Time to Say Goodbye to Ted Knight

[Force Commander]

From http://www.tvnewsday.com

By Harry A Jessell
TVNEWSDAY, Aug 8 2008, 3:02 PM ET
In my interview with him this week, Hearst-Argyle's Fred Young underscored an earlier story we had suggesting that the day of the high-priced local anchor may be coming to an end.
"The great anchor people of the past are just sort of leaving the business. ... As news becomes more ubiquitous, I think that the team concept will be more important than the individual player."
Young said the big money that has been going to the stars behind the anchor desks will be diverted to a new breed of TV newsperson who will be expected to multitask — that is, report, photograph, edit and present stories. (I suspect some of the money will also be diverted to maintaining operating margins, at least as long as revenues continue to erode.)
What intrigues me about all this is that it may also herald a change in the way TV stations stage their newscasts. If stations are to attract wider and younger audiences, they are going to have break away from the idea of two well-groomed people of just the right gender/ethnic mix sitting behind a desk.
I have problems with TMZ, Warner Bros.' celebrity news entry. It's laden with a meanspiritness that is even tougher to take than the unctuousness of its competitors. Do all celebrities deserved to be harassed and ridiculed?
But I do like the TMZ format. Executive producer Harvey Levin presides over a room full of producers who pop up from their cubicles to tell Levin and viewers what's going on and set up the video segments. It works. Levin doesn't have to do much. The casually dressed young producers take the place of anchors, providing the glue that holds the show together.
The show is heavily edited so I'm not sure how it would work in the live environment of local TV news. But there is something there.
It would be great to see some enterprising stations — perhaps a nothing-to-lose station mired in third place — apply the TMZ format or a variation of it. Different kinds of stars will surely emerge from inside those cubicles.
The TMZ format may be too much for the broadcast networks, but they too should be looking for a different way of doing things. Perhaps they should be thinking about moving past the star-driven newscast, too.
I keep thinking of the $15 million salary that CBS is playing Katie Couric. The way I figure, CBS could take that same money, hire 100 of the best investigative reporters in the country, pay them a $120,000 plus benes, and set them loose to ferret out corruption and malfeasance throughout the world.
There are a lot of great reporters at newspapers working for far less and many are in fear of losing their jobs.
Maybe, then, at 6:30 p.m. each evening, CBS News would have some stories to tell, exclusive and important. You've got to believe that ratings would follow.
Of course, CBS News is really not interested in journalism that can improve the planet.
Two years ago, when CBS News President Sean McManus, introduced to Katie Couric to the TV press just before her debut on the evening news, he said that "first and foremost" he wanted to produce a newscast that was a "really intelligent, journalistically sound summary."
If a "summary of the news" really is your goal, Sean, congratulations. You've made it.
But if you have higher aspirations, you ought to think about diverting money from the anchor desk to where it matters, to the people who find and produce news, just as your affiliates are beginning to do.

[genlock]

"A station in third place with nothing to lose".
Sounds like WOWK.

[Ace Purple]

When I saw the name Ted Knight, I thought immediately of the late actor who played Judge Smails in Caddyshack.