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News coverage
September 5, 2008
Political conventions end ... whew! What an overdose!
Are you ready for some crime dramas and comedies? Boy, I sure am.
After three weeks of Olympics, followed by two weeks of political conventions, I’m ready to catch up on “Mad Men,” “The Closer” and the new season of “The Shield.”
And in the next couple of weeks, even the slow-moving broadcast networks will bring back our favorite shows. Can’t wait … seems like years since we’ve had a taste of “Grey’s Anatomy” or “30 Rock.”
Back-to-back conventions make no sense, politically or from a TV perspective. Reporters, anchors AND viewers are probably all exhausted today. I know I am.
By the time John McCain finally accepted the Republican nomination for president last night, I had already started drifting to the U.S. Open matches on USA Network. A little Cindy and John McCain here, a little Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic over there.
At least the Republicans favored us with a big balloon drop. The Dems had to forego balloons because of the open-air stadium, but McCain and company gave us the traditional rain of balloons and confetti. Can’t help it … I love the balloons.
Ratings aren’t in for McCain’s speech yet, but his veep choice, Gov. Sarah Palin, drummed up almost 40 million viewers, which is nearly as big a crowd as watched Democrat Barack Obama accept his nomination.
As good citizens, we all should watch the three presidential and one vice-presidential debates that are coming. The first one, Obama vs. McCain, is Friday, Sept. 26. To prepare for this final TV assault of the candidates, let’s all take a break and watch “SpongeBob” or something. It’s time even for political junkies to step away.
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September 4, 2008
RNC: Sarah Palin strikes ratings gold
Alaska’s Gov. Sarah Palin is ratings gold!
The Republican’s veep nominee attracted 37,244,000 viewers on Wednesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research.
That’s 13 million more than watched Democratic veep nominee Joe Biden and close to the 38.4 million viewers who watched Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver.
Who said politics can’t draw a crowd!
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Palin sparks TV fire for Republicans
Is there any way at all that John McCain’s acceptance speech tonight can top the drama and frenzy that surrounded last night’s appearance by Sarah Palin?
Absolutely not. McCain has managed to upstage himself at his own Republican National Convention. But in terms of stirring interest in a convention that seemed doomed by comparison to the slickly produced drama of the Democrats, Palin was the best thing that could have happened to the Republicans.
Consider: Before McCain announced his choice for veep, the prospect of endless speeches by a bunch of aging conservatives was daunting. Although the broadcast networks — ABC, CBS and NBC — had only planned an hour of prime time anyway, head-scratching was underway about how exactly to fill that hour.
But then along came unknown Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, a former beauty queen with zero national exposure, and suddenly there was excitement all over the place — not all of it welcomed by the Republicans. But even frantic attention has got to be better than no attention, right?
It’s almost as if McCain planned the frenzy. If indeed he already knew about Palin’s pregnant teenage daughter and the investigation into “trooper-gate” back home on the frozen tundra, he must have known that the media and the country would soon be electrified by his choice.
The TV coverage, which might have been lethargic on the heels of Barack Obama’s inspiring speech before 84,000 people in Denver, has thus been anything but. The Republicans were able to gin it up even further by attacking the media for investigating the unknown veep nominee and her family.
CNN’s Campbell Brown got into a shouting match with Republican strategist Tucker Eskew, Fox’s Sean Hannity got into a shouting match with Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs and (here’s the really BIG news) Obama is scheduled to be interviewed by Bill O’Reilly tonight on Fox — before McCain makes his grand entrance!
As a theatrical production, the Republican convention has paled compared to the Denver gathering. It’s a smaller number of delegates, which makes the crowd seem tamer, and that enormous, scene-changing screen behind the speaker’s podium is distracting. Fred Thompson, a very large man, was dwarfed by the waving flag and mountain scenes, and Rudy Giuliani looked momentarily confused by the looming monstrosity when he came out onto the stage.
I may have missed it, while flipping from cable news to PBS to the broadcast networks, but I saw no coverage of Ron Paul’s mini-convention that apparently took place in Minneapolis. That’s good news for the Republicans.
The TV ratings have not been touted this week the way they were in Denver — which probably means not as many people have been tuning in. Although I bet last night’s Palin speech did extremely well.
For the Democratic convention, CNN topped the ratings, beating the broadcast networks as well as cable competitors. Fox came in second, and MSNBC, which has a definite liberal slant (thanks to Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann), finished a distant third among the cable nets.
We can probably expect Fox to win the war this time around.
UPDATE: The ratings for Tuesday night’s RNC are here, delayed by the Labor Day holiday:
9 to 10 p.m. - Broadcast + Cable ratings for Tuesday of RNC
FOX: 6,179,000
NBC: 4,468,000
CNN: 3,220,000
ABC: 3,098,000
CBS: 2,928,000
MSNBC: 1,590,000
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August 29, 2008
Dems done, Repubs next on TV's political double bill
That’s it … I’m taking a break from TV. After nearly three weeks of Olympics — every night until late at night — followed by four nights of the Democratic National Convention, I’m more than eady to pluck myself off the sofa.
Oops, I forgot. The U.S. Open Tennis Championship is on CBS all weekend … But nah, I’ve got to get up and out of the house. Eyes glazing over, rump numbing into permanent paralysis. Must hit the gym and the hike-and-bike trail.
“So, what did you think of the Democratic extravaganza?” a snarky-sounding reader wanted to know this morning. This was a man demanding to know if I would be blogging as much about the Republican National Convention as I did the Dems.
First, I thought the Dems did a whale of a job with their Denver convention. A Republican friend of mine said he was so riveted by the speeches and musical performances that he was glued through the whole thing. He said it was the “best-produced” convention he’d ever seen, and he’s seen a few.
I can’t help thinking the broadcast networks must have regretted their decision to air entertainment reruns instead of convention coverage, except for that last 9 to 10 p.m. hour. PBS probably did boffo business as the only broadcast network to provide three hours in prime time.
The evening portions of the convention ran on time and without disaster, Monday through Thursday. Who can ask for anything more?
Those of us of a certain age remember disastrous Democratic conventions when disorganization and bedlam took over, and the nominee was stuck making an acceptance speech on national TV after midnight on the East Coast.
Were last night’s fireworks a bit over the top? Maybe. But when some 80,000-plus people wait all day to get into the stadium to hear Barack Obama make history, you might as well give ‘em a little extra fun.
Fireworks and confetti were really the only possibilities, since the open-air stadium made the traditional balloon-drop impossible.
As for next week’s Republican marathon? Absolutely, I’ll be watching and blogging. I love politics, and I love a good show. Color me there.
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August 26, 2008
Kennedy shines on TV's first night of Democratic convention
Political conventions are known for their general dreariness. Streams of boring politicians saying the same thing night after night.
Showcasing the wife of the nominee on the first night of the Democratic convention in Denver left broadcast and cable networks with a soft feature when they were hungry for some serious news … or at least some meaty politics.
For days anchors and reporters have been stoking the fire between the Obama and Clinton contingencies. Nothing had really sparked.
But then Uncle Teddy arrived in Denver late Sunday night, draped in mystery. All day Monday CNN, MSNBC and Fox News speculated on whether the ailing senator, who has been battling brain cancer since May, would make an appearance. Even Kennedy family members traveling with him seemed unsure what would happen.
