Tuesday, June 06, 2017

TV: The first and second most lucky people of the week

The luckiest person in the world last week had to be Scott Pelley.

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CBS fired him as anchor of THE CBS EVENING NEWS.

This after he was the 'answer' to the network, remember?

May 2011, it was announced he would replace Katie Couric as anchor and he would rescue the news.

Reality: CBS EVENING NEWS WITH SCOTT PELLEY comes in third of the three broadcast network's evening news programs.

He was supposed to be the answer but six years later, he got eased out with the cover story that CBS NEWS valued him so much that they needed him to focus on 60 MINUTES.

Focus on 60 MINUTES?

We're supposed to believe they were living in fear of SUNDAY NIGHT WITH MEGYN KELLY?

"With who?" most would ask.

Megyn became a star on FOX NEWS.

We're not insulting her for it, we're just noting that the broadcast networks -- big four -- have bigger audiences than even 'cable news' channels.

Here's another reality about 'cable news' -- it's pretty much all talk show.

It's really not reporting.

60 MINUTES, by contrast, is a news magazine.

Sure, it's always had fluff.

Each incarnation, for instance, generally offers fluff from an elderly fool.

Up until late 2011, Andy Rooney filled that time with a 60 MINUTES segment entitled "A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney."  These days, the segment is too many minutes with 75-year-old Charlie Rose.

But that nonsense aside, it's a news magazine.

After "who is Megyn Kelly," the next question should have been: "What is SUNDAY NIGHT WITH MEGYN KELLY?"

It's not a news magazine.

Megyn had a big get on Sunday: Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

But he spoke via a translator.

She grabbed at fame as a debate moderator asking pointed questions of Donald Trump.


But pointed doesn't play well with an interpreter.

It was slow TV, to say the least.

But what was worse was her use of Harry Smith and Cynthia McFadden.

These are news magazine names?

Forever and a day, Harry Smith was the host of CBS' failed morning program.  Cynthia McFadden?  When you're more known for rumors about how close you really were to Katharine Hepburn (who had many affairs with women) than for any story you've ever broken, why are you being hired for a news magazine?

SUNDAY NIGHT WITH MEGYN KELLY lost the ratings battle to 60 MINUTES at the start of the week.  But even worse, it set up an image that it's now going to have to shake.  It's another show of talking heads.  It's not a news magazine.

It may want to become that but, in what was probably its biggest outing, America saw the show was about as hard hitting as IN STYLE MAGAZINE.

Megyn should consider herself lucky because -- like Scott Pelley -- she's gotten so little media attention in the last few days.

Instead, all the oxygen in the room was sucked up by Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher's use of the N-word and CNN's resident cannibal throwing tantrums on Twitter.