Everybody's Got Olympic Fever...

Count me in on that, too. I have been soaking in every minute of Olympic action I can. Since the opening ceremonies began, NBC has been averaging over 30 million viewers each night. According to information from TV By The Numbers, they believe that approximately 44 million viewers were tuned in to see the Women's All Around Gymnastics finals last night between 10:30 and midnight. Even more impressive, approximately half of all 18-49 year olds who were watching tv during the 11:00 pm central time hour last night were watching the Olympics. To put that into perspective, that is much better than an American Idol finale.

Can NBC keep up this average or will its viewers get Olympic fatigue? I am not tired of it yet. The coming days will show us if others are though.

If It's Sunday, It's Claire McCaskill

Obama surrogate (aka: Missouri's junior Senator) Claire McCaskill will be appearing tomorrow morning on NBC's Meet The Press. She will be joined across the table by Carly Fiorina, an adviser to Sen. John McCain.

Meet The Press airs at 9 a.m. on Sunday mornings on KY3, KSHB-41, and KOMU. It will air at 8 a.m. on KSN-16 and KSDK.

Breaking Now: NBC To Buy The Weather Channel

I knew it was probably going to happen, but CNBC is now reporting the news and so is TVNewser. You can check out the info on CNBC by clicking here.

This development poses a lot of interesting questions, but chiefly among them: what happens to Weather Plus? How does this affect all of the work getting local markets to brand their weather after the network?

There is so much to digest. TV Newser also has a few additional relevant questions to consider.

Tom Brokaw To Moderate Meet The Press Through The Election

NBC has announced that Tom Brokaw will serve as moderator of Meet The Press through the election in November. This was announced yesterday. There has been no word yet on an ultimate replacement, although some of the top contendors appear to be NBC/Politico's Chuck Todd, NBC's David Gregory, and PBS's Gwen Ifill.

Tim Russert: 1950-2008

As most of you know by now, Tim Russert, moderator of NBC's Meet The Press, passed away yesterday. I have been unable to be near a computer to blog this development, but TV Newser has been providing wall-to-wall coverage. You can check out TVNewser by clicking here.

Let me just take a moment and say that Tim Russert was one of my favorite political analysts. He will be greatly missed.

I am sorry I am away and not able to have blogged about this event earlier.

Developing Story: Katie Couric Back To NBC...

for just a few minutes tomorrow morning. She will also be on CBS and ABC. Did I neglect to mention that she will be joined by Brian Williams and Charles Gibson?

The three will be making the morning show rounds tomorrow to highlight a joint telethon that will be held on all 3 networks later this summer (September 5 to be exact) raising money for cancer research.



Oh, and yeah... made you look! ;-)

Huckabee Joining NBC?

If McCain doesn't choose Mike Huckabee as his running mate, rumors are flying that he will likely join NBC as a political analyst for the network. He has been seen recently in some very high profile spots, including a gig as an MSNBC Insider on their primary coverage of West Virginia and most recently as a roundtable guest on Meet The Press. It will be interesting to see what becomes of this relationship should McCain go elsewhere for his VP.

She's Baaaaack!

Kathie Lee Gifford, formerly of Live w/ Regis and Kathie Lee is back on morning television as the co-host of the Today's Show's 4th hour. She has been drawing quite the press coverage lately and it will be interesting to see if she can boost the ratings of that hour. It is important to note that in many markets, she competes head-to-head with former co-host Regis Philbin.

Here are a couple of reviews of her performance thus far:

Kathie Lee Back On The Morning Shift

Kathie Lee Gets Mixed Reviews

"More cutoffs than on a busy interstate in rush hour"

VCR...err... DVR Alert

Be sure to catch Brian Williams, host of the NBC Nightly News, as he hosts tonight's Saturday Night Live. Who wants to bet he shows up on Weekend Update?

KYTV will air the 4th hour of Today

KY3 has confirmed to The News2K that they will be airing the 4th hour of Today at 10 am central. This additional hour means that the station will no longer air Live! with Regis and Kelly. It moves to sister station KSPR at 9.

Earlier this month, we confirmed that KSHB would be airing the 4th hour of Today in tape delay mode at 11 a.m. We have still received no word on plans from KSNF, KOMU, and KSDK.

Food For Thought... Chip Off The Old Peacock, Hurricane Dean, and Olby heads to Sunday Night

* FishBowlDC is reporting that NBC's Congressional Coorespondent, Chip Reid, is leaving NBC and that he is likely to surface at CBS soon.

* Dean has become a Cat 5 Hurricane and all the networks are working to bring the latest Hurricane Dean Coverage to their viewers. TV Newser has a run down on who is where. Check it out here.

* MSNBC announced today that Keith Olbermann's show Countdown will be airing this Sunday night in a special primetime slot at 7 eastern ahead of Sunday Night Football on NBC. This is apparently only a one time deal, but if it is successful... could it lead to a weekly deal? We shall see!

KSHB's Programming Update

KSHB has confirmed to The News 2K that it will continue to air "KC Live" at 10 a.m. even when the 4th hour of Today begins airing in September. They will tape-delay the hour for playing from 11-noon daily.

I have contacted KSDK, KYTV, and KSNF but I have received no response from them. I will let you know as soon as I do concerning what those stations plan to do.

This is "All Day" on NBC

The Today Show is expanding to 4 hours Monday - Friday in September. Broadcasting and Cable scoops on who will be hosting.

Here are some questions that first come to my mind: why the 4th hour? Will the Missouri NBC stations carry it? How will this affect their daytime schedules?

Hopefully we can answer these questions in the days to come.

Meet The Press Questions the Secretary of Defense

While the Republican Presidential candidates were talking policy on ABC this morning, Tim Russert had Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on the air discussing the situation in Iraq. It was a fascinating interview as you can from an excerpt from the transcript below (courtesy of http://www.msnbc.com/):

MR. RUSSERT: Should the Iraqi parliament have stayed in session?

SEC’Y GATES: Yes. In fact, when I was in Iraq two months ago, I urged—I strongly urged the presidency council and the, and the prime minister that council of representatives not go out.

MR. RUSSERT: Because the signal it sends, sends to the U.S., whose sons and daughters are over there in 130-degree heat carrying their extraordinarily heavy packs, fighting every day, and the Iraqis adjourn without reconciling.

SEC’Y GATES: Well, I was—I was actually even more blunt than that to them. I said, “We have—for every day that we buy you, we’re buying it with American blood, and the idea of you going on vacation is unacceptable.”

The complete transcript can be found here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20094638/