But early in the evening yesterday, word spread that Uncle Teddy was indeed at the convention center.
Was he walking or would he be rolled onto the stage in a wheelchair? Would he speak? Could he speak? CNN’s Wolf Blitzer said a short speech had been written. Maybe Kennedy would deliver it. Fox’s Chris Wallace speculated that if Sen. Kennedy was in the building, there seemed little doubt he would make an appearance.
Suspense built, and the made-for-TV moment left even the crustiest reporters semi-speechless.
NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Charles Gibson struggled to muster words when the “Lion of the Senate” walked out on the stage (without assistance), pushed aside a stool at the podium and mustered his full voice and enthusiasm to nail one of the best speeches of his career.
It was pure drama. What will Hillary Clinton say tonight? How about her husband, apparently still ticked off about the primary campaign his wife lost? And Barack Obama’s acceptance speech in the middle of a massive football stadium? Will it be exciting or just a huge spectacle?
There might be more big moments ahead for partisans to enjoy in Denver, but the sheer suspense and excitement of Uncle Teddy taking over Denver was a real cliffhanger — with a climax worthy of the Beijing Olympics.
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June 13, 2008
Huckabee will shine on Fox News, Heigl should stop whining about Emmys
Good news for Fox News fans: The cable news network has hired former Arkansas governor and former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee as a commentator.
Why is this good news? Because Huckabee, a former preacher and decade-long governor, knows how to communicate with people. He has a wry sense of humor and bubbles beautifully on the air.
Huckabee may not be a pointy-headed intellectual, and we may not agree with everything he says. But at least he can be entertaining and insightful.
The comparison I’m making here is with another fairly recent Fox addition, former George W. Bush insider Karl Rove, who sounds like a robot and is dull as they come.
As a White House insider, Rove didn’t have to deal with people very often, so his communication on Fox has been less than illuminating. Locked in an office all those years, how could he be a people person? Plus, if Rove has a smile, we’ve never seen it on TV.
Huckabee, on the other hand, is a happy warrior, and he’s going to be a nice addition to Fox’s lineup heading into the general election.
Of course his career on Fox News could be short-lived if Republican presidential nominee John McCain taps him as his running mate.
Izzie out of Emmy running
Katherine Heigl has not come off well in her recent criticism of the writers on “Grey’s Anatomy.”
In case you missed it, Heigl, who won the best supporting actress Emmy last year, decided not to place her name in nomination this time around. She claimed the writers did not provide her with material that would have made her competitive.
Huh? So it would have been the writers’ fault if she were nominated and didn’t win. That’s a pathetic excuse if every I heard one.
Plus, can we please remind Mizz Heigl that she is making millions and launching a wildly successful movie career as a member of an ENSEMBLE drama on TV. That means focus shifts among members of the ensemble, and thus not every single character gets to star in every single scene every season.
Sheesh. You’d think Heigl would be more gracious and more grateful.
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May 28, 2008
Katie returns to 'Today' ... for what?
Tuesday morning, when Matt Lauer said Katie Couric would make a “major announcement” Wednesday morning on “Today,” the Internet exploded with speculation.
Is Katie, after suffering ratings slump and humiliation as anchor of “The CBS Evening News,” returning to her long-running triumph as co-anchor of NBC’s “Today?”
Speculation has been rampant about when (not if) Katie would step down. Before the political conventions? After the conventions but before the November election? Before or after the inauguration in January?
But this morning we saw the truth about Katie’s big reveal on “Today.” She was one of three network news anchors, including NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Charlie Gibson, to appear on all three network morning shows to announce a major fundraising initiative called “Stand Up to Cancer.”
On Friday, Sept. 5,the Big Three will devote a simultaneous hour of prime time to a cancer research fundraiser that will feature celebrities and musical performances.
(Fox declined to participate, citing its own charity iniative “Idol Gives Back.”)
Did Lauer intentionally set off the buzz about Couric? You bet. And it must have made everyone at CBS News cringe. And current “Today” co-host Meredith Vieira must have been a bit miffed, too.
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May 27, 2008
'48 Hours' takes on polygamy
“48 Hours” takes on a full-court investigation of polygamy tonight (at 9 p.m. on CBS), pegged to the controversial revelations provided by the raid on the Eldorado compound of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints.
The raid and the 450 children taken from their parents after a call alleging abuse has been front page news since April 3. Just last week a Texas appellate court ruled that officials did not have sufficient grounds to seize the children, but the whole mess is likely to be tied up in court for months.
CBS News has fanned out, sending Susan Spencer to investigate the sect’s practices and check on self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs, who continues to lead the sect from prison. (He was convicted of rape of a minor in connection with one of his teenage wives.) She interviews Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff (who refers to the sect as “the American taliban”) and 21-year-old Elissa Wall, who was forced to marry at the age of 14.
Reporter Peter Van Sant engages in a hand-to-hand combat interview with Willie Jessop, who insists the sect does not break any laws and charges that Texas officials’ demand for birth certificates and DNA samples from church members is “un-American.”
“48 Hours” has been tracking two women who escaped from an sect community in Salt Lake City in 1999, when they were teenagers. Reporter Erin Moriarty reports on the status of one of the girls, now a young woman permanently separated from her family.
Finally, reporter Troy Roberts explores the face of modern polygamy. And yes, HBO’s “Big Love” pretty much has it right. A family consisting of one husband and three wives (two of them twins) lives in a “normal” suburb of Salt Lake City with their 22 children. They have regular jobs and wear modern clothes, but they face a daily challenge of fitting in and staying under the radar.
If you’ve been wondering about polygamy, this hour will answer lots of questions.
Bye bye, Jim
The season finale for “According to Jim” airs tonight at 7, which immediately brings to mind:
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound?
The ABC sitcom, an old-fashioned nuclear family model, is wrapping up its seventh (yes seventh) season and is not on the network’s recently announced fall schedule. So the back-to-back episodes serve as the show’s finale, the end of the run, the swan song of a show that debuted in 2001.
Will anybody care?
“Jim” has been a mediocre utility player throughout its run. ABC has dropped it from the schedule, picked it up and moved around more times than anyone can count. Unless you’re a devoted fan (and, seriously, who can that possibly be?), you might not even know it was still on the air.
Jim Belushi and Courtney Thorne-Smith star as a married couple with children. She’s the smart one; he’s the doofus. The stereotypes are long-running and rampant. And incredibly tiresome …
If you feel the need to bid farewell to an ancient genre, tonight’s your chance.
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April 16, 2008
Democratic debate tonight: another chapter in our political reality show!
Our red-hot political reality show continues tonight with another bout between Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Could this Philadelphia bout, refereed by Charles Gibson with George Stephanopoulos standing by as his corner man, be the title match? Maybe but probably not. Never mind that Clinton has already compared herself to the city’s most famous (and fictional) prizefighter, Rocky Balboa.
The 90-minute debate, starting at 7 tonight on ABC, has been anticipated for weeks, and the hissing between the two candidates’ camps has only heightened the pre-debate frenzy. Political reporters are licking their chops, and bloggers are ready for a big blast in cyberspace.
