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Obama Scandals Bring MSNBC 7-Year Low While Fox News Rises

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday May 20, 2013 @ 4:44pm PDTTags: Barack Obama, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, TV Ratings

MSNBCThe scandals of the Obama administration seem to be hurting not just the White House but MSNBC as well, while Fox News Channel has just scored its second-best week of the year. After double-digit gains during last year’s presidential election, May 13-17 saw the progressive-aligned “Lean Forward” news network hit new lows as the IRS scandal erupted and revelations that the Justice Department secretly obtained AP records became public. With 350,000 viewers on average and 94,000 in the adults 25-54 demo, MSNBC had its least-watched and lowest-rated total-day results of the year last week. That was also the lowest total-day demo result the network has had since the week of June 26-July 2, 2006, when MSNBC pulled in just 83,000 viewers among adults 25-54, according to Nielsen data.

Related: Fox News Tops 2012 Cable News Network Ratings; MSNBC Up
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UPDATE: Obama Praises Harvey Weinstein’s “Amazing Movies” At DNC Fundraiser In NY

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday May 13, 2013 @ 3:25pm PDTTags: Barack Obama, Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood fundraisers

UPDATE: 3:24 PM: Just over two weeks after breaking bread at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, President Barack Obama and Harvey Weinstein were back together today. This time it was at the producer and his wife Georgina Chapman’s Manhattan home for a fundraiser. Unlike the big bucks, Weinstein raised directly for Obama during last year’s election, Monday afternoon’s event (read the edited Pool report below) was for the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee 2014 midterm war chests. The President began his remarks thanking “Harvey and Georgina” for “their friendship and support, and for the amazing movies that they’ve made.” Throwing red meat to his Blue State crowd, Obama in his remarks also blamed the GOP for being too “concerned what Rush Limbaugh might say about them” to break the gridlock in Washington. The President will also be attending two other midterm fundraisers Monday while in NYC before returning to the White House tonight. Read More »

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President Slams Media But Conan Softballs Obama At Lame WH Correspondents Dinner

By NIKKI FINKE AND DOMINIC PATTEN | Saturday April 27, 2013 @ 8:24pm PDTTags: Barack Obama, Conan O'Brien, White House Correspondents' Dinner

3RD UPDATE – FINAL: (See Conan and Obama videos here and here.) We warned you not to expect much from tonight’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. And true to form it failed to deliver. Bland to a fault Conan O’Brien didn’t lay a glove on … Read More »

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Hollywood List For WH Reporters Dinner

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday April 26, 2013 @ 3:40pm PDTTags: Barack Obama, Conan O'Brien, White House Correspondents' Dinner

3RD UPDATE, 3:40 PM: Psy is the only act to get 1 billion hits on YouTube with his “Gangnam Style” video, and his follow-up video “Gentleman” is already past 232M views. He has been tapped to join CBS News’ table at tomorrow’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner alongside the likes of Homeland‘s Claire Danes and her husband, Hannibal‘s Hugh Dancy.

2ND UPDATE, 8:10 AM: One day before the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Fox News Channel has said who from Hollywood it is bringing to the event — and it’s a big list. While Greta Van Susteren is passing on this year’s dinner, Fox News stars Bill O’Reilly, Chris Wallace, Geraldo Rivera and Bret Baier will be in attendance, as will the likes of Oscar-winner screenwriter Dustin Lance Black and a contingent from sister studio Fox’s latest X-Men movie: director Bryan Singer and producer-writer Simon Kinberg. See who will be sitting at FNC’s 14 tables below. Also check back for more last-minute additions as we head into the final hours before Saturday’s dinner.

UPDATE, THURSDAY PM: TV comedy king Chuck Lorre will be making his first White House Correspondents’ Dinner appearance this year while waiting for series-pickup news for his hot CBS pilot Mom. Lorre, who is behind the CBS series The Big Bang Theory, Two And A Half Men and Mike & Molly, will be sitting with former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

Related: Conan O’Brien Tweets Pic From DC

PREVIOUSLY: Hollywood is again the guest everyone seems to want at their table for this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Returning headliner Conan O’Brien is set to take up the court-jester role that Jimmy Kimmel played last year and news organizations have begun to reveal guest lists for the April 27 event. There’s a lot of Tinseltown glitter already set alongside generals and top-tier cabinet secretaries — as well as power players like Harvey Weinstein. We know President Obama and the first lady will be there; here’s who else we know is going from Hollywood so far: Read More »

