Life for "The View" After Rosie

Rosie O'Donnell is leaving "The View" and I could not be happier. Her views are so horrible, her hate for anything US so obvious, and her behavior is so irritating. Yet, in the end, she may have been a good thing for the talk show.

Before Rosie, the show had been limping along for quite some time. Executive Producer Babara Walters dumped Star Jones because she was losing her spark and Rosie had become the new queen of controversy.

O'Donnell attacked virtually everything and everyone she could think of. US troops were described as terrorists, Bush was responsible for September 11th, Donald Trump has bad hair, etc., etc., etc. She even attacked the lovely Elisabeth Hasselbeck (photo, do you think I would have one of Rosie?) for being "too sweet" and "too Christian."

I protest the show and simply won't watch it, but it appears that many others became interested in the program and it is clear O'Donnell helped the ratings. In fact, Babara Walters is fighting off claims that the most recent battle between Hasselbeck and O'Donnell was simply for ratings. That battle stemmed from the fact that Hasselbeck rightly implied that Rosie was calling US troops terrorists.

In the end, The View was popular with Rosie, not because of her talent, but in the tradition of people who use to go and watch trains crash for entertainment. High drama, high action, but not much substance. So who will replace O'Donnell? Maybe Donald Trump will be on for a while in the name of "equal time." After all, he needs something to do since The Apprentice appears to be history.

Life may not be "too Rosie" for the view if they don't find someone to keep the viewers coming. I just hope that replacement has them watching for better reasons than a disaster in the making.

Katie Couric's Big Day

Today was Katie's big day as host of CBS Evening News. She made history by being the first female anchor of the most prestigious and important 30 minutes of news. Yes, I know, that is a lot of hyperbole, but that is the media's position on it, not mine. In reality, evening news is in desperate shape and Katie Couric wearing little to no clothes would not be able to likely save its staggering decline in viewership (by the way she was fully and appropriately dressed). Furthermore, the approach they took with Katie will likely contribute to this media's further decline.

First of all, the new approach is no longer the evening news. It is, instead, a mini version of a news magazine such as 20/20, Primetime Live, or 60 Minutes. Instead of making sure the major news stories were covered in less than 30 minutes, Katie gave Morgan Spurlock of "Supersize Me" fame an opportunity to trash our "divided nation" and to express his opinion that we need to stop operating in extremes in her new "Free Speech" segment. Furthermore she had Thomas Friedman of the New York Times on who discussed how we need to restore the friendly US that much of the world loved and appreciated (and often used as a doormat, but we won't go there). The new format was mildly entertaining, but it wasn't the "Evening News."

Second, it isn't the right approach to reach the typical Evening News viewer. That viewer is 60 years old and likes to hear from older sons (such as Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson) and not necessarily from that "chatty" Couric girl. I'm just talking the typical senior, in my opinion, not necessarily my view. I don't see her surviving long trying to reach the senior crowd. Further, the networks are actually trying to distance themselves from seniors and are trying to pursue the all important Accumulators -- 35 to 55 year olds who largely drive the economy today. Which is exactly why they pursued Katie, who falls in the age group and other parts of that key demographic.

Third, she won't likely reach the Accumulators either. Most of them are doing a lot of things at 5:30, but watching the evening news isn't one of them. They are picking up kids, making meals, taking care of parents, or several other things that have nothing to do with the smiling Katie. This audience is reached now, largely, through the Internet, which allows them to watch the footage they want to watch and see it when they care to see it. In no time the podcast version of the news will have a much larger audience then the TV broadcast, but with the rate evening news is going, that won't be saying much.

I hate to be negative. I actually like Katie and miss her on the Today Show, but I believe this experiment will fail and she will have an audience significantly smaller than she did early each morning on NBC. By the way, the morning shows like Today are about the only viable way to reach the all important Accumulators because they are busy multi tasking and find the background noise of information and the relaxed environment of the program a great way to launch a day. It is sad she left this viable place to reach an audience to go to the largely dead network news. But don't worry, we will likely see her on some other day time show in the not too distant future. Watch out The View!