If you want my body,
and you think I’m sexy …
Just don’t put it in a house ad, s’il vous plaît ! CNN sure stepped in it the other day when the
network began running ads for Paula Zahn’s new wake-up show, American Morning -hey, that sounds like a
Thornton Wilder play-touting the tall, blond anchor as “sexy.” All that was
missing was a boiiingggg! sound
effect, like on Howard Stern’s popular radio show.
The network blamed the tasteless commercial on some dopes in its
promo department- natch- but the spot
was emblematic of a broader schizophrenia that inhabits CNN. Under pressure to
improve ratings and take a little zip ‘n’ sizzle away from Fox News, the
network has sought to shed its starchy rep, trot out some new faces and let
their hair down a bit. At the same time, it has tried to maintain its position
as an international and domestic news source. Trying to be fun and serious at
the same time doesn’t always work-and some folks in the marketing department
clearly got carried away.
But did they? While no one is saying it was done on purpose, it’s
just the kind of savvy “mini-troversy “
Calvin Klein used to be so good at ginning up. The network gets a wave of
attention for its morning show; Ms. Zahn gets sympathy for being wronged;
network president Walter Isaacson gets to step in to be the good guy and
express his outrage; and every viewer who hasn’t seen this “sexy” anchor’s new
morning show has a new reason ( boiiinggg! )
to watch. Yes, it’s an embarrassment-Mr. Isaacson sternly called it “a major
blunder” and a “serious matter” which the network “was treating in a serious
way”-but then again, everybody wins.
It also signals that it’s sure going to be interesting to watch
CNN reconfigures itself over the next few months, especially if world news begins
to ebb and Mr. Isaacson and his colleagues really rework programming and
presentation, a mission that was underway when Sept. 11 struck.
Already there’s an immediate prime-time hole to fill: Last week,
Fox swiped Greta Van Susteren to assume the 10 p.m. slot vacated by Ms. Zahn
when she skipped to CNN late last summer. Ms. Van Susteren hadn’t been feeling
the love at CNN lately-she was said to be particularly ticked at CNN’s U.S.
executive vice president and general manager Sid Bedingfield, who called her on
vacation and told her that her hour-long show was getting chopped in half for
expanded war coverage. Still, her move caught colleagues by surprise,
especially when she rebuffed a hefty CNN counteroffer. (In a statement, Mr.
Bedingfield noted that Ms. Van Susteren had a half-hour show “for nearly a
year” before the network moved her to a full hour, and that the cut back to a
half hour was not permanent and was designed to take advantage of war coverage.
Through Fox News, Ms. Van Susteren declined comment.)
Who will CNN respond with? Right now, the network could probably
put on The Frank Sinatra Hour Featuring
Jimmy Hoffa and it would still lose to Bill O’Reilly. Whoever it is, a good
bet is that the show will eventually be headquartered in New York-another
indicator that the network’s power base is creeping upward from Atlanta. “I
think Atlanta realizes that everything is moving to New York, and it is,” said
one CNN staffer.
Well, New York is a sexy town! Today on American Morning , new co-host Anderson Cooper points out to Ms.
Zahn that the new set looks suspiciously like Lando Calrissian’s Cloud City
from The Empire Strikes Back . [CNN, 10, 7 a.m.]
Thursday, jan. 10
After a merry, protracted paid respite,
jock-beat iconoclast Keith Olbermann is finally off the Rupert Murdoch dole and
getting back to the regular grind. He’s possibly going to be warming Greta Van
Susteren’s old CNN chair for a bit now, and in what may be the broadcasting
equivalent of slipping into your father’s old flannel slippers, he’s going to
revive Howard Cosell’s old “Speaking of Sports” and “Speaking of Everything”
radio spots for ABC radio stations nationwide.
