A source who has been reliable for TCG in the past adds this to my Tammy Haddad post:
You're right about Tammy Haddad, but you didn't mention one of the major reasons for her leaving: they are starting to lose on a semi-regular basis to Headline News! Headline News is not even a real network! It doesn't have anywhere near the visibility, production budget, or marketing budget that CNN or MSNBC has, and yet at 7 pm they have made real inroads.
And then my source--whom I will call Deep Game--adds a prediction:
Say what you will about Olbermann, but his numbers have come way up...MSNBC is going to make a play for Glenn Beck at 7 pm when his contract is up. That way, they would have the 2 fastest growing shows in Cable News, with two hot hosts, plus they would be able to spin their way out of the "MSNBC is Liberal" crap because they would have a big-time liberal host and a big-time conservative host, effectively helping to inoculate them from criticism that has been starting to hurt NBC and their corporate parent GE.
TCG comment: I am not sure that MSNBC would want to deviate from its Bush-bashing mode by adding Beck, who is a conservative. And I am als not sure how hot Glenn is these days, but that could just be that he is on HNN. GB has talent: If he could go somewhere else, he might really be a star.
And Matthews' rise and fall proves that--the right handling makes all the difference.
And oh, by the way: Who gave Matthews his start in TV? Why it was Roger Ailes and the late Chet Collier back when they were at CNBC. A good producer makes all the difference--and so does a bad producer, right, Tammy? Not that you'll ever read, in many places, that the "Empress of Cable" has no clothes.
