2018 represented yet another extraordinary year in the television news business. With that in mind, we decided to compile the 10-most-viewed stories on TVNewser from 2018.
Some of the top 10 finishers make sense to you, while others could surprise you.
As you might imagine, a ton of the top posts from 2018 were of the Scoreboard variety, but we have decided to exclude ratings stories from this particular top 10.
Here’s a look, starting at No. 10, all the way down to the most-viewed TVNewser story of the year:
10. Ron Claiborne Says Goodbye to GMA Weekend and ABC News
On Sept. 16, Claiborne said goodbye to ABC News after 32 years at the network, 14 of which were spent as anchor on the weekend edition of Good Morning America. Claiborne joined ABC in 1986 as a Boston-based general assignment reporter, and has reported from 40 countries, covered four presidential campaigns and co-anchored 1,200 episodes of GMA Weekend.
Sunday, September 16 will be my final day at @GMA Weekend & I’ll be leaving ABC at the end of the month. 32 years ABC News. A long, good run. Now it’s time to go.
— Ronald Claiborne (@RonEClaiborne) September 15, 2018
9. Anchor Changes at CNBC: Wilfred Frost Moving to Closing Bell; Sara Eisen to Power Lunch
CNBC made some notable anchor changes back in March (and some additional programming and anchor changes about 8 months later), including moving Wilfred Frost off of Worldwide Exchange (with Sara Eisen,) to Closing Bell alongside Kelly Evans. Eisen moved to Power Lunch, alongside Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, (who is no longer with CNBC, full-time), Melissa Lee and Tyler Mathisen. Brian Sullivan took over the anchor spot at Worldwide Exchange, which airs globally, beginning at 5 a.m. ET.
There have been some more changes since that March item. In November, Evans was named host of a new 1 p.m. program, The Exchange, which premieres next month. Eisen joins Frost on Closing Bell.
8. Sam Champion Filling In on GMA While Ginger Zee is on Maternity Leave
After a 25-year run at ABC, veteran weather broadcaster Sam Champion returned to the network and Good Morning America back in January for a few months while chief meterologist Ginger Zee went on maternity leave. Regular GMA weekend weatherman Rob Marciano moved to weekdays while Champion replaced him on weekends. Champion left ABC for the Weather Channel in 2013, and spent three years at the network.
7. ‘The Newseum Will Continue,’ but Where?
This post –published Feb. 8– was based on a Washington Post report that execs of the Washington D.C museum dedicated to media were meeting with real estate investment bankers about the future of its home on Pennsylvania Ave.
The Newseum moved into the space 10 years ago, and had struggled since. It had earned $18 million in rental and catering revenue and only $7.8 million in admissions in 2016.
“The Newseum is one of the tools the Freedom Forum uses to champion the First Amendment and the freedom of the press,” Newseum chief operating officer Scott Williams told the Post. “They have no intention of it going away. The Newseum will continue.”
6. Here Are the Biggest Advertisers on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC
TVNewser is owned by Adweek, and whenever we’re able to cover the intersection of advertising and television news, we hop on that opportunity. “While most would think brands regard CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News audiences differently, it is clear that all three attract consumers that are looking for improvements, and pharma and wellness marketers are buying ad space across all three,” Alphonso’s svp of research T.S. Kelly told TVNewser in March.
According to Alphonso data, Nutrisystem was the top spender on Fox News at the time (Feb. 2018) $1.90M; Otezla was the top on CNN, $1.07M; and SmileDirectClub on MSNBC ($640K).
5. Ronan Farrow Hints There May Be ‘Additional Information Coming to Light’ Concerning Judge Kavanaugh
TV newser turned investigative print journalist, Ronan Farrow made the aforementioned remark during a conversation at the annual New Yorker Festival on Oct. 6. This came on the heels of the Judge Brett Kavanaugh hearings.
“These past few weeks with the playing out of the Brett Kavanaugh story, we have seen every painful detail given by some very brave, very credible people thrown into a partisan inferno,” Farrow continued.
Farrow, a 2018 Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and contributing writer for The New Yorker, asserted that his stories are “careful, fact-based investigations.”
Farrow also spoke about days and months before the Harvey Weinstein story was published. All of the work he had put into the Weinstein investigation over the year, while incredibly important, and something he was proud of, was also incredibly time consuming and not really helping him from a career standpoint at the time.
Quite a difference a year makes.
4. Whoopi Goldberg and Elisabeth Hasselbeck Declined to be Interviewed for a Book About The View
This item cracks the top 5 despite having been published only 9 days ago. Variety New York bureau chief Ramin Setoodeh has reportedly been working on a book about the legendary ABC daytime ensemble show for the past three years that will publish this coming April. It’s called, Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of The View. Almost all of the key panelists and producers agreed to be interviewed for the book, with Goldberg and Hasselbeck the exceptions. “Read it and you’ll see why,” Setoodeh responded when asked why the women wouldn’t talk to him. CNN’s Brian Stelter broke the news.
3. Craig Melvin is Stepping Down as Co-Anchor of Saturday Today.
The veteran NBC Newser –who also serves as a MSNBC weekday anchor– stepped down from his role as Saturday Today co-anchor on Aug. 25. Melvin was named Today show news anchor not long after, where millions of Americans watch him on weekdays from 7 – 9 a.m.
2. CNN’s Brooke Baldwin and James Fletcher Are Married
TVNewser readers like ratings stories, but they also enjoy learning about the personal lives of on-air talent. The wedding of CNN Newsroom anchor Brooke Baldwin was the second-most-viewed story on TVNewser for the year.
Baldwin and Fletcher married on May 5, in front of friends and family at The Barn at Liberty Farms, an event space in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. A number of of Baldwin’s CNN colleagues were at the wedding, including Poppy Harlow, Dana Bash, Don Lemon, and Wolf Blitzer.
What a great smile! Again, congrats to @BrookeBCNN and James Fletcher pic.twitter.com/zHoU0gqHj5
— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) May 7, 2018
1. Brianna Keilar Will Anchor CNN’s 1 p.m. Hour Starting This Fall
On July 11, Keilar, CNN’s senior political correspondent, was named the next anchor of CNN’s 1 p.m. hour. The hour would eventually be named CNN Right Now with Brianna Keilar, and launched in November after her return from maternity leave.
Wolf Blitzer had anchored the 1 p.m. hour for years, and the addition of Keilar to the mix meant that Blitzer would have his daily on-air workload trimmed from 3 hours to 2.
Prior to receiving the promotion, the Washington-based Keilar had been Blitzer’s primary fill-in anchor for The Situation Room and was the lead reporter covering Hillary Clinton and the Democratic field in 2016.
This was TVNewser’s most-viewed story of 2018!