“It’s the gamut of opinion and story-breaking and then wise-ass,”
said Mr. Olbermann, no stranger to all three. The former ESPN, MSNBC and Fox
Sports anchor actually introduced Mr. Cosell’s “Speaking of” segments when he
was a college-radio host at Cornell University. Lately Mr. Cosell has
experienced a posthumous revival, as the toupéed chatterbox has been portrayed
in the film Ali (by Jon Voight) and
the upcoming TNT TV movie Monday Night
Mayhem (by John Turturro). Mr. Olbermann was a panelist at a Jan. 8
discussion following the lattere film’s New York premiere.
Is this new wave of affection for Mr. Cosell rooted in some kind
of frustration with sportscasting’s current sad state? Mr. Olbermann, of
course, is partly responsible for said sad state, as his dry, often lyrical
sportscasting style has been ripped off (badly) by every under-45,
blazer-wearing wannabe in the business. Is our burst of love for Mr.
Cosell, the genre’s groundbreaking
self-promoter and a true original, a
backlash against the sameness of ESPN nation?
“I would love to be able to suggest some sort of backlash from
which we could draw encouragement,” Mr. Olbermann said. “I wait for the
backlash against this faux humor or faux humorist [style]-and then I just see
more and more of it.” As an example, Mr. Olbermann noted Fox Sports’ dopey new
sports-yak show with ( er ) Tom Arnold, The Best Damn Sports Show, Period , calling
it “The Best Sports Show of the Damned.”
Overall, however, Mr. Olbermann felt the Howard Cosell revival
was a natural outgrowth of being famous, controversial and, well, dead . “If the man had a 5 percent
humility rating, he would have been beloved,” Mr. Olbermann said. “Because
name the thing he did not invent.”
Okay, here’s one: Courage, the Cowardly Dog. [TOON, 22, 9 p.m.]
Friday, jan. 11
This week marks the 10th anniversary of ABC
World News Now , the quirky wee-hour newscast that launched the careers
of new CNN anchors Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper, among others. The show, now
co-anchored by Alison Stewart and Derek McGinty, has long enjoyed a cult
following among insomniacs, new mothers, security guards, ephedrine addicts,
bakery workers, Entertainment Weekly editorial
assistants and other assorted nightcrawlers, who revel in the show’s
irreverent, casual-yet-intelligent take on world events. Because it’s on so
dang late, WNN can give the headlines
without the shrill, inane pomp of the signature evening newscasts-and the
anchors, thank goodness, aren’t anywhere as huffy as their prime-time
counterparts.
“I think it’s a place where people can find their voice,” said
Ms. Stewart, who came to ABC News from MTV News. “Before we had a permanent
anchor, we’d see a lot of people come in with their anchor voice and their
anchor presentation. And you realize over the course of doing the show that
your voice is just fine, and there is no right way to do it-it’s just your
way.”
Ms. Stewart, who is closing in on Mr. Brown’s record as WNN ‘s
longest host, said the program also bucked the notion that overnight shows
are for network news flunkies. Traditionally, she said, the supposition was
that “if you’re working in the middle of the night, you’ve either been banished
there or you’re a supreme F-up. But that’s not the case. There are some really
creative, smart people who take their jobs very seriously-but they don’t take
themselves very seriously, which is sort of key. That’s the way I like it.”
WNN is celebrating its
10th birthday with some best-of retrospectives and returns from the likes of
Mr. Cooper and Mr. Brown (the latter’s producer at CNN, David Bohrmann, was
also WNN ‘s first producer). You can
also look for that accordion guy, Barry Mitchell, who pops up from time to
time.
Tonight-or this morning-on World
News Now (come to think of it, that’s a funny title: It’s as if they sat
around trying to dream up a name and decided they couldn’t go with “This
Evening” or “This Morning”), look for Ms. Stewart to shotgun a can of Red Bull
while standing on her head. [WABC, 7,
2:40 a.m.]
Saturday, jan. 12
The Sci-Fi Channel-you know that channel,
it’s the perky one with the Saturn in the corner that showed that Dune miniseries and has that “psychic”
John Edward, the Crossing Over guy
who somehow contacts dead uncles by staring deeply at folks’ L.L. Bean
sweaters-just announced that it has signed Dan Aykroyd to do a paranormal talk
show five nights a week. Called Dan
Aykroyd’s Out There , it’s likely to launch sometime in the spring.