The April 22 Pennsylvania primary has been shaping up to be a major smackdown between Obama and Clinton. Not too long ago, Clinton was more than 20 points ahead of her rival in the opinion polls there; now a slender 4 points separates the two. The tightening of the race — yet again — should serve to tighten the tensions as well.
Gibson is one of TV’s most laid-back anchors, but he’s also one of the most steeped in politics. He grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and has been covering politics for most of his journalistic career. He’s not likely to get caught in either an unmanageable diatribe by one of the candidates or a determined skirting of the issues.
Snuffleupagus, uh, Stephanopoulos, is an interesting choice for the debate … he was Bill Clinton’s senior political adviser and communications director before the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.
New blood coming to ‘L&O’
“Law & Order,” the Energizer Bunny of TV dramas, is prepping for another transformation next Wednesday.
That’s when Jesse L. Martin, the dependably sane Detective Green, bows out, and Anthony Anderson, so superb as a villain in “The Shield” and a hero in the recently axed “K-ville,” makes his debut.
Now in its 18th season (and renewed for a 19th), “L&O” has changed principal cast more often than Elton John changes shoes. But with rare exceptions (hello, Elizabeth Rohm!), change has been good.
In next week’s episode, Detective Green gets in trouble because of a past life of gambling, and Anderson’s Detective Bernard barges into the precinct to sort things out. Green leaves; Bernard stays.
“L&O” will have five episodes with the cast change before the end of the season but will return next season — and maybe with even more changes. You never know with this show.
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April 10, 2008
WSJ: Katie Couric leaving CBS News?
Rupert Murdoch’s version of the Wall Street Journal loves poking CBS News in the eye, and the latest assault claims that “Evening News” anchor Katie Couric will leave after serving only two years of her five-year contract.
CBS issued a statement today insisting the WSJ story is untrue.
“We are very proud of the ‘CBS Evening News,’ particularly our political coverage, and we have no plans for any changes regarding Katie or the broadcast,” said CBS spokeswoman Sandy Genelius.
So, who’s right?
Well, if CBS News plans to lift its sagging ratings any time soon, Couric might well be leaving the anchor desk. The newscast has been abandoned by loyal viewers who were initially put off by Couric’s desk-perching chats and long-winded, “Today”-style interviews.
Most of those alleged innovations are long-gone, replaced by Couric helming the type of traditional newscast that has served broadcast networks well for more than 50 years.
The once hallowed “Evening News” has been fading since Dan Rather’s tenure. When Couric was lured away from NBC’s “Today” in 2006, for a reported $15 million annual salary, the hope was that change — of style and gender — would be good.
But after an initial sampling, CBS fell back behind NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Charles Gibson — both traditional anchors who weren’t trying to spice up an old format.
WSJ claims Couric will depart in January, after the presidential inauguration. Nobody would be surprised, however, if she left sooner.
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April 4, 2008
UT's Ransom Center posts old Mike Wallace interviews online
Mike Wallace is gone from “60 Minutes,” but some of his earliest work is now available online through an acquisition by the University of Texas’ Harry Ransom Center. Wallace donated kinescopes of the shows to UT back in the 1960s, which the Ransom Center has transferred to a digital format for online distribution.
These are not the “gotcha” grabs for which Wallace became famous on “60 Minutes.” Rather, these are 63 interviews conducted by the newsman during the 1957 and 1958 seasons of his nationally syndicated documentary series “The Mike Wallace Interview.” Four of the sit-downs are audio-only, but the rest are on film and haven’t been seen since their original airdate.
Among the historically significant newsmakers Wallace interviewed are architect Frank Lloyd Wright, artist Salvador Dali, actor Kirk Douglas, diplomat Henry Kissinger, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and birth-control activist Margaret Sanger.
Copyright of the interviews is held by Mike Wallace, who agreed to allow the Ransom Center to present them online in their entirety. (Any further use of this material requires the permission of both Mike Wallace and the Ransom Center.)
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April 1, 2008
Kathie Lee and 'Today' ..... zzzzzzzzzz
It has taken me a full 24 hours to rev up an ounce of concern about Kathie Lee Gifford joining “Today” next week.
OK. I’m still not exactly concerned, but at least I can form a thought. Sort of …
Kathie Lee (she prefers we use her first two names rather than her last) will be co-anchoring the fourth hour of “Today,” starting Monday. The flighty, one-line-tossing hostess will be paired with the more serious NBC newsie Hoda Kotb, previously a contributor on “Dateline.”
You remember Kathie Lee, don’t you? She’s the perky singing celebrity who bolted from “Live With Regis & Kathie Lee” eight years ago because (she actually said at the time) the media had become too intrusive in her life. This after she regaled viewers just about every day with stories about her adorable kids (Cody was a particular favorite) and her super-sexy hubby Frank Gifford.
Kathie Lee bathed herself in the limelight during her run on the popular syndicated daytime talk show, chronicling her personal life and business accomplishments. But when former pro football player Frank was caught on camera having a fling with a flight attendant — and her clothing line was revealed to be churned out by foreign sweat shops — Kathie Lee decided celebrity was no longer working for her.
But that was then and this is now. Kathie Lee is 54 years old, Cody is heading off to college and Frank, now 77 and publicly “forgiven” by his wife, nevertheless might not be as spunky as he was in the days of their “perfect marriage.”
Matt Lauer and the rest of the “Today” gang made the announcement Monday, heralding Kathie Lee’s pending arrival in grand style. The whole gang perched on one very long couch. Kathie Lee responded by telling the world she has had “cosmetic surgery on my feet.” We desperately needed to know that, didn’t we? Here we go again.
The fourth hour of “Today” — a show that, like Jack’s bean stalk, just keeps growing — has struggled to find an audience since it arrived last summer. Can Kathie Lee and her well-publicized family save it? Do we care? Probably not, on both counts.
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March 20, 2008
'20/20' hops on hookers
You could smell this “special” coming the minute former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s call-girl scandal broke a couple of weeks ago.
Friday’s “20/20” (8 p.m.) is a two-hour edition by Diane Sawyer that ABC claims has been in the works for two years. Maybe. But the timing for airing obviously had a lot more to do with Spitzer’s salacious dabblings and subsequent resignation than any dramatic new findings Sawyer uncovered in a legal brothel in Nevada or a plain old illegal house of sex in Philadelphia.
Whatever. The breathless Sawyer likely will get big ratings for “Prostitution in America: Working Girls Speak” (9 p.m. tomorrow).
As a nod to the latest developments, Sawyer added some interviews with high-paid prostitutes who ply their trade among the powerful and wealthy, men like oh, say, a political scion from New York.
Sawyer’s take on prostitution is that these are women “in crisis,” not women who choose to sell themselves for a power trip over men. ABC indicates it will be a “serious look” at the sex industry from the women’s point of view.
Smug and grumpy Amanda bites the dust on ‘Idol’
I realize Amanda Overmyer, the 23-year-old Grace Slick wannabe from Indiana, was an important rocker element in the otherwise bubblegum pop-and-blues kids on “American Idol” lineup this season.
