The FCC has ruled that CNN anchor Anderson Cooper‘s daytime talk show, which is more likely to feature an interview “Real Housewives” than real politicians, is in fact a news program, and is thus exempt from FCC regulations that require equal time to be given to all political candidates.

In other words, Cooper can now have on political candidates (or their wives, families, whomever) and does not have to worry about providing equal space to all the other candidates in the race.

As The Hollywood Reporter notes, the decision wasn’t exactly a surprise:

As the FCC’s ruling points out, the TV show Entertainment Tonight has also qualified as a bona fide newscast after the agency decided its “role is not to decide, by some qualitative analysis, whether one kind of news story is more bona fide than another.”

In our four-week Social Media 101 online conference and workshop starting January 19, you’ll get hands-on, basic training on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, YouTube, and Flickr. Speakers include Jessica Bennett (Newsweek.com, The Daily Beast), Erica Swallow (Mashable), and Brian Stelter (The New York Times). Register today!

Newly hired NBC News contributing correspondent Chelsea Clinton is profiled on page one of the Sunday Styles section of  The New York Times. Clinton will make her first appearance on NBC News on “Rock Center” Monday, Dec. 12 “with a segment she developed about a nonprofit organization in Pine Bluff, Ark.”

But what happens when Clinton starts to use her clout and famous last name to campaign for Pres. Barack Obama next year. NYT’s Amy Chozick writes:

As President Obama’s re-election campaign heats up, Ms. Clinton will most likely need to step back from news gathering to help raise money. An adviser said she would “100 percent” help him with his campaign. [NBC News president Steve] Capus said NBC News would discuss in advance any of Ms. Clinton’s political activity, as it does with all of its contributors. Ms. Clinton has a three-month trial contract with NBC, after which both parties will decide whether to continue.

(Image: Serge Bloch)

Friday nights you can watch Keith Morrison on “Dateline,” but on select Saturday nights Morrison, in the form of Bill Hader turns up on SNL, like he did last night, investigating “The Murder of the Chopped Up Guy.”

“Diego confessed, but let’s ignore that. Because this is an hour show, so we’ve got to stretch this out. And because it’s “Dateline” there’s only one photo to use.”

For the second year in a row, ABC’s “Nightline” was #1 in both Total Viewers (4.12 million), A25-54 viewers (1.62 million) and A18-49 viewers (1.26 million) for November Sweeps.

The A18-49 demographic was particularly strong for “Nightline,” which is posting its largest margins over second-place “The Tonight Show” on NBC during any Sweeps period in 16 years (since May 1995) in that measurement.

“Nightline” took home the top spot in all three measurements for three out of four weeks during the November Sweeps period, including the week of November 21. Compared to the same week last year, the ABC late-night show has improved+12% in Total Viewers, +5% in the A25-54 demographic and +8% in the A18-49 demographic.

ABC’s ratings are based on a 25-minute broadcast, while CBS and NBC are based on approximately :50 minutes (prior to the final national commercial break of each program).

The averages for November Sweeps, and for the week of November 21, are after the jump.

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This week “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams anchored an entire broadcast while a fire alarm was going off in his studio. Suffice it to say, this was ripe material for Williams’ friend Jon Stewart at “The Daily Show.” The NBC anchor was not going to let Stewart off so lightly, however:

The cable networks went into overdrive this afternoon as Herman Cain suspended his campaign for president following reports last week that he had a 13-year extra-marital affair.

“False accusations against me continue to be spinned in the media,” Cain said before announcing his so-called “Plan B.”

“That spin hurts. It hurts my wife. It hurts my family. It hurts me and it hurts the American people because you are being denied solutions to our problems.”

The made-for-cable event began this morning as reporters, anchors and pundits speculated on what Cain would do. The event was billed, afterall, as an opening to Cain’s Atlanta campaign headquarters.

After a few speeches, a prayer, and the pledge of allegiance, at 1:28pmET Cain emerged hand-in-hand with his wife Gloria from his campaign bus to his theme song, “I Am America.”

“The voice of the people is more powerful than the voice of the media,” said Cain to a crowd estimated at about 300.

Fifteen minutes into his address, Cain announced, “As of today, with a lot of prayer and soul-searching I am suspending my presidential campaign.”

“Let me tell you this about politics,” said Cain. It is a dirty, dirty game.”

NBC’s “Today” was the most-watched morning show during the Thanksgiving holiday week, marking 833 weeks at #1. The NBC morning show also wins November sweeps for 2011.

Compared to the same week last year, “Today,” as well as ABC’s “Good Morning America” and CBS’ “The Early Show,” are all up in total viewers. In the A25-54 demographic, “Today” and “The Early Show” were both down, and “GMA” was up.

Averages for “Today” and “GMA” are based on three days (Mon-Wed) while “The Early Show” is based on two days (Mon-Tues).

The averages for the week of November 21:

• Total Viewers: NBC: 5.56M / ABC: 5.00M / CBS: 2.45M

• A25-54 viewers: NBC: 2.35M / ABC: 1.86M / CBS: 976K

NBC News chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd is interviewed by The Hill. Among the questions: which of his fellow WH reporters would he love to hire?

Q: What’s been your worst on-air blooper?

I guess the most memorable, because it got way too much attention, was sneezing the incorrect way in front of [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Kathleen] Sebelius — it made it on every broadcast.

Q: If you had to pick a reporter from another network to hire, who would it be?

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Barbara Walters has her year-end “Most Fascinating People” special set for Wednesday, Dec. 14. Now another ABCer will host a lookback special called “The Year with Katie Couric” and it will air the following night, Thursday, Dec. 15.

ABC News and People magazine are collaborating for the two-hour special. ABC says Couric’s reports will cover everything from fashion to law, and include interviews with newsmakers, celebrities and other guests “who have a uniquely humorous take on the past year’s top stories,” including (above) E!/NBC’s Chelsea Handler.

(Photo: ABC / Donna Svennevik)

CNN’s Anderson Cooper hosts a year end special with CNN’s foreign correspondents, including (R-L) Ben Wedeman, Arwa Damon and Nic Robertson

It’s a good thing today was a relatively quite international news day because most of CNN’s foreign correspondents were gathered in New York talking about about the incredible year that was. From the Arab Spring to the triple tragedy in Japan, reporters Nic Robertson, Ben Wedeman, Arwa Damon, Hala Gorani, Matthew Chance, Sara Sidner, Kyung Lah and Ivan Watson crowded into Piers Morgan‘s studio at Time Warner Center where Anderson Cooper, who’s also reported from many of the world’s hotspots this year, lead the discussion.

CNN International EVP Tony Maddox tells TVNewser the get-together, which happens once every few years, “was the greatest gathering of foreign journalists on the planet.”

Before the taping we asked Robertson what is his most remarkable moment of this remarkable year. Robertson, who started as an engineer with CNN in 1990, says it was the uprising in Bahrain in February. “We were approaching Pearl Square and all hell was breaking loose.” Robertson used his iPhone to report live on CNN. Later, as he was rushed out of the area, he used the phone to record more video and his audio for a package that was edited in Atlanta. “That’s a far cry from 36 boxes of equipment we used to use,” added CNN EVP Ken Jautz

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