LAWRENCE, Kan. – Audience metrics are a funny thing. Enormous value is given to what are simply estimates. In “traditional media” like radio and television, they have always been admittedly flawed in one form or another. After all, in the days before cable, how could anyone possibly know how many people are actually watching a television show? The same has always been true of radio. It’s impossible to measure with absolute certainty an audience receiving an over-the-air signal.

Filed under:
Technology, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Winter Olympics can’t come soon enough for NBC. Until then, there’s little the network can do to stop their talk show hosts from taking nightly jabs at their apparent late night ineptitude. Meanwhile, Conan O’Brien has finally broken his off-air silence, rejecting the proposed move to 12:05 a.m. ET in a statement released today:

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Who knew it would take over 15 years for the chinks in NBC’s late night armor to show? Indeed, what goes around seems to be coming around for the network that once branded itself “America’s Late Night Leader.”

It’s becoming clear that the decisions NBC made in 1991 set the stage for the giant mess currently waiting at its doorstep.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Rumors began swirling today about the future of NBC late night. With an end to the 10 p.m. (9 p.m. CT) Jay Leno Show imminent, many people are wondering what will happen to new Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien.

It has been said many times over that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Such is true of NBC.

The network that passed over David Letterman as Johnny Carson’s successor for The Tonight Show in the early 1990s seems to have made a similar gaffe with Leno and O’Brien. Like former NBC Entertainment executive Warren Littlefield – made infamous by Bill Carter’s book The Late Shift and a subsequent HBO movie of the same name, current entertainment chief Jeff Gaspin offered the 11:30 time slot to a seemingly hot commodity, O’Brien, in order to prevent losing him to a rival network.

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – After putting forth my arbitrary list of the best in live television for the past year, I have seen that the Sports Emmy Awards were given out last night. I’ve decided that, since I have yet to look at the winners, I might as well give my picks to a slightly less arbitrary selection.

Here’s a quick digression: I’m sitting in the Kansas Union on the KU campus in Lawrence with ESPN’s newsmagazine attempt, E:60, on a television to my left. I can’t really hear what’s being said. What I can tell is that the film noir pitch meeting footage is horribly over the top, and the camerawork for the interviews in this Stephon Marbury piece is basically what I’d expect from ESPN trying to do break into this genre. Could someone please watch Real Sports or 60 Minutes?! They do it right.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – For as long as I’ve been writing about the world of live television, I don’t think I’ve ever actually put forth a list of who I think is the best for on-air and production.

Here are a couple of rules: 1) individuals must still be active in their respective roles (network changes are okay); 2) there is no limit on how many people working for a particular network can be chosen (if the network happens to be that good, it wouldn’t make sense for me to suggest otherwise); 3) for sports, when I feel it is warranted, I may select multiple people holding the same position but for different sports.

Filed under:
Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. — For the fifth time in her career, Beth McCarthy Miller has been nominated by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for Outstanding Directing for Variety, Music or Comedy programming. McCarthy Miller, nominated for last season’s episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Steve Martin, has never won an Emmy despite past nominations for America: A Tribute to Heroes, Saturday Night Live: The 25th Anniversary and Saturday Night Live. This year, her category consists of fellow veterans Louis J. Horvitz (78th Annual Academy Awards) and Bruce Gowers (American Idol) as well as Chuck O’Neil (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart) and newcomer Jim Hoskinson (The Colbert Report). Unlike in prevous attempts, however, McCarthy Miller is the lone representative of non-cable late-night programming. Her nomination is one of only two for the 31-year-old show; the other went to SNL’s technical crew for the episode hosted by Jack Black.

Filed under:
Music/Variety by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Chalk another one up to Sean McManus, the president of CBS News and Sports. McManus, whose 9-year term at the helm of the network’s sports division has been marked by over a dozen high-profile on-air additions, can now add Katie Couric to that list. This morning, the 15-year veteran of NBC News’ Today Show officially announced that she will leave NBC in May to assume the roles of anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News. The highly-anticipated announcement comes after a year of speculation regarding Couric’s future, and McManus was the perfect person to seal the deal. While the Today show has lost ground in the morning ratings game, CBS Evening News has been on the way up under the leadership of interim anchor Bob Schieffer. The two networks’ news divisions seem to be heading in opposite directions. With people like McManus and Couric revamping CBS News, the eyes have it. As for NBC News, the peacock is for the birds.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer

LAWRENCE, Kan. – I’m back at KU for the spring semester, introducing a new look to the site, to me and to Jayhawk Sports Talk. While specifics of the coming season at KUJH are still pending, I will share my recommendations for the weekend programs you shouldn’t miss:

Filed under:
Late Night TV, Music/Variety, Opinion/Editorial, Sports TV, Television by Scott A. Winer

ROSWELL, Ga. – In the last six weeks NBC has been scrambling to fix a leak in one of it’s most successful programs: the Today show. NBC News’ three-hour morning show has led its original two-hour time slot (7:00 – 9:00 a.m.) for the better part of a decade, but the show, which expanded to three hours soon after the turn of the century, has recently seen a decline in its margin of victory. For the first time in a long time, “America’s First Family” has been struggling to stay on top.

Word first spread in a late-April edition of the New York Times, announcing the firing of the show’s executive producer Tom Touchet and the “hiring” of Jim Bell, a thirtysomething Harvard alum who was the Coordinating Producer for NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. The announcement was made by Jeff Zucker, another youthful success story out of Harvard who currently heads NBC Universal Television and who was Today’s executive producer when it first took the lead in the morning ratings game.

Filed under:
Opinion/Editorial, Television by Scott A. Winer