On a short trip out of town, so I'll post this quick. Here's video of Rick Sanchez on this morning's Good Morning America on ABC talking about his dismissal from CNN. (h/t TVNewser)

Congratulations!

On today's Rick's List, Rick Sanchez mentioned that his show will be airing in the 8 PM ET slot (presently held by Campbell Brown). Rick will begin his 8 PM ET post on July 22 and continue to anchor is 3 PM ET show.

He will be filling in during the downtime before the new Eliot Spitzer/Kathleen Parker yet-to-be-named show will begin.

CNN Press Release - CNN

First Quarter 2010

For the first quarter 2010, CNN outperformed MSNBC in both total day (M-Su/6a-6a) and nearly doubled MSNBC during the day (M-F/9a-5p) among total viewers and the key demographic adults 25-54. During the quarter -- in total day, CNN averaged 507k total viewers, a 27% advantage over MSNBC’s 398k, and posted 150k in the demo 25-54, 9% more than MSNBC’s 137k. During non-opinion programming (M-F 9a until 5p) in head-to-head comparisons, CNN attracted 578k total viewers and 139k among adults 25-54, easily topping MSNBC’s 305k and 74k respectively. MSNBC placed 4th or 5th each hour of the day during the first quarter among adults 25-54.

Compared to the prior quarter (Q4 2009), CNN grew its audience across several key dayparts, including total day, dayside (M-F 9a-5p) and M-F and M-Su primetime. In total day, CNN is up 6% in total viewers and increased 11% in the demo adults 25-54; during dayside, CNN rose 3% and 5% respectively; in weekday primetime (M-F) the network is essentially even in total viewers and increased 6% in adults 25-54; and during M-Su primetime the network was up 3% in total viewers and grew 8% in 25-54.

First quarter program highlights:

CNN’s AC 360 outperformed MSNBC’s Countdown at 10p among total viewers (728k vs. 598k) and adults 25-54 (227k vs. 197k)

CNN’s American Morning outperformed 4th place Morning Joe in adults 25-54 (133k vs. 108k)

CNN’s Rick’s List topped MSNBC Live at 3p among total viewers (596k vs. 306k) and adults 25-54 (132k vs, 72k) and Dylan Radigan at 4p among total viewers (624k vs. 322k) and adults 25-54 (128k vs. 76k)

CNN’s Situation Room bested Hardball at 5p among total viewers (661k vs. 525k) and adults 25-54 (149k vs. 96k), The Ed Show at 6p among total viewers (618k vs. 547k) and adults 25-54 (156k vs. 116k) and Hardball at 7p among total viewers and adults 25-54 (157k vs. 151k)

March 2010

In March, CNN also outperformed MSNBC in total day among total viewers (460k vs. 400k). During the day (9a-5p), CNN had a 63% advantage over MSNBC in total viewers (501k vs. 308k) and a 57% lead in the demo 25-54 (119k vs. 76k) in head-to-head non opinion programming.

CNN – the only non partisan cable news network in primetime – grew its M-F primetime audience more than the other cable news nets compared to last month (February 2010/M-F). In M-F primetime among total viewers, CNN was up 11%, while FNC and MSNBC increased only 4% and 9% respectively, and in the demo 25-54, CNN increased 11%, more than FNC’s 5% increase, while MSNBC was up only 1%. And in M-Su primetime, CNN was up 23% in total viewers and increased 21% in the key demo.

Specifically in March, compared to last month (Feb. 2010) – Anderson Cooper (10p) grew an impressive 28% in total viewers and was up 17% in adults 25-54. Larry King (9p) was up 1% in total viewers and 9% in 25-54 and Campbell Brown (8p) rose 7% in total viewers and increased 3% in the key demo adults 25-54.

HLN

First Quarter 2010

HLN continued its streak of ratings growth by posting its best quarter in network history for both Morning Express with Robin Meade and The Joy Behar Show. The flagship morning show scored 187k viewers in A25-54 for its best performance in the demo in the network’s history. This represents 26% growth over Q1 of 2009 in A25-54 – the most growth over year-ago of any cable news morning program. The Joy Behar Show, which launched in September 2009, scored the best quarter ever among total viewers at 9 pm in network history (634k), and also posted the most year-to-year growth of any primetime program in cable news among total viewers (26%).