But frankly, the Bride of Frankenstein with the platinum streaked bangs scared me. She had about a four-note range, mostly in the screaming decibel level, and she didn’t seem to give a flip whether she made the cut or not. When she heard last night that she was voted off the show by voters, she shrugged, belted out another horrendous rendition of the Beatles’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and then stomped off the stage.
Ta-ta and good riddance.
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March 5, 2008
Cable news networks call the winner ... eventually
After trumpeting the do-or-die nature of Super Tuesday II for weeks, the broadcast networks elected to stick with regular programming last night.
Maybe they thought viewers might be sick of Texas and Ohio and the Barack vs. Hillary War. Or maybe they just didn’t think. Probably the latter …
Anyway, the coverage fell to the cable news networks, and throughout the evening, they were all dancing carefully around the Democratic primary contest between fruntrunner Barack Obama and steely challenger Hillary Clinton. Even when it looked like Ohio would go for Clinton in a landslide, the cable nets cautioned viewers that it was too soon to call because certain urban areas had not reported.
Ditto the results from Texas, which none of the pundits seemed capable of explaining. What was this odd primary-and-caucus system? Why can’t those Texans pick one or the other? CNN’s Anderson Cooper looked perplexed, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews giggled and spewed and Fox’s Brit Hume, when he wasn’t looking terminally bored, just sighed.
Both primaries turned out to be close, but Texas was such a nail-biter that caucus results were still inconclusive at midnight. Zzzzz. A girl’s got to get her beauty rest, you know?
With most of the news outlets getting data at the same time, there wasn’t much of a competition over who called which primary result first.
The biggest plus or minus, when it comes to viewers actually getting information, falls to the graphics. MSNBC rolled results through by party, rather than state: all of the Texas Republican results, all of the Ohio Republican results, all of the Rhode Island results, all of the Vermont results. Then … vice versa for the Democrats. This plan didn’t strike me as nearly as useful as running both parties’ tallies by state.
CNN and Fox used the state-by-state system, with CNN’s graphics a bit clearer than Fox’s — mostly because Fox, as usual, tried to put too much stuff up on the screen at once.
Everybody was careful to mention Republicans from time to time, even though John McCain’s official nomination status was never in doubt. Mike Huckabee’s gracious concession speech was carried in full by all of the cable networks, followed by McCain’s incredibly sincere and deeply boring reading from a TelePrompTer. If McCain doesn’t stop adding “my friends” to every line he delivers, he’s going to make us all go mad by November.
In terms of big contests, we’re finished with primary season until Pennsylvania on Apr. 22 — surely that one really will end the Hillary-Barack smackdown. Just be glad we don’t live and watch TV in Pennsylvania. If you thought ads went negative in Texas, imagine how much nastier they’re going to get in the next few weeks there.
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February 28, 2008
Austin actor McKenzie campaigns for Obama
Traveling with actress Kerry Washington (“Ray,” “The Fantastic Four”), McKenzie and Washington hosted a rally Thursday morning at 9:30 at Southwestern University in Georgetown, galloped over to Huston-Tillotson University for another rally at 12:30 p.m. and then will dash to yet another gathering for St. Edward’s University at Opal Divine’s on South Congress Avenue.
The busy day will conclude at the University of Texas with a 5 p.m. rally at Dobie Mall.
On Friday, McKenzie and Washington will continue their sweep of colleges in Central and South Texas, heading to Houston for gatherings at Texas Southern and Rice, swinging up through College Station to A&M and returning to Austin for a quick respite.
On Saturday, the duo hits the road again for San Antonio to visit Trinity and UT-San Antonio.
“This is my first time stumping for Senator Obama,” McKenzie said. “There’s a ton of energy right now behind him. I think he’s got a great shot, especially among young people.”
By the way, McKenzie has a role in a new Al Pacino movie, “88 Minutes,” which was filmed last year and is due in theaters in April. Like most actors, McKenzie’s career path hit a bump when the writers’ strike brought Hollywood to its knees for three months.
“What’s next is a little unclear, but we’re getting back into the swing of things,” he said.
Image from Fox Broadcasting
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February 27, 2008
Tim Russert annoys on MSNBC's debate
Somebody needs to tell Tim Russert that it’s not all about him. Oh, OK. Let me be the one …
During last night’s Democratic debate on MSNBC, Russert was beyond obnoxious. I know he thinks he’s just being a tough journalist, boring into the candidates with long-winded questions and barking, bug-eyed follow-ups. But really, he’s just being rude.
At least he didn’t play favorites. Russert was equally nasty to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But he did seem to get under Clinton’s skin more than Obama’s.
The format for MSNBC’s Ohio grilling was awkward at best. Anchor Brian Williams and Russert were on one side of an enormous table, with Clinton and Obama on the other side seated about 4 inches apart. The audience was somewhere out in the darkness, off-camera, and apparently warned, under penalty of waterboarding, not to utter a peep until the end. The silence was deafening.
Russert and Williams were armed with “gotcha” questions, dramatized by video clips. Did the Clinton campaign send those photos of Obama in Somali Muslim garb to The Drudge Report? Was the Obama campaign engaging in Karl Rove tactics with those mailers stating that Clinton’s health-care policy would force citizens to pay for insurance whether they could afford it or not?
The whole debate was more of a joint Q&A than an actual debate, but at least both MSNBC and CNN in recent debates have stopped using 60-second buzzers. Candidates can actually finish a thought, on some occasions, before the reporter or opponent interrupts.
But Russert’s blow-hard aggressiveness comes across as counter-productive. People are not tuning in to watch him puff up, turn red and ask questions that are longer than the answers. And they’re not rooting for him to provoke angry or inappropriate responses. If we wanted that, we’d be clamoring for Bill O’Reilly and Chris Matthews to host a smackdown debate.
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February 22, 2008
CNN's Austin debate: A really big show
“American Idol?” What “American Idol?” Four contestants were sent packing, but I, an admitted and unrepentant fan of the show, didn’t watch last night’s pivotal results episode. (But I can catch up, courtesy of our “Idol Chatter” blogger Gary Dinges.
I was glued to the Democratic debate on CNN — you know, that little event that has consumed Austin’s political elite and shut down streets for days. Beamed live from the University of Texas campus, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama went toe to toe for the 19th time, and although nothing Earth-shattering happened, it was must-see TV anyway.
CNN host Campbell Brown seemed to realize early on that she wasn’t going to be in control, so instead of battling the participants at every turn, she just let the flow go. Clinton and Obama stayed on health care for what seemed like hours (but really was only about 20 minutes, while questioners CNN’s John King and Univision’s Jorge Ramos tried to move them in a different direction.
This was the first of the televised debates I’ve seen (I’ve seen most but not all) in which the audience actually booed. That came when Clinton accused Obama of plagiarizing lines from Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts — who happens to be a friend of Obama’s AND a co-chairman of his campaign. The line was a poor attempt at sarcasm and fell flat: “That’s not change you can believe in; that’s change you can Xerox,” Clinton said to a chorus of boos.
The two kissed and made up before the debate was over, with Clinton insisting she was “honored to be here with Barack Obama,” Obama patting her on the back and shaking her hand and the crowd leaping to its feet and cheering lustily.
