We realize there's only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every afternoon The Atlantic Wire highlights the day's video clips that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:

We're not entirely sure when it became a tradition for daytime TV hosts to dress up for Halloween, but it is a movement we support, since it inspired the cast of the Today show to dress up as the participants in last summer's Royal Wedding. By comparison, Brian Williams' breakneck tour of the new Rock Center studio space looked sedate and restrained. [NBC]

The Phil Donahue costume Anderson Cooper wore on Anderson initially felt less timely than Matt Lauer dressing up as Prince William. Then a very special guest stood up in the audience and all was explained. (The segment's second biggest reveal: Anderson Cooper pronounces 'homage' with a hard 'h'.) [Anderson]

Was the production staff on Live! with Regis and Kelly predicting the Kim Kardashian-Kris Humphries divorce news when they sent out Kelly Ripa and Nick Lachey dressed as the soon-to-be-former couple, or were they just trying to get more mileage out of the Kardashian family costumes they whipped up for the show's 2010 Halloween special? Either way, it's rare for a morning chat show to be out so far ahead of the news cycle. [Live!]

If you watch a scary movie tonight, there's a good chance you will see a scene where the hero is startled by something that turns out not to be threatening, like a cat, the wind, or their friend who's about to turn into The Thing. Even when you know it's coming, this moment continues to be startling. Not even seeing three minutes of these scenes looped together can diminish their jolt factor.   [Vulture]

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgustini at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.
Ray Gustini