Sunday shows: Singh, Fiorina, Coburn, Nelson, Kyl

ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), and a round table with ABC's George Will, Liz Cheney, Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson and Robert Reich.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and CBS medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton.

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Newsweek's Maziar Bahari.

CNN State of the Union with John King: Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), CNN's Mary Matalin and James Carville, California Republican Senate candidate and former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) with Club for Growth's Chris Chocola and Dr. Bernadine Healy, ex-director of National Institutes of Health; roundtable of Fox News' Brit Hume, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard and NPR's Mara Liasson.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.),  Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Race for the Cure's Nancy Brinker and NBC's Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press

Sunday shows: H. Clinton, Giuliani, Dunn, Duncan

ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ABC's George Will and PBS' Gwen Ifill.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: ex-White House Communications Director Anita Dunn and Obama Budget Director Peter Orszag.

CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Former CIA officer Reuel Gerecht, Claremont McKenna College's Minxin Pei, Harvard's Roderick MacFarquhar and "The Age of the Unthinkable" author Joshua Cooper Ramo.

CNN State of the Union with John King: Obama advisor David Axelrod, Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.) and CNN's William Bennett and Donna Brazile.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Giuliani and Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Clinton, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Related item:

Face the Nation wins a crucial demographic

-- Andrew Malcolm

Why wait until Sunday for politics? Get politics all day, every day, by clicking here for Twitter alerts of each Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. Also on Facebook here. 

Photo: EPA (Clinton in the Philippines)

'Face the Nation' wins crucial demographic among Sunday TV talk shows

"Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer broke major ground in Sunday's most recent TV ratings face-off.

NBC's "Meet the Press," the perennial leader in the morning talk show race, still hung on to the top spot with 3.01 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. But the CBS show with Schieffer won the most viewers in the coveted 25-to-54 demographic.

"Face the Nation" had 910,000 in that group, followed by the NBC show with David Gregory at 900,000 and ABC's "This Week" at 850,000.

In overall viewers, "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos tied "Face the Nation" with 2.65 million.

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace remains down below, having barely broken a million on Sunday morning.

However, if you count its two reruns (the show airs later in the day on the Fox News Channel), viewership is much higher -- an additional 2.39 million watched the Fox News airings.

As usual, by the way, The Ticket publishes each weekend's guest lineup at noon Pacific time every Saturday.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo: John Paul Filo / CBS

Sunday shows: Steele, Kaine, McDonnell, Gorbachev

UPDATE: 2:44 p.m. Saturday NBC has updated its lineup below.)

ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos": Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee; along with Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee; and a roundtable with Democrat Donna Brazile, Republican pollster Frank Luntz and ABC's Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts and George Will.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital With Al Hunt": House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Reps. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Republican consultant Ed Rollins.

CNN's "GPS With Fareed Zakaria": Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson, "The Years of Lyndon Johnson" author Robert Caro, columnist Peggy Noonan, "Creating Black Americans" author Nell Irvin Painter and former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf.

CNN's "State of the Union" with John King: GOP Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Republican pollster Bill McInturff, Democratic pollster Peter Hart, James Carville, Mary Matalin and former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev.

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: McDonnell, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Reps. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). With roundtable of Brit Hume, NPR's Mara Liasson, the Weekly Standard's Willliam Kristol and the New York Post's Kirsten Powers.

UPDATE: NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi (Republican) and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania (Democrat), David Brooks, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Republican strategist Ed Gillespie and NBC's Tom Brokaw. Meet the Press has added Gen. George Casey, Army Chief of Staff, to its guest lineup.

Related items:

So much Obama damage control, Axelrod even talks to Fox News

Fox News pulls huge election day ratings

The Sarah Palin speech(es) we never heard

Inside Tuesday's elections: The lessons and warnings for Obama, GOP

-- Andrew Malcolm

Why wait until Sunday for politics? Get politics all day, every day, by clicking here for Twitter alerts of each Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot.  Also on Facebook here.

Photo: Mark Wilson / Getty Images (McDonnell).

Sunday shows: Jarrett, Axelrod, Limbaugh, Boehner

ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos: White House advisor Valerie Jarrett and a roundtable with former Bush White House aide Ed Gillespie, ex-Clinton Press Secretary DeeDee Myers, ABC's George Will and Rev. Al Sharpton.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA).

CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Obama advisor David Axelrod and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT).

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Pakistan ex-President Pervez Musharraf, Matthew Hoh, Martin Wolf and Yale's Robert Shiller.

CNN State of the Union with John King: Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) and James Carville and Mary Matalin.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Rush Limbaugh and Carl Cameron and Major Garrett on the New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races with a roundtable of Brit Hume of Fox, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard and NPR's Mara Liaisson and Juan Williams.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Jon Krakauer and NBC's Jim Miklaszewski and Andrea Mitchell.

Also, for The Ticket's latest coverage of these shows' recent ratings moves, click here.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press (Musharraf).

Sunday TV yada-yada show ratings really tighten

The TV ratings for last Sunday's weekly political talk show showdown are in.

And it was a photo finish.

As usual, "Meet the Press" with David Gregory (see photo with the very pretty flowers) came out on top.

But it was much closer than usual. Or than General Electric likes.

The NBC show drew 2.72 million viewers. ABC's "This Week" grabbed second place with 2.67 million.

That's a difference of only 50,000; they sell more hot dogs than that at one NFL game.