Post-debate analysis followed on CNN, with Anderson Cooper taking charge, and Keith Olbermann running the ship at MSNBC. Cooper focused on regular CNN talking heads Gloria Borger, David Gergen, Jeffrey Toobin and Donna Brazile. Olbermann pulled in various campaign spokesmen from the “spin room” at the debate venue. What a deafening mess that must have been!
The media hordes likely will stick around for a whole. Although Clinton is gone, daughter Chelsea has an event this morning, and Obama is revving up for a big ol’ rally at the Capitol tonight. There may be fewer gigantic satellite trucks around (KVUE’s Christine Haas last night reported seeing one from Belgium, for crying out loud!), but traffic will continue to be a mess anywhere north of Lady Bird Lake and south of the UT Tower.
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February 21, 2008
Debate in Austin: Media hordes have arrived!
Austin is the center of the political universe — at least for this particular day. And night.
You want proof? Try driving anywhere near the University of Texas campus between San Jacinto Boulevard and 21st Street … or pretty much anywhere near the Recreational Sports Center, where tonight’s Democratic presidential debate will take place. It’s a zoo out there!
As evidence of the importance of this showdown between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, 25 gigantic satellite trucks were lined up before noon. More are expected, lots more.
By 5 o’clock this afternoon, reporters will be shouting their “live from Austin” standups outside the Rec Center in anticipation of the 7 p.m. debate. And they’ll be lining up again with updates for each station’s 6 and 10 p.m. news. Some may even hang around until tomorrow for reactions and updates.
I took this “eyewitness” tour of the media camp before noon because the streets will be closed by 1 p.m. The reporting hordes have come from all across Texas, the United States and the world. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox network news crews are here, along with network affiliates from Austin, San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. There was even a truck with the CW logo on it — who knew they had news?
All the Austin stations’ trucks are out there — KVUE, KTBC, KEYE, KXAN and News 8 Austin. They must have arrived at the crack of dawn, because they’re all in choice locations.
CNN and Univision, the news networks sponsoring and airing the debate, figure prominently in the crush.
And this being the age when everyone is looking for a way to cut costs, there are plenty of satellite-trucks-for-hire scattered around, beaming footage to dozens (if not hundreds) of stations around the country. Parked next to the Dallas Fox truck was Peak Uplink, serving whoever paid for the service. Other providers-for-hire (as of noon) included Sat-Link and Global Services.
None of the Big Three network anchors will be anchoring from Austin tonight, but reports about the debate will be featured prominently on tonight and tomorrow night’s news. ABC’s Kate Snow and David Wright will be roaming the venue, as will CBS’ Jim Axelrod.
Lots of other media stars will be here, too, so if you’re a media groupie, bring your cell-phone camera and stroll past — but don’t try to drive and park. And for heaven’s sake, don’t try to crash the debate. Secret Service and other security are everywhere.
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February 6, 2008
Dizzying graphics on Super Tuesday TV
Watching five hours of Super Tuesday coverage last night — and flipping among eight channels — left me dizzy and more than a little grumpy. If it’s possible for TV to cause attention-deficit disorder, I think I’ve caught it. I was having trouble focusing on my toothbrush this morning.
Complaints? I’ve got a few, and mostly they have to do with the overload of graphics. Cable news, not surprisingly, is the worst offender in this regard. CNN, MSNBC and Fox all seem determined to post every number and piece of information they have on hand. The result is info overload on the screen.
MSNBC looked pretty good at first, with just a couple of sleek bars at the bottom that stayed on for several seconds before switching to another state and set of returns. But not long into the evening, MSNBC added a big-fat sidebar on the left part of the screen. So there was changing info — maps, stats and photos — on the side and the bottom of the main screen.
Fox News Channel’s graphics also were exceedingly annoying. Not only were there too many lines of information (I counted six stacked lines in the “crawl” at the bottom of the screen at one point), but most of them moved constantly, with two tickers moving at different speeds and different intervals. Who can digest this much stuff?
CNN occasionally stacked its graphics, but most of the night their results crawls were easy to read and, thank heavens, mostly static.
ABC — with the comfy anchoring trio of Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos — seemed to be on top of breaking news and more or less enjoying the evening. ABC made a singular mistake adding its regular (nonelection) news crawl to the bottom of the graphic election info. And the network was pretty slow in projecting winners. But otherwise, ABC News, which turned over all of its primetime slate to election coverage, performed well.
CBS News, with anchor Katie Couric flanked by a bunch of aging men in suits, just seemed bemused. She and Jeff Greenfield made a lot of old-age jokes about Bob Schieffer, and the network did have big, easy-to-read graphics. But I’m just not seeing Katie’s gravitas in these breaking news situations.
NBC, which had no primary coverage until 9 p.m., came too late and never caught up. Brian Williams is a perfectly capable anchor, but by the time NBC got on the air, my remote-pushing finger was weakening.
I know I’ll get howls of protest over this, but, seriously, watching Fox News, you’d think the only primaries happening last night were on the Republican side. I timed the “fair and balanced” network for Repub vs. Dem for an hour, and the Republican races got more than twice as much time than the Dems.
Maybe Fox just wanted to give new analyst Karl Rove a showcase. One other nit: Does anybody else think the normally bright and energetic Brit Hume looked terribly bored and bummed last night? His heart just wasn’t into to it. He droned and frowned and just seemed desperately in need of vitamins … or something.
But the quick-projection award does go to Fox. They came out early and correct on all the races I saw (I shut down at 11 p.m., by the way). For some reason, CNN’s projections often came as much as a half-hour behind Fox. And ABC was surprisingly slow, too — although I’m sure the slow projectors will prefer to be called “cautious.”
All this flipping has left me with fuzzy vision, stew for brains and a wiggly index finger. Too much information, too much talking, just too-too much Super Tuesday. ‘Til next time …
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February 5, 2008
Are you ready for some politics? Brew some coffee for a late night!
Don’t look for an early end to tonight’s political melodrama.
Even if the California primary is not a close call on both ballots, the polls don’t close until 10 p.m. our time — 8 p.m. on the West Coast. But pundits are predicting a very close race between Mitt Romney and John McCain on the Republican side and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the Democratic side. California could be a cliffhanger.
So plan on a long night if you’re one of those election junkies (that would be me) who has to watch returns until the last race is called.
There should be some early results as well from the East Coast, so we’ll have something to fill in on our home tally sheets.
Super Tuesday has turned into such a hot ticket that only Fox of the major broadcast networks is not covering the returns. Fox will run crawls if results come in during “American Idol” (tonight is the Atlanta auditions), but the network is counting on election fiends tuning into its cable news channel.
ABC is taking all three hours of prime time for its coverage, anchored by Charles Gibson. Katie Couric and CBS, which originally planned one hour of coverage, has expanded to two (8-10 p.m.), but NBC, led by Brian Williams, is sticking with its 9 to 10 p.m. hour — apparently not wanting to deprive fans of the scheduled two-hour “Biggest Loser” episode.
Hunker down to one of the three cable news networks if you don’t want to worry about switching channels or waiting for crawls over entertainment programming. This is what cable news does best — live breaking news that lasts more than an hour.
It might not be the Super Bowl, but Super Tuesday, for those of us who are totally enthralled by the race for the White House, is “event programming.”
