Sweeping Changes at MSNBC

[TheWebHead]

(Mar. 2, 3:45PM ET) -- TMZ has learned that active discussions are underway at MSNBC to kill all live, daytime programming and replace it with taped shows.


High-level sources connected with the cable network also tell TMZ that MSNBC President Rick Kaplan will be booted from the network when his contract is up -- within a year.

more...
http://tmz.aol.com/article2?id=20060302151009990001

[grasswire]

1. keep your knees loose, KO!

[loudsue]

2. So now the White House can edit shows BEFORE they sneak out info

on Katrina/Iraq/Abu Gahrib/Abrahmoff.... HOW CON-VEEEEN-IENT!!!

:kick:

[wordpix]

3. so much for breaking news there--but we'll have lots of "Behind Bars"

jail shows and "Headliners and Legends"

[MadMaddie]

4. Well I guess they are prepared to lose massive

viewership.....

[apnu]

9. Anything to take down any semblance of voice that disagrees with the GOP.

They did it to AAR in Chicago. A few weeks after they debuted the station AAR leased air time said they didn't pay and put back on the other stuff that was there. It was a latino station if I recall. AAR had a better ratings potential (and gets better ratings than the latino station) so it was a better money making station to have on the air.

But the die-hard Republican who owned that particular frequency pulled the plug even though he knew full well, that he'd make more money with AAR than without.

So yeah, it doesn't surprise me that KO gets good poll numbers and they want to shut down MSNBC.

[Berry Cool]

19. They're not talking about shutting down KO

just the live daytime programming. Probably so that, yeah, they can replace it with canned shows about celebrities and life inside prisons. Ugh.

[anitar1]

27. What about Blitzer? n/t

[0007]

15. CNN & FAUX are a joke

Maybe MSNBC will hire Bill Moyers, and Phil Donahue?

[orleans]

20. mine included. n/t

[ozymandius]

5. Rick Kaplan!! He's a professional broadcasting managerial bum.

He ran CNN into the ground when Time Warner took over from Ted Turner. I see that years have not tempered his insistance to ruin every place he manages.

[saigon68]

6. He made lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ there

He has an immense Golden Parachute

[Synnical]

7. Check out the poll on the bottom right of the page

What's your favorite cable news network?
MSNBC 49%
CNN 34%
FOX 17%

Who's your favorite cable news personality?
Keith Olbermann 77%
Bill O'Reilly 16%
Larry King

[SharonRB]

8. KO is now up to 80%

No shock there, huh DU?

[paineinthearse]

23. link? nt

[olddad56]

10. Canned proaganda is more effective...

Does anyone on this board still watch that crap anyway?

[NashVegas]

11. 5:10 Update - MSNBC Says Bad Info

They are calling the story "ridiculous." Addition at the bottom of the story.

[blondeatlast]

13. But this thread will continue anyway. I believe MSNBC on this because

they have seen a steady increase in viewership of late; it would be stupid of them to make more than cosmetic changes at this point.

[high density]

12. Wow, so they'd rather have 0 viewers instead of 400k?

I won't miss Rick Kaplan at all. He doesn't have a clue of what's going on.

[OneTwentyoNine]

14. Bawhahah....look at the poll pitting Olberman against O'Reilly.....

splotchy getting his ass kicked VERY badly.....

[katty]

16. get rid of tweety

[Catchawave]

17. Woot ! Keith at 84%

What's your favorite cable news network?
MSNBC 56%
CNN 35%
FOX 10%

Who's your favorite cable news personality?
Keith Olbermann 84%
Bill O'Reilly 8%
Larry King 7%
Total Votes: 1,360

[orleans]

21. uh oh. bill & larry are gaining ground now....

keith is "down" to 81 percent
o'reilly is up to 10 percent
larry king up to 9 percent!

bill must've gone home and called his friend & told him to vote.

[leQ]

25. back down to 81 now; looks like it's getting freeped (n/t)

[gkhouston]

18. probably half right

I wouldn't be that surprised to see Kaplan get the proverbial boot but replacing all their live daytime programming with canned shows seems pretty extreme.

[crispini]

22. Kicikin' for KO! DU that poll!

What's your favorite cable news network?
MSNBC 50%
CNN 37%
FOX 13%
Who's your favorite cable news personality?
Keith Olbermann 81%
Bill O'Reilly 10%
Larry King 9%
Total Votes: 4,675

[bigworld]

24. MSNBC should emulate BBC World

And have a half hour of straight, anchor-fed news on the hour every hour followed by say, a half hour of in-depth features or business news. Forget the I-yell, you-yell "panel" shows, forget the personality shows. I think people would respond to something like this, something different.

[SuperWonk]

26. Good riddance...

What has Kaplan done during his tenure that was anything but a flub?
Hire Maury Povich and Connie Chung??!

Barf.

This has been a LONG time coming.