NBC’s Fair Haired Girl a Flop

Whoops! NBC fired successful and popular host Tamron Hall and replaced her with Megyn Kelly, much to the consternation of many fans.

Things are not working out too well…

Goodbye Tamron…Hello Failure

NBC in ‘total panic’ as Megyn Kelly attracts only old white people after firing popular black host Tamron Hall

NBC executives are concerned that Megyn Kelly’s forthcoming morning show will not pull in ratings with younger people and non-whites after the network fired a popular black host, Tamron Hall, to make room for the former Fox News star.

The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that the performance of Megyn Kelly’s Sunday night program has left executives in a “total panic” about her morning show, which will debut on Sept. 25. The network made room for Kelly by axing the 9 a.m. hour of the longrunning Today Show.

“A lot of people were watching the [Sunday] magazine show to try to get a sense of her appeal to the daytime demographic and a sense of how she would be outside of the Fox environment,” one insider told The Daily Beast. “Fox News skews very male… I always tend to think of her as more of a guy’s girl than a girl’s girl… It’s extremely challenging, and I’m not sure Megyn’s personality really connects with women.”

According to television news analyst Andrew Tyndall, “The Sunday show laid such an egg that any claims that she had automatic star power, to get people in the door to see what she was doing, have been disavowed… The stardom of the celebrity anchor was a phenomenon of the 1980s back when [flamboyant ABC News president] Roone Arledge was around. In this day and age, the shows make the anchors, not the other way around.”

In the meantime, Hall is planning a daytime talk show with the backing of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. She has also hosted a crime show on the Discovery Channel since leaving NBC.

Following Hall’s exit from NBC, the National Association of Black Journalists accusedthe network of “whitewashing” its on-air talent.

“The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) is saddened by Tamron Hall’s departure from NBC. She broke ground as the first black female Today show cohost and was enjoying ratings success alongside Al Roker during the show’s third hour of programming,” a statement from the NABJ said at the time. “NBC has been a leader for diversity in broadcasting, but recent reports that Hall and Roker will be replaced by former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly are being seen by industry professionals as whitewashing.”

 

 

 

Local DC News Legend Dies

Rest in Peace, Jim Vance – you were a shining star for a lot of years in DC.

 

NBC Whitewashing Today Show?

The National Association of Black Journalists is decidedly unhappy about Tamron Hall being replaced by Meghan Kelly on NBC’s 9 AM “Today” Show. Tamron decided to part ways with the Network (hope she has a cushy deal with another Network). Meghan isn’t exactly loved in the Progressive world, but hopefully getting her away from a cabal of racists and papists at Faux News will affect her world view, and educate her about realities.I mean – Meghan…Santa Claus is a fable…Which means he can be any color, not just white.

Exit By First Black Female ‘Today’ Show Co-Host Called ‘Whitewashing’ By Journalists’ Group

Tamron Hall will reportedly be replaced by Megyn Kelly, who has “a well-documented history of offensive remarks.”

The “Today” show is facing a shake-up that has some raising eyebrows.

Last month, NBC revealed plans to bring former Fox News host Megyn Kelly into its morning lineup, reportedly bumping co-hosts Tamron Hall and Al Roker from the 9 a.m. slot. On Wednesday, NBC announced that Hall would be leaving the network after three years as a co-host on the show. She’d surprised her colleagues by rejecting a multimillion-dollar deal amid the hour’s healthy ratings; according to rumor, she’d found being replaced by Kelly offensive and hurtful.

The National Association of Black Journalists, however, has made its thoughts on the issue clear. In a statement released this week, the organization stated it was “saddened” by Hall’s departure and said Kelly’s move to the 9 a.m. hour is “being seen by industry professionals as whitewashing.”

Hall had been the show’s first black female co-host.

“Kelly has a well-documented history of offensive remarks regarding people of color,” the organization stated, giving the example of Kelly stating that Michelle Obama’s 2015 commencement address at Tuskegee University pandered to “a culture of victimization.”

(Other examples abound: Kelly cast doubt on the significance of blatantly racist emails sent within the Ferguson, Missouri, police department, defended a Baltimore officer involved in the death of Freddie Gray, and called the black teen manhandled at a pool party by Texas police “no saint.”)

Some viewers have also expressed disappointment at the “Today” show shake-up.

In a statement regarding her decision, Hall said she was “grateful” for her 10 years at the network, but also “very excited about the next chapter” in her career. “To all my great colleagues, I will miss you and I will be rooting for you,” she said.

Calling her an “exceptional journalist,” NBC said in a statement of its own, “We are disappointed that she has chosen to leave, but we wish her all the best.”