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February 4, 2008
Karl Rove joins Fox News
In case you’ve been wondering — and worrying — about whatever happened to Bush White House mastermind Karl Rove, he’s set to make his debut as a political analyst for Fox News on Super Tuesday.
A former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush, Rove took a hike from D.C. last August as an investigation was launched into possibly illegal or unethical activities in the White House.
Before joining the Bush administration, Rove oversaw strategy for Bush’s Texas gubernatorial campaign and several other Republican campaigns. He also has taught at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
Effective Tuesday, Rove will be a prime-time cable TV star.
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January 23, 2008
Prime-time Laura Hall truly creepy
If Laura Hall and her attorneys thought her prettied-up appearance on “48 Hours” last night was going to stir up sympathy for the former University of Texas student, they were wrong-wrong-wrong!
From those ridiculous swimsuit scenes to that maniacal laughter to the big ol’ crocodile tears (“Of course I was afraid of him!”), Hall came across as a major sociopath — not to mention bad actor. What was that huffing and puffing about before she launched into her description of that fateful night in 2005?
Now we know why her attorneys didn’t want her testifying, either during Colton Pitonyak’s trial for murdering Jennifer Cave or for her own trial for “tampering with evidence” and then helping the murderer escape to Mexico. The “tampering,” you might recall, had something to do with one or both of the suspects sawing off Cave’s head and arm.
CBS had promoted this “48 Hours” in such a way that it looked like Hall was going to get a sympathetic portrayal. The end result, however, was just plain creepy, and if Hall and her attorneys were hoping this PR coup to help her get the new trial she’s asking for, I’m betting they’re wrong — again.
It was a fascinating hour, but I really needed a hot shower and a strong disinfectant when it was over.
A small sliver of hope …
Could it be? Hollywood directors have nudged Hollywood producers and writers to bring an end to the crippling writers’ strike?
On the heels of the Directors Guild of America negotiations, the writers and producers are meeting today in an attempt to restart formal negotiations.
The writers apparently have dropped a demand that reality show writers be unionized, but that wasn’t the major sticking point to begin with. At issue are Internet revenues, so we’ll just keep our digits crossed that this one is settled, too.
A few good signs that our long entertainment nightmare will end: The writers’ guild announced it will not picket the Feb. 10 “Grammy Awards.” And the “Screen Actors Guild Awards” will take place this Sunday, as planned.
The new urgency, of course, is pegged to “The 80th Academy Awards,” scheduled for Feb. 24. If the Oscars ceremony is canceled over this industry madness, fans may be so ticked off they stay away from movies and television for a while.
We love us some spitfire in our debates
Monday night’s Democratic debate featuring Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards was an enormous hit on CNN. The network says nearly 5 million people tuned in for the fireworks and were rewarded with rabid barking between Clinton and Obama that left moderator Wolf Blitzer, possibly for the first time in his life, speechless.
The political warfare this week was the most-watched debate ever shown on cable, beating out a Nov. 28, 2007, Republican debate that drew 4.5 million viewers.
As evidence of the extreme interest in this presidential campaign, ABC’s prime-time debate — featuring two hours of Democrats and two hours of Republicans on a Saturday night (Jan. 5) — drew a whopping 9.4 million viewers.
Now if we could just get more than 50 percent of Americans to vote!
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January 9, 2008
People's Choice vs. Political Reality TV
Anybody else feel like they were wafting through a parallel universe last night? People’s Choice Awards versus New Hampshire Primary?
Both contests were pretty strange, but the one that was exciting had nothing to do with “favorite sitcom” or “most popular movie actor.”
The writers strike prompted a vastly scaled down People’s Choice telecast on CBS. Poor Queen Latifah had no live audience, no winners or losers attending. Instead, there were clips, taped acceptance speeches and highlights from previous award ceremonies. Zzzzzz.
Based on the results of public opinion polls, the People’s Choice Awards are usually well-attended if way too polite. They lack the spontaneous sparkle of the Gold Globe Awards, which should be uncharacteristically sleep-inducing this Sunday when the winners’ names are read during an hour-long “press conference” on NBC. Thank you, writers strike.
But we digress. Last night’s “ceremony” featured taped acceptance speeches from the likes of Katherine Heigl and Joaquin Phoenix that seemed to be culled from a performance of “Night of the Living Dead.”
By the time CBS News anchor Katie Couric cut into the dreary show at around 9:30 with results of the New Hampshire primary, it was clear that TV’s main excitement Tuesday night was in politics, not entertainment.
Which brings us back to politics …
So did all those folks who said they were going to vote for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary lie? Or were the polls just flat-out wrong? As late as the 5:30 evening newscasts, polls had Obama as much as 10 points ahead of rival Hillary Clinton. And yet …
The voting results came in consistently showing Clinton in the lead. Reluctant to veer from script, the TV folks remained skeptical — in fairness, so did the Clinton campaign folks, who seemed truly stunned by the time their gal was projected to win.
Lesson here? Take the polls with a grain of salt. Something’s wrong with them.
The New Hampshire primary also proved that the strike-crippled season doesn’t need new episodes of “CSI” to be exciting. This time around, reality TV has some genuinely interesting characters. Seriously, folks, Mike Huckabee is way funnier than Jim Belushi, and John McCain’s life story is a whole lot more interesting than anybody on “Cane.” Obama? Smart and charismatic … what’s not to like? And the Clintons have always been one heck of a traveling road show.
The primary season is shaping up to be reality TV at its best (just when we need it), and even if it doesn’t grab huge ratings, maybe the interest generated will spark people to go to the polls and vote.
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December 31, 2007
The Spat: KXAN now gone from Suddenlink Cable
If you live in Pflugerville, Georgetown and other areas of Central Texas serviced by Suddenlink cable, you probably already know that NBC station KXAN is off the air. No “Today” this morning, no NBC soaps this afternoon, no prime-time specials for New Year’s Eve tonight.
Retransmission negotations between Suddenlink and LIN TV, the Rhode Island based company that owns KXAN, collapsed without a new contract at midnight Sunday, so NBC programming disappeared at 12:01 a.m. today.
Here are statements and finger-pointing from the two warring factions:
ERIC LASSBERG, KXAN general manager:
Our current contract with Suddenlink expired on December 31, 2007. We have attempted to reach an agreement with Suddenlink for the fair market value of our station, without success. Therefore, per federal regulations, Suddenlink has ceased carriage of KXAN-TV on its cable system.
LIN TV, along with local broadcasters all around the country, are asking cable operators, such as Suddenlink, to recognize the fair market value of our stations, so we can continue providing the premiere news, sports, entertainment, and other local programming that is most important to our viewers.
Local broadcast stations are among the most important channels cable operators provide. Suddenlink charges its customers a fee for local broadcast stations. It also charges a fee for cable networks which have much less viewing than broadcast stations. Some of these fees are passed on to the cable networks, who use that money to compete with broadcast stations by producing and buying programming — including premiere sporting events such as the NFL and first-run dramas and comedies. Local broadcasters deserve and need the same treatment as the cable networks. Without their fair share of these monthly fees, which amounts to pennies a day, local stations will not be able to continue to provide top quality news, sports, entertainment and other local programming that is most important to you.