As if those two shows weren't close enough, George Stephanopoulos was, figuratively speaking, just a nose ahead of CBS' "Face the Nation," which clocked in at 2.46 million.

Nielsen reported no difference between the ABC and CBS shows' reach among the coveted 25 to 54 demographic -- both netted 830,000 each, versus NBC's 910,000.

None of the shows attracted any big-name guests last week, unless you belong to Abdullah Abdullah's clan.

As reported by Media Bistro's TV Newser, "Meet the Press" may have also been hampered by transmission issues in Washington. It's anybody's guess why that would affect viewership of a Washington show that permits the rest of the country to watch its Washington host speaking Washingtonese about Washington issues with Washington politicians, Washington strategists and Washington journalists.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo: Gregory on a 2009 Women's Conference panel at Long Beach Convention Center Oct. 27. Credit: Toby Canham / Getty Images

A Newt Gingrich run in 2012? Quite possible but...

No one in their right mind announces or confirms a White House run this far out.

Yes, presidential campaign announcement dates have been creeping up. In 1960, John F. Kennedy announced on Jan. 3 of election year. Bill Clinton announced the fall before election year. George W. Bush announced the summer before election year.

And Barack Obama the winter before the summer before the fall before election year. And that successful run cost $750 million in other people's money.

Why ask to be politically targeted this soon?  It's -- what? -- 1,107 days now until Nov. 6, 2012.

So C-SPAN's Mr. Excitement, Steve Scully, knew better Sunday than to ask former House Speaker Newt Gingrich whether he was going to run in the next presidential contest.

Savvy fellow that he is, Scully inquired instead what kinds of things Gingrich would think about as he contemplated that decision. (See C-SPAN video below.)

Gingrich, who engineered the stunning 1994 Republican election victories in....

... both houses of Congress with the Contract with America before quitting after some defeats four years later, walked through the thinking process. 

Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country. And we'll decide, if there's a requirement as citizens that we run, I suspect we probably will. And if there's not a requirement, if other people have filled the vaccum, I suspect we won't.

Gingrich ran through a lengthy list of other possible Republican suspects, praising Mitt Romney and Haley Barbour and Tim Pawlenty and whats-her-name with the new book and the Nov. 16 appointment with Oprah. Gingrich said, "I have no great personal ambition needs to run for president."

Although, to be honest, he's not exactly hiding himself either, analyzing for Fox News, writing books, gathering nearly 1.14 million followers on Twitter (only 387,000 behind John McCain), giving speeches all over and rising early on an autumn Sunday to answer questions on C-SPAN from even the Democratic and Independent phone lines.

Gingrich also harkened back to the '94 Contract, saying politics needs to be about ideas -- he called them "vivid, powerful alternatives" -- not just maneuvers. "I want to see an alternate Republican Party," Gingrich said, "not an opposition Republican Party."

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Video courtesy of C-SPAN

Sunday shows: Abdullah, Karzai, McCain, McCaskill

ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos: Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) with roundtable with George Will, Laura Ingraham, John Podesta and Al Hunt.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine).

CBS'  "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wisc.).

CNN's "GPS" with Fareed Zakaria: Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

CNN's "State of the Union" with John King: Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah (see photo right), and Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Abdullah and Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) with roundtable of Joe Scarborough, Erin Burnett, Jane Meyer and Dan Senor.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: PBS (Abdullah).

Sunday shows: Axelrod, Thune, Jarrett, Kyl, Dodd

ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos: Obama senior advisor David Axelrod and a round table with E.J. Dionne, Peggy Noonan and ABC's Jake Tapper and George Will.

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.).

CBS' "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer: Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and John Kerry (D-Mass.).

CNN's "GPS" with Fareed Zakaria: Thomas Ricks, "Superfusion" author Zachary Karabell, "Keynes: The Return of the Master" author Robert Skidelsky, John Micklethwait of the Economist, and Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor.

CNN's "State of the Union" with John King: Emanuel, Sens. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and Kerry and CNN's Donna Brazile and William Bennett.

"Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace: Terry McAuliffe, Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.),  Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and John Thune (D-S.D.).

NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory: White House advisor Valerie Jarrett, John Podesta, Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Maria Shriver, California first lady and special NBC correspondent.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: White House (Jarrett with Obama).

Sunday shows: Levin, McConnell, Feinstein, Daniels

ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.); Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Gen. Jack Keane (Army, retired) on Afghanistan. On politics, President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize: Donna Brazile; Arianna Huffington, Nicole Wallace and George Will.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers.

CBS Face the Nation nwith Bob Schieffer: Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.); David Ignatius, Washington Post; Michael O’Hanlon.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Govs. Jennifer Granholm (D-Mich.); Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.); Steve Wynn, Wynn Resorts; Mark Zandi, Moody’s.

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Author Richard Haass; Stephen Biddle, the Council on Foreign Relations. Husain Haqqani, Pakistani ambassador to the U.S.

CNN State of the Union with John King: William J. Bennett; Brazile; Assistant Surgeon General Anne Schuchat.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Army, retired). Former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard B. Myers (Air Force, retired). Panel: Ronald Brownstein, Atlantic Media, Paul Gigot, Wall Street Journal, Katty Kay, BBC, Bob Woodward, Washington Post.

-- Steve Padilla

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Photo: Mitch McConnell. Credit: Associated Press