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Interview with Roma Downey and Mark Burnett; Interview with Mark Potok; Fatboy Slim to Play in Parliament; Costco CEO Backs Minimum Wage Hike; Inspired Super Bowl Prediction

Aired March 06, 2013 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You need a crystal ball to figure that out for sure.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and a lot of skeptics say -- they say, you know what, this kind of momentum, it can't last forever. And you know what the one of the deciding factors could be, just for this week, is that jobs report that comes out on Friday, because if it misses expectations, that could really be the excuse for investors to start taking their money off the table, Don.

LEMON: All right. Alison Kosik at the New York stock exchange; of course we will check back with you. Hot story today: the market. Thank you.

One of my next guests has been called the king of reality television, thanks in part to shows like this.

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(MUSIC PLAYING)

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LEMON: That, of course, is "Survivor" the brainchild of Emmy-winning producer Mark Burnett. Now Burnett is, well, he's turning his attention to the most published book in history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Moses. God has sent me to set you free.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Lord brought us out from Egypt, promised us this land. Soon it will be ours.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jerusalem, our new home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David, you have forged (inaudible) nation on Earth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God is with me!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God is with us! UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God is with us!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who created you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sea, the sky, who created you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lord!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: "The Bible" a five-part 10-hour miniseries that premiered on The History Channel to enormous ratings, millions watching the first installment, making it the number one show in all of television on Sunday night. "The Bible." Mark Burnett joins me now, along with his wife and the coproducer of "The Bible," actress Roma Downey.

Hello to you guys. Good morning.

ROMA DOWNEY, ACTRESS: Good morning.

MARK BURNETT, PRODUCER: Hey, Don, hey -- Don, we made this for you. I hope you're happy.

LEMON: I am happy. I do have to say, you know, I say that the Bible, it's almost like when you learn a foreign language; you have to use it in order to keep knowing about it.

And your issue was -- you said you did this because you had a concern, Mark, about Bible illiteracy.

BURNETT: No question. I mean I'll give you a test now, Don, I promise.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I knew you were going to do that. I knew you were going to do that.

BURNETT: No, I'm not -- I'm not -- I like you. I'm your buddy. I'm not doing that, but you know, the stories of the Bible, not only is our faith and hundreds of millions of Americans' faith but even beyond that, it's the foundation of our society, our literature, our movies. You need to know these stories.

LEMON: Yes. Yes, you're right. But to be honest with you, Mark, I've never seen "Survivor," I've never seen that show. And you know, people talk about, oh, it's sort of like candy, right, there's no substance.

This show that you're doing now, lots of substance and the ratings are tremendous. Did you learn anything about that?

BURNETT: Yes, we did.

DOWNEY: Oh, we're just delighted that the ratings are so great. The episode on Sunday night was epic with Abraham and Moses. And coming up this Sunday, we have the walls of Jericho come tumbling down, we have Samson and Delilah, David and Goliath so there's lots more really exciting footage ahead.

LEMON: Roma, you said you're excited. Did -- I mean, did you guys expect this type of reaction? I mean, it's trending on Twitter as the number one show. It beat "The Walking Dead," which has huge ratings. Did you guys expect this?

DOWNEY: We were hopeful that -- we knew we had made a great show. It has beautiful special effects; it has amazing score by Hans Zimmer. It has a -- wonderful, wonderful performances that are touching and exciting. So we were hopeful that the audience would find it. And it looks like they found it in big, big numbers. We're very grateful.

LEMON: (Inaudible) --

BURNETT: And, Don, Don, Bible beat zombies.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: I know, I said that in my intro earlier. The Bible beat zombies. And, listen, I'm a huge fan of "The Walking Dead." And as I said, you know, I never -- I'm not a big fan of reality shows. But this is on my DVR. And I've got to ask you, I mean, it's been on chat shows. There's also been some criticism on social media that there is not enough diversity among the actors in the series.

