Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

The Director's Cut Blog has learned the guest list for the first two weeks of the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" which returns to 11:35 p.m. beginning on Monday, March 1st. We've also got our first look at the new "Tonight Show" logo. Monday, March 1 - Jamie Foxx, Olympic Gold Medal Skier Lindsey Vonn and a musical performance by Brad Paisley Tuesday, March 2 - Sarah Palin, Olympic Gold Medal Snowboarder Shaun White Wednesday, March 3 - "Jaywalk All-Stars" with the Cast of "Jersey Shore," Chelsea Handler, the most decorated American Winter Olympian of all time Speed Skater Apolo Anton Ohno and a musical performance by Avril Lavigne Thursday, March 4 - Matthew McConaughey and Jason Reitman Friday, March 5 - Morgan Freeman and Meredith Vieira Monday, March 8 - Simon Cowell Tuesday, March 9 - Christoph Waltz, Animal Expert Dave Salmoni and a musical performance by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts Wednesday, March 10 - Guests inc...

Special to the Director's Cut By Tom Beres, Channel 3 Senior Political Reporter CLEVELAND -- Former Channel 3 anchorman Tim White has filed to run for the 17th House District seat. That's the seat now held by Josh Mandel who is running as the Republican candidate for State Treasurer. White left Channel 3 in December, 2008. He has homes in Pepper Pike and Wyoming. He is running as a Democrat. Some people found that surprising. White said, "Think blue dog." If he stays in the race, he will face Democrat Kellie Perk in the May 3 primary. Republican Marlene Anielski and Libertarian David Macko are also running for the seat.

Special to the Director's Cut By Gary Levin, USA Today NBC considered depicting the failed Jay Leno Show as a mere dream: Promo spots would feature Leno and Victoria Principal in the shower, an homage to the classic Dallas scene in which Principal dreamed the death of her onscreen husband. Instead, the network is opting for a low-key echo of the commercials that launched Leno: Last fall, he was shown driving a race car emblazoned with a 10, a reminder of his new slot. In spots that began airing during the Olympics Wednesday night, he's driving the same car, only the 10 is replaced by 11:35 (or 10:35, depending on your time zone), as the Beatles song urges him to "Get back to where you once belonged." The approach is in marked contrast to the hype - painted buildings, grocery-aisle ads - that greeted his move to prime time last fall. Back then he was heralded on the cover of Time as the "future of television"; on March 1, NBC tries to relaunch Leno i...

McLEAN, VA -- Four local Gannett NBC affiliate stations were among the Top 10 most watched TV stations for the first four days of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. KUSA-TV in Denver ranked second; KARE-TV in Minneapolis-St. Paul was fifth; KSDK-TV in St. Louis placed seventh; and WKYC-TV in Cleveland was ninth. Gannett stations also took 3 of the top 5 spots in the 25 largest television markets -- KUSA was ranked first, KARE third and KSDK fourth. "We congratulate all our local NBC affiliates for successfully launching these Olympics. The high viewing is a clear result of unique content from NBC matched to strong local brands," says Dave Lougee, president of Gannett Broadcasting. "The Winter Olympics are off to a tremendous start from the most watched opening ceremony ever for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics (up 35% over the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy), to great weekend ratings (Saturday night was more highly viewed than any single night of Torino coverage) to h...

By Frank Macek CLEVELAND -- Despite weather that's far from a wintry feel in Canada, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, have racked up big ratings for NBC and WKYC. In the half-century of televised Olympics, NBC's coverage of the Opening Ceremony on Friday was the MOST WATCHED EVER for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics with 67.5 million viewers. Those numbers were 17 million higher than the Torino, Italy, games four years ago and six 6 million more than the previous record holder, Lillehammer Games in 1994. Those tabloid fueled games held the record for 16 years. According to NBC Universal, the top five most watched include: Vancouver (2010) - 67.5  million Lillehammer (1994) - 62.0 million Nagano (1998) - 52.4 million Torino (2006) - 50.2 million Albertville (1992) - 46.7 million Locally, WKYC was the 6th highest rated station in the nation for the Opening Ceremonies with a 23.1 rating and 38 ...

