Katie Couric made it official that she is moving to CBS to anchor The CBS Evening News and appear on 60 Minutes beginning in September. The vocalized reason is the opportunity, history, yada-yada. The real reason is moolah with a rumored pay day of around $50 million for 5 years. Her replacement on Today? Meredith Vieira from The View.
The real question though is why should the viewing audience care? The answer of course is we shouldn't. When was the last time Couric even showed journalistic ability? When she interviewed the celeb du jour with the usual litany of softball questions? That represents 20 years of experience? The reality is a news anchor today is much different from yesteryears. Today they are simply talking heads reading from a script providing by writers and producers. It doesn't take any special skill to read a script. And don't point at 60 minutes. Those are also canned. The producers are one that does the research, interviews the people, edits the story, everything. The only thing the on air talent does is show up to film a few scenes from a script. Again, zero display of journalism.
From a business move, this might be genius but I think CBS is in for a rude awakening. The audience at the crack of dawn is much different from an audience during a setting sun.
No comments:
Post a Comment