Sunday’s BET Awards, featuring Chris Brown’s infamous breakdown, pulled in 7.6 million viewers nationally, easily the top cable show of the week. It was also the top program in Atlanta, where it drew 364,000 viewers.

That is down from a record 10.7 million a year ago a few days after Michael Jackson’s unforeseen death but still by far the biggest audience BET will likely get this year.

- ABC’s “Wipeout” continues to be a serious guilty pleasure, coming in No. 2 locally and No. 3 nationally.

- TNT’s “Hawthorne” opened June 22 at 3.4 million, down from its series debut a year ago of 3.8 million but typical of its performance season one overall. Locally, it ranked 17th with 168,000 viewers.

-TNT’s new show “Memphis Beat” opened at a promising 4.3 million  after  “Hawthorne.” Locally, it brought in 153,000.

-The U.S./Algeria World Cup game June 23 drew 5.3 million on ESPN, which is about 5.2 million more than will watch a non World Cup soccer game. This was the game that got …

Continue reading BET Awards tops ratings in Atlanta »

The Daily Beast posted nine notable “Larry King Live” moments, including interviews with Tammy Faye Bakker, Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando.

Here are four of them:

In 1994, Brando gets all cutesy and kissy-poo with King:

His interview with Mark Felt, the infamous “Deep Throat.”

“Do you know who I am?” Jerry Seinfeld said with exasperation after King wondered if NBC cancelled “Seinfeld” when in fact, he left on his own accord.

Former Miss USA pageant contestant Carrie Prejean gets peeved when King pushed her about a settlement with the pageant she wouldn’t talk about, then threatens to walk off after a caller asks about gay marriage.

Continue reading Nine memorable ‘Larry King Live’ moments, courtesy of the Daily Beast »

After a quarter century, Larry King announced tonight that he will be ending the long-standing “Larry King Live” show this fall but will stay on in some unspecified capacity at CNN.

He said he plans to do specials and spend more time with his family. “It’s time to hang up the nightly suspenders,” he said on his show at 9 p.m. “Until then, we have more shows to do and who knows what the future will bring.”

“There was no pressure from CNN,” he told guest Bill Maher. “It was time.” He also said there was no pressure from the media hordes. “I want new horizons and try other things,” he said. “There’s a freedom.” He noted he has done more than 50,000 interviews.

Reports have Piers Morgan as a possible replacement.

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Here’s the memo sent out by CNN/US president Jon Klein, who declined to say anything about King’s departure last Wednesday after the Eliot …

Continue reading CNN’s ‘Larry King Live’ is ending after 25 years »

USA Today reports that Atlantan Erin Andrews may be staying put at ESPN. Her current contract is set to expire July 1.

“We hope to have a deal signed soon,” ESPN executive vice president Norby Williamson told USA Today.

What her new duties may be is unclear. She has been a court-side sports reporter for several years. Many people (especially those who don’ t watch ESPN) got to know her last year thanks to a stalker who posted nude video of her through hotel peepholes. She finished third on “Dancing With the Stars” this past spring.

Andrews recently told USA Today she had been inundated with offers since her DWTS stint and was considering leaving ESPN for other opportunities.

NOTE: I had used the phrase in a graf above saying “her profile was raised thanks to a stalker” and some construed that as insensitive (including my wife) because it implies a deliberate positive when it wasn’t. So I changed it to a more innocuous phrasing.

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Continue reading Atlantan Erin Andrews looks to be staying put at ESPN »

Atlanta remains a beehive of TV production activity. The latest: BET’s newest scripted comedy “Let’s Stay Together.”

The sitcom will be paired this fall with the revival of “The Game,” last seen as the CW.

There are no big names in the show but Queen Latifah’s production company is behind it and one of the executive producers (Jacque Edmonds Cofer) has worked on “Martin,” “Living Single” and “Moesha.” Kim Fields (”Living Single”) is directing some of the episodes.

The show is being shot at Turner Studios. I hope to make a set visit soon.

The last time BET tried scripted comedy was “Somebodies,” which was shot in 2008 in Athens. It didn’t do particularly well and was not renewed.

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Continue reading BET’s latest scripted sitcom ‘Let’s Stay Together’ shooting in Atlanta »

Atlanta’s Usher held on for a second week with his latest his “OMG” as the most-played song on local radio.