Suddenlink makes more money by including the broadcast stations in its line-up … and like any business; they should provide fair value for that ability.
LIN TV has successfully reached agreements with other subscription-based television services, including cable operators, telephone companies and satellite providers, all of whom have acknowledged the fair market value of LIN TV’s stations.
We apologize for any inconvenience to our viewers and hope they will continue to watch our award-winning news and top-rated programming through alternative means, such as an antenna or by switching to a satellite service.
PETE ABEL, vice president corportate communications, Suddenlink:
Despite our best efforts to reach a deal, KXAN’s owners turned down every offer we have made to date, including offers made into Sunday evening. The basics of where we are now are posted here. In short, they have forced our hand requiring us to remove their channel under penalty of law. We did not want it to come to this and did everything in our power to prevent it.
What is most frustrating, at this point, is that we asked for a deal for only KXAN and only in those cable systems in the Austin TV market. KXAN’s owner refused, insisting we carry and provide them economic consideration for other stations in other markets outside of Austin — and outside of Texas — markets where our customers already have duplicate network-affiliated TV stations. As noted on our Web site, this behavior on the part of KXAN’s parent company seems to suggest they value TV stations in other markets more than they value their viewers in Austin.
As before, we stand ready to add KXAN back to our line up as soon as KXAN’s owner gives us permission to do so, and we will continue to attempt to negotiate with them. Hopefully this unfortunate situation will be resolved soon. It’s a shame that KXAN’s owner has decided to use Austin-area viewers as pawns in their game. As I said before, local viewers do not deserve to be treated this way by an East Coast media conglomerate, and we will add KXAN back to our lineup as soon as their owner allows us to do so.
FROM ME:
Can’t we all just get along? Where is the concern for the customers/viewers in all this? I’m not a Suddenlink subscriber, so I’m not paying the price for this corporate snit, but I don’t think viewers should be dragged into contract negotiations through pleas for support. Fix the contracts, sign the contracts and get back to serving your customers.
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December 26, 2007
I'm b-a-a-a-ck! If only TV would come back, too!
Friends who were able to bring themselves to make eye contact with me over the holidays asked with a tone of sympathy bordering on discomfort:
“So, what are you going to write about, you know, now that TV is more or less gone?”
Good question, and folks are right to be concerned — not about me but about the state of entertainment television. I can always switch to writing about acupuncture for dogs (which I’ve done before). Viewers and, to a more serious degree, TV industry workers, face considerably more dire consequences.
We’re stumbling into Day 52 of the writers’ strike, with no talks scheduled and no end in sight. Reruns, reality shows and a smattering of new shows that smack of old shows that didn’t make the fall schedule. Welcome to the wonderful world of television today.
Producers are richer and thus able to hold out longer than writers in this dispute over Web-generated revenue, but what will either side have to return to if this drags into spring? Television already has seen its audience splinter to cable and, increasingly, disappear to Internet and DVDs. The lengthening writers’ strike could be the beginning of the end for anything resembling a mass audience for TV.
For the time being, we still have some new shows and even repeats of some old shows worth seeing again. Thus, the goal of the TV blog and the TV column will be to sniff out what’s left, forage in the forest and find a reason to dust off the remote. And we’ll keep an eye on the impact on all of this on the industry and the couch-potato culture.
Feel free to send suggestions … every little bit helps.
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November 29, 2007
Hannah's had enough of 'Early Show'
Bye, bye Hannah.
After five years of toiling before dawn for perennial third place in the morning ratings, Hannah Storm is leaving as co-anchor of CBS’ “The Early Show.” No word on when exactly she’ll sign off or who will take her place in the trio that includes Harry Smith and Julie Chen.
Storm, 45, is discussing with the network “to determine the scope and depth of her new duties,” CBS said in a statement. Presumably that means she’s leaving “The Early Show” but staying at CBS. Maybe.
Before tackling her current early-bird duties, Storm was an anchor/reporter for NBC Sports, hosting four Olympics, three World Series and several other major sporting events. Maybe she can shift over to CBS Sports.
The CBS morning show was a relative late-comer to the morning news competition, and the show has been beaten like a drum over the years by both NBC’s “Today” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Baba Wawa mulls ‘Fascinating People’
Barbara Walters may be retired from ABC News and “20/20,” but she’s still pondering her annual “10 Most Fascinating People,” scheduled to air Dec. 6 at 9 p.m. on ABC.
Among the latest crop of Walters’ favorite faces are super-couple David Beckham and Spice Girl Victoria Beckham (why won’t she ever smile? bad teeth?), Justin Timberlake, “Grey’s Anatomy” star Katherine Heigl, “American Idol” reject but Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson, former President Bill Clinton and MySpace media moguls Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe.
As is her custom, Walters will reveal the top two fascinating people at the end of the special. Let’s hope she wasn’t fascinated by human wrecking ball Britney Spears. Please.
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October 16, 2007
Chilling 'Cheney's Law,' DVR ratings piling up
Wanna make your blood boil? Take a gander at tonight’s installment of the bold and always provocative documentary series “Frontline.”
The PBS program (8 p.m. on KLRU Channel 18), titled “Cheney’s Law,” unveils Vice President Dick Cheney’s crusade for presidential privilege dating back to his days as chief of staff for President Gerald Ford and revving up considerably after the attacks of Sept. 11.
Cheney’s push to expand executive authority is hardly news. The veep has been growling at congressional and judicial checks and balances — loudly and very much in the public eye — on behalf of President Bush and the war on terror.
But weaving together three decades of Cheney’s political passion produces a particularly chilling portrait of executive power gone amok.
Anyone who followed the Washington Post’s summer series on the vice president’s behind-the-scenes dealings will recognize many of the same efforts — intelligence gathering without oversight, interrogation and torture of certain “enemies,” random wiretapping of American citizens, etc.
Critics of Cheney’s policies run the gamut, but one of the most effective (and chilling) in this film is Jack Goldsmith, a conservative law professor and former Justice Department legal counsel who locked horns with the administration over the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program. Goldsmith is calm, matter-of-fact and utterly devastating in his criticism of the veep’s abuse of executive privilege and destruction of individual liberties.
‘Live+7’ are the real ratings
It took more than two weeks, but Nielsen Media Research finally has tabulated premiere week’s “real ratings,” and a couple of shows got a big boost.
What are real ratings? They’re the audience figures representing live viewing plus recorded viewing sometime during the week after the original broadcast.
The top recorded programs were “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Office,” with both shows boosting their opening night numbers by about 10 percent. “CSI” was still the No. 1 show, but down the list, several shows got substantial increases from DVR inclusion.
NBC’s new drama “Journeyman” rose from 42nd in the rankings to 36th in the live+7 ratings, and the CW’s “Smallville” got a good bump, too, from 76th to 70.
Advertisers and networks are paying more attention to these figures than ever before, and that could help shows — such as “Friday Night Live” — survive even with low live-night ratings.
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September 20, 2007
Why sue, Dan Rather?, '24' enters 'Day 7' in less than four months
Was hard-charging Dan Rather, our part-time Austin neighbor, really a “scapegoat” in the kerfuffle over a 2004 CBS report on President Bush’s military service?
If the lawsuit Rather filed Wednesday in Manhattan ever goes to trial, maybe we’ll find out.
