I was in a very small demographic the other night as I watched Anchorwoman. That was the "reality" show featuring a chesty blond who hires on to be a news presenter at a tv station in Tyler, Texas. The show drew such a tiny audience that it was canceled after only one airing.
There were some good moments though, but It's questionable how real reality shows like this one really are. You just know that there are people behind the camera counseling the various participants on ways to get more tv face time. And a good cat fight would surely give the ratings a kick in the pants.
So Lauren shows up for her first day on the job at the tv station, and the other women didn't take too kindly to the possibility of losing their fans to a bombshell beauty. But that was never said. The arguments were that she would hurt the integrity and credibility of this tv news show. Viewers of Anchorwoman were left chuckling at that as we all know that a tv news show in a small community like Tyler -- where an important news story doesn't come along very often -- would need a rather large dose of entertainment to keep the viewers from clicking to another program. And a likable news presenter is probably the most important asset a station could have.
So they do a news report about potholes. The really great feature of the show was the peek behind the curtain. We got to see the staff gather around the desk and toss out ideas about what the viewers would get to see that evening. But if potholes came out on top then you know there weren't a lot of good ideas. And we got to see Lauren go out and put together a story about potholes. Aren't you sorry you missed it?
The story they were trying to sell on Anchorwoman was the interaction among the various players. And in that aspect, other than the cat fight between Lauren and the woman who had to make room for her, there wasn't much there.
So the Anchorwoman was put out of its misery. Too bad. A real show about putting together a tv news program could be very interesting. And something missing in our local market is reporting about the competitors. Local tv stations seem to be afraid to say anything about the other local stations. What, there's no dirt to dish out? Jeff, are you out there?
But there's hope. Check out this zinger at Fireant in which Eric lobs a rock in the direction of a collaboration between CBS7 and Mywesttexas.com. Criticism from the outside probably just makes them circle the wagons, particularly when they are just trying out new ideas. But we all like a good cat fight.
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Posted by: snick | September 01, 2007 at 10:56 PM
George, there is a "show about putting together a tv news program" out there ..... or at least there was ..... I wasn't able to watch more than the first three-or-four episodes, so I don't know if it's even still on the air ..... the problem for me was the quality of the show (lighting, shooting, editing, audio and video pretty much the works) which I felt was pretty bad ..... that wasn't the fault of the show's subjects (the staff at KOSA-TV, in Odessa), but the show's producers and broadcasters (who added to the difficulty watching with numerous, looooooong breaks for commercials .....
Posted by: Jeff | September 03, 2007 at 01:16 PM
Jeff, I tried to watch some of it, but the TV Guide program listings scrolling down the screen were too distracting. And those long commercial breaks made it was difficult to watch.
(Sorry to take so long to respond to your comment, but Typepad's email notification feature apparently was on the blink.)
Posted by: Geo | September 09, 2007 at 01:29 PM