Anatomy of the David Letterman News Break: How It All Went Down, Step By Step

April 3, 1:03 p.m. (PT): R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills, performing on Thursday night's edition of "Late Show with David Letterman," sends out this Tweet to his approximately 1300 followers:

1:05 p.m.: TV Guide Magazine's Rob Moynihan, a big R.E.M. fan and likely the only TV reporter among Mills' small group of followers, sees the Tweet -- and checks Mills' Twitter feed. He sees that Mills had earlier Tweeted about his guest stint on Letterman that night, and suspects that Mills really is Tweeting about Dave's retirement:

1:10 p.m.: I see Rob's Tweet, and immediately suspected that big news was indeed upon us:

1:10ish p.m.: CNN's Brian Stelter sees Rob's Tweet also, and retweets it. Stelter has more than 200,000 followers, so once he does so, the news is out there. Everyone is off and running.

1:19 p.m.: Stelter confirms the news on his Twitter account:

1:40 p.m.: Everyone frantically calls CBS and Letterman's camp, but they're not responding yet. Perhaps thrown for a bit of a loop by Mills' Tweet, although it was clear they'd be putting the news out soon anyway. So it takes until 1:40 for Deadline to send out their news alert:

1:40 p.m.: Also by then, the radio interview requests start coming in (I eventually spoke to KNX Los Angeles, WTOP Washington and KFBK Sacramento on Thursday):

1:45 p.m.: Deadline sends out a second news alert.

1:47 p.m.: Variety's news alert goes out.

1:50 p.m.: The Hollywood Reporter's news alert arrives.

1:50 p.m.: Letterman's press relations firm makes it official:

2:14 p.m.: CBS follows up with their own statement.

2:30 p.m.: Barely an hour after the news was confirmed, Letterman analysis pieces already start posting, including this smart one by Brian Lowry:

2:40 p.m.: The body's barely cold, but speculation -- including some outlandish choices -- about post-Letterman scenarios are already everywhere:

4:45 p.m.: Letterman releases the full nearly 10 minute video from that night's show where he announces his retirement. Every news site quickly reposts.

5:05 p.m.: By early evening, sites have already put together slide shows and other clicky clicks on the future of CBS' "Late Show":

Also by early evening, Letterman's YouTube channel posts this backstage interview with Mike Mills on how he broke the news:

7:25 p.m.: Even Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is getting into the act, asking CBS to move the new "Late Show" to Los Angeles. Keep in mind, this news is just six hours old.

9:30 p.m.: By now, it's already on to David Letterman career retrospectives. He's still doing the show for another year, but looks like this will be The Longest Goodbye.

10:12 p.m.: Mike Mills is strangely getting into Twitter fights with people who thought the musician ruined Letterman's announcement. (Mills points out that the audience of 300 would have spilled the beans awfully quick anyway.)

Postscript: Mills now has 2,890 followers (and counting) -- having added around 1500 in the past day.

Mike on TV: Discussing the Theater Shootings on 'Entertainment Tonight'

Is film violence to blame for the Colorado theater shootings? The answer is pretty much a "no" -- this was a disturbed human being whose motives are still unclear, but it's hard to blame Hollywood for this tragedy (even though it's a given that some will). I talked to Entertainment Tonight on Friday about the impact:

Channel 7 Dominates February, But Channel 2 Has Reason to Celebrate Too

KABC/Channel 7 once again led the Los Angeles TV market in February, winning all of the weekday news time slots among both total viewers and adults 25-54, the key news demo.

But KCBS/Channel 2 had reason to crow as well: On a full Monday though Sunday basis, KCBS' 11 p.m. newscast (125,000 viewers) narrowly edged out KABC (124,000) among adults 25-54 (they were both virtually tied at a 1.7 rating). KABC was still tops in total viewers, narrowly beating KCBS (333,000 vs. 323,000). For KCBS, considered an also-ran just a few years ago, the growth -- bolstered in part by CBS' strong primetime -- has been dramatic. According to KCBS, the Monday-to-Sunday demo win at 11 p.m. is the station's first since February 1994 (the Lillehammer Winter Olympics) and only the third time in 30 years.

"We are especially pleased that we have made such tremendous progress in late news," says KCBS/KCAL president/GM Steve Mauldin. "Two years ago, we were nearly 100,000 viewers our of first place. Today... we're number one in our target demo and just 10,000 viewers awat from being the most-watched newscast at 11 p.m."

KABC remains L.A.'s dominant TV station, however. On weekdays at 11 p.m., KABC (365,000 viewers) beat KCBS (305,000) and KNBC (219,000). The gap is wider at 6 p.m., with KABC (320,000) followed by KNBC (150,000), KCBS (112,000) and KTLA (76,000). At 5 p.m., KABC (292,000) also attracts more than KNBC (121,000) and KCBS (102,000).

(I don't have KMEX ratings, but the Univision station is traditionally a top market performer as well.)

In the early morning news race, KABC's "Good Morning America" (217,000 viewers) beats KTLA's "Morning News" (173,000), KNBC's "Today Show" (171,000), KTTV's "Good Day L.A." (110,000) and KCBS' "CBS This Morning" (53,000). But KTLA dominates in demos, winning the morning shows with 99,000 viewers 25-54, then KNBC (85,000), KABC (73,000), KTTV (72,000) and KCBS (26,000).

Back at the KCBS/KCAL duopoly, execs were also cheering KCAL's weekday total viewers win at 10 p.m. (132,000 viewers) vs. KTTV (121,000) and KTLA (84,000). KTTV won in the adult 25-54 demo, however, with 105,000 viewers.

The local L.A. stations still scramble to compete during sweeps months, even though they don't matter like they used to here. That's because L.A. has had local people meters since 2004 -- which means demo info, which used to only come during quarterly "sweeps months" is collected and reported daily. Old habits die hard.

NBC Brings "Nonstop" to KNBC

Last year KNBC said it had no plans to launch a Los Angeles version of its new New York-based digital channel "NY Nonstop."

Times change -- and a "Nonstop" channel is indeed in the works out here, and could launch as soon as next month. But the catch: NBC is plotting a "California Nonstop" channel that would be run as a joint effort between the Peacock's Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego TV stations.

Broadcasting and Cable broke the news last week:

Each channel will feature around eight hours of local programming, as well as franchise programs such as Talk Stoop and lifestyle shows such as First Look and Open House from NBC's LX production wing. The channels are expected to grow their local output over time.

"It's a real effort to increase local programming in our markets," says Local Media President John Wallace.

The joint California channel will cover the broader state issues and topics of interest, as opposed to the more hyper-local affairs tackled on the stations' "Locals Only" Websites. KNBC Los Angeles, KNSD San Diego and KNTV San Francisco will all contribute to California Nonstop.

NBC Local Media's "content center" production model enables the stations to broadcast programming to any number of platforms, including TV, the Web, and, increasingly, the Nonstop channels.

A "California Nonstop" channel is expected to replace KNBC's "News Raw" feed (airing on digital 4.2).