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Obama Set For Peter Chernin’s June DNC Fundraiser

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday April 24, 2013 @ 12:32pm PDTTags: Barack Obama, Hollywood fundraisers, Peter Chernin

The President isn’t running for office himself but he’s still looking for some cash from Hollywood. Barack Obama will be the main act at a lunch fundraiser at Peter Chernin’s house on June 7, Deadline has confirmed. … Read More »

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White House Correspondents’ Dinner Less Hollywood This Year: Report

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday April 18, 2013 @ 12:15pm PDTTags: Barack Obama, Conan O'Brien, The Hill, White House Correspondents' Dinner

Scandal’s Kerry Washington will be there and so will Steven Spielberg and House of Cards’ Kevin Spacey but this year’s White House Correspondents’ dinner will not be attracting the Hollywood players of previous years says … Read More »

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Jackie Robinson Biopic ’42′ Screening At White House Tonight; Harrison Ford & Thomas Tull In Attendance

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday April 2, 2013 @ 9:55am PDTTags: 42, Barack Obama, Harrison Ford, Legendary Pictures, Thomas Tull

Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros’ story of the man who broke pro baseball’s color barrier is headed to the White House. President Obama will host the producers, crew and stars of 42  for a screening at 5:35 PM ET in the Executive Mansion’s Private Theatre. Legendary boss Thomas Tull, director Brian Helgeland, and stars Harrison Ford and Chadwick Boseman will be in attendance. Boseman plays Jackie Robinson in the film, which tells his life story and of his signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Ford plays Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey. Robinson’s widow Rachel Robinson will also be at the screening tonight. Robinson, Tull and the cast joined First Lady Michelle Obama earlier today at an interactive student workshop at the White House looking at the legacy of the legendary ballplayer. 42 opens April 12. Read More »

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UPDATE: ‘The Bible’ Producers Call Controversy Over Satan’s Resemblance To President Obama “Utter Nonsense”

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday March 18, 2013 @ 10:15am PDTTags: Barack Obama, History, Mark Burnett, The Bible
Nellie Andreeva

UPDATE, 10:15 AM: History and The Bible executive producers, husband and wife Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, just addressed the Obama-Satan controversy. “History channel has the highest respect for President Obama,” the network said in a statement. “The series was produced with an international and diverse cast of respected actors. It’s unfortunate that anyone made this false connection. History’s The Bible is meant to enlighten people on its rich stories and deep history.”

Burnett and Downey used stronger language in dismissing the connection, suggesting that the actor playing the Devil may have been simply type cast. “This is utter nonsense,” they said. “The actor who played Satan, Mehdi Ouzaani, is a highly acclaimed Moroccan actor. He has previously played parts in several Biblical epics — including Satanic characters long before Barack Obama was elected as our President.” Added Downey: “Both Mark and I have nothing but respect and love our President, who is a fellow Christian. False statements such as these are just designed as a foolish distraction to try and discredit the beauty of the story of The Bible.”

PREVIOUS 7:15 AM: History’s hit miniseries The Bible had its 3rd installment last night. It’s already been taken to task for its use of beautiful actors in all key roles. Now the project’s casting choice for the role of Satan has come under fire for the apparent resemblance of Moroccan actor Mehdi Ouazzani to President Barack Obama. Read More »

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NBC News And MSNBC Hire Former Obama Adviser David Axelrod As Senior Political Analyst

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday February 19, 2013 @ 7:35am PSTTags: Barack Obama, David Axelrod, MSNBC

David Axelrod, who was Barack Obama‘s top strategist for both presidential election campaigns and his former White House senior adviser, has joined NBC News and MSNBC as senior political analyst. Axelrod began his career as a … Read More »

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UPDATE: State of The Union Viewership Drops 11% From 2012; NBC, Fox News Lead

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday February 13, 2013 @ 3:10pm PSTTags: Barack Obama, Fox News Channel, NBC, TV Ratings

