Our sister publication The Hollywood Reporter will be toasting New York media heavy-hitters tonight. Their annual 35 Most Powerful People in New York Media list (which really includes 53 people) has some familiar tvnewsers in the bunch: from executives, Roger Ailes of Fox News, David Rhodes of CBS News and Jeff Zucker of CNN; to the evening anchors, Lester Holt, Scott Pelley and David Muir; and a double triumvirate: the ABC News leadership team of James Goldston, Tom Cibrowski and Barbara Fedida, and the NBC News team of Andy Lack, Deborah Turness and Phil Griffin.
The two most-popular primetime Fox Newsers Bill O’Reilly and Megyn Kelly are on the list again. So are Diane Sawyer and Anderson Cooper, and three morning show groupings of Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Lara Spencer of “Good Morning America”; Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell of “CBS This Morning;” and Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb of “Today.”
Some highlights from the interviews include Roger Ailes revealing how he watches the competition:
“I tell you who I do like at MSNBC — I like Joe and Mika. I don’t watch much CNN, they got out of the news business in primetime. But I look to see if they have a good documentary or movie. If they do, I’ll watch that.”
And Jeff Zucker admitting to his favorite show on a competing network:
“The O’Reilly Factor at 11 p.m. I just find Bill very informative and entertaining. Make sure it’s noted I watch it at 11, not 8.”
Also, who said this?
“I remember having tears in my eyes thinking, ‘My wedding dress isn’t going to fit because I can’t find Jeffrey Dahmer’s prom date.’”