How do you respond to that?

BURNETT: Oh, you know, we had -- Jesus is Hispanic, and also there's a lot of African actors, Samson is African, Samson's mother is African. In the Nativity, Balthazar the magi is African, Simon the Cyrene is obviously African. A number of angels are African. It's a very, very diverse cast. And Jesus is Hispanic.

LEMON: Yes.

I want to follow up on something I said earlier when I talked about, you know, reality show, it's sort of candy; this is more substance.

This has beaten "The Apprentice." Is this -- is this going to shift anything for you professionally, you think, Mark? Or you think that you can do both and we need both in television in the landscape?

BURNETT: No, I think we need both. Listen, a great television lineup, it's got comedy, sports, news, dramas, reality and specials, and we do a bit of each.

But we got "The Voice" coming back in a couple of weeks; you know, "Apprentice" is still number one, Sundays at 10:00; "The Voice" will be number one Mondays; "The Voice" number one Tuesdays. "Survivor" is going to beat "Idol" on Wednesdays and "Shark Tank" is untouchable on Fridays. And "The Bible" is the number one show on TV. How bad is that?

DOWNEY: We like the number one, Don. LEMON: You certainly do and you appear to be very good at it. Hey, not that (ph) and congratulations when there -- success like this, congratulations and more success to you. Thanks for joining us, Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, coproducers of The History Channel's miniseries, "The Bible." Again, our thanks to you.

DOWNEY: Thank you.

BURNETT: Thank you. Read your Bible.

LEMON: All right, thank you. Or watch it.

The U.S. sees a growing explosion of hate. Why is the number of extremist groups rising so dramatically?

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LEMON: The threat from hate groups in the U.S. increasing dramatically, that is in a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. We saw evidence just this week in Ohio, messages targeting blacks, Jews and gays were found on campus at Oberlin College. And a student says he saw someone dressed like a member of the Ku Klux Klan. We do not know if the KKK was involved.

I want you to take a look at the number of hate groups. It has jumped 69 percent since 2000. Eight years later before President Barack Obama was born in, there were 149 extremist groups in the U.S. Now there are more than 1,300. That's an increase of 800 percent.

I want to bring in Mark Potok now. He is a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and he helped prepare this report.

Mark, good morning to you. Why are we seeing such a dramatic jump?

MARK POTOK, SENIOR FELLOW, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Good morning, Don. Really the explosion in these groups began in the fall of 2008, which of course is the very moment when two things happened, when Barack Obama appears on the national political scene for the first time and, of course, when the economic collapse begins with the subprime crisis.

So it seems pretty clearly to be related very closely to that, those two factors. And it's not only the person of the president, our first black president, of course, but the demographic change that he represents, in other words, the idea that whites in this country are predicted to lose their majority, fall under 50 percent of the population by about 2043.

So what I'm saying is there are big changes happening in our society, and some people are reacting in very negative ways to those changes and joining these groups.

LEMON: That's a nice way of putting it. What you're saying is that there are a lot of knuckleheads or a lot of racists who are threatened by a change in demographics. It brings out the racists. POTOK: Yes. I mean, let me be clear that we're talking about two different types of groups here, hate groups which have risen to over 1,000, and so-called patriot groups, the groups we used to call militias back in the 1990s.

It's with the patriot groups that we've seen the just spectacular expansion of the movement and those groups aren't explicitly racist, but certainly the demographics changes I'm talking about has caused many people in that world to be really uncomfortable, to feel that this is somehow not the country they grew up in, that other people -- whatever that may mean -- have somehow taken over.

So it's maybe not an acute kind of racism like you might see from the Klan, but this feeling that the country is no longer ours in some way, and this has caused people to join these groups in very large numbers.

LEMON: Tell us about -- more about these groups. You said that they were -- there was a difference between patriot groups, hate groups; is it just rhetoric or is it potentially violent?