UPDATE, 3:10 PM: The first State of the Union of President Obama’s second term last night was watched by 33.5 million viewers. That’s down 11.3% from the 37.75 million who tuned in for last year’s address across 14 broadcast and cable networks. It’s also a State of the Union low for Obama, who has seen a decline every year since his first official SOTU in 2010 was watched by 48 million. It is not an all-time low since Nielsen started tracking SOTUs in 1993; that goes to Bill Clinton’s 2000 State of the Union when the he was in the last year of his administration — that speech got just 31.478 million. This year’s speech was live from around 9-10:15 PM ET on 15 networks and tape-delayed on Univision. NBC was tops among broadcast networks with 6.469 million total viewers, just ahead of the 6.4 million CBS pulled in. With 3.683 million watching, Fox News Channel was No. 1 among cable news’ coverage of last night’s speech. However, CNN won in the key adults 25-54 demographic with 1.436 million. Fox News’ total viewership dipped 3% from last year. Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Azteca, Univision, MundoFox, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Current, Centric and Galavision all carried the speech live last night. Read More »

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Networks Juggle State Of The Union & Cop Killer Standoff, But No Split Screen Tonight

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday February 12, 2013 @ 7:21pm PSTTags: Barack Obama, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC

In the end, the State of the Union was the story of the night on television, not rogue LA cop Christopher Dorner. Despite reporting on the story of the Big Bear gun battle standoff between Dorner and police up until the last minute, none of the broadcast nor cable news networks ended up using a split screen to show President Obama’s speech and the Dorner case. The only time the Dorner story appeared on screen during the State of the Union was around 6:56 PM, when local LA station KABC put on a crawl announcing a body had been found that was believed to be that of Dorner. Up for barely a minute, the Breaking News crawl told viewers to go to the station’s website for more information or wait for a news special after the State of the Union. CNN‘s sister station HLN remained on the Dorner story throughout the State of the Union with coverage from CNN’s Anderson Cooper and HLN host Nancy Grace. At 6:59 PM, HLN announced that Dorner’s body had been found in a burned-out cabin though LAPD and other police have not confirmed. Obama spoke for just over an hour tonight in the first State of the Union of his second term. Read More »

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‘SNL’ Obama And MLK Cold Open

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday January 27, 2013 @ 12:08am PSTTags: Barack Obama, Saturday Night Live

The evening of his second inauguration, Obama has an unexpected visitor:

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UPDATE: Inauguration Viewership Down Almost 50% From 2009; 20.5M Watch Swearing In

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday January 23, 2013 @ 9:45am PSTTags: Barack Obama, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC

UPDATE, 9:45 AM: President Obama’s second inauguration pulled in almost half the viewership that watched his 2009 swearing-in. Monday’s ceremony and celebrations drew 20.552 million viewers overall between 10 AM and 4:30 PM for a 7.1 rating, accord to Nielsen data released today. The January 20, 2009 inauguration had 37.793 million watching over almost the same time period — good for a 13.2 rating. This year’s inaugural was broadcast, in various forms, by ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision, Telemundo, AZTECA, MundoFox, PBS, Fox News Channel, CNN Headline News, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, TV One, CNN, Current TV, CNBC, CENTRIC and BET. Read More »

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UPDATE: President Obama Urges Study Of Links Between Media And Violence

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday January 16, 2013 @ 1:13pm PSTTags: Barack Obama, Gun Control, Violence Video Games

UPDATE, 1:13 PM: Entertainment organizations are weighing in to support Obama‘s gun initiatives. The MPAA, NAB, NCTA and Independent Film & Television Alliance just issued this joint statement: “We support the President’s goal of reducing gun violence … Read More »

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President Obama To Host White House Screening of NBC Comedy ’1600 Penn’

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday January 8, 2013 @ 4:17pm PSTTags: 1600 Penn, Barack Obama, NBC
Nellie Andreeva

President Obama, meet President Gilcrist. The real U.S. President  will be hosting the cast and crew of NBC’s 1600 Penn tomorrow afternoon for a screening of the new White House comedy series. It will be … Read More »

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Obama Campaign Used Hollywood Techniques To Win

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Friday November 16, 2012 @ 2:30pm PSTTags: Barack Obama, Rentrak

Barack Obama won re-election thanks in part to knowing what you watch on television, and his campaign bought that information from some of Hollywood’s leading data collectors. As detailed in articles in The Atlantic and the Washington Post, the campaign data-mined audience-viewing habits to zero in on where the most relevant eyeballs for their money resided, learning not only what people were watching but more importantly when they were watching and for how long.

