Kaplan: Scorecard
The Rick Kaplan scorecard: As ICN sees it of course…
Plusses
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- Expanded Weekend Live News from four to eight hours.
- Commitment to in depth subject discussion (The Ethical Edge, specials on Abu Ghraib and the 9/11 commission, etc…). Though not as much as I would have liked to see.
- Stabilized Primetime from the mess he inherited.
- Demo increases in primetime.
Minuses
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- Crimetime in Primetime
- Maury and Connie
- Lack of success in launching new shows (Connected: Coast to Coast, Entertainment Hotlist, and At The Movies all cancelled. The Situation bounced to 11 pm one month after launch after struggling at 9pm debut hour…though we now know the other reason for that move was Rita Cosby’s primetime show stipulation in her contract. Live and Direct starts strong but fades and eventually swaps timeslots with Scarborough Country.)
- Headline News style programming from 12-3 (though it has gone away from that a ways since it premiered)
- Countdown repeat at 9am (delaying MSNBC’s morning news cast to 10 am)
- Lack of publicity for some specials. Sometimes not even Press Releases went out for a special.
Jury still out
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The Most
Not Kaplan’s Fault
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Making tough programming decisions based on having a reduced budget thanks to NBC Entertainment’s weak ratings and ad revenue. Some of those items in my minus column are no doubt partly the result of that.
Rick Kaplan’s grade is a huge F, and it’s been baffling to experts all over the industry that he’s remained in the job this long. TVNewser’s sympathetic, uncritical coverage is also making people laugh, because anyone with half a brain knows that MSNBC is on its way out as a cable news network. The writing has been on the wall for a long, long time.
You can’t keep spinning miniscule “demo” numbers in your favor, eventually the truth comes to the forefront. For Rick Kaplan, his failure is just a microcosm of MSNBC’s larger failure as a journalistic enterprise.
Comment by benllv — June 7, 2006 @ 11:33 pm
I agree with benllv - MSNBC is a complete disgrace. Of the 100 or so thousand who actually watch that network I would bet that most watch it for the same reason people slow down to look at a car wreck. I cannot fathom how GE continues to put up with the embarrassments that are MSNBC’s two headline programs - Hardball (or as I call it, Spitball) and Olberman. I sold my stock in GE just two months after Olberman was launched.
Comment by Dan — June 8, 2006 @ 1:21 am
Well, the people using this news as an excuse to bash MSNBC/Brian at TVNewser for failing to bash MSNBC himself is pretty predictable, I guess. It’s just another excuse for the Fox Fan Club to hate on their two favorite hate objects: Keith Olbermann and his personal minion (ha), Brian Stelter…
Comment by tanne — June 8, 2006 @ 6:46 am