Mr. Aykroyd, one of the founding geniuses of Saturday Night Live in the 1970′s and an actor in such films as The Couch Trip, Celtic Pride and My Girl 2 , apparently possesses
something of a genius for the strange and fantastical. “Dan is amazing with
this stuff,” said Sci-Fi Channel president Bonnie Hammer. “He is the most
passionate believer I’ve come across, and trust me-working at Sci-Fi for the
past couple of years, I’ve come across quite a few fanatics.” (Indeed, Sci-Fi’s
the kind of place where no one asks their colleague “if” they’re going to the Space 1999 superfan convention …. )
“You can talk to him and he will be knowledgeable about
everything from cloning to crop circles to U.F.O. landings to the most minor
genetic futuristic information imaginable,” Ms. Hammer continued.
Well, that’s better than talking about Blues Brothers 2000 , we suppose. Tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel, The
Fifth Element , a film that neither Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman or Chris
Tucker would like you to see. [SCI, 44, 9
p.m.]
Sunday, jan. 13
* Next month, Sesame Street will tackle Sept. 11 with a handful of segments that
address some of the emotions stirred by the terrorist attacks in New York and
Washington. They’re not going to be grim and specific about it-there won’t be
direct mention of the World Trade Center or the Pentagon-but they will try and
help kids sort out any feelings of confusion and concern they’ve had over the
past four months. In a Feb. 4 episode, for example, there’s going to be a
grease fire at Mr. Hooper’s store while Elmo and Maria are having lunch. The
pair will evacuate, the fire department will be called, and Elmo’s feelings of
fright will be discussed-and there will also be a firehouse tour. “We wanted to
get something out in response to 9/11, but we also were very careful about what
we did because our viewing audience is so young,” said Rosemarie Truglio, Sesame Street ‘s vice president of
research and production.
How did the preparation for the 9/11 episodes compare to Sesame Street ‘s other big sensitive
episode-you know, in 1982, when Mr. Hooper (played by actor Will Lee) went to
that big bodega in the sky? Ms. Truglio said that show was far different; the
staff had ample time to prepare. “There was so much lead time, it was done with
lots of research to make sure children understood the concept of death,” she
said.
Today on PBS Thirteen, the American Experience tackles Woodrow
Wilson. Rene Auberjonois, formerly of Benson,
tackles the voice of the ex-President. [Thirteen,
13, 9 p.m.]
Monday, jan. 14
: Wowzers, it only took a couple of
weeks for the newly “Manhattanized” Oxygen network to alienate everyone west of
the Hudson! Just a handful of days after the high holy ones at Time Warner
Cable deigned to invite the Big O into area code 212, Oxygen ran an ad in The New York Times in which headlines
from mock hayseed newspapers- Heartland
Journal, Midwest Gazette ,
etc.-decried the Oprah Winfrey/Geraldine Laybourne/Marcy Carsey/Tom Werner
women-centric network as “too hip,” “too urban” and “too sophisticated.”
Talk about speaking to Middle America! The ad sure miffed Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist
Joanne Weintraub, who blasted O2 for thinking-like a lot of city slickers
do-it’s all that.
“It thinks it’s a shot of espresso when it’s really a lukewarm
cup of General Foods International Coffee,” wrote Ms. Weintraub, who went on to
label O2′s programming as “the same old casserole with slightly more
contemporary seasoning.”
Wait-we’re confused. Is O2 a casserole or a cup of crappy coffee?
Tonight on O2, Chasing Amy . By the way, we caught Chasing Amy’s Ben Affleck on Carrie Fisher’s Oxygen interview show,
and she practically chased him off the couch, that sassy flirt. [O2, 61, 9 p.m.]
Tuesday, jan. 15
Tonight HBO runs a
repeat of Project Greenlight,
the hyper-aggravating yet strangely addictive series about a real-life guy who
gets a million bucks to make a movie for Miramax. Look out for multiple Harvey
Weinstein toadies yapping about the cinematic “process”! [HBO, 32, 11:30 p.m.]
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