Spring is just around the corner. WKYC and  Moms Like Me.Com are big sponsors of this year's Great Big Home and Garden Expo at the IX Center. Our Director's Cut spies were on location and had their digital camera handy to bring you a few photos of the fun going on. We even spotted star Ty Pennington who stopped by this year's show. To see our photogallery, click on the picture.

CLEVELAND -- They're not Olympians, but they'll still give it their all! Betsy Kling, Monica Robins, and Eric Mansfield will compete in 10 events in the first Anchor Olympics, starting Monday night February 15th on Channel 3 News at 7. The trio will do battle in winter olympic sports ech night during the broadcast. Hockey, skiing, luging, tubing, and curling are just some of the activities. So, who do you think will win? Tune in Monday as the Anchor Olympics gets underway!

The Director's Cut blog has put together a "Must See TV" list of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games you will want to catch. The Olympics kick off Friday night, February 12th on WKYC and NBC. And don't forget to join us for the Olympic Zone with Jim Donovan every weeknight during the games beginning Monday, February 15th at 7:30 p.m. Click on the graphic below to save and print a Adobe Acrobat .pdf file:

This afternoon, our News Director Rita Andolsen gave us a little sugar... No, not that kind...but delicious dessert to help us kick off February sweeps which started Thursday. Assistant News Director Howard Fencl had the hidden camera rolling and snapped a few shots of the staff. Unfortunately, he forgot to take a picture of the dessert. Click on the photo for several more pictures from our WKYC Facebook page. (Your blogger is the guy in the middle waiting for the speech to be over so we could get right to the sweet treats.)

WKYC production assistant Ashley Glaze took some time off to volunteer in Haiti with her church group to help the victims of the recent, devastating earthquake. While she is in Haiti, she will be filing reports for Channel 3 News including flipcam video and photographs from her first person account. She'll file reports as often as she has internet connectivity, which is sparse at times, in the still recovering nation. We invite you to follow Ashley's on scene work and ask you continue to keep those affected in your thoughts and prayers. Here's a link to her first set of pictures we have received: http://bit.ly/dzpkzf For her on scene report: http://bit.ly/cj7ZSV

By Frank Macek Time for another edition of "Notes from the Newsroom" as we blog from the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center about what's going on behind the scenes at Channel 3. The Olympics are getting close and Channel 3 is pysched up for the big event which features 15 sports, 86 medal events and 2,500 athletes all competing on the world stage. WKYC and WKYC.com will have complete coverage including: *Opening Ceremonies - February 12th at 7:30 p.m. *Olympic Zone w/Jim Donovan - Feb. 15th -19th & Feb. 22nd - 26th at 7:30 p.m. on WKYC *Olympic Coverage on NBC & WKYC - February 15th through February 28th * Olympic Zone on WKYC.COM  ( www.nbcolympics.com/wkyc ) * Olympic Zone Weather for Vancouver on WKYC.COM * Closing Ceremonies - February 28th at 7:00 p.m. Something new and fresh is coming to Channel 3 News. We can't quite tell you yet what it is. But, we have spotted painters, carpenters, electricians, designers, l...

Editor's Note: The following is news regarding WKYC parent company, Gannett. McLEAN, Virginia -- Gracia C. Martore has been named president and chief operating officer of Gannett Co, Inc., Craig A. Dubow, chairman and chief executive officer, announced Monday. Martore, who was most recently Gannett's executive vice president and chief financial officer, will continue to serve as CFO until a new CFO is appointed. She will continue to report to Dubow. "Gracia is an outstanding leader and business executive," Dubow said. "She has made enormous contributions to Gannett during her many years here and most recently as our CFO and executive vice president. She has tremendous financial skills and extensive knowledge of our business operations. She's earned this opportunity and I couldn't be more pleased that she will serve as our president and COO." "Craig has brought new vision and direction to our company. As the economy continues to move ahea...