CNN PLANS SHAKEUP AT HEADLINE (response to dumpster ratings)

NY POST ^ | 2/20/05 | TIM ARANGO

[Liz]

For the first time in its history, CNN's Headline News is tinkering with its all-news format.

The network will launch a new primetime lineup tomorrow — the first time in the network's 20-plus years on the air that it's making a break from airing straight newscasts.

"We're doing it because it's a chance to use both of our networks in a complementary way," said Ken Jautz, executive vice president of CNN Newsgroup.

"In this day and age there is so much competition in news. By the time you get to prime time people know the headlines of the day."

The switch is one of the early changes under new CNN President Jonathan Klein, who took over the network late last year.

While Fox News surpassed CNN in the ratings in recent years and is the No. 1 cable news network, CNN's sister network Headline News has held its own. Last year, for example, Headline News averaged 213,000 viewers during daytime hours, compared with 201,000 for MSNBC and 207,000 for CNBC, according to Nielsen.

In primetime last year, Headline News' ratings were largely flat from the year before.

Beginning tomorrow evening, Headline News will begin airing "Showbiz Tonight" from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. — a live, talk-oriented show on the entertainment business. In the next hour, from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., the network will air the legal talk show "Nancy Grace," hosted by the CourtTV anchor of the same name.

Grace, who became a prosecutor after her fiancee was murdered, will continue to host her CourtTV show "Closing Arguments."

"There's a very high interest among viewers in legal news and entertainment," Jautz said.

"It's the first time we've had a major marketing campaign for Headline News," Jautz said.

[Liz]

(Blush) I'm so handy.

[Liz]

You got that right.

[international american]

Turner:
Okay, first question. How would you grade President Bush on the war in Iraq? Yes, Mr. Reich?

Reich; "Well, as you know back when I was a Professor at Harvard, I...
Carville: "A what??
Reich: "Oh ok, an instructor at Harvard....nitpicking here,
James. As we all know, there were no weapons of
mass destruction, and it was all about enriching Halliburton, and oil greed, and extreme right wing fanaticism....

Mr Carville what say you?

Carville: "Well, Bush is a gangster, and so's his pappy from way back, they all rich, they all Wall Street thugs, we talking high ticket thuggery, and goon squads! Goon squads all over the country...hell, all over the world, an...
Mr Begala, and you, sir.

Begala: " Well, time has inexorably shown that the only existence that defines reality exists in stoic acquittals
which can neither be proven, nor rendered spurious. Therefore, Bush is a liar!!"