 

NBC’s “Pity” Olympics

NBC’s ratings for this Olympics have been in free fall. Even great performances by American athletes, and the amazing performance by Usain Bolt couldn’t drag them out of the doldrums. Now admittedly, a number of the Olympic sports just don’t convert to television, and those that do have been expanded to the point of pointlessness. I mean when you have 50, 100, 200, 400 meter events in each of the swim forms freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, and backstroke – not to forget the individual medley, it is not hard to see why swimmers garner so many medals. It is sort of like expanding the shot-put to use 1, 3, 5,8, 10, 20 lb balls thrown backwards, forwards, and to each side. Many Olympic athletes compete in sports where there is only one opportunity to win a medal. Some of the “bloated” sports offer 10 or more opportunities…

Which devalues the accomplishment, and audience interest.

I mean, imagine the Decathlon, where a gold medal is not only awarded for the best cumulative score in the 10 events…But for each and every one of the 10 events themselves done backwards, forwards….

It’s getting like a Montessori Kindergarten where every kid gets a ribbon for “Best Effort”.

I am not advocating dropping some of the more obscure sports – the Olympics committee does that anyway by some inscrutable formula.

NBC’s coverage is the second issue. Their incessant “Human interest” stories often pivot on some personal tragedy in the athletes life. “My dog died, so I am inspired to beat the world!” It got so bad in the 2012 Olympics, it was hard to watch at all. I mean “I’m really sorry about your dog, dude…But I really didn’t turn on the TV to watch your sob story about Rover.”

How about some useful information without the fluff? How about figuring out a way to make those lesser sports interesting?

NBC knows who to blame for poor Olympics ratings — millennials and their “Facebook or Snapchat bubbles”

Not even Usain Bolt’s race for a 8th career gold medal could salvage the network’s ratings

After the Super Bowl, the Summer Olympics have long been considered the safest bet in television, which is why NBC and its parent company, Comcast, paid $12 billion for exclusive broadcast rights to them through 2032.

The problem for NBC is that broadcast rights don’t produce the same revenue streams they once did, especially not among that most coveted 18-49-year-old demographic. As Bloomberg’s Gerry Smith noted, NBCUniversal’s CEO Steve Burke joked in June that his Olympic nightmare would be to “wake up someday and the ratings are down 20 percent.”

“If that happens,” he added, “my prediction would be that millennials had been in a Facebook bubble or a Snapchat bubble and the Olympics have come, and they didn’t know it.” Ratings are only down 17 percent from the London Olympics, so his nightmare scenario is technically incomplete — but that’s the equivalent of claiming a dream in which your teeth are falling out while standing naked before a classroom doesn’t qualify as a “nightmare” because you’re not also being chased.

NBC foresaw this possibility, and charged up to 50 higher rates to online advertisers — but the problem isn’t necessarily the platform, as 98 percent of those watching the Olympics are doing so on traditional television.

The problem NBC faces is a general disinterest among members of the non-traditional television-watching demographic for sporting spectacles. This apathy could be because of the rise of alternative viewing options — Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu have each grown substantially in the years since the London games — or it could simply be that the nature of NBC’s coverage doesn’t resonate with the younger generation.

Every athlete is introduced according to the conventions of programming that doesn’t appeal to millennials — a “Dateline”-esque account of triumph in the inner city, for example, or a heartwarming “Hallmark Hall of Fame” tale about losing a parent at a young age. It’s difficult to capture an audience by selling it a product it’s already indicated an unwillingness to buy.

In the end, what cannot be doubted, only lamented, is that on the night Usain Bolt — widely considered to be one of the last “must-see” draws of the 2016 games — won his 8th career gold medal, NBC’s rating among those between 18 and 49 dipped to 7.0.

 

The Wiz

My favorite “Dorothy” –

Apparently Stephanie Mills will be playing “Auntie Em” in the 2015 version on NBC.

Toto Is the Only White Cast Member in the First Promo for The Wiz Live!

In what is becoming a yearly tradition, NBC is resurrecting a classic Broadway musical for a star-studded live performance, and this time, it’s The Wiz, the 1975 Tony Award-winner adapted from L. Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and featuring an all-black cast. (Today, it’s probably most remembered for Sidney Lumet’s movie adaptation, starring Diana Ross as Dorothy and a pre-Off the Wall Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow.) The first promo is here, and while it doesn’t tell us much, it immediately calls to mind the bright, effervescent Oz of the 1939 Judy Garland filmrather than the grittier, ’70s-era New York City seen in the 1978 movie. Also, the part of Toto will apparently be played by an adorable white-haired terrier rather than a black one, making Toto the only white member of the cast.

Could it be that this time around, NBC’s live musical could actually serve as good live theater, rather than something to hate-watch and snark about on Twitter? We shall see—the failed movie adaptation aside, The Wiz is inarguably a stronger, better show than the incredibly dated Peter Pan, and while we initially had other folks in mind, the cast (which also includes newcomer Shanice Williams as Dorothy, David Alan Grier as the Cowardly Lion, Ne-Yo as the Tin Man, and Elijah Kelley as the Scarecrow, plus Queen Latifah, Uzo Aduba, and The Wiz’s original Dorothy, Stephanie Mills) looks pretty great. The live show airs on Dec. 3.