. Here are the details. An attorney repping Fox and its execs said they "flatly deny that they conducted any electronic surveillance of Ms. Tantaros..." Read more... | | | EVEN MORE TV NEWS NEWS... | | | Fox's Heather Nauert officially joins the State Department | | "Former Fox News anchor and correspondent Heather Nauert was announced Monday as the new State Department spokesperson," FoxNews.com reported. No word on when she'll brief the press corps for the first time, but I'm guessing it'll be carried live... | | -- Barack Obama talked a lot about polarization and media echo chambers on Monday... and the remarks "were almost a prophecy of how his return to the public stage would be covered," Dominic Patten points out... Fox News aired only a small part of the event while CNN and MSNBC went long... (Deadline)
-- Obama didn't mention Trump on stage. But how does Josh Earnest think HIS successor Sean Spicer is doing? Earnest told Dana Bash that he doesn't have a "ton of sympathy" for Spicer... Here's my write-up...
-- Coming Tuesday: The Committee to Protect Journalists will release its annual "Attacks on the Press" publication... | | | Writers Guild members authorize a strike | | Brian Lowry writes: The Writers Guild of America's membership has authorized a strike — a pro forma vote, arming its negotiators with necessary leverage as they return to the bargaining table with the AMPTP on Tuesday. For their part, the studios issued a statement saying they are "committed to reaching a deal," noting that the last strike — which began in 2007 — "hurt everyone," including writers... | | "Chobani, the Greek yogurt maker, is suing Alex Jones" and the InfoWars site because Jones said "Chobani imports migrant rapists to Twin Falls," Zach Kyle of the Idaho Statesman reports.
Speaking of Jones, he's a supporting actor in a new documentary that I think you'll want to see... | | | Recommended: new film about Roger Stone | | "Get Me Roger Stone" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Sunday night. It's coming to Netflix on May 12. The filmmakers show exactly how Stone paved the way for a Trump presidency... even though that's not the ending they anticipated...
Stone attended the screening, of course. After seeing the film for the first time, he pronounced it was "not bad..." And he reminded me that "all publicity is good publicity..." | | | Celebrating the Matrix winners | | This year's Matrix Award winners, including Savannah Guthrie, Gretchen Carlson and Judy Smith, were celebrated at an event in midtown Manhattan on Monday.
"Guthrie was introduced by colleague Matt Lauer who said it was his duty to give her a roast," NYPost's Claire Atkinson reports... | | -- Ben Mullin's feature about Michael Barbaro and company: "How a team of outsiders at The New York Times got The Daily to 20 million listeners" (Poynter)
-- CNBC Europe's Julia Chatterley is jumping to Bloomberg Television "to co-anchor and report for 'Bloomberg Markets' and 'What'd You Miss?'" (Talking Biz News)
-- "Google is adding the ability to buy TV commercial inventory through its ad technology..." (AdAge) | | Jake Tapper on the 4pm edition of "The Lead:" "I'm a little surprised he's still tweeting about this stuff. It still really gets to him -- his approval ratings and what happened with the popular vote in 2016." (Via Mediaite) | | CNN's Donie O'Sullivan emails: Trump is following two new accounts... new Fox News king Tucker Carlson and "The Five" co-host Jesse Watters... Watters asked Dan Scavino to have @realDonaldTrump follow him during an interview that aired Saturday. We've updated our Trump Twitter list here... | | | Graydon Carter writes about B.T. and A.T. | | Graydon Carter's letter in the May issue of Vanity Fair, now online, separates life into Before Trump and After Trump:
B.T., "most people I know went about their daily lives reasonably confident in the knowledge that the papers or news sites they read that morning were all they needed to stay informed for the rest of the day. But now, A.T., all that has changed. Those same people check their phones with the regularity of lovelorn teenagers—wincing as they look to see what fresh horrors the great man in the White House has unleashed. Trump may thrive on conflict and disorder, but most of us do not..." | | | Fact-checking Trump's distasteful ratings claim | | Trump's boast about giving "Face the Nation" a ratings boost got a lot of play on cable on Monday. "It's the highest for 'Deface the Nation' since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down," Trump told the AP's Julie Pace.
Wondering what he's talking about? Well I found the press release... when Trump was on "Face" on January 3, 2016, the show had its highest viewership since September 16, 2001. So he's right on the facts, although the comment made a lot of people cringe... | | | Cameras in the court for travel ban appeal hearing... | | Via CNN's Ariane de Vogue: "The Ninth Circuit has agreed to live pool broadcast coverage by C-SPAN of a May 15th travel ban appeal hearing in Seattle..." | | Brian Lowry emails: Albert Einstein's life gets 10-part series treatment in National Geographic Channel's first scripted series, "Genius." It's underwhelming, but indicative of a trend: Turning such biographies into series, a la "Z" and "The Crown," instead of the more tightly constructed TV movies or miniseries they would have become in the past... Read more from Lowry here... | | | "Reliable Sources" highlights | | | | Catch up on Sunday's "Reliable" | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email. | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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