CNN REACH

On an average monthly basis for Q1 2010, CNN again topped the competition with a reach of 104 million, ahead of FNC (94 million), MSNBC (90.2 million) and HLN (88.3 million).

In March, CNN remained ahead of all cable news competition in reach with 93.2 million viewers, followed by FNC (87.5 million), HLN (80.8 million) and MSNBC (78.7 million).

CNN DIGITAL

In February, CNN Digital was ranked No. 1 among ALL News and Information sites in several key metrics, beating MSNBC Digital in video and traffic during their Olympic coverage.

VIDEO
· No. 1 in Video Streams: 152 million total streams, beating No. 2 MSNBC Digital by 8% or about 12 million streams and No. 3 Yahoo! News by approximately 154% or 92 million streams. (Source: Nielsen VideoCensus, Feb-10)
TRAFFIC
· No. 1 in Total Usage Minutes: 957 million minutes, 30 million more than No. 2 Wikipedia and 127 million more than No. 3 MSNBC Digital.
· No. 1 in Share: with 8%, 1 point ahead of No. 3 MSNBC Digital
· No. 1 in Time Per Person: 21.7 minutes, the highest time spent among the top 20 News and Information sites, 3.3 minutes more than No. 2 MSNBC Digital and 6 minutes more than No. 3 Weather Channel.
· No. 1 in Page Views: 1.5 billion page views, ahead of No. 2 MSNBC Digital by 25% or 343 million and beating No. 3 Yahoo! News by 123% or 849 million. (Source: Nielsen Online Netview, Feb-10)
MOBILE
CNN Digital was also No. 1 in Mobile, with 14.2 million unique visitors in January, a 15% increase month over month in the news and current events category. CNN Digital on mobile beat the nearest competitor, Yahoo! News by 187%. This is the 37th consecutive month that CNN Digital has topped the news and current events category. (Source: Nielsen Mobile MediaView – Jan. 2010)

CNN Press Release - Atlanta Studio Completes Conversion of CNN/US Programming to HD

CNN this week will unveil the next generation of news studio with the network’s latest high definition set in Atlanta, where rehearsals start today and live broadcasts begin in late spring. The new studio marks the conversion of all four of CNN’s domestic production centers to HD, joining New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

The studio includes a 270-degree rotating anchor desk, multiple set locations, weather center, more than 50 HD monitors, including three 103-inch HD plasmas, HD projectors, a touch-screen and perceptive pixel “magic” walls.

The studio also features more than 2 miles of LED lighting on the floors and in the walls to enable production staff to change graphics depending on the show or news environments. Buried in the wall, floors and ceilings is a further 45 miles of copper and fiber optic cabling for the 5,000 square foot studio.

“We built the Atlanta studio to be flexible by offering different broadcasting angles and set locations,” said Matthew Holcombe, vice president of Network Support for CNN Broadcasting Engineering and Systems Technology. “The studio and its infrastructure represent an evolution based on the best technology available.”

CNN Newsroom, Rick’s List, CNN Saturday Morning, CNN Sunday Morning and Sanjay Gupta, MD will join the line-up of CNN domestic programming already available in high-definition, completing CNN’s conversion to HD in the US. CNN HD stands as a separate high-definition signal offering a programming line-up identical to the CNN/US channel broadcast in the standard-definition format.

CNN HD is part of a continued rollout of high-definition offerings and innovations. CNN Worldwide’s high-definition plans go beyond upgrades of studios and production centers and include a significant investment in equipment in the field to ensure that its journalists can gather news in high definition. For example, crews are already equipped with a combination of HD cameras, laptop editors, trucks and fly-aways and the CNN Election Express, the network’s mobile HD production unit. HLN primetime programming is currently transitioning to HD and will be completed by summer. The entire network will be converted to HD by fall.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.