'Deborah Norville Tonight' Premiere: Part Two
Debbie's final interview, with Casey Kasem and his wife, was live via satellite. "You ask the greatest questions," he told Norville. His wife's infomercial for her baby cribs and her reference to Norville's past "trials and tribulations" was awful, though. In her final minute, she shared "a few thoughts about new beginnings." Norville called herself a "basketcase" after her Today Show stint ended in 1991, but said she felt very comfortable back at home. "Don't let anybody ever tell you that you can't go back home again," Norville said. "You can, and you should." Overall, a strong premiere. Norville is a top-notch host. The key ingredient in the coming weeks is simple: book a variety of fascinating guests, for live in-studio interviews. 10:01:54 PM

'Deborah Norville Tonight' Premiere: Part One
The first interview, with Kerry's wife, was dull -- it was on tape, and via satellite. By contrast, the second interview, with the parents of a pilot killed in Iraq, was a notable improvement. It was live, in person, and Norville shined. She was very prepared, and it showed. The third segment, a "survivor's story" interview with a mountain climber, was also (Best question: "Why do you climb mountains?") In a filler segment called "We just had to ask," Debbie analyzed Martha Stewart's choice of handbags, and played a clip from Sex and the City. 9:56:43 PM

SOTU: Preliminary Ratings Info
43 million people watched the State of the Union last night, down from 61 million last year. Preliminary figures suggest that NBC scored the biggest audience. Detailed numbers will come out tomorrow. Reuters has more... 9:55:01 PM

Norville: First Impressions
"Good luck, Deborah," Keith Olbermann said at 8:59pm. Then Deborah Norville returned to the NBC family (she said it was "cool" to be back). First impressions: Very nice studio (3K at 30 Rock) -- it looks similar to CNN's New York studios. Nice graphic package, though the music sounds a bit bland. "We hope that you'll find us to be a fresh alternative to some of the stuff on TV," she said in her intro. A preview of the show's direction came during the first commercial break. "Tomorrow on Deborah Norville Tonight: stomach stapling surgery," a VO said. Rapper Ja Rule will also appear on Thursday's show... 9:25:40 PM

Do people have a right to know journalists' biases?
Pat Buchanan considers questions of truth in journalism at Town Hall. "The question, finally, is this: Do the people have a right to know the biases of the people from whom they get almost all their information about politics, politicians, candidates and causes?," he asks. "Seems to me that an honest journalist has to answer yes." Interesting commentary... 9:12:37 PM

MSNBC Targeting Women, CNBC Targeting Conservatives?
Interesting analysis of MSNBC and CNBC's apparent strategy, from TVHeads: "It looks like NBC is finally doing some smart things. MSNBC is going after women (and Larry King) with Deborah Norville (Heinz interview). CNBC is going after conservatives (and Hannity & Colmes) with Dennis Miller (Arnold interview). Divide and conquer. Segment the audience. Looks like strategy consultants figured out the direction for NBC." Interesting...but do Olbermann or Scarborough's shows appeal to women? 9:11:21 PM

Inside The United Nations' News Bureaus
A great story on the U.N. Wire describes media coverage of the United Nations, pointing out that the best years of broadcast reporting on the U.N. may have passed. It points out that only CNN and the BBC maintain "significant studio operations" at the headquarters. Interesting inside look... 9:10:21 PM

Would You Pay For A Women-of-FOX Calendar?
A DCRTV mailbag post asks a curious question: "When is Phaux News Channel coming out with its newsreader babe calendar? Will it be called "Me Faire and Balanced ladies"? Anybody feeling entrepreneurial? 9:01:02 PM

Countdown's Notable Quotes
MSNBC PR has put out a new edition of Keith Olbermann's best jabs. It's not on the PR site yet, but here's my favorite: "An unnamed thief who visits a pet store in the Franklin Township, New Jersey, he shoplifts two snakes, he hides them in his trousers. They bite him in the groin. By the way, that would make them trouser snakes." (Update: here's some more.) 7:16:49 PM

