CNN/U.S. President Jonathan Klein was asked about his decision last week to dump "Crossfire" and bid adieu to one of the crossfirers, Tucker Carlson. Specifically, they wanted to hear him say again that Comedy Central's faux newsman Jon Stewart had been right about "Crossfire" being bad and unhelpful to the country's political discourse.
He did so, adding for good measure that the "Crossfire" concept was fresh when he was a news producer in the 1980s, but "geesh, it's been 22 years -- surely we can think of something else." Carlson, he said, has "a ton of skills" -- including being "opinionated" and "unpredictable" -- but when Carlson filled in for Aaron Brown, Klein said, it became clear that he was more interested in debating guests than in being the "solid center of gravity" on a newscast.
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Surprisingly, or maybe his press relations department got to him before the Q&A session, Klein dodged a question about the report of that independent study on the discredited CBS News report about President Bush's National Guard service and the four CBS News employees who were sacked as a result. The former CBS News employee said that since he hadn't been there in seven years "I don't think I have anything relevant to contribute."
CNN News Group's Walton came to the rescue, telling critics that in the aftermath of that CBS News story, the New York Times's Jayson Blair woes, plus USA Today's Jack Kelley embarrassment -- he did not mention CNN's Tailwind story debacle -- he hoped that "collectively" journalists would "button it up a little bit and try to be accurate consistently."
MSNBC beat E! Entertainment to the punch on trial reenactments, debuting Michael Jackson Trial Puppet Theater Wednesday night on Keith Olbermann's show.
It's true, the Jackson trial has not started; Olbermann's show made clear it was not using actual trial testimony, only an artist's conception, with puppets crafted from ice cream sticks.
" 'Countdown' is going to beat E! . . . to the punch," Olbermann said in introducing the segment. "We will start our Michael Jackson trial reenactments now . . . long before the trial starts. To quote the president of the E! network, Ted Harbert, 'I'm a person who believes strongly that what we need to bring to TV is taste,' " Olbermann told viewers.
Asked by The TV Column whether he planned to make this a regular feature during the trial, Olbermann said he couldn't promise but that he would do his best to "run it into the ground."
If a wealthy land developer promises to bequeath his Kansas ranch to whichever family member wins a CBS reality series competition called "The Will" but no one actually sees "The Will" because CBS cancels it after just one episode, did the wealthy land developer actually promise his Kansas ranch to the family member who wins the competition?
CBS pulled "The Will" after Saturday's premiere because it attracted only an average of 4.2 million viewers.
Best we can figure, no major broadcast network has canceled a series after just one episode since CBS pulled cop show "South of Sunset" after its fall '03 premiere drew only 9.3 million viewers, which at that time was believed to be the worst fall debut in network TV history.
Before that, you have to go back to the late '60s.
"The Will" drew CBS's second smallest audience for any original program this season, behind only the Saturday premiere of the network's also-canceled "Clubhouse," which opened with 4.1 million viewers in November.
"The Will" logged the wimpiest premiere of any of this season's slew of reality series, which is actually saying a lot because the pantheon of reality disasters includes Fox's "Rebel Billionaire," which opened to 5.1 million, and "My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss," which scrounged up 4.4 million viewers for its opening episode.