It’s heard on six stations: The Beat (99 spins), Hot 107.9 (53), V-103 (46), Groove (69), Q100 (60) and Majic 107.5/97.5 (3)

Ke$ha’s “Your Love is My Drug” and Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” are not far behind, relying on just four stations each (Beat, Star, Groove and Q100).

DJ Khaled has the fastest growing song of the week with “All I Do Is Win,” which got a major boost last week from 95.5/The Beat (from one spin to 48). The Beat also added two new songs: Eminem’s “Love The Way You Lie” and Soulja Boy’s “Pretty Boy Swag.”

Biggest droppers included “Alejandro” by Lady Gaga (minus 77 spins week over week) and Rihanna’s former No. 1 “Rude Boy” (minus 82 spins)

Top 10 songs in Atlanta, courtesy of mediabase.com
1. Usher “OMG” 330 (+18)
2. Ke$ha “Your Love is My Drug” 283 (+14)
3. Katy Perry “California Gurls” 276 (+45)
4. B.o.B. “Nothin’ On You” 273 (+2)
5. Taio Cruz …

Continue reading OMG! Usher on top of Atlanta radio a second week »

Starting this week, Dunwoody High School grad Ryan Seacrest is off Star 94’s weekday lineup several months before his two-year syndication deal is up.

In early 2009, Seacrest started in mid-days at Star, then moved to afternoons a couple months later after Cindy & Ray were shifted to mornings. He did okay, certainly no worse than the rest of the station. And he was a cheaper alternative than hiring another jock while giving the station the sheen of Seacrest’s celebrity.

But a few months later, Star 94 actually did hire another jock: Chase Daniels. Suddenly, the station had enough full-time DJs so it didn’t really need Seacrest. In fact, until this week, Heather Branch and Daniels had relatively truncated air shifts to accommodate Seacrest, who moved back to a mid-day slot.

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As quickly as he arrived, Seacrest’s …

Continue reading Ryan Seacrest loses his Star 94 weekday gig »

If you listen to the Bert Show regularly,  you know Melissa Carter is gay. In fact, she was one of the first openly gay on-air personalities in Atlanta and has remained an integral part of the show since 2001.

She is also considered the level headed cast member who seldom gets emotional. But a seemingly too-nutty-to-be-true story from one of Q100’s listeners changed that.

Jeremy, in the closet, dated a dude while at Emory and they broke up after he moved to Los Angeles for a residency. Years later, he finds out the same guy is about to marry his sister in Atlanta. He decides to tell his sister. She doesn’t believe him and it gets ugly. She tells her family, who are Mormon. His dad gets so angry, he punches Jeremy. Jeremy flies back to Los Angeles, expecting his family may just cut him off forever.

You can listen to the entire Jeremy story here.

Melissa went on a four-minute monologue that became deeply emotional.

“Let’s stop the cycle,” she said. “What more do we have to say? …

Continue reading Melissa Carter of Q100 gets emotional over gay man’s story »

WXIA-TV's Doug Richards, WGCL's Wendy Saltzman and WAGA's Dale Russell at the Southeast Emmy's Saturday. CREDIT: Doug Richard's facebook page

WSB-TV, for the third year in a row, took home an Emmy for TV news programming excellence in a major Southeastern market, beating out its three Atlanta brethren.

WSB also won nine total Emmys, including three connected with projects headed by Andrew Young.

But who had the most Emmys of the night? It was a tie. Scrappy NBC affiliate WXIA-TV under the helm of new news director Ellen Crooke took home ten, and so did Fox 5’s WAGA-TV.

Among the winners handed out Saturday (I was out of town and missed out on the festivities) included:

- Jaye Watson (WXIA-TV) , best on-air general assignment reporter.

- Ross Cavitt (WSB-TV), best live on-air reporter

- Jerome Jurenovich (Fox Sports South), best on-air sports reporter (he seems to win every year, doesn’t he?) and tie for bets sports anchor with a non-Atlanta anchor.

- Joanne Feldman (WAGA-TV) …

Continue reading WSB-TV wins top Emmy; 10 Emmys each go to WXIA-TV, WAGA-TV »

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Wow. That was quite a moment when Chris Brown broke down singing “Man in the Mirror” on the BET Awards last night during his Michael Jackson tribute. Why did he get so emotional?

Check out an award photo gallery here.

And red carpet here.

Plus, the winners.

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Continue reading The Chris Brown breakdown on BET Awards »