Caucus Ratings "Surprise": FOX with 1.5, CNN with 1.3
Direct quote from Broadcasting & Cable: "Fox News Channel edged out CNN in viewership for its coverage of the Iowa caucuses on Monday night. Fox attracted 1.5 million viewers in prime time, compared with 1.3 million for CNN. MSNBC trailed a distant third with 584,000 viewers." Is anyone surprised?... Still, look at how close CNN was to FOX. 7:16:47 PM

Norville: 1st Night: Kerry, Kasem, and a story of survival
From the Norville promos running on MSNBC: "The fascinating, the unforgettable -- the stories you can't stop talking about. ...Because if it's on Deborah Norville tonight, you'll be talking about it tomorrow." Tonight, Debbie will interview Teresa Heinz Kerry and Casey Kasem. She will also talk to the parents of the first female pilot killed in combat in Iraq, and will feature "an incredible survivor story." Details here. (FYI: Tonight, Toby Keith will be on LKL.) 2:06:43 PM

Norville: Columnists Enjoying the Today Show Angle
The Atlanta Journal-Consitution's lead contrasts Norville's controversial Today show history with her new MSNBC program: "This morning Deborah Norville returned to her old stomping grounds -- the "Today" show on NBC -- to promote her new program on sister network MSNBC." Phil Rosenthal used a similar angle in his Chicago Sun-Times preview... 2:06:10 PM

Norville: Aims to be Larry King on Steroids
In a NYDN story today. Deborah Norville points out that Larry King often airs hour-long interviews. So her counterprogramming is obvious: "talking with up to four guests each night on everything from politics to pop songs." Quoting her: "My own personal barometer for this show is if we touch an emotional button, tell you something you didn't know or prompt you to think about something in a way that had never occurred to you before, than we've accomplished something." 2:05:02 PM

Dean Not a Fan of FOX News? (Shocking!)
Josh Marshall, blogging from a Dean event in NH, notes that Dean doesn't sound like a FOX Fan: "Just now a woman got up and asked a question attacking Fox News (“an embarrassment to this country”). She hopes that all Fox News employees lose their jobs. Dean picks up the riff and notes how Fox News viewers have the highest rate of believing that Saddam was behind 9/11." 1:14:54 PM

Quote of the day
The very-quotable Mark Halperin tells Howard Kurtz: "Mistake number 51 of the 98 mistakes we make every four years is to forget that only about 11,000 people are paying attention in the year before the election. The conventional wisdom was that Kerry was toast and [John] Edwards, despite being an early golden boy, never jelled. Journalists who lock in and say those kinds of things are victims of the instant analysis culture that demands these snap judgments." 1:14:05 PM

Remembering Jerry Nachman: Newspaper Links
> NYPost: "a larger-than-life former editor of The Post who knew everyone and everything"
> NYPost Editorial: "fondly remembered for the excitement he helped bring to The Post"
> NYDN: "one of the brightest guys in the media"
> USAT: "a smart, tenacious newshound with a passion for street reporting — and schmoozing"
> NYTimes: he brought "both acute intelligence and dogged persistence to his pursuit of the news" 10:13:47 AM

"Moderating a debate is like conducting an orchestra"
That's a quote from Anderson Cooper, in his Details magazine column "After many meetings and strategy sessions, we'd decided to have the candidates seated on stools," Cooper writes. "Yes, these sorts of things are the topics of endless meetings." Interesting article... 10:13:01 AM

"The networks had already moved on"
A nice sum-up of how the media handled last night's speech in the Baltimore Sun: "Within minutes of their rebuttal, though, the networks had already moved on...ABC was interviewing Iowa winner Kerry. Fox News was assessing the political terrain in the first primary state, New Hampshire. By evening's end, it wasn't clear that the Bush administration, so sure-footed when it comes to managing the media, had ensured that the impact of this year's State of the Union address would linger for long." 9:23:21 AM

Tom Shales Reviews SOTU Coverage
Tom Shales wasn't impressed last night. "Over on the Fox News Channel, Fred Barnes, sounding as if he had walking pneumonia, allowed as how he'd heard George W. Bush deliver many an important and eloquent speech over the years, "and this was not one of them." It takes courage to say something like that on the Fox News Channel, normally a Bush cheering section." 9:22:46 AM