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Matt? Savannah? GMA? NBC Execs? You won’t believe who did what in this summer network mystery special!
When high crimes are committed against network news careers you can be sure of one thing: finger prints are never left behind. Given the challenge, this kind of unsolved mystery needs a top television sleuth, someone willing to follow the trail while the blood is still fresh and revisionist publicists have yet to spin the story into infinity.
Preferably, the best choice to solve the high-profile case of the sudden disappearance of Ann Curry should have experience in the crime beat of morning news. So, for the greater good (of the blogosphere at least) I must volunteer myself, a long-time morning show executive and, just like NBC’s Detective Olivia Benson, a crime fighter whose skills have been sharpened by once having suffered a personal assault as well.
THE TALE OF THE TAPE
Curry Cringe w/Matt v. Teddy Bear Hug w/Al
And so we begin, first examining the suspects who were last seen with the victim, sitting on that couch as she tearfully said goodbye to her beloved audience. Natalie? No, she’s not All About Eve. Al? No, he doesn’t even qualify as a red herring although he likes to eat them. Matt? Now we might want to put Matt in a line up at least and not because he’s just re-signed a ridiculous new contract, one we can fairly assume was designed to make all his dreams come true. No, we just need to look at the victim’s body language and Matt’s not off the hook quite yet. Read the rest of this entry »
AS THE RUMORS SWIRL THAT MATT WILL FOLLOW MEREDITH OUT THE DOOR, A BILLION-DOLLAR FRANCHISE HEARS A GASP
Mano y mano: The only muscle Matt Lauer flexes with Tom Cruise is from the nose up.
A Today Show without Matt Lauer? Could this really be true? Could it still thrive?
Those are some of the questions recently posed to me by David Bauder of Associated Press. Where do I even begin?
As someone who’s studied Matt Lauer for many years, not just as a viewer but as a competitor, first as executive producer of ABC’s Good Morning America then senior executive producer of CBS’ Early Show, I can genuinely say with authority: there is simply no one like Matt Lauer in all of network news. There never has been, and now given the experience he adds to his broad range of skill sets, there probably never will be again.
So, NBC, what ever Matt wants, Matt should get. He’s certainly earned it.
HOW MATT LAUER BECAME “THE FONZ” OF MORNING TV AND WHY HIS BOSSES GET CREDIT FOR SPOTTING HIM
Most network news executives I have known would never have hired Matt Lauer in the first place. It’s clearly been their loss. You see, once upon a time, he was a young feature reporter for Robin Leach’s “Fame, Fortune and Romance,” a short-lived daytime series that rode the coat tails of the bigger show that brought you champagne wishes and caviar dreams. He then moved to New York and co-hosted a local talk show called 9 Broadway Plaza.
This, plus a few credits short of a degree from Ohio University, was not exactly the winning resume for a network news division, but somewhere within the NBC corporate hierarchy someone saw that Lauer was smart, fun to be around, comfortable in his own skin and likable. Not classically handsome, he was still sexy, appealing, someone who definitely sat at the cool kid’s table of life. Read the rest of this entry »
SO HERE IT IS, MY LINE BY LINE RESPONSE TO TUESDAY’S STORY
“the universal website for corrections to lies, misinformation and misrepresentations.”
Earlier this week, the New York Times and I wrote about my favorite new website, ICorrect.com, which allows members like me to correct “lies, misinformation and misrepresentations” in the media. I received an outpouring of support, and then on Tuesday, lo and behold, the New York Observer ran a “story” that wasn’t even amusingly snarky, it was downright sadistic.
What’s more, it was full of new misrepresentations to correct. Sadly, as you’ll see in my rebuttal below, the paper made no attempt to contact me before publication and instead, appears to have relied on the clairvoyance of a young staff member who somehow knows what I think.
Yesterday the reporter, who we’ll call Kat, acknowledged her poor form in making a “case study” out of me without ever attempting to contact me. In an e-mail at 6:36:05 last night, she offered to run a response from me, which I prepared right away. But Kat has ignored all the e-mails I’ve sent her since. What to do? Sounds like a job for ICorrect and dailyXpress, so here’s what the NY Observer didn’t print.
To make it easy to understand, I have structured this version as dialog: “NYO” is the verbatim copy in full, “SR” is my line by line rebuttal seen here in red. (Of course, you can also link to ICorrect.com.)
Former ‘GMA‘ Producer Shelley Ross Resurfaces, Reminds Us of Her Embarrassments
April 4, 2011 | 12:50 p.m. By Kat Stoeffel
NYO: We hadn’t heard of former Good Morning America executive producer Shelley Ross until yesterday, and she would probably prefer we never did.
SR: As one of only a handful of women executive producers in network news, (there were only 2 of us to exec produce any of the daily network morning shows in the last 25 years) most media reporters know who I am. I would prefer you were more knowledgable about your beat.
NYO: Ms. Ross was featured in a Sunday Times round-up of ICorrect.com, which Ms. Ross pays $1,000 a year for the space to post rebuttals to what she sees as inaccuracies in blog and newspaper items lingering around the infinitely archiving web.
SR: I have posted not just what I “see,” but what I can prove are lies, inaccuracies and misrepresentations.
NYO: Ms. Ross is mostly worried about coverage of her dismissal from CBS,
SR: Since no one ever contacted me from the NY Observer, how would anyone know what items worry me most. (Clairvoyance?)
NYO: …which was documented with audible snickering by the Post, New York Magazine, and even the Times.
SR: “documented with audible snickering?” Well that one’s just too darn hard to answer.
