This morning, as I watched the Today show, I noticed that they had "team coverage" of the big fire on the Universal Studios back lot. Not only did they have reporter Peter Alexander doing a live remote from the scene, but they decided to send Al Roker, who was in L.A. to tape Celebrity Family Feud, over there, as well. Matt Lauer called the fire "devastating," and Alexander went on to list all the sets that went up in smoke, including the town square from Back to the Future. Oh, and some of the video archives were destroyed, even though there are backups.
All of this was delivered in somber tones, as if this was like those wildfires that have enveloped that part of the country over the last few years. It made you wonder if anyone got hurt. Thankfully, no one did. So why the somber tone? Sure, these sets might have some sentimental value, but they're just fake storefronts. And why have a reporter there if Roker was already available? It makes you scratch your head until you realize that NBC and Universal are corporate siblings.
If you watched the network morning shows this morning, you've seen the shocking sight of the Big Three evening news anchors -- Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Charlie Gibson -- appearing on each show ... together! Gasp! How can that happen? Don't the networks have contract clauses and armies of lawyers to prevent these things from happening?
Well, I guess the lawyers tend to stay home when a good cause is involved. The anchors went on the news shows this morning to announce a cross-network telethon called Stand Up for CancerStand Up To Cancer, which will air on NBC, CBS, and ABC on September 5. The one-hour show will have musical performances and testimonials from all three anchors about the need for furthering cancer research (remember Couric's husband and sister both died from various forms of the disease). Money raised by the telethon will go to a number of organizations and research groups.
Much has been said about Katie Couric and her year behind the anchor's desk on The CBS Evening News (some of it by Couric herself in a controversial New York interview). But now a journalist is going to interview Couric and she's going to talk about everything that's going on with her and with the news biz in general.
Veteran newsman Marvin Kalb is going to interview Couric as part of the Kalb Report Series, which is produced by George Washington University, Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center, and The National Press Club. The interview will take place live on stage next Tuesday at The National Press Club, in front of students and members of the NPC.
Are Today Show viewers - even the most loyal Today Show viewers - asking for a fourth hour of the show every single day?
Looks that way. As we reported earlier, NBC is going ahead with their plans for a fourth hour of the morning show, and Broadcasting & Cable is reporting that the hosts have been named: Ann Curry, Natalie Morales, and Hoda Kotb. Giada De Laurentis and Tiki Barber will be correspondents on the show.
I assume that NBC has done some sort of market research that pushes them in this direction, but as a viewer I'm kind of nauseated. Look at all that TV space that's being taken up by having four hours of Today on Monday through Friday (and another two hours each on Saturday and Sunday). Yikes.
What would the Fourth of July be without hot dogs, fireworks, and Blake's beatboxing? American Idol finalist Blake Lewis will be joining third place finisher Melinda Doolittle, as well as this year's reigning champ Jordin Sparks for Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular on NBC. The special will be hosted by Natalie Morales and Tiki Barber from NBC's Today Show. Country singer Martina McBride will also be on hand to perform "Anyway."
NBC says the fireworks display "will feature nearly 35,000 brilliant shells exploding over New York City" in the country's largest Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza. The one-hour Spectacular will be televised at 9PM from New York.
Longtime Dateline host Stone Phillips is being let go by the network, for money reasons. Phillips' current co-host, Ann Curry, will continue to do the show. I guess NBC wants someone in there who is already under contract and does other stuff at the network. Curry is the newsreader on The Today Show too. She'll be joined by various NBC reporters as rotating co-hosts.
No word on what Phillips will do now. I wonder why they didn't just keep him on and have him do other things at the network and MSNBC? Maybe he didn't want to, who knows.
I reported on the Daytime Emmy Award nominations yesterday and noted that Live with Regis & Kelly wasn't nominated in the Best Talk Show category. While that's technically true, the show was nominated in another category for morning shows. They'll go up against The Today Show, Good Morning, America and Univision's Despierta America in a new category. Regis still wasn't nominated for Best Host though.
Oh, and Regis is doing quite fine after heart bypass surgery yesterday. Kelly Ripa announced the news on the show this morning. One of his doctors said that Reege has "the heart of a 19 year-old." It wasn't clear which 19 year-old this was, but hopefully they will give it back to this person so they can also live a long, healthy life.
I like Meredith Vieira. I really, really do. I've heaped praise upon her in this space in the past, and I'm sure that I'm going to heap more praise on her in the future. But she completely dropped the ball on the Today show this morning when she interviewed the three climbers that were rescued from Mt. Hood a couple of days ago. She asked them a lot of questions about how they survived, and how their dog Velvet helped them stay warm. But she didn't ask the one question I'm sure every non-hiker in the country was curious about:
What the hell were they doing up there on the mountain to begin with?
"Dance Dance Resolution": Man. All that talk about disappointing Davey Crockett really broke my heart. And all that talk about Wicked made my inner theatre geek laugh... and my inner normal civilian cry a little bit for the state of our Congress. Did a cell phone really go off at the end of that guy's speech? If so... Wow.
Yeah, that's exactly what's missing from my TV schedule: another hour of Today. Hey, let's add three more hours to Good Morning, America. Maybe The View can be an all-day thing, and ABC can show All My Children at 2 in the morning?
I didn't even know that Syler was a host of The Early Show. How could he be the host of a daily morning talk show on CBS and go around the country, cutting open people's heads and stealing their superpowers?
Actually, it's Rene Syler, one of the 34 co-hosts they have over at The Early Show (last time checked it was Syler, Harry Smith, Hannah Storm, and Julie Chen) is leaving the show to pursue other projects, including a book that will be released this spring. Her last day on the show will be December 22.
I know everyone was really busy yesterday, cooking and rushing around, but I was wondering if anyone still watches the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? I have no idea what the ratings are for the show every year, though I wouldn't be surprised if they are pretty good, considering there isn't anything else on the networks at that time.
I'm not a parade person at all. I can't stand, well, standing there waiting for marching bands and people in funny costumes go by (I've never seen the Macy's parade, I mean parades in general). Yesterday the weather was pretty bad in New York City: windy, rainy, raw, but the crowds still came out to watch the parade go by. Besides not liking parades, the one thing I hate about TV coverage of parades is the inane banter that the hosts do, and the info they're obvivously reading off of cards. Drives me nuts. TV Newser reports that Meredith Vieira might have gone a little bit overboard during her first year of covering the event.
I like the idea of the Macy's Day Parade, and the spectacle and the gala and the tradition, and I'm glad people like it so much they have it every year. But I can't watch it. How about you?