LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12
CNN Headline News is gutting its headline news format in prime time in favor of live one-hour shows starring two former veejays on MTV networks and Nancy Grace, that kind-of-scary, cliche-spewing former violent-crimes prosecutor.
"Showbiz Today," with A.J. Hammer and Karyn Bryant, kicks off the new "Headline Prime" lineup on Feb. 21. Hammer has been a VH1 veejay and hosted Court TV's "Hollywood Heat" and Bryant hosted TBS's action-film-oriented "Movies for Guys Who Like Movies" and NBC's "For Love or Money" reunion special.
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"Showbiz Today" will be better than all those other Hollywood "news" shows because they tape in the afternoon while "Showbiz" is live at 7 p.m., to provide viewers with that day's absolutely most up-to-date information on the Brad-Jennifer split.
After that, it's "Nancy Grace" starring the Court TV regular and frequent "Larry King Live" guest, who CNN said will interview inmates, jurors, victims and others. In Wednesday's announcement, Grace described the 8 p.m. show as "no-script, no-made-for-TV drama, it's the real thing" and "real people with real stories," adding, "We don't believe in talking heads, legal mumbo-jumbo or sugar-coating what goes down in America's courtrooms."
A one-hour newscast, "Prime News Tonight," wraps things up at 9 and the whole thing re-airs starting at 10.
Some TV critics here at Winter Press Tour 2005 didn't seem to like the idea much, arguing it was mucking around with the Headline News brand. But CNN News Group executive veep Ken Jautz noted that Headline News doesn't do particularly well in prime time because most avid news fans already know what the news stories of the day are -- at least the ones being covered by U.S. news operations, which leaves out plenty. In the fourth quarter of 2004, Headline News averaged 207,000 viewers at 7 p.m. and 242,000 viewers at 8.
Rather than come up with new headlines, Headline News will "counterprogram" the CNN network, which sticks to news from 7 to 9 p.m., CNN News Group President Jim Walton explained. But Headline News will continue its headline updates on the half-hour in prime time and its news crawl at the bottom of the screen.
If critics expected Nancy Grace to be outraged by the E! Entertainment announcement the previous day that it would reenact each day's testimony at the Michael Jackson child molestation trial, they were disappointed.
"My only concern is how that affects Lady Justice," Grace shot back, channeling Mickey Spillane. She added that she expects that to be "not at all."
One critic went mano a mano with Grace over cable news's obsession with the trial of Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci.
"I'm concerned with your viewpoint that somehow it was wrong to focus on the Peterson case," Grace snapped. "It was not wrong. I wish that America would embrace every murder victim and every domestic homicide in the same manner, but I say as a victims rights advocate that I'm glad America embraced Laci Peterson because that trial became a vehicle for me, for Court TV and for CNN to spotlight domestic violence, including the little-known fact that murder is the No. 1 cause of death among pregnant women. . . .
"So while some people may scoff at coverage of Laci Peterson, Laci Peterson was a symbol of an epidemic in this country. And if somebody has got a problem with me pointing out domestic homicide, that's their can of worms.
"Okay?!"
