meredith viera-related stories
Posted Oct 8th 2009 12:39PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Game Show, Reality-Free
When you think about, the "Phone-A-Friend" lifeline on
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has always been lame.
In theory it sounds good: if you don't know the answer you call a friend to see if they know. You even get to choose a few friends for your list so you can have people with different specialties/knowledge. So why did it fail so often? Friends that contestants called either got the question wrong, weren't that sure of the answer at all (forcing the contestant to use another lifeline to narrow it down more, like 50/50), or they couldn't even get their answer out before time ran out and the call was cut off. It always made me nervous.
Notice I used the past tense there.
"Phone-A-Friend" is being dropped from the show.
Continue reading Millionaire goes friendless
Posted Sep 13th 2006 7:47AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: NBC, News, Daytime, Talk Show
Meredith Viera and the new
Today show studio made their debut this morning on NBC. I've been an occasional watcher of the Today show for a bit over ten years now, seeing Bryant leave and Matt taking his spot, so I did want to make the time to catch the show this morning and see another new regular host take her place. This was also the debut of the new
Today studio, in HD no less (though, sadly, I don't have HD yet. Boo.)
The studio is quite different looking, and the layout itself seems to have taken a bit of an alteration as well. For one thing, there's an area that I swear looks a lot like
The View's seating area, with a semi-circular layout of chairs and couches. I don't watch The View, but I have seem the set before. I really thought, "is that
The View studio they're showing?" when the camera panned around to show how things were laid out.
Continue reading A look at Meredith and the new Today show studio
Posted Aug 4th 2006 11:28AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: NBC, News, OpEd, Daytime, Things I Hate About TV, Commercials
I think I'm living some kind of weird Rip Van Winkle life lately. Suddenly, without warning, there are these bizarre promos running during the breaks on the
Today Show showing Matt, Al, Ann and Meredith laughing, goofing and dancing together as if they'd been on the air for ten years with Meredith. Who are they trying to fool? Who are these people? What is going on here?!
Maybe they did an excellent video editing job and stuck Meredith's head on Katie's body, and this is an old goofy video they're using. And even then, when I say the promo's goofy, I mean GOOFY. I'm trying to imagine what the director was saying while trying to get the team to feel all chummy together, as if we're supposed to believe they're really that pally with Meredith: "OK now Al, you do a little hop and shuffle, then eat a beignet. Matt, you stick out your tongue, slap Ann on the ass and dip Meredith. No, on the ass, Matt. Meredith, you flex your biceps while Ann laughs hysterically in the background. No Ann, laugh. Like this 'hahaha.' There you go."
Posted Jun 18th 2006 12:43PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: ABC, Talent, Daytime, Celebrities, Talk Show
Comedienne Sandra Bernhard recently appeared on
The View. She made a few remarks about Mariah Carey's album and an immediate tension grew between her and Star Jones. Then, Bernhard made a some politically-charged comments, calling Laura Bush "heavily medicated", and Elizabeth Hasselbeck jumped to the First Lady's defense. Claws came out, everyone started talking at once, Joy Behar stalked off for a few seconds, and I suddenly remembered why I can never sit through ten consecutive minutes of this damn show. Whenever an argument starts, all the women start talking over each other, louder and louder, until all their shrieks turn into a unified wail, too high for human ears. For a while, I thought I accidentally sat on my remote's "mute" button, but then I saw my neighbor's dog's head explode.
There's video
here if you really feel the need to see it.
Posted May 29th 2006 4:18PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: ABC, News, TV Royalty, Talent, Daytime, Celebrities
Don't we all?
Specifically, the
View host
wants more than the $6 million dollars that she was going to get from Miramax Books to pen her autobiography. She wants to get the same amount of money that other high-profile authors got, including Bill Clinton and Alan Greenspan, who got in the $8 to $12 million range.
Obviously, I don't pretend to know all of the details, but how much money does a person need for one project, especially when they make millions in their day job?
Posted May 29th 2006 2:33PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Music and Variety
A production company is
making a documentary about the game show
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, but they can't do it alone! They're looking for stories and anecdotes about the show. If you have them, send them in. I'm going to assume that they mean stories and anecdotes from former contestants only. I mean, I don't think they want stories that start with "I was watching
Millionaire one night, and I dropped this whole plate of nachos on the sofa! My wife was furious!"
The story also says that the "contract will expire in a few days." Does anyone know what that means? Do they mean the contract for
Millionaire or the contract to make a documentary about
Millionaire?
[via
TV Tattle]
Posted May 28th 2006 9:29AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: ABC, Cable, News, Talent
Now that her
Good Morning, America coanchor Charles Gibson is
going to be the anchor of ABC's
World News Tonight,
industry insiders are saying that Diane Sawyer might see this as an opportunity to go someplace else, and some are guessing CNN, which NY Times TV writer Bill Carter predicts will soon be going through some major changes.
It probably doesn't help that
GMA's surge has sort of waned in the battle with NBC's
The Today Show, and when Meredith Viera comes on board ...
Posted Apr 30th 2006 9:33AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV Royalty, Talent, Industry, Programming, Celebrities
On the cover: Ellen Pompeo of Grey's Anatomy. Maybe I'm mistaken, but
hasn't this show been on the cover too many times?- A behind
the scenes video of Jamie Pressly's (My Name Is Earl) photo shoot.
- Critic Matt Roush loves House, doesn't love Texas Ranch
House (is that a documentary or a salad dressing?), and really loves Stardust: The Bette Davis
Story.
- After many attempts at a hit, it looks like Richard Burgi finally has one on Desperate Housewives.
- In the print edition only: an interview with Ryan Seacrest, a behind the scenes look at the Dynasty
reunion, a guide to podcasting, and an interview with Meredith Viera on her new job at The Today
Show.
Posted Mar 13th 2006 2:36PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: NBC, CBS, News, Daytime, Celebrities
Fearing it might be losing Katie Couric to CBS, NBC apparently is
trying to woo Meredith Viera of The View and Who Wants to be a Millionaire to take over Couric's spot
on The Today Show, should the pixie-ish personality decide to head to CBS. Now, understand that none of this is
official, and Couric still has until May 10 to let NBC know whether or not she'll accept the anchor position on the
CBS Evening News. However, given Viera's many meetings with NBC execs, it looks as if it's probably going to
happen. Unless, of course, it doesn't.
While most of us know Viera for gossipy fare like The View, she does have a background in journalism. She
helped develop the short-lived but well-respected news program West 57th, and also worked at CBS
News, spending part of her time there as a co-editor on 60 Minutes in the early 1990s.
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