Cable News News

CNN executives would like to forget, as everyone else has, the existence of CNN+.  Ironically, CNN is now airing some of the flotsam and jetsam from that ill-fated streaming service.

CNN is airing Fareed Zakaria's interviews with famous people - Billy Joel and Francis Ford Coppola, to be precise - this Saturday, after they were originally aired on CNN+.  It's apparent that the Cable News Network is trying to salvage the debacle of its streaming channel by airing what was either aired or about to air on it on CNN itself. Whether these special programs will continue to be produced remains unknown, but in the meantime, let's see if they air Jake Tapper's CNN+ book reviews or Eva Longoria's "Searching For Mexico." (Heck, Eva Longoria is so hot, she could do a documentary series called "Searching for Kyrgyzstan" and I'd watch it!)   

Meanwhile, here's something I just found out that happened three months ago - Chris Jansing took over the 1 PM Eastern slot at MSNBC from Chuckles the Clown (also known as Chuck Todd) back in May.  I was unaware of that because I've pared my cable-news viewing down to John King's CNN program at 12 PM Eastern and Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC program at 10 PM Eastern.  (King and O'Donnell are both Boston boys!) This is still welcome news, because I love Chris Jansing and, as you can gather, I can't stand Chuckles the Clown.  Chuckles now hosts his "Meet The Press Daily" show on NBC News Now, NBC's free news-streaming service.  But if you watch Chuckles on NBC News Now, you'll agree that the service is way overpriced.

But the big news at MSNBC is . . . Alex Wagner has her own show again! 😃  It's on Tuesdays through Fridays at 9 PM Eastern, filling the void left by Rachel Maddow when she went weekly.  Starting tonight.