According to the reports, the Democrats’ self-developed “optimizer” system used information from set-top cable boxes collected by Rentrak and the Microsoft-owned Navic Networks. (Rentrak, a provider of box office ticket sales used by Deadline, also collects viewing habit information via set-top boxes from more than 20 million TV sets nationwide). The real-time measurements allowed Team Obama, with a TV advertising budget estimated in the $300 million range, to put tens of thousands of ads in front of the niche audiences they were seeking, saving millions in the process. It bypassed the traditional mass buys of local news and major markets — the route taken by most previous presidential campaigns including Obama’s GOP opponent Mitt Romney — in favor of late-night shows, daytime TV, reruns and second-tier cable stations like The Food Network.

Related: Hollywood For Obama & Romney; Star Surrogates Out On Final Campaign Day Read More »

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‘Lincoln’ Screening At White House Tomorrow; Steven Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis & Tommy Lee Jones In Attendance

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Wednesday November 14, 2012 @ 4:26pm PSTTags: Barack Obama, Lincoln, Steven Spielberg

Abraham Lincoln is returning to the White House tomorrow – Lincoln the movie that is. The White House press office announced today that President Barack Obama will be hosting “cast and crew members” from the … Read More »

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Tomorrow’s ‘South Park’ Episode Titled ‘Obama Wins!’: Video

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Tuesday November 6, 2012 @ 7:34am PSTTags: Barack Obama, South Park

South Park‘s Eric Cartman apparently believes he has a hand in the outcome of the presidential race. But the election-themed episode titled Obama Wins! doesn’t air until tomorrow. Below is a clip of Cartman letting Kyle in on a little secret:

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Election 2012 TV Coverage: Who’s Doing What

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday November 5, 2012 @ 3:36pm PSTTags: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

The broadcast and cable networks will be going all out for coverage of the 2012 presidential election, which now kicks off less than 24 hours from now. Most results shows will ramp up  between 6-7 PM ET on Election Day and all seem to be planning for a long night in the presidential race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Here’s a rundown of plans:

BROADCAST

ABC: “ABC News Your Voice, Your Vote – Election Night Coverage” will originate live from Times Square, with real-time results appearing on Times Square screens. Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will host beginning with a special edition of “World News with Diane Sawyer” at 6:30 PM ET  and continuing until at least 2 AM. A special edition of Nightline will air at 2:35 AM ET. Team: Jake Tapper, David Muir, Katie Couric, Barbara Walters, Jonathan Karl, Ron Brownstein and Cokie Roberts, Josh Elliott, Amy Robach, Cecilia Vega, Sharyn Alfonsi, David Wright, Ron Claiborne, Univision anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas, Deborah Roberts, David Kerley, George Will, Matthew Dowd, Donna Brazile, Nicolle Wallace, Pierre Thomas, Gary Langer, Martha Raddatz, Brian Ross, Richard Besser, Bianna Golodryga

CBS: Scott Pelley will lead seven hours of division-wide, multi-platform original reporting from 7 PM-2 AM ET. The  team will use eight studios and three state-of-the-art control rooms. CBS Radio News will deliver at least six hours of live anchored coverage, updates, special reports and online feeds of the results. Team: Bob Schieffer, Norah O’Donnell, John Dickerson, Byron Pitts, Anthony Mason, Jan Crawford, Nancy Cordes, Dean Reynolds, Anna Werner, Elaine Quijano, Wyatt Andrews

Fox: Fox News Channel’s Shepard Smith will anchor live coverage beginning at 7 PM ET. Team: Ed Rollins, Mary Anne Marsh, A.B. Stoddard, Martha MacCallum, Bill Hemmer, Carl Cameron, Ed Henry, Alicia Acuna, Shannon Bream, Steve Brown, Mike Emanuel, Steve Harrigan, Molly Line, Doug McKelway, Dan Springer, Eric Shawn

NBC: “Decision 2012” begins at 7 PM ET, with Rockefeller Plaza transformed into a TV studio as well as an Oval Office and White House Briefing Room set. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams will host from “Democracy Square”. Team: David Gregory, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd, Peter Williams, Andrea Mitchell, Tamron Hall, Lester Holt,Tom Brokaw, Peter Hart, Bill McIntuff, Kristen Walker, Peter Alexander

PBS: “PBS NewsHour” will provide multi-platform coverage beginning at 8 AM ET online, continuing through its regular broadcast until at least midnight. Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff will co-anchor. Team: Mark Shields, David Brooks, Jeffrey Brown, Christina Bellantoni, Stuart Rothenberg, Hari Sreenivasan, Michael Beschloss, Richard Norton Smith, Ray Suarez, Margaret Warner

Related: Networks, AP Revamp Election Exit Polls: Fewer In-Person, More Phone Surveys Read More »

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