POTOK: Well, look, we see criminal violence and terrorism coming from both worlds, the world of hate groups, Klan groups, neo-Nazi groups and so on, and the patriot groups as well. The patriot groups are really animated, though, by a different kind of loathing and hatred.

For them, the enemy is the federal government, who they believe is involved in a conspiracy to impose martial law in the country, to take all Americans' guns away from them, to throw those who resist into concentration camps secretly run by FEMA and ultimately to force the United States into a kind of socialistic one-world government, the so- called new world order.

You know, this has also heated up rather spectacularly in just the last couple of months as talk of gun control, stemming from the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre has really moved to center stage. We're just seeing enormous anger at that; there's something like 20 states right now considering laws to nullify federal gun control laws, if any are passed.

In addition, something like 500 sheriffs, mostly in the West of our country have said that they will not enforce any gun control measures. So there's a lot of anger out there.

LEMON: It's an interesting study. Thank you very much, Mark Potok from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

One top CEO is speaking out today and joining the president in the fight to raise the minimum wage. We'll tell you who.

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LEMON: Top stories we're following this morning.

Officials say a microburst may be blamed for damaging tent homes and leveling trees and barns across a half-mile swathe in northwest Georgia. Meanwhile the same powerful winter storm that dumped as much as 20 inches of snow on parts of the Midwest slamming the East Coast right now. Nearly 100,000 homes and businesses across the region have no power and almost a million public school students are getting a snow day today.

All but two of the 115 cardinals eligible to elect the next pope are in Rome and they've quit talking to the media even though their secret proceeding known as the conclave hasn't started.

Meanwhile the group representing survivors of sexual abuse by priest names a doze, a dirty dozen list of cardinals who had claims would be the worst cardinals for Pope. No cardinal on that list has responded.

When you think of Britain's House of Commons you probably think of something like this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Speaker I'm afraid that answer was out of touch.

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LEMON: And you probably don't think of this.

Wow. The master of house music will be playing the House of Commons. DJ Fatboy Slim, aka Norman Cook will be the first DJ to play the House of Commons. The gig was organized by two charities that encourage young people to use music to change their communities for the better.

The push to raise the minimum wage just got an influential support of the CEO of Costco Craig Jelinek told an advocacy group that better wages make better employees.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange now. So Alison how much could his support influence the new push to raise the minimum wage?

KOSIK: Well you know Don. It certainly doesn't hurt to have big business behind your cause. Jelinek was actually quoted in a release from the group called "Business for a Fair Minimum Wage" and in it he's basically is throwing his support behind legislation that looks to gradually raise the federal minimum wage from where it is right $7.25 up to $10.10.

But -- but he's not just talking the talk. He walks the walk too. Because Jelinek said that Costco's starting wage is above that it's at $11.50 which says actually makes it easier to attract great employees and actually retain them. He says you know it's more profitable in the long-term to minimize the turnover of your employees and to maximize productivity.

Other companies are also supporting this movement, they include ABC Home and clothing retailer Eileen Fisher. Now right now just 19 states here in the U.S. pay above the federal minimum wage. But just like with any argument this one has two sides especially when it comes to small business.

And critics say if you pay workers more it's going to mean that this businesses are going to have to raise prices for customers and it will wind up limiting hiring, hurting unskilled workers more than paying them lower wages would. This is a battle that just seems to never end. We'll stay on top of what happens -- Don.

LEMON: Sure you will. Thank you very much, Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange.

Rewriting history in the NHL the Chicago Blackhawks extends their point streak to 23 games.

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LEMON: A heart-warming story from the NFL. The Denver Broncos Von Miller is so inspired by his six-year-old's cousin's recovery from a coma, he's guaranteed a Super Bowl win next season.

Joe Carter has more in this morning's Bleacher Report. That's a big guarantee.