One Day Left to Bag the Canned Oprah Intv, Replace it With a Real Newsmaker
Piers Morgan's launch statement: Oprah interview
From the moment it was first announced that Oprah would be the first guest for the launch of Piers Morgan Tonight, I feared it would be a problem. What if a really big news story captured the imagination of the entire nation?
What if that news story sparked a unflinching dialog that crossed political parties, all generations, one story that involved the entire spectrum of modern debate: gun control, mental health resources, parental responsibility, anti-Semitism, marijuana, free speech, the presidency and more.
My “what if” happened on January 8th in Tuscon, Arizona and CNN’s coverage today, eight days later, remains riveting and relevant.
WILL ANYONE ELSE CHALLENGE “OPRAH” ON THE FIRST SHOW?
This morning, Fareed Zakaria analyzed America’s gun culture and toxic political rhetoric, but first looked forward to next week’s White House guest, the president of China. (I will try to resist any references to “Hu’s on first.)
Up next, Howie Kurtz reviewed the role of mainstream media which, he noted for the second week, got in wrong from the beginning when NPR, ABC News and others reported that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords had been shot and killed. Kurtz went on to discuss the rhetoric and the media’s role and responsibility in covering the president, Sarah Palin and more.
Dr. Fred Frese and his "beautiful mind": a great guest for Piers Morgan?
The most riveting of all CNN’s coverage was Candy Crowley’s hour with a father of an adult schizophrenic and a truly amazing man named Fred Frese III, who is director of psychology at Western Reserve Psychiatric Hospital. To call Dr. Frese’s 30-year career distinguished is an understatement. Once an officer in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, Frese had numerous involuntary hospitalizations in state, private and military psych wards. Despite a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, he pursued a medical degree and earned a doctorate in psychology from Ohio University.
I had more of my questions about the Arizona shooting answered by this hour on CNN than any other. Dr. Frese, with all his twitchy charm, explained schizophrenia — its real threats, challenges and treatments — like no other. He began by invoking the pride his (schizophrenia) community had in Dr. John Nash, the nobel laureate portrayed by Russell Crowe in “A Beautiful Mind.” The mental health community should have equal pride in Dr. Frese who, in the most disarming way, explains that as with alcoholics where there are happy drunks and mean ones, he’s a happy schizophrenic. Dr. Frese, for one, would make a great first guest for Piers Morgan. After that, someone should open up on-air phone lines for Dr. Frese, for about three hours.
In between all these better-than-usual CNN hours: Piers Morgan’s promo with Oprah who says, “Whew, that was the toughest interview I’ve had in 20 years.”
If that’s really true, then it will hold. Of all people, Oprah will understand. It’s more important for Morgan to show he’s more nimble than safe, more relevant than star struck. Read the rest of this entry »
****UPDATED 12/28/10 PAINT BY NUMBERS: AN EVENING NEWS SHOCKER
Couric Squeezes the Gap with Sawyer to 150,000 Viewers — Narrowest of Season — 66% Smaller than Last Year
Christmas Colors in Red and Green
note from your friendly blogarist: “Paint by Numbers” will be an occasional, yet regular, feature of daily Xpress meant to reach behind the press releases for a more accurate picture of the state of broadcast news than reported elswhere.
Can you call a 150,000-viewer gap between ABCs World News with Diane Sawyer and CBS Evening News with Katie Couric anything other than "striking distance?"
Note to Les Moonves: Objects in the rear view mirror may be closer than they appear.
As you sit down to re-negotiate Katie Couric’s $15M salary and future at CBS News, and you should amidst your continuing lay-offs, you might want to take a closer look at her A25-54 numbers this year compared to last year.
Katie Couric has narrowed the gap with Diane Sawyer on 12 out of the 14 weeks of this season. (One week showed the same gap as last year).
I just want to make sure you have our Paint By Numbers kit. TVNewser seems to have ignored this accomplishment which is somewhat surprising given their warm relationship with her executive producer. Oh well, maybe they’ll write something about it next week, in a round up of the quarter. (Oops, they missed it again. Might they be holding back to hang on to some negotiating leverage?)
Bloomberg News, in reporting on your preliminary talks for her new contract, noted this last week: “Both sides recognize Couric’s salary must be reduced for her to remain at CBS, one of the people said. This season, the “CBS Evening News With Katie Couric” is averaging 5.73 million viewers a night, according to Nielsen Co. data, behind NBC and ABC, and down 24 percent from when she took over in 2006.”
Yikes, the continuing obsession TV writers have with total viewership is…. meaningless. Does that matter in the real business world? Not one bit.
As you know, “total” viewers don’t add one single dollar to the financial health of a news division. Doesn’t it make you want to scream “It’s the demo, stupid,” because that’s what they should be tracking for Katie in the coming weeks.
THIS JUST IN: KATIE HAS A VERY MERRY XMAS WEEK
For the week of December 13, Katie Couric quietly narrowed the demo gap with Diane Sawyer from 500 000 to 450,000 year to year. *** And this just in for the week of December 20. Katie Couric squeezed the demo gap down to just 150,000, narrowing that gap a whopping 66% over the same week in 2009 (440,000). The CBS demo delivery of 1,980,000 viewers was actually the second highest of the season, only topped by Thanksgiving week which only included two days (Monday and Tuesday.)
The week of Christmas only included four days, excluding Friday (generally the lowest rated day of the week for the evening newscasts.) This year, as last year, Diane Sawyer took off for her birthday (December 22) and the day after. David Muir substituted.
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