Network TV Glossary

Bureau

An office for gathering or distributing news. Similar terms are used for specialized bureaus, often to indicate geographic location or scope of coverage: a Tokyo bureau refers to a given news operation’s office in Tokyo. Foreign bureau is a generic term for a news office set up in a country other than the primary operations center. A Washington bureau is an office in the capital that covers news related to national politics and government in the United States.

Prime time

The hours on weekdays between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., in which the average audience is measured by Nielsen. On Sundays, the prime-time hours are 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.

Rating

A percentage measure of total households or population owning TVs who are tuned to a particular program or station at a specific time (e.g., a six rating for women 18-49 means 6 percent of all women 18-49 in the defined geographic area were viewing that station or program), according to the Television Advertising Bureau.

Share

The Television Advertising Bureau defines share as the percent of households (household share) or persons (P2+ share) using television who are tuned to a specific program, network or station at a specific time.

Viewership

Collectively, the viewers of a television program.

Backgrounder

ABC

• White House correspondent Jake Tapper left ABC News for CNN in December 2012. Jonathan Karl became the new chief White House correspondent and Martha Raddatz took on an expanded role as chief global affairs correspondent.
• Yunji de Nies left ABC News in June 2012. She was most recently based in Atlanta covering the Southeast for ABC News, while also filling in on World News Now (an overnight news program that airs from 2 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. Monday through Friday). Previously, she was a White House correspondent.¹

CBS

• In November 2012, CBS This Morning named Brian Applegate as senior broadcast producer and Matthew Glick as new senior producers overseeing guest bookings. Applegate was executive producer for CBS News’ overnight news show and 4 a.m. program. Glick had worked for NBC News and helped launched Rock Center with Brian Williams.
• Norah O’Donnell moved to CBS This Morning in August 2012, replacing Erica Hill as anchor. This left O’Donnell’s chief White House correspondent position open, which National Journal’s Major Garrett filled in November.
• Margaret Brennan, previously a Bloomberg TV anchor, joined CBS News in July 2012. She is primarily assigned to the State Department, but is also a general assignment reporter in Washington.⁴
• Michael Radutzky was named executive producer of CBS News’ new creative development unit in October 2012. The goal of the new unit is to find “innovative ways to create and distribute CBS News content” on cable, broadcast and other platforms. Radutzky will remain in his position as senior producer for 60 Minutes, a role he has been in since 2006. He has worked for 60 Minutes since 1995.⁵
• Armen Keteyian was named a full-time correspondent for 60 Minutes Sports in October 2012. Keteyian will continue to contribute occasionally to CBS News broadcasts.

NBC

• Amy Robach left the weekend Today show in May 2012. She had been co-anchor of the Saturday edition since 2007 and left NBC News as her contract expired. She is now a correspondent for ABC’s Good Morning America and substituted as an anchor for that show while Robin Roberts was on medical leave.

• The show also said goodbye to weather anchor Janice Huff on the Sunday edition, with Huff continuing to work as chief meteorologist at WNBC, the network’s New York affiliate. The show’s senior producer, Andrea D’Ambrosio left to take a job at Dr. Oz.⁶
• In October, Willie Geist, a co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, joined the Today show as a co-host of the 9 a.m. hour. He remains in his role on Morning Joe during the 6 a.m. hour, but stopped hosting the show Way Too Early, which came on at 5:30 a.m. before Morning Joe on MSNBC.⁷

•  After losing her job at CBS This Morning in July, Erica Hill took a job with NBC as the weekend anchor of the Today show in November 2012.⁸ This put Jenna Wolfe, who had been the Sunday co-host, out of a job. She agreed to stay on Weekend Today as a news reader, a position generally considered a less important role than co-host. Instead of being just on the Sunday show, Wolfe now reads the news on Saturday and Sunday.⁹
• In September, Dylan Dreyer was named Weekend Today’s weather anchor. That means the entire show had a new cast by the end of 2012.¹⁰
• The ratings-plagued Rock Center was restructured in 2012, and the founding executive producer, Rome Hartman was replaced by Alex Wallace. Wallace also oversees Ann Curry’s new production unit and the news division’s health initiatives.¹¹ Hartman shifted to the specials unit of NBC, focusing on election coverage.
• In November, Alexandra Wallace was named as executive in charge of the Today show and Don Nash was named executive producer of the show. Nash had been senior broadcast producer of Today previously.
• Meaghan Rady, previously a producer for Tom Brokaw, became deputy Washington bureau chief in October 2012. She had been a senior producer for the Today show.
• In February 2013, David Axelrod, the former White House senior adviser and strategist for President Barack Obama’s campaigns, joined NBC News and MSNBC as senior political analyst.

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