It’s unclear why Rather, who spent his entire storied journalistic career at CBS, waited three years after being fired as anchor of the “Evening News” to seek justice. And it’s hard to imagine he really thinks $70 million is going to make him feel better about the messy controversy surrounding him.
In the original news piece, that aired in September 2004, Rather raised questions about the legitimacy of Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. When critics insisted the story was based on forged documents, Rather was first forced to apologize on the air and then, after 24 years in Walter Cronkite’s anchor chair, forced to step down.
Did CBS fold under pressure from the Bush White House? Conspiracy theories have been rampant for years now, and maybe Rather finally wants his day in court to sort it all out.
But Rather, 75, also seems hellbent on destroying what was once a sterling reputation as a reporter. He covered wars, hurricanes, elections and Sept. 11, 2001, before the collapse of his career at CBS. It’s sad to see him drag his own name through the mud now.
Since leaving CBS, Rather has been working for the seldom-seen HDNet, owned by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, anchoring and reporting “Dan Rather Reports.” If he wants to revive his reputation, why doesn’t he nail the story that deep-sixed him? Unearth the true documents that were deemed fake by the White House and prove the story correct. More than a few historians and journalists have sided with Rather in the basic truth of the story. He just presented it with flawed documentation.
Not surprisingly, CBS says the lawsuit is “without merit” and “old news.” But the network also just settled a lawsuit with former employee Don Imus (after he uttered racial slurs on his radio show) for undisclosed millions. Maybe Rather and counsel decided they had a shot at a few bucks, too.
But is the avalanche of negative publicity that’s sure to come worth it?
‘24’ leaks details about ‘Day 7’
When the new season of “24” finally arrives on Jan. 13, Jack Bauer will be roaming around Washington, D.C., dodging in and out of courtrooms where he is is being punished for previous heinous acts of treason and insubordination.
The Counter Terrorism Unit is gone — as in, disbanded — so Jack is loosely attached to the FBI, where an agent played by Janeane Garofalo will be trying to handle him. As previously reported, a woman is president (Allison Taylor) — possibly because the country has run out of Palmer brothers.
So, no CTU, no Chloe? Not so, according to the cast list. Chloe will return in some capacity, as well Bill Buchanan and Tony Almeida. Can’t wait.
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July 9, 2007
Katie and CBS News: Heading to Splitsville?
It’s only been a year — just a blink-of-an-eye in the glacial, change-resistant world of network news — but Katie Couric’s stint as The First Solo Anchor of a Network Evening Newscast already looks wobbly.
In an interview with New York magazine released over the weekend, Couric admitted there are days when she wonders what the heck she was thinking when she left NBC’s “Today” at the height of her popularity and moved to the third-place “CBS Evening News.”
Amid deafening hoopla, the $15-million-a-year Couric and her perky persona debuted last September with a revamped newscast that more closely resembled her “Today” format. She wore casual clothes and greeted the audience with “Hi, everyone.” She popped out from behind her anchor desk to chat with guests, and she introduced “everyday people” opinion segments to the broadcast.
CBS chief Leslie Moonves, who had lured Couric away from “Today,” dangled the opportunity to dramatically shake up the stodgy network newscast format and bring hordes of younger viewers to CBS as result.
More than 13 million viewers welcomed her to the evening news last fall.
But that audience fell to 5.5 million in May. CBS is now far behind ABC’s “World News,” which draws about 8 million viewers, and NBC’s “Nightly News,” which has slightly less than ABC.
New “CBS Evening News” executive producer Rick Kaplan now promises a return to more traditional hard news, apparently agreeing with former CBS anchor Dan Rather’s assessment that the newscast under Couric had been “dumbed down” and “tarted up.”
Couric told New York magazine that the anchor job “would have been less appealing” to her if she had known the dramatic changes promised would be so quickly abandoned.
Will CBS ditch Couric for a more traditional anchor this fall? It could happen. Couric is planning to do more work for “60 Minutes,” which could mean she’s planning to spend less time on the “Evening News.”
If that happens, who would step into the seat once warmed by Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather?
CBS doesn’t have a Charlie Gibson waiting in the wings — a comfy, familiar presence who can slip right into the job virtually unnoticed. But it could tap Anderson Cooper, who (perhaps because of the gray hair and CNN resume) has a hard-news aura about him.
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June 28, 2007
News flash! The 'new' Paris is boring!!
I never thought I would ever feel sorry for Larry King, but my heart ached for him last night. That must have been the longest hour of his entire professional life.
The Paris Hilton chit-chat was a royal bust Wednesday night on CNN. The ex-jail bird was wooden, monotonous and about as deep as a puddle.
What does this hard-partying rich girl hope to change about herself after three weeks of reflection in an L.A. jail? Her voice. She doesn’t like that it “goes up” when she’s upset or excited.
Paris professed a new spiritualism, saying she checked out a Bible from the commissary during her incarceration. She told King she’s been religious all her life, goes to Mass and often reads the Bible. When asked her favorite passage, she smiled, stuttered and said she couldn’t think of one.
Anyone looking for “the new Paris” we’ve heard so much about found very much the old Paris — but dressed in a modest outfit and minus the usual array of jewels. She was expressionless most of the time, parroting rehearsed phrases such as “it was scary” and “I did my time and took responsibility.”
Paris has insisted that she is not the dumb blonde we know from “Simple Life” and countless party scenes. She says it’s all an act, and now that she’s a 26-year-old ex-con, “that’s not cute any more.” So she’s changed.
But the Paris we saw on Larry King was dull and more than a little dense. She can’t really think anyone believes she has changed.
All we can hope from last night’s endless hour of droning is that Larry King is feeling relieved today that it’s over. He’s never had to ask so many inane questions (“Lindsay Lohan … what do you think about her?”) in his life. His guest tonight is Colin Powell … he must be blowing kisses at his booking agent.
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June 26, 2007
Puttin' on Paris!
The Big TV Event this week is bound to be Paris Hilton’s post-jail chat with CNN’s Larry King Wednesday night at 8.
If we are to believe the advance hysteria, the world will stop spinning on its axis while the celebutante describes her recent incarceration.
If Mr. King holds true to form, the questions will have nothing to do with why she was driving drunk in the first place or chose to drive with a suspended license while she was on probation. Nor is he likely to ask why she was in a medical facility instead of the general jail population or why she and her family have been toying with the media over this Big Interview.
Although they all vehemently deny it, major media organizations such as ABC and NBC reportedly offered the Hilton family anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million for this hallowed sit-down. ABC’s Barbara Walters had been courting the family for weeks, taking collect calls from Princess Paris from behind bars and cooing about how sick and sad the poor thing was over all this.
Pleased to be free from criticism, CBS News did not participate in the negotiations.
Apparently surprised by the negative reaction for their high-dollar dealings for exclusive rights to an interview, the Hilton family (who aren’t exactly strapped for cash) ceased wheeling and dealing and awarded the post-jail chat to CNN, which has a firm corporate policy against ever paying anyone for an interview.
According to the New York Post, Walters is furious at the Hilton family.
“Look, I’ve done prison interviews before, but people like the Menendez brothers were really important news stories — this wasn’t,” Wa