Behind the cancellation of Live & Direct…
Lloyd Grove dishes big time on the behind the scenes involving yesterday’s MSNBC news.
As news execs were deciding to kill her show - which has lost viewers since a promising launch last August - Cosby requested the meeting with NBC News president Steve Capus. Yesterday’s agreement was hammered out in a sometimes tense session of finger-pointing that lasted far longer than expected, as Cosby’s staff sat fuming in ignorance for the better part of the day.
The meeting involved Capus, NBC News senior vice president Phil Griffin, MSNBC general manager Dan Abrams and Cosby’s agent, Larry Kramer.
“I’m thrilled,” Cosby told me as she traveled to last night’s surprise birthday party for her boyfriend, Tomaczek Bednarek.
Why would Rita have to beg for her job? Since she’s under contract that would indicate if they wanted to take her off the air, she’d be doing her best Aaron Brown imitation….sitting at home talking smack and getting paid.
Comment by Terance — June 30, 2006 @ 10:19 am
MSNBC Investigates beats ALL of MSNBC’s other programming. So I’m just curious as to why Rita’s was the only program that was cancelled.
Statements from the network act like they have a bunch of winners and Rita’s is the only dog pulling down the network! Not so - why not scrap the entire primetime and put on MSNBC Investigates non-stop? MSNBC would have much better ratings!
Comment by Missy — June 30, 2006 @ 11:31 am
>So I’m just curious as to why Rita’s was the >only program that was cancelled.
Missy: If :MSNBC Investigates” pulls in decent ratings (by MSNBC standards) don’t be surprised if it is moved up one hour and Joe Scarborough loses his show.
Comment by Ira — June 30, 2006 @ 11:51 am
He may as well. He covers too many tabloid stories as well. Then maybe they could move Tucker back to prime time.
Comment by Missy — June 30, 2006 @ 11:53 am
Sorry, Ira, I missed your point. Yes, maybe he will ultimately be replaced by “Investigates”. But at what point will MSNBC stop being a news outfit and begin being a docucmentary channel, like A & E or Discovery?
Comment by Missy — June 30, 2006 @ 11:54 am
I think this is a disaster.It will not work
5 nights a week. I know people who say they are so sick
of MSNBC crime lineup on Fridays.Demos cannot save a network.
Only quality journalism and viewers will.To have The Most
and Tucker Carlson back to back makes no sense it is almost
the same show.Did they think about the problem this could
cause for Hardball’s ratings. The Situation is too much of
a ripoff of Pardon The Interruption. I would much rather
watch the latter.I am not sure what this spells for
Countdown’s ratings if Hardball takes a hit from The
Situation and it dips below 300,000.I think it is going
to be a negative move in the end. I jsut have this theory
that it only fares well on Friday because FNC and CNN
audiences always smaller on that day.Remeber Countdown
is on the same time of the Daily Show. Having 3 programs
that are news parodies makes no sense.Maybe this is a stupid
question,but what happens when there is breaking news ?
This just signals to me they are getting out of the
24/7 news race.
Comment by future tv mogul — June 30, 2006 @ 1:39 pm
Missy: My only point is given his ratings, Scarborough Country is not safe and may be axed next.
Future TV Mogul: Your comment about “The Situation” being like “Pardon The Interruption” is right on! Tucker is a very talented and clever guy who unfortunately is saddled in the wrong format.
Comment by Ira — June 30, 2006 @ 3:15 pm
Tucker wishes his show was as good as PTI - too bad he had to rip off the idea of their format.
Anyway, it was only a matter of time with Rita. She certainly wasn’t carrying her weight. I am just surprised that she is getting the Dan Rather treatment, rather than simply cutting her loose. I guess this just paves the way for more taped programming; And that should be a huge success.
Comment by Skippy — June 30, 2006 @ 3:49 pm
Rita wasn’t pulling her weight because she was just another sob sister in a world full of cable TV sob sisters. We really don’t need any more of them. Frankly I find it hard to believe any crap Grove publishes, so I take anything he says with a grain of salt. But I do wonder how Rita could have been clueless that her show was in trouble.
And no, it’s not the only “dog,” either, so maybe she feels unfairly singled out–she may well wonder why Joe and Tucker didn’t get the ax too.
Future tv mogul, better keep your day job if you can’t tell the difference between The Daily Show and Countdown, where the news is real. Then again, I hear Fox is hiring.
I agree with Skippy; Tucker only wishes his show was as good as PTI.
Comment by tanne — June 30, 2006 @ 7:39 pm