JOE CARTER, BLEACHER REPORT: Yes it's pretty bold. It's pretty bold but it does come from a good place Don, he's actually motivated by a boy who just dodged death -- his family member. And on Monday Miller tweeted this, "You can post it everywhere, Denver Broncos will win the Super Bowl in the 2013 season." He added, hash tag 4UJEREMIAH and IGUARANTEEIT58."

Now Jeremiah is the six-year-old, he just came out of a coma after a car accident and he proudly told everyone in his hospital room that his cousin Von Miller plays for the Denver Broncos and that's what motivated this Super Bowl guarantee.

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VON MILLER, DENVER BRONCOS: My younger cousin, he got in a wreck about a week ago and he just got out of a coma. And he remembered that his cousin played for the Denver Broncos and it's a little bit -- extra for I'm extremely motivated.

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CARTER: All right the Chicago Blackhawks -- boy are they rolling. Captain Marian Hossa honored for playing in his 1,000th game. The bigger news though, this team has yet to lose in regulation this season, 23 games and counting, which extends the best start in NHL history.

Well let's consider the most unique celebration in sports and it could be coming to an end or at least changing very soon. For years the winning driver at the NASCAR race in Texas celebrates by firing blanks from two six-shooters in the victory lane. Well controversy set earlier this week when a track announced the NRA would be sponsoring the upcoming April race. They'd be the title sponsor. Well the track president says that he's willing to alter the celebration if any of the other event sponsors are opposed to it.

Ok so last week the Miami Heat they put up their version of the Harlem Shake. I know what you're thinking. I'm not going to show you another Harlem Shake video because the Minnesota Timberwolves would like to officially put an end to this crazy dance.

LEMON: Yes, thank you.

CARTER: I think -- I think that's how a lot of us are feeling about this thing.

LEMON: Yes I live in Harlem and I haven't seen anybody dance like that ever.

CARTER: So yes T-Wolves not feeling it anymore. And one last thing, a fight broke out last night the Notre Dame St. John's game and boy it was kind of ugly. It's an ugly game and there was a lopsided ending. Our friends at BleacherReport.com have the entire video if you need something to watch at work today. Don, no more Harlem Shake --

I'm sure you're not shedding a tear over it.

Don't you wish you could do that to everything you didn't like.

LEMON: And put it back to everyone.

Thank you, Joe.

CARTER: You bet.

LEMON: Let's see it again.

CARTER: We need to play that video on like Monday or something.

LEMON: We'll be right back.

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LEMON: Ok, picking the next pope, the new Bush book and more and your late night laughs.

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CONAN O'BRIEN, TALK SHOW HOST: Cardinals from all over the world are now gathering in Rome to select the next pope. You can watch the entire process on the new season of "Vatican's Got Talent".

In his new book former President George H.W. Bush defends his son George W. Bush. Yes. The book is called, "Do You Know How Many Times We Dropped Him?"

STEPHEN COLBERT, TALK SHOW HOST: Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan strong man and friend of the show is dead. Repeat -- Hugo Chavez is dead. Obviously this leads -- I know -- obviously this leaves a huge hole in south American politics and even bigger collection of flag track suits. But our other breaking story tonight, Jon Stewart has announced he'll be taking the summer off from "The Daily Show." Yes, we wish him all the best in his new project, ruling the country of Venezuela.

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LEMON: The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.

Coming up in the newsroom, take off your shoes but don't worry about your knives. The TSA has a dramatic shift when it comes to letting some knives on planes but that's not all. You can also board with some unique sporting items. We'll tell you.

This morning, more reaction to the nurse who refused to provide an elderly woman with CPR at an independent living facility. For the first time we're hearing from that facility on who's to blame and here's a hint, they say it's not them.

And she's known for her quirky role as Mary Tyler Moore's upstairs neighbor.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rhoda, it's 1:00, isn't your lunch hour over?

VALERIE HARPER, ACTRESS: Oh Mike, nobody's